Technology out of the Classroom

 I teach a trade apprenticeship program. Applying theory to practical application is the most valuable learning my students can gain. Making podcasts would be beneficial to me and my learners. My students would be able to replay or skip content at will. I think that the content needs to be complimented with formative evaluation. My colleague and I have already started creating excel documents for our math unit to put online. Our vision is to have these sheets be interactive, where variables are placed in the sheet and the student has to get the correct answer to move on to the next one, similar to Khan Academy. We will be able log student’s progress, how many tries it took, what level they are at etc. There is nothing more frustrating than being at home studying and not understanding a concept. We will need to have our students hooked into a social network to help each other with the competencies. My students go work in the field for a year between upgrades. The flipped classroom or technology for first exposure model would be a great asset to their learning. Students would be able to log on while in the field to refresh their selves. They would be able to do refreshers before returning to school for their next upgrade too. I know I am going off topic here but I think that in the future students could do all of their theoretical learning prior to attending school. This is taking pre-requisites to the next level. By doing this I think that we would be able to shorten the duration of the program, and in return be able to turn over more apprentices. This is important to recognize due to the amount of people retiring from the trade in the next ten years. The future holds many possibilities for the application of these concepts and it is an exciting time to be an instructor. Reading and researching has opened my eyes to the possibilities of technology and learning. I am looking forward to trying to implement these concepts into my practice.