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Enhancing Learning through Collaborative Technology

Minhaj Zia
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Minhaj Zia
Education has undergone tremendous transformation over the last few years. Globalization has compelled educational institutions to examine ways in which they can integrate collaborative technologies to further enhance the learning experience and improve productivity. These tools are viewed as key assets to create intellectually vibrant and relevant campuses and attract the best students and faculty.

The delivery of content has evolved dramatically, and today it is possible for teachers to post all study material, including complete audio and/or video recordings of lectures online, to help students download the course material from far away locations. Videos that contain both educational and entertainment value in podcasts, and course content posted on education channels create a more engaging learning environment.

As the education process continues to evolve, Web 2.0 and social networking tools such as blogs and wikis, online video repository and delivery websites such as YouTube are facilitating collaborative learning in ways like never before.

Collaborative learning:
Educational institutions continuously seek ways to facilitate collaboration to enhance teaching, research, foreign exchange programs, alumni relationships, and private sector partnerships. Collaboration solutions enable students and instructors to connect anywhere they have a network and combine voice, video, graphics, and text to bring people together with information, and with each other. In learning or training environments, these tools allow instructors and students to come together over distance and time, exchange information, study together, and learn from each other.

Technologies like streaming video, rich media conferencing and telepresence make live distance learning situations interactive. The content is more dynamic when the student can talk to the instructor, ask questions, and offer knowledge from his or her own experience. Voice, video, and web collaboration tools save the time, expense, and environmental impact of travel and allow earning revenue from a variety of vocational distance-learning courses. Properly planned, such technology platforms enable educational institutions of all kinds to aid next-generation learning safely, securely, and efficiently.

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