Today’s educator is a leader, a motivator, a tutor, a mentor, a peer, and a manager of both the classroom environs and the cadre that fabricates the body politic of the student cohort (Adelman-Mullally, Mulder et al. 2013).... [ view full abstract ]
Today’s educator is a leader, a motivator, a tutor, a mentor, a peer, and a manager of both the classroom environs and the cadre that fabricates the body politic of the student cohort (Adelman-Mullally, Mulder et al. 2013). The modern educators’ chief aim should be to create a citizenry that is well-versed in the intricacies of its chosen discipline and to equip them with the mechanisms required to allow the student body to assimilate said knowledge. This entails a deep learning structure where, through extensive scrutinising of current educational technologies, we will be armed with a deeper understanding of our needs and be better equipped to help our student cohort.
This paper explores the labyrinth of modern educational assistive technologies. These technologies include Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) such as Blackboard® and Classroom Response Systems (CRS) such as Socrative©, Kahoot!® and Quizlet®, among others.
In an effort to provide a road map of how they may be applied to a real world educational environment we explore, through comparing and contrasting, the multitude of various technologies available to today’s educational practitioner. During the course of our investigations we set out to highlight the pertinent features of each technology implementation, or lack thereof, and propose potential features and applications going forward. This analysis is extended to compare not just the existence of the relevant features but also the quality and ease-of-use of each feature. Culminating in a conclusion as to whether these features, in the opinion of the authors, adds to or detract from the overall user experience.
To date there are many technologies available to the educator but uptake is in general slow by both the educator and the educatee (Caldwell 2007, El-Rady 2006, Hatch, Jensen et al. 2005, Hu, Bertok et al. 2006, Fagen, Crouch et al. 2002, Draper, Cargill et al. 2002). Similar to a project that is doomed under maladroit governance, the gauche implementation of technologies into the class environ can impede the implementation and active uptake of modern educational technologies by the student body. It is envisaged that this, and future reviews comparing their quality and suitability, will facilitate their integration into the educational environment.
The authors aim to provide a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis through the use of a cheat sheet matrix of available, proposed and aspirational features of the critically appraised technologies (Valentin 2001). The modern educator in an effort to absquatulate from the time‑hungry tasks, i.e. manually creating assessments, should endeavour to engage with and adapt to the use of these new technologies in the day-to-day execution of their duties.
