During my studies in the course “Learning Environments and Technologies” as an exchange student at the University of Oulu I have learned to get to know a lot of different and diverse possibilities of using technologies in educational contexts. New media and technologies offer a great number of chances for learning as well as for teaching. Various digital and analogue materials can be used for creating and accessing educational content and materials. The opportunity to try out most of those different learning environments and technologies has helped me to explore all the features of all the soft- and hardware I learned about. This way it is easy for me to evaluate which of the different tools I would use myself or recommend to others.
The Blog and the Curating Tools have helped me to organize all the new knowledge I have acquired and to give a structure to all the information. I have learned about all the possibilities the internet offers for creating and accessing educational materials. Google Classrooms and the Wikiversity are two of those tools. With Thinglink and H5P it is also possible to create learning materials such as interactive 360-Degree-Images and flash cards that can be used for learning vocabulary or hard facts for example. I also got to know a number of classroom hardware tools, like the Whiteboard or the Document Camera. Chromebooks and iPads can also be mentioned in this context. Of course this highly depends on the resources of the school, but it is now for me without a doubt that they can be beneficial for learning and teaching. I have also learned multiple ways to create interesting presentations with Sway for example or by using an optimal design for slides, so that the audience will not get distracted and learn as much of the content of the presentation as possible. The use of games, like Minecraft, in educational settings is now apparent to me. They can be used to teach problem-solving skills and to use imagination to become creative. 3D-Design was also something completely new to me. I have learnt how to create 3D-objects for printers and am now able to teach others. Virtual and augmented reality is another topic that I was able to explore. With VR-glasses students are able to experience different part of the world and get a new perspective on the world they live in. With augmented reality games, such as Osmo, students can play and learn using digital elements in the real world or the other way around. With QR-Codes it is possible to put a lot of information in a very condensed place, which can be beneficial for example for scavenger hunts in the classroom. The last big topic for me was coding. With different Coding Unplugged games and the Micro-bit the basic principles of programming can be learned, which is undoubtedly an important skill to have for students nowadays.
All in all I learned a lot in this course and through this blog I was able to constantly reflect on what I have learned. I will take a lot of this new knowledge back with me to my home country and will most likely be able to use it in my future studies. Before this class my focus was mostly on media education, especially related to the two topics film and information literacy. Now my knowledge has expanded to include a number of diverse technologies and tools that I can use for creating and accessing educational materials as well as for teaching and learning with and about a world full of possibilities in a media and technology saturated world.
Julian's LET Oulu Fall 2017 Blog 