Technology has been the most disruptive development to the education industry in recent time. Yet for all the advantages it offers it is rarely used or exploited to the extent that it is intended. Offering great opportunities for collaboration, technology is often just a substitute for physical resources that already exist in the classroom.

Murray and Olcese (2011) classified educational applications into 4 categories:

Tutor – instructional experiences

Explorer – when users actively decide what content they want to access via searching

Tool – for practicing skills, creating products such as documents, videos, pictures, art etc.. And

Communication – applications that allow students and teachers to send messages and information to each other.

Again we will review the advantages and challenges that this space proposes to teachers and students.

TEACHERS

Strengths

· Increases the ability to connect and collaborate with other educators, forming Personal Learning Networks and Communities of Practice (CoP).

· Unlimited access to Professional Development material.

· Lower costs increase the capability for school to invest in technology.

· Technology can remove the need for expensive and bulky resources such as maps, references books and diagrams.

· Speed and access to a enormous amount of information via searching the internet

Challenges

· Understanding and conforming to netiquette or appropriate online behaviour and use of technology.

· Ensuring technology adds value not just replaces existing resources eg flash cards

· Integrating technology into learning as it is intended.

· Use of technology often lacks imagination transformation and exploitation

· Finding applications that suit your requirements.

· Managing the amount of information you have access to.

· Ensuring that information is accurate.

STUDENTS

Strengths

· When teachers use it innovatively technology will support and encourage collaborative work

· Access to enormous amounts of information removing the need use bulky reference material, or to physically access libraries. Time saving

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Challenges

· Understanding and conforming to netiquette or appropriate online behaviour

· Can be isolating if student is not part of a CoP.

· Students must overcome feelings of intimidation they feel with technology use and online forums.

· Easy to be distracted by high stimulus online environment.

Approaches and Strategies for the eSpace

As digital technology is amalgamated into the classroom, it is often done so in a traditional manor. Computers are either located in a separate lab or located on the periphery of the room. This segregation prevents technology from being a central and natural path of instruction and learning. Their use often limited to practice exercises, some research and word processing (Weiss, 2007, p.81). While certainly this use is necessary the potential and often missed learning opportunities associated with digital use must change to include opportunities for collaboration, communication,