Enhancing Learning by Integrating Technology Tools

As a global learning construct, building a community of practice (E) requires a forum that is accessible to students at any time and that allows them to interact and collaborate with their peers towards a particular outcome.  In a non-technological sense, a community of practice can be any situation when a group of people are collaborating to solve an issue or reach a collective goal.  Technology provides many opportunities to create communities of practice, especially with the development of Web 2.0 tools.  One of the most commonly used tool in the classroom is probably Moodle.  The Moodle site describes itself as “A free, open-source PHP web application for producing modular internet-based courses that support a modern social constructionist pedagogy.”  This emphasis on social constructionist pedagogy expressly demonstrates that Moodle is intended to create classroom forums for collaboration and practice.  However, since Moodle is a well known often referenced tool, I thought I’d include another example from a lesser known source.  While Moodle actually creates a virtual classroom environment, sites like Edublog allow teachers to customize a blog site both for students and parents to use.  The site works much like Google Sites, with a bit more emphasis on educational resources and tools.  Students can link their own blog pages to the class blog and submit writings and uploaded work via their blogs.   While the development of this environment appears a bit daunting, a few shining examples can be seen such as Huzzah and The Geeks from Down the Street.  Both of these teachers have successfully created communities of practice through Edublog, allowing students to comment on each others work, exchange ideas, communicate remotely, and further work with technologies such as podcasting, blogging, and media sharing. 

Developing instructional practices that align with technology pedagogy is a critical part of making technology valuable in the classroom.  Too many studies have found that simply having access to technology does nothing for student learning if the tools are not being used correctly.  This is why teachers must develop skills and instructional practices with technology tools.   While it is almost cliché at this point to mention it, Google has created some amazing application programs designed specifically for educational institutions.  Schools or districts can create domains through an application process, which then allows them to set up and customize the available applications to be used by the students and teachers.  These applications include a variety of tools such as web mail, personal online document storage, personal calendars, video uploading tools, and instant messaging.  Google’s application programs for education comprehensively allow schools to develop instructional practices that students can utilize in all of their classes.  This means that technology will not simply be an available tool, but a critical one.  While students will still have physical classrooms, they will also have a virtual classroom and school environment that connects them to their peers and to their teachers remotely.