The Future of Educational Technology

After reviewing the blogs of my esteemed colleagues, I have found three technologies that have caught my attention. The first technology is Duolingo, http://www.duolingo.com. This technology was introduced by Jeff (http://www.cyberlearners.blogspot.com). Duolingo was recently developed and is a free and user-friendly language learning site. It features language-building exercises from vocabulary to sentences. One disadvantage though, as Jeff noted, it only offers 4 languages: English, Spanish, German and French. However, this site is still a plus.

Second, is the mobile app Instapaper (www.instapaper.com) which was introduced by Chris (http://edutechinnovations.wordpress.com). Instapaper is a straightforward and easy-to-use app that allows students to save and organize web pages for viewing later (even when students are not online). This can make it much faster for students to download viewable links in either a brick-and-mortar class lecture setting or online, and save them using Instapaper so that all the material can easily be viewed back later at any time without necessarily having to be online.

The third and final technology is the mobile app Digg (www.digg.com) which was introduced by Kamala (http://kamalamukerji12.blogspot.com). Digg is the best place to find the most interesting and talked about stories on the Internet.  It is a news aggregator with an editorially driven front page that feeds selected stories form science, trending political news and viral ones that have captured the attention of social enthusiasts.  Users discover, share and recommend web content to Digg.  Digg users can vote up (dig) or down (bury) the news feed.  Many websites now add a Digg button (a man with a shovel).  I agree with Kamala and Delp (2013) in that Digg will be a great app in an adult literacy classroom.  The learners can be asked to quickly update the class and discuss trending news from Digg. Further activities for Digg users would be to share the news read on Digg with their friends in their social networks and observe how big it gets.  This in itself is a great study to see how social networks can make mountains out of molehills (Delp, 2013)!

References

Delp, J. (2013) Staying connected with Digg Reader.  Retrieved from: http://www.jeffdelp.com/2013/07/27/staying-connected-with-digg-reader/

http://www.duolingo.com

http://www.instapaper.com/