The cold weather seemed not affecting the heat of the symposium. I enjoyed the keynote speech with good bacon. The six tricks of a sticky idea were delivered with simple but unforgettable examples, and Dan is a master of manipulating words, for sure. In his speech, SUCCES is the results of Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. Without fancy terminology and complex definitions, the speech kindled the thoughts of how to effectively deliver the knowledge to the audience. The Next session I attended was Technology Hacks for Cementing Learning. The time was limited for a full introduction of all tech hacks updates, but applying IT in each step of teaching a course would reduce the stress of students and helping teachers create various modules that tracking students attention. Open Educational Resources (OER) innovation was the following session and it introduced several updated practices of applying open sources in teaching. The application of BBookX can create a textbook that fits a specific, new frontier subject. I was also interested in providing video materials to enhance the teaching procedure. After the exciting open innovation challenge, two presentations I went were both introductions of new technology: Kaltura which introducing video into a course for both teachers and students, and GIKS writing-to-learn tool which can help teachers and students to assess the learning.
Learning some new idea in a single day was great, but concerns accumulated while I reflecting the symposium afterward. The six tricks of making an idea sticky are quite helpful for teaching a concept or a fact, and it will be a challenge to apply them to all courses and disciplines. In a course needs critical logical reasoning, or a pure theoretical course, like math or statistics, the tricks may not help much to teach calculating equations. Besides, instructors need to pay their major attention to the knowledge that students need to learn. If a teacher spends too much time on designing an idea sticky, the class may turn to a sideway of amusing students instead of teaching. The technics introduced in the symposium are fancy at first glance, and I believe they will accelerate students' learning. However, my concern is whether fast learning is better than the conventional way of learning like reading? The social media spreads immediate news and messages that can be swallowed in seconds, gifs and short videos can stimulate brain within a minute, these are the new ways to access information but are they effective in learning all course and disciplines? New technics will make it easier to access knowledge for students, and students may be satisfied with finishing watching a video or completing a quiz, but never come back. Learning is never a once-for-all deal. The conventional ways of learning, like reading, may not excite learners as much as new tech does, but old-fashioned ways can slow minds down and let the learner digest information.
New technology is always welcomed in the classroom, but they are just vehicles that deliver knowledge. We should not evaluate a teaching and learning process just based on how "fancy" of a class. By the way, advanced technology means a high investment of equipment in classrooms and some times the extra cost of students. This may also lead to educational inequity between students or schools, especially in developing countries.
In general, applying new techs in teaching and learning is exciting for all participants, while we should keep in mind that teaching and learning procedures are designed and built for the learners, not for showing new techs.
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