Gurjinder’s ePortfolio

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I am so glad, that I had been through such an informative presentation on Productivity suites and role of Presentation tools in our today’s online session, presented by Ayushi Rana, Gagan deep Kaur and Mohammad Aatif and I would like to thank them. I would also reflect on my learning through this presentation in this blog post. The concept and utilization of Productivity suites started with emergence of computers in between 1970 to 1980. Initially emerged productive suites included software like WordStar and WordPerfect, used to create, edit and format the documents. With the advent of educational technology, new productivity suites developed like, Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, cloud-based Productivity suites, Prezi, digital notes etc.

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Nowadays, these digital tools or productivity suites are universally applicable, in every sector and education is not an exemption. Microsoft was updated by induction of Office 365 in late 2011. Cloud-based Productivity gained popularity as Google Workspace and Office 365. Later to this mobile productivity suites were allowed for mobile devices in form of Microsoft Office Mobile and Google Docs. Thus, these Productive suites were made accessible through mobile devices. Most of the productivity suites are dependent on internet connectivity. These tools are way more beneficial for learning as they made education easy, impactful and remote. It has made it easy for teachers to deliver their content and keeping records of their students. Learning is also made interesting using productivity suites. Furthermore, remote learning or online learning is made possible through productivity suites only. It was evident from application of these tools during Corona Pandemic that how important these tools are for us. Group presentation, as experienced while our previous session, was carried on successfully using Prezi, an IT tool. Collaboration features are integrated into productivity suites for team work. Other component of digital tool also provides Artificial Intelligence to grab knowledge and information about various topics and for detecting Plagiarism.

But there are some limitations of it such as, it demands user to be technology savvy and proficient on it as not everyone is good at it. Additionally, sometimes it costs a lot of money to access some online source or for internet connection. Apart form this, internet connection can not be made available in some areas, hence these can not be applied to those underdeveloped areas. While accessing these sources, learning has to suffer sometimes, due to distractions caused by internet tools.

It is clear from above said reading that these resources have become an integral part of education system, applied in administration sector, teaching and demonstration and there is still ongoing evolvement in these services. In near future, we can expect more possibilities. We can expect much more from AI and machine learning to shape future generation productivity suites. AI can take up role of instructors, serving as virtual assistant and freeing some liabilities of teachers.

This lecture ended up by streamlining and choosing right productivity suites. In the end, I would like to say these software has made remarkable influence in education system and made teaching learning process easy and effective. Although, IT tools are used at full swings, yet there is a lot more scope and need in its advancement.

I have been through Revolutionary Software: Milestones in the Development of Productivity Suites | History of Computers

I have also watched https://youtu.be/xbdCT_tiq5M?si=Fg7FacAOD02x4cro

Photo by MJ555 on Pixabay

Implications of Constructivism in my Professional Journey

In our recent class, we had learnt about concept and theories of knowledge and learning. The skills or things acquired by a person through his/her experiences or education is called knowledge, whereas improvement in the acquired skills or knowledge taken place because of interaction of learner with its environment is called Learning. In this session we also discussed about three major theories of knowledge and learning which are as following:

• Behaviourism
• Cognitivism
• Constructivism

All these theories explain the mode of learning and factors which influences it. It also justifies the role of memory in learning and how learning is transferred from teacher to learner.

I, always, believe in Constructivism theory of knowledge and learning, which states that knowledge is actively constructed by the students for themselves. It was drawn out of Cognitivism. According to Vygotsky-Cultural-historical theory, cognitive development or construction of knowledge requires social interaction or past experiences of the students. Constructivist theory puts more emphasis on social interaction among people and its can easily be implicated by giving group work opportunities.

In my professional journey, I preferred teaching students by constructivist approach in which I always gave them chance to work in teams so that social interaction may be encouraged. I perceive, a group of people with common interests and goals, share their experiences and enhance their knowledge. Group presentations and project-based learnings induces more social engagement and results in improvement in any skill.

Nowadays, I encourage students to reflect their own learning processes so that they may be more independent learners and will be self reliable learners. That is how I keep adapting to new strategies and techniques in my classroom for the betterment of my students and maintain dynamic nature of teaching and learning.

For this blog post, I have been though  Constructivism – Teaching in a Digital Age (opentextbc.ca)

I have also read The nature of knowledge and the implications for teaching

I have watched for Implication of Constructivism Constructivism in Education (youtube.com)

Photo by milaoktasafitri on Pixabay

Educational technology: Invent and advancement of Technology has made everything doable and possible and this is universally applicable platform, which play significant role in every sector. Education and teaching is not an exception.

Means of teaching changed over the years. Initially, it started with oral communication which was replaced by number of other consecutive means over time. Its has taken a huge leap from oral communication to the webinars, using high speed internet, computers, projectors etc. Over head projectors has made it easy for learners to understand the concepts and teachings as visual effects make learning more impactful and effective. Though it has made education easy and accessible easily, still mode of delivery of education is oral means only.

Educational technology simply means application of technology and wisdom in the field of Education. Modern technological medium includes cables, internet etc. has eased in teaching industry.

Oral communication used to be oldest mode of education that was taken over by written communication with the invention of writing. Writing has a long history from traditional to printing press. Internet based learning was induced by development of internet and cables. Transmitters brought new revolution in this field that ultimately spread education all over the world using broadcasting and video conferencing. Computer based learning and computer networking is nowadays prevailing in universe.

For this week, I have gone through Tony Bates’s A short history of Educational Technology

I have also read Neil Postman’s article on Educational Changes

How to Use Education Technology (youtube.com)