PORTFOLIO ASSIGNMENT 1 - Introduction to Learning and Educational Technology

Technology-Enhanced Learning

Technology and learning is a very trendy topic that interests a number of professionals and educators across different parts of the world, the advancement in ICT world has changed the characteristics of our age in almost every aspect of our life, hence learning as well. The discussion or debate about technology-enhanced learning can be a topic of a whole dedicated book, yet this article will focus mainly on the role of technology in enhancing learning activities, environments, goals and outcomes while overcoming certain barriers such as time and distance.

The most important aspect of technology-enhanced learning is being specific on the role that technology can play in the learning process so that it does not become the focus of education but rather a tool that can be used effectively in supporting learners’ engagement, creating effective learning environment as well as aiding in defining learning goals and outcomes.

To clarify this matter, let’s imagine a learner living in South Africa and he or she would like to learn Japanese with a native Japanese teacher. The major challenges in this situation would be, apart from the language level of difficulty, finding the effective resources such as; a native language teacher and native speakers to interact and practice with, besides time and place constrains if that learner is unable to travel to Japan to accomplish this mission, or unable to find and make Japanese friends in his/her home country.

Technology in such situations can dramatically change the process of learning; the leaner can simply find online schools, virtual classrooms, interact with Japanese native speakers through social media sites which can support in finding practice-peers and making international friends, let alone the time and distance factors.     

Looking at learning outcomes and goals, a language learner can use a variety of software or online tools to organize and plan their learning process and outcomes while developing their own strategies and techniques in overcoming the language difficulty and other related-language issues. Finding specialized forums that have common interest in such situation can add a big value for learners in supporting and inspiring each other while having same goals and outcomes in mind as an online community.

Teachers, on the other hand, can easily provide synchronous as well as asynchronous support in the form of feedback and comments on students’ progress and accomplishments during the whole process of learning using same online technology and community tools which learners use to support one another. 

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