Saturday 30 March 2013

IMPORTANCE OF NEW MEDIA IN EDUCATION



We have gone from a time when citizens of the world were consumers of media to a time when we are becoming producers of content a time when information is controlled by many more than just a few, as it has been in the past. It is only a few years old, but the potential of what New Media can do and the role it will play in shaping society and setting the agenda on issues that affect the lives of people are going to be significant and crucial as we move forward.

New Way of Education System
There are several reasons why one would like to use new media in technology education. In the first place there is a motivational reason for that. Many teachers have the experience that the use of new media excites pupils. They are more motivated to go through the content of a course when this course is supported by new media in which video fragments, animations, interactive information is offered to them. Research has confirmed the positive attitude of pupils towards learning about and with computers. In the second place the use of new media is almost unavoidable when Technology Education is to offer a valid representation of what goes on in professional practice. In almost any profession new media have become widely accepted. Pupils and students should get to know these media in education to prepare them for whatever future career. In the third place new media can support different learning styles and thus can help teachers do justice to those different learning styles. Of course this only works when the new media are used in a proper and sophisticated way. But when that is the case, they can be a powerful tool to deal with differences between different pupils and students in one group.

If  schools and education systems can shift from content to process, part of the path will be cleared for the development of new literacy’s. Such a shift includes letting go of our subject based curricula to open orientations: inquiry based learning, learning about cognition, thinking about thinking, learning the value of cooperation. Certain soft skills, such as respect for diversity and intercultural communication, will come to the forefront in teacher development because these are the issues that ‘pop up’ when dealing with new and constantly changing environments. Many schools Bangalore is these days using the new media to support and enhance the learning process of their students.

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