Faculty training in educational |
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We are living in a global economy and the skills needed to perform in such economy are not being taught in our schools. Our educational system still grounded in a curriculum suitable for the educational demands of the Nineteen Century, but not for today. The current public school system doesn’t prepare students for the forthcoming socioeconomic challenges (King & Frick, 1999). Most occupational fields require at least some basic technology skills; however, the pace of those technology skills increases at a much faster pace than the educational delivery of them (Stone et al, 2009). Schools need to take action and reform the outdated educational curriculums if they really want to help our students achieve personal growth and social mobility, and if we want our country to have a competitive edge among the rest of world’s industrialized nations. Digital natives, defined as the ones who has been around technology since birth after the 80’s (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008), are familiar with those terms. How can teachers incorporate these technologies into their classrooms? Do these technologies really improve learning? There are more questions than answers, and academic research can help schoolteachers to deal with their new challenges. A study reveals that by the year 2012, 80% of all internet users will have a type of “Second Life” or similar virtual experience (Gartner, Inc., 2007). |
 TechnologIST Solo:"See you in world" |
Timeline of Virtual Reality |
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Evidence suggests teachers lack the skills to be at the same technology’s proficiency level of the majority of their students (Bhattacharyya & Bhattacharya, 2009). Most academic agree that curriculums are outdated, designed for Nineteen Century occupational needs. The present global economy, composed by a global workforce and driven by the educational needs of global learners, will face the urgency for implementing radical changes to accommodate the new demands. One of those changes is given by what is call “immersive education”, a blend of real-world classrooms with virtual environments.
This video was created by a 7th grade student in Computer Application class as a new approach to the traditional book report. This was a cross curriculum assignment where students read a historical book in Social Studies and applied the information that they learned in an Avatar project for Computer Applications class. The book that is being reviewed in this video is the biography of Garth Brooks written by Jack L. Roberts. The video was created using an Avatar from Logitech Fusion Webcam and edited using Windows Movie Maker. Benefits of virtual classrooms are plenty; they provide simulations allowing students to interact in 3-D environments where it is impossible to visualize or experience the real one. For example, inaccessible forests, scientific subjects, human organs, dangerous animals, etc. Different to video images or pictures, virtual environments are immersive and motivated, especially for digital learners accustomed to high-definition videogames. Are our teachers ready to teach in such virtual environments? |
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