Social Media in Education

Social Media Week 23 - 27 February, 2015 

         
  Social media is often seen only as a way to pass the time or stay connected to familiars, friends and family. However, its use is rapidly expanding into the educational sector. Now a day’s universities, colleges & schools are striving hard to build a good social presence. Today Students want to get a feel of what the institution is really like from their Facebook page. So every educational institution wants to be seen in ‘The Great School Search’ on the internet. That’s why currently, educators are now using Social Media to maximize enrollments of student, engagement of alumni and increasing media outreach.

In 2012-13, The US department of Commerce ranked 55 industry sectors for their IT intensiveness, education ranked lowest. It is much astonishing that Education industry, which bears the responsibility to make citizens for the world of tomorrow, itself is not ready to accept the digital revolution with an open mind.

I am not talking about the number of computers lying in your computer lab or tablets in the classroom. I am talking about the motivation behind having these machines – digital education in true sense.

Let’s change our vision from seeing social media as just another distraction to seeing it as an opportunity to build a more meaningful education system for teachers and students.

Here is a brief retrospection of the main ways schools use social media:

In class:

·         School notifications, announcements and class discussions are shared on sites like Twitter

·         Teachers share learning materials and more on blogs and networking sites.

Potential students:

·         School offer virtual tours that include 360 images and videos

·         Schools can reach out to potential students who mention them on Twitter or comment on the school's blog

General Outreach:

·         Social sites provide a platform to promote different educational and co-curricular activities, receive feedback on them and start new conversation

·         Schools can reach out to guardians and keep them up-to-date

·         Alumni groups can connect and grow

Professional Development:

·         Teachers learn more about their industries through social venues

·         They can network with other teachers

School pride:

·         Schools create mascot Facebook pages to encourage school spirit

·         Free school materials and facilities are offered online

Virtual Dissection: An ecofriendly way of learning Biology

 

Educators at all levels are increasingly choosing alternatives to animal dissection to meet their students’ needs in the classroom. Among these alternatives interactive computer simulation or Virtual Dissection is a best way. It save animals’ lives, cost less than animal dissection, suitable for all students, and is more effective than animal dissection.

          In nearly every comparative study ever published, students taught using non-animal methods such as interactive computer simulations tested as well as or better than their peers who were taught using animals for dissection and other animal-based exercises. Methods such as narrated software programs with physiology animations allow students to learn more efficiently without being distracted by the gore of cutting up dead animals and trying to differentiate the discolored body parts. Using alternatives, each body system can be studied and virtually “dissected” repeatedly until students are confident with the material, unlike actual dissection in which each system is ablated and displaced and the specimen is discarded at the end of the lesson. Studies show that students prefer these alternatives and find them to be a more enjoyable learning tool.

Virtual Dissection benefit educators by substantially lowering the cost and time associated with anatomy laboratories: Materials need only be purchased once and can be used indefinitely, and they omit the set-up and clean-up time associated with using animal specimens.

A number of science teachers associations and societies now approve the use of alternatives as complete replacements for animal dissection and encourage teachers who do offer dissection to be responsive to students’ objections to animal dissection and to be prepared to provide alternatives. Internationally, in 2011 the government of India issued guidelines banning dissection and experimentation on animals for teaching students and now requires the use of modern non-animal methods instead.

Many teachers and schools have replaced animal dissection altogether, in favor of modern alternatives. Comparative studies have found that modern non-animal science teaching methods, such as interactive computer software, teach students anatomy and complex biological processes as well as – and in most cases better than – the crude use of live or dead animals. Research shows that these methods are associated with increased learning efficiency, higher examination scores and improved student confidence and satisfaction. Humane methods also save time and money and create a more inclusive learning environment that does not risk alienating students because of their religious beliefs, their moral values or any other reasons that they might have for being unwilling to dissect animals.

V-Frog is the world’s first virtual reality-based frog dissection software designed for biology education. Using a simple mouse and basic personal computer, a student can pick up a scalpel, cut and open the skin of the frog, and explore anatomy, physiology, and evolution, just like he or she would with a physical frog. Now a number of software available for virtual dissection of different animals.

 

 

 

Radio’s role in enhancing education

UNESCO In 2012, in order to highlight the power of radio as a platform for education and freedom of expression and its vital role in responding to crises and disasters, called to celebrate 13 February each year, a World radio Day.

World Radio Day — a day to celebrate radio as a medium; to improve international cooperation between broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information, freedom of expression and gender equality over the airwaves. As radio continues to evolve in the digital age, it remains the medium that reaches the widest audience worldwide.

Radio functions as an effective auditory instrument for communication. It also plays an important role in education. It is not only informs, but also inspires human being for learning more and more. It not only includes values and virtues, but also creates attitudes, interests and appreciation of human life. It can cover a very wide area at the same time.

Radio has immense values, particularly in a developing countries, where constraints of finance, efficient teachers, suitable equipment and appliances adversely affect educational planning and administration.

