There are many concerns in higher education surrounding the continued movement of courses from traditional classroom to online virtual space. The article below discusses the very possible future of the university campus disappearing with the continued growth of online and MOOC courses.

What do you think the future of the higher education campus looks like?

Link to article: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2014/01/could-college-campus-go-way-bookstore/8084/

I think we have come a long way from the days of applying and receiving a technology grant for education and throwing the laptops at the teachers and saying "Here, use this!". Wait, no we haven't. We continue to see articles and literature about these technologies being integrated with little or no supporting documentation for academic integration except "will use iTunes and iUniversity" or whatever the educational store for that device is. What I would do is find a good APP or a set of APP's that will help a specific subject/course throughout the school year. This would be done tablet independent and could help promote additional APP developers in the creation or updating of existing APP's for educational purposes. Is it cool to have technology in the classroom, most definitely, but what is our strategy for helping instructors and students succeed with the utilization of these technologies?

Great video and a way to ask ourselves if we are truly neutral during our studies. It's easy to be biased by our past experiences or personal beliefs about technology and education, it's in our nature and it's something we do every day. We take sides, we make assumptions (even though we all know what they say about assume) and it's easy to champion based on our beliefs. This video is a great example of "the other side of the coin" and one that should not be dismissed because we do not like it. When preparing to have meetings or presentations with our peers we must be sure to present both sides of an argument and not taking for granted what we believe education should be. Great post, thank you!

Maricela,
Great question and post, it really got me thinking of what tools are available and could be used in the classroom. I have no true classroom at this time but do think about my training activities with my staff and external user offices at work and think I have a really good mix of Web2.0 tools that are used for instruction.

One major tool that we now use is from Microsoft called Lync. Lync allows me to connect to individuals that report directly to me or from any other office on my campus. Additionally, Lync is available on most major wireless devices (iOS, Android, etc) giving me the flexibility to answer questions or provide assistance anytime/anywhere. Finally, Lync allows for desktop or specific application sharing making the assistance/instruction more meaningful.

Lync allows me to provide targeted instruction for new or existing office users in the utilization or implementation of new business process or applications. Users may view my screen or I may view their screens however the former is what I prefer to have the user be empowered and not feel like I did some magic-technology shortcuts and they didn't learn. I could easily see this used in training of adult learners either face-to-face in a computer lab or remotely as the instructor would have this ability to peek into the users computer and watch them go through the assignment or give pointers/feedback on how to complete.

There are many applications that have these same features, Blackboard Collaborate is one of them but shares one key feature with Lync, they are both services at a cost. Web2.0 applications are usually free for use and easy to use. Some comparable Web2.0 chat/desktop sharing applications Aimoo, Lefora, micromobs, and many more available at the link mentioned below.

Web 2.0 tools for communications
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http://www.philb.com/iwantto/web2comm1.htm