Week 4

Teaching through digital media is a pervasive instrument throughout all levels of education today. Be it learning through games, watching videos, or using PowerPoint slides to teach, educators and learners now have a variety of forms of teaching and learning to choose from.
Since my time in kindergarten, we’ve a time allocated for computer lab lessons. I remembered that whenever we have such lessons, I would be very excited because it means that I get to play computer games!

Progressively when I entered different institutions for advance education, digital media was widely used. Teachers used educational games to teach and we even had to attend courses and come up with our own project assignments using the digital media.

Since young, we have been asked to imagine how future classrooms will look like. And now, with the launch of the Ipad, it seems like what I’ve imagined is coming true. I’ve vision that instead of books, students would bring a laptop that has all the books loaded in the computer. Then, the physical attendance of students of teachers would not be needed and they can learn and teach in their own home. This would definitely save lots of time travelling and transportation fee. As we know, getting information on the internet is ubiquitous, anytime. Thus, students can learn anywhere, anytime.

With the emergence of Web3.0, other than being able to provide feedback like how we can do it with the current Web2.0, 3-D projected images could aid students to have a better knowledge on studying.

Next, Microsoft Surface Technology is a revolutionary multi-touch computer that responds to natural hand gestures and real-world objects, helping people interact with digital content in a simple and intuitive way. With a large, horizontal user interface, Surface offers a unique gathering place where multiple users can collaboratively and simultaneously interact with data and each other.

This technology has proved the emergence of Web3.0 where users can grab digital content with their hands and move information with simple gestures and touches. Surface also sees and interacts with objects placed on the screen, allowing one to move information between devices like mobile phones or cameras.

In an educational context, Microsoft Surface provides tremendous potential for operators/teachers to improve communication, and be more efficient in how they deliver information and services to their students. The intuitive and approachable interface is easy to learn and the familiar software platform makes it easy to manage, too. The multi-touch and multi-user capabilities create an incredibly collaborative experience, where sharing and exploring information is easier than ever.

As explained in the Microsoft Surface official website, this technology has four key capabilities that make it such a unique experience:

Direct interaction.
Users can grab digital information with their hands and interact with content on-screen by touch and gesture – without using a mouse or keyboard.

Multi-user experience.
The large, horizontal, 30 inch display makes it easy for several people to gather and interact together with Microsoft Surface - providing a collaborative, face-to-face computing experience.

Multi-touch.
Microsoft Surface responds to many points of contact simultaneously - not just from one finger, as with a typical touch screen, but from dozens of contact points at once.

Object recognition.
Users can place physical objects on the screen to trigger different types of digital responses – providing for a multitude of applications and the transfer of digital content to mobile devices.

With such technology, I believe that what me and my friends vision the educational world to be like would come true.