How is technology, social media, gaming, multimedia transforming education?

Technology, social media, gaming, and multimedia have become a part of our culture and the means by which our younger generations (and many of the older generations) have become use to communicating and gaining information. Transformation is occurring in education, and it provides a number of opportunities and challenges for me in my career as an online learning coordinator.

Opportunities

• Learners can be actively engaged in learning through many means that suits their style--audio, video, written text, interactive. Care and creativity must be used with the instructional design.
• Distance barriers are removed. Students from remote areas have access to resources at their fingertips. Students have the opportunity to easily engage with our countries and cultures--or continue education from home if they are housebound.
• Language barriers can be mitigated through translaters, visual representations, text readers.
• Learners have flexibility in the time and duration of each setting they access the courses.
• Simulations can provide "real-life" experiences without the expense or safety concerns of a true field experience. (i.e. Flight simulators, military tactics, surgical procedures.)
• Educational materials can be updated and distributed without the traditional cost of printing and shipping textbooks and other print material.

Challenges

• Educators must rethink past practices and attitudes on "sharing" work.
• Copyright laws must be abided by.
• Learners must learn to manage the active nature of learning with technology--distracting, interrupting, overstimulating, frustrating.
• Etiquette and civility must be regarded.
• Academic integrity must be safeguarded.