The Discovery Space
Theme:
“A day in the life of a teenage girl at School Now and Tomorrow” – Cloud Services Educational Technology Edition [Theme Described in detail in Phase 1 Individual Project].
Web URL for Final Project: http://em852project.wix.com/cloudmontage
Discovery Space:
The discovery space within this theme is where the student can learn and make mistakes. A student will use their discovery space to do simulations or to play an educational game or research for their assignments. For example, the discovery space could be a space where after listing to a lecture on physics in class, the student can now go to an online space where the student can use a virtual catapult and see the results of the throw based on force, normal force, gravity, etc. After listening to a lecture on algebra, the student can go to their discovery space and draw various graphs based on an algebraic equation and see the correlation. After listening to an English lecture on “The Giver”, the student can go to their discovery space and watch the movie, check out information regarding the author, other people’s papers on their analysis of the book, etc.
Overall, the discovery space is therefore the resources made available to the student to keep them engaged and excited about learning. This is the space where the student can explore, experiment, investigate, answer questions, ask questions and gain motivation.
Why Cloud Computing for Educational Discovery Space?
Providing these discovery resources via cloud-based architecture has its advantages. Using only textbooks in the classroom is a thing of the past – mainly due to how hard it is to update a textbook in real time (Blois, 2013). Teachers today can create their own personalized and customized digital content stored on the cloud (Blois, 2013). Some of the advantages to learning via the cloud include: preparedness, no more out of date materials, personalization, customization, multiple modes of access and cost saving (Blois, 2013). Preparedness – students can learn how to keep their data on the cloud and how to access resources from the cloud, which can only prepare them for the workforce of the future (Blois, 2013). No more out of date materials – no need to wait for new editions of textbooks when an author can make updates immediately with an E-book and let the users know (Blois, 2013). Personalization – instructors and schools can update the resources available to their students based on the student’s needs (Blois, 2013). Customization – by engaging students via online activities and fun gamification, instructors can customize their course delivery to keep their students engaged (Blois, 2013). Multiple modes of access – students can access their course resources and materials such as their E-book, games, videos, interactive quizzes, etc. via their laptops, home PCs, or their mobile/tablet devices - a student can switch from playing a game on their laptop to their mobile device while on the go – and will still have their data saved and run smoothly (Blois, 2013). Saves costs – unlike textbooks that can be lost, cloud based resources are stored and saved – a student can’t lose their game they have played or the E-book – which can be cost effective for the educational institution (Blois, 2013). The homework assignments, grades and other devices can’t be lost if the work is always saved using cloud services.
Reference:
Blois, Z. (2013). Five Advantages of Cloud-based Instruction Resources[Blog Entry].
Retrieved from http://blog.wowzers.com/bid/280054/Five-Advantages-of-Cloud-based-Instruction-Resources
