You are About to Witness an Education Revolution: Part 2

Welcome back.  It is becoming more and more common to find multiple articles daily from credible news sources that stress the important of "e-learning" or "m-learning" for the "i-generation."  I'd like to share a few of them in this post and the previous as a follow up to our Ten Things a Teacher Should Know In the 20-Teens article to point #3: Explore How  to Teach, Not Just What to Teach.

After discussing reteaching the way teachers teach in the first part of this post, the natural question I want to ask after such a thing is accomplished is: "Then what?"  That's when we can start having fun with technology.  Our young students are immersed in technology everyday, what with YouTube, smart phones, video games, web browsing, Twitter, etc.  Since the emergence of these (and especially since the iPad launch), there has been a rather noteworthy increase on articles that involve educational video games, so much so that this could be a precursor to a rather major movement to the educational industry.  But don't take my word for it; Browse the news articles when you have a moment and you'll quickly discover it as well.  Even companies that make products for the classroom are beginning to be encouraged and pushed towards creating more tech-based products (i.e. programs for cell-phones).  I'll be happy to point you to a few within this article to get you started.  As I come across more I'll be sure to update the list.

Social Sciences

-Too many students do not retain vital information from social sciences.  Here's an interesting title that includes minigames such as “Do I Have A Right”: iCivics

Elementary

- Martha Speaks has made its way to the iPhone as an App.  This is just the start of applications with educational purposes to keep your child busy in the checkout line at the supermarket.

Foreign Langauges

-Facebook Apps are now beginning to crop up with educational value.  Teacher's Discovery, a leader in foreign language education just launched a Digital Flash Card Challenge for beginning learners of a few languages.
-Hello-Hello has launched a new app for the iPad for learning numbers in different foreign languages for children.

Math

-Math and logic are sometimes are a bit of a challenge to have fun with, but True Thought LLC has developed a rather interesting game to liven it up.  Square Logic is Sudoku-meets-Inspector Parker with math thrown in the mix.  Frankly, it's almost too much fun while doing math.

Role Playing / Training

-Corporations may take this virtual world into their consideration when training customer service reps

-One of the more seasoned and fascinating video games used for role playing in a virtual setting is Second Life

Here's a great post from a fellow blogger talking about educational games.

Some educators may look to this video game surge as disheartening, but other educators look at this as revolutionary and exhilarating.  Just as when the emergence of writing birthed civilization and allowed the world to learn at an incredibly quickened pace, technology has just birthed globalization, allowing humans to access their environment from a top-down perspective, understanding the bigger picture of how the world works.  Look at how fast a toddler learns to use an iPad.  As we recall with the Learning Pyramid, instead of just watching Sesame Street, a toddler can now interact and heighten their understanding of a math problem or vocabulary word almost instantly.

This is a fascinating time to be in the education world.  Teachers: get ready for the revolution.