Radio plays a significant part in expansion as well as qualitative improvement of education, especially in remote and inaccessible areas, where expansion of education has faced several difficulties. There has been a growing awareness about the inadequacy of the traditional or formal system of education not only for expansion, but also for improving the standards of education. The need for alternative mass-media is gradually felt along- with non-formal system of education.

The use of radio for educational purposes began with the BBC’s schools broadcasting services as far back as in 1924. It has in that time been used in many various ways. Its uses comprise school broadcasting, informal general education, social action programming and adult basic education and literacy.The first school broadcast in India were commissioned in 1937, and regular broadcasts began in 1938 from All India Radio (AIR) in Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and Madras. Subsequently, various educational radio projects over AIR have been carried out. The primary channels of AIR continue their school broadcasts, but by and large these have tended to be random, one-way information-communication programmes, or didactic and fairly dull lessons in which the teacher talks and students listen. They have not concerned themselves with the actual quality of classroom teaching and learning. Nor have they been held accountable for the achievement of specific learning objectives. This is largely the reason why radio fell into disrepute as an education technology.

In Australia, radio has been used for direct teaching, whereby radio schools are used to connect children in secluded farmsteads in the outback together with a teacher sited many hundred miles away. Distance teaching universities frequently employ radio for its advertising and enrolment value, as well as for teaching. The Open University in Britain uses this system more often for discussion of course materials, alternative viewpoints to those contained in the printed materials, source material for analysis and for performance e.g. dramatization literature, etc.

Radio has been used lengthily as an educational medium in developing countries. The radio has supported educational programs in a wide range of subject area and in many different countries.

Radio like other available instruments and channels of communication and social action could be used to assist put across essential knowledge and enlighten and educate people on social issues. In addition radio can be mobilised to comprehend the potential towards meeting basic education for all.

Radio is an effectual system for delivery of education to larger numbers of people. In facilitates information exchange at the community level, acting as a “community telephone”. Radio plays a vital educational role as the sole medium for formal and non-formal education.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How we can create a better internet

Today on 10 February, 2015 we are celebrating Safer Internet Day across the globe. The Safer Internet Day (SID) was initiated by European Commission and in time embraced by the whole world. It is observed on second day of second week of month every year to promote a safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and young people across the world. 2015 is the twelfth edition of the event. This year’s call to action is, “Let’s Create a Better internet Together”

The day offers the opportunity to focus on both the creative things that children and young people are doing online, as well as the role and responsibility that all stakeholders have in helping to create a better internet.

Children and young people can help to create a better internet by being kind and respectful to others online and seeking positive and safe opportunities to create, engage and share online.

Parents and carers can help to create a better internet by maintaining an open and honest dialogue with their children about their online lives, supporting them with their online activity (as appropriate to their age), particularly any concerns and issues, and seeking out positive opportunities to share with their children online. They can help to respond to the negative by modelling positive online behaviours themselves, and by also reporting any inappropriate or illegal content they find.

Educators and social care workers can help to empower children and young people to embrace the positive by equipping them with the digital literacy skills they require for today’s world, and giving them opportunities to use – and create – positive content online. They can help to respond to the negative by supporting youngsters if they encounter problems online, and by giving them the confidence and skills to seek help from others.

Industry has a role to play by creating – and promoting – positive content and services online. They can empower users to respond to the negative by ensuring that there are the right tools for users, that there are clear channels and transparent procedures for reporting and quick and easy access to support if things do go wrong.

Decision makers and politicians need to provide the culture in which all of the above can function and thrive – for example, by ensuring that there are opportunities in the curriculum for children to learn and teachers to teach about online safety, ensuring that parents and carers have access to appropriate information and sources of support, and that industry are encouraged to self-regulate their content and services.

Media can play a very effective role in creating a better internet by regularly publishing dangers of unsafe internet and tips to protect people online especially kids and young.  

Role of ICT in teaching and learning of Biology

The rapid advances recently made in ICT have very important implications for us, as biology educators. As we begin the 21st century it is almost impossible to imagine what ICT will be like by the end of the century. We can already start to see how these advances are changing our ideas about traditional education. Advances in ICT will mean an enormous increase in the amount of information available to our students as they study their courses and as they move into the workplace, but this must not be the limit of our expectations. If we wish to provide our students with a quality education in Biology, we must consider more than mere transmission of information and facts. We must take account of what the educational research tells us about learning. We can employ ICT better in the future to change teaching and learning in Biology more fundamentally by promoting such activities as networking, communities of learning and research, interdisciplinary problems, individualized learning etc. Biology (and all of science) progresses through a process of inquiry, rather than just building a body of factual information. The way we utilize ICT informed by the research findings will be of vital importance to high quality biology education for our students. The Internet can be used to create learning environments where students are allowed to explain and defend their thinking, opinions and decisions. The future looks very exciting from a biology education viewpoint. ICT thoughtfully implemented has the potential to profoundly influence learning in biology for the better. However, if we wish to gain the most benefit from the advances in ICT, we must ensure that its implementation follows sound pedagogical guidelines informed by educational research. This will require profound changes in our attitudes as Biology teachers. The technology will provide us with great opportunities for our own learning and professional development.