A New Door Opening: Communication - Part 2

Communication is a part of listening, expression and learning.  It can be verbal and non-verbal. Communication can be done with action, like the beautiful way the deaf community speaks to each other, spoken word poetry, a baby smiling because they recognize your voice, or body language. Technology positively impacts communication with computers, the internet, social media, live streams, podcasts, and yes, vlogs and blogs, yet there is more; however, there are harmful ways, such as losing personal connections with people, messages being misinterpreted in emails, privacy/security concerns, too many hours of screen time - a yin and yang.

​As someone who uses technology to communicate professionally and personally, learning theory grasps technology to help understand and process new information. These theories should consider how technology impacts communications because, realistically, the world is changing fast, and technological advances are growing in leaps and bounds. Learning theory should consider these impacts on instructional design, pedagogy, assessment, and training spaces due to the implied audience. You have to put yourself in the other person’s shoes when designing content by making sure the learning objectives match what you are developing, or what needs to be learned, planning the logistics of training space, and even your teaching style is communicating a compelling message and instruction. I wonder what perspectives philosophers of the past would have on technology? I hope the human elements of sharing through communication never disappear so that reducing loneliness and lack of connection, even in education or self-paced learning, diminishes.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay