Confidence, technological fluency, and increased opportunities and the ability to seek, find and use resources independently.
Learning to be self sufficient is one of the most valuable things a student can learn. As an instructor I have asked my students to use the internet to research certain subjects and found that the ones that did were much more efficient.
Exactly Kim. Students adjust and use the skills they learn to apply to a specific sitation in terms of the course and what is required.
Vicki
In my opinion, the basic and useful skill that student develop from technology is the ability to utilize it for their learning preferences. Of course, my forms of technology and digital communication are not used by all students. For example, some students may choose to use mobile devices for interacting and communicating in the classroom environment, while others may take advantage of multimedia technology to complete assignments. What the student develops is a customized way to utilize the technology in way that are appropriate individually.
Some of the new skills would include becoming a critical thinker, More confidence and self motivation. They become better communicators and have better computer skills.
At times technology can be both a blessing and a curse.
Some of the traditional skills that most of us learned in school, children are not learning anymore.
Techonolgy has brought in computers and the Internet. Students lack research skills gain by actually going to the library and looking for books, encyclopedias, etc for information. Now you Google things. Students also no longer are required to write out assignments, which causes them to lack in legible penmanship.
The good things about technology are students can interact with a wider based of classmates easily. Students are much more tech savvy, have more technological knowledge and more advance technology skills.
Julie,
Do you think we value these adequately with current assignment and grading distribution or are changes needed?
Dr. Ruth Reynard
Those skills tend to be softer skills like team building, cooperative communication strategies, and self-direction, as well as the academic skills of critical and applied thinking, new knowledge construction, and collaborative learning techniques.
Dr. Glenn ,
So really, the kinds of skills looked for increasingly by employers such as problem solving, team work, and collaboration can be more easily developed using new technology. Good points!
Dr. Ruth Reynard
Mara,
Good examples...thank you! If you have time, please visit the Faculty Lounge and post in the instructional forum...sharing these kinds of ideas is always helpful.
Dr. Ruth Reynard
Technology in learning forces individuals to engage with critical thinking. Technology is by far an advantageous effective change for how information is managed. The motivation for most implemented technical tools is to improve time management of information and access. The progressive nature of the exponential growth of technology positions nuance directly at the top of the wish list. The continued resistance to view technology as a multifaceted approach towards efficient effective responsible management for learning in education exacerbates an already relevant issue of those resistant to learn a technical approach because they do not believe they are technical. As society progresses to interact with powerful internet based communication tools, the business that focuses on technology only as a method for information management does not understand the essential learning of establishing a relationship with the technology for what every the purpose may include. I see this in the eyes of a student that has a self fulfilling prophecy that they are not technical enough to understand the computer skills necessary for learning. Bruce (observations of information literacy are discussed by Bruce, in a report created for UNESCO. Bruce states, "The idea of information literacy, emerging with the advent of information technologies in the early 1970's has grown, taken shape and strengthened to become recognized as the critical literacy of the twenty-first century†(p. 1). The effect on education is extensive concerning information literacy. How the educational institute integrates the active learning to provide student centered learning for information literacy is challenging. Many old perceptions of what should be included in curriculum instructional design for information literacy inhibit the changes necessary to insure the student receives the practical experience necessary. These changes increase in frequency affecting the learning process in education. I believe this emphasizes the need for a common curriculum for insuring the development of IT computer information literacy in education.
What are your thoughts?
Reference
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Bruce, C. S. (2002, July). Information literacy as a catalystÂ
   for educational change: a background paper. White PaperÂ
   prepared for UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on
  Libraries and Information Science, and the National ForumÂ
  on Information Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy
  Meeting of Experts, Prague, The Czech Republic. Retrieved
  February 8, 2009, from http://www.nclis.gov/libinter/infolitconf&meet/papers/bruce-fullpaper.pdf
I teach a "statistics for marketing" course. Students are able to go online and access data files from a range of sources, such as the US Census bureau. They're able to learn firsthand how to decide what data to use to address a problem, such as determining market potential. They're able to collect the data and use analysis tools to prepare professional output, such as charts, that they integrate into a persuasive PowerPoint presentation. This would have been extremely difficult in a five-week course not that long ago, but technology makes it possible.
In my area of practice, we're constantly encouraging our students to work on honing their critical thinking skills, which should help to improve overall decision-making for them. Adding new technology oftentimes forces a learner to come up with individual plans for integrating this new tech into their former behaviors, especially as it relates to studying. Leading a learner away from standard paper and pencil tools to paperless methods via wireless applications can definitely help the student grow.
I teach at a career school where the average age of students is 33 years of age. Students who have been out of school for a while, have a family, may work full time or unemployed. Many of these students lack the basic skills needed for today's workforce including personal skills and technical skills. Technology comes in handy to teach the students the technical skills and develop accuracy and speed on the computer besides learning Microsoft Office and a few other applications in their respective fields. These new skills contribute to the students level of confidence and self-worthiness. Students come out of such classes with a sense of pride that they are able to do things they were not able to do before.
I could not agree more Dr. Reynard. But true communication means that everyone works at it.
Technology develops motor skills, and sensory skills. Because technology can capture more than one sense, students begin to use these scenses more often. This may possibly carry over in their homework assignments.
David,
Yes, there are generational challenges as we try to understand each other...in the face of the reality of new techology, however, these challenges like others are being pushed more strongly. In other words, whether or not it is intuitive to one group, we are all interconnected now and openly communicating, so we must be willing to fairly consistently explore beyond all of our comfort zones :)
Dr. Ruth Reynard
I am not sure. I think this might be generational and I think baby boomers need to understand Gen X and Gen Y motivations and means of operating but also vice versa because for good or bad most bosses will be baby boomers for many of these people.
David,
Very true...technology only provides tools. However, do we really value the kind of literacy and critcal thinking that is developing with the use of current technology? Do we still value "older" skills more?
Dr. Ruth Reynard
Ideally the most important skill is critical thinking. Technology, in and of itself does not develop critical thinking. It is the skillful use of technology that provides comfort and competence in information literacy, in accessing knowledge via multiple means and the ability to access information almost at will. What is also needed in my opinion is the ability to filter what one reads or sees to judge evidence, reliability and validity, logic and credibility.
