Emerging Technologies

As pointed out in this week's reading, emerging technologies can have a significant impact on instructors, students, and the entire learning process. One aspect brought out by the author that I find very interesting is the way emerging technologies can promote facilitation and the impact that has on the process. A key premise of the author is that in order to maximize the value that emerging technology can produce in terms of promoting facilitation, the instructor must transition their pedagogical strategy from one of being a lecturer to one of being a facilitator. Although this may seem relatively self evident, the process itself is not necessarily trivial. Based on my own research for my 894 project, the problem can be two pronged. Not only are many instructors quite familiar and comfortable with the 'brick and mortar' classroom and lecturer style of teaching; but also, they are quite unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the many technologies that are typically deployed in the online environment to foster to foster collaboration among students. So I thoroughly agree with the author's suggestion that a support mechanism must be in place to help the instructor with the transition from lecturer to facilitator. I would just add that such support must take into account not only the mechanics of using the new technology; but also the pedagogical strategy for using the new technology. Both can be new for the instructor and both need to be learned before the instructor can realize the full potential of the online learning environment.