Blog—Selecting Distance Learning Technologies

I choose example 2 interactive tours the teacher wants to provide her high student with a blended learning tool. The teacher would like to enhance the students learning by providing them with an interactive tour of a museum that is located in New York. After the tour the teacher will select two pieces of art work from each exhibit and have the students to discuss the paintings. Blended learning can provide a unique way of not only engaging students in collaborative work and projects but also personalizing and individualizing instructions for the students (Miller 2014).

            The two technology tools that I feel would be appropriate for example 2 is Skype. Skype in the classroom provides the feature that allows teachers to do virtual tours with their students. Skype will allow the teacher to show the virtual tour of the museum that is in New York without students leaving the classroom. It will expose the students to different types of artwork while still making the students feel as if they were in New York taking the tour in the museum. The teacher can explain what each exhibit is and the artwork. With Skype teachers and students are able to communicate with other teachers and students from around world. Distance education is applied in a variety programs serving numerous via a wide variety of media. Distance education is rapidly changing its challenging technology in ways in which distance education is defined ( Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek 2013). With distance education always changing its giving teachers more options to find new and creative ways to enhance the overall learning in their classroom .The other technology tool is Google drive which allows the students to upload classroom and homework assignment, where the teacher can make corrections and provide feedback to the student in a much faster way.

In example 2 students can discuss and write down there answers about each of the art work that was displayed in the museum. The students will be provided with instance feedback on their assignment which will allow the teacher to see which topic or question needs further explanation These two options I feel will provide technology tools that will enhance the classroom and allow the students to have an open discussion within the classroom.

Reference

 Miller, A. (2014, April 13). Blended learning strategies for engagement. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/blended-learning-engagement-strategies-andrew-miller

 Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.