Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Restructured setting
Create personal knowledge by
Learn facts and skills by absorbing
acting on content provided by
Student role
the content presented by teachers
teachers, media resources, and
and media resources
personal experiences.
Fragmented knowledge and
Multidisciplinary themes,
disciplinary separation. Basic
knowledge integration, and
Curriculum
literacy established before high
application. Emphasis on thinking
characteristics
level inquiry is encouraged. Focus skills and application. Emphasis on
on breadth of knowledge.
depth of understanding.
Teacher functions as facilitator and
Teacher controlled setting with
Social
learner. Students work
students working independently.
characteristics
collaboratively and make some
Some competition.
decisions.
Measurement of fact knowledge
Assessment of knowledge
Assessment
and discrete skill. Traditional
application. Performance of tasks
tests.
to demonstrate understanding.
Present information and manage Guide student inquiry and model
Teacher role
the classroom
active learning
Possible use of Source of information for
Source of information for
technology
absorption
interpretation and knowledge
think about and store the main ideas rather than the verbatim comments.
work at generating and storing a personally meaningful representation of
what was experienced.
From Theory to Practice - What do these theories mean for your classroom
and how can technology help you apply them?
1. Authentic Activities
Research shows that when learning is accomplished as part of an authentic activity,
it is more relevant and more likely to be used in future situations. Authentic
activities are the ordinary practices of a culture. Students need rich,
multidisciplinary contexts for learning and reduced emphasis on fact mastery
and isolate, discrete component skills. Inert Knowledge is knowledge that
students have learned but fail to use. Use of primary sources represent information
or tasks that learners act on to produce personal knowledge. The Internet offers
many sources.
2. Changing the Social Environment
Students should have access to domain experts to model the skills appropriate to
the domain. Teachers view their roles differently. Students should spend a greater
amount of time working in cooperative relationships with other students to explore
alternative perspectives and evaluate ideas. Cognitive apprenticeship, cooperative
learning projects and learning communities
3. Project-based learning that promotes reflective thinking and
productivity, as well as authentic activities and collaboration
Student projects provide a practical method for combining elements of authentic
activities, collaborative learning, and technology use. Project-based learning is
based on tasks, groups, and sharing. Good projects should:
Dewey: Center instruction around activities those are relevant and meaningful
to a student's own experience.
Vygotsky: Zone of proximal development, gap between expert-novice, met
through scaffolding, collaborative learning activities
Piaget: Children move through stages of cognitive development through
experiences in which they adapt to their environment and organize. Processes
of assimilation or accommodation
Bruner: Stages of cognitive development. Unstructured or discovery learning.
Papert: Discovery learning and problem solving. Logo
Cognitive Apprenticeships: 'Situated cognition' or authentic learning. What
students learn should not be separated from how they learn it. (Brown)
Anchored Instruction/generative learning: Problem-solving environments
where students generate solutions to real world problems
Cognitive flexibility: Particularly for ill-structured domains, students need less
structured exploration and less direct teaching.
A MODEL OF INSTRUCTION
A complete instructional experience takes students through 4 stages:
1. Presentation of information or learning experiences
2. Initial guidance as student struggles to understand the information or execute
the skill to be learned
3. Extended practice to provide fluency or speed to ensure rentention
4. Assessment of student learning
Software developed for the sole purpose of delivering instruction or supporting
learning activities.
Categories for instructional software:
Drill (or drill and practice) software. Programs that allow learners to work
problems or answer questions and get feedback on correctness.
Tutorial software. Programs that act like tutors by presenting all the
information and instructional activities that a learner needs to master a given
topic. (e.g., background & explanations, practice sessions, feedback and
assessment.
Simulation Software. Programs that model real or an imagined system to
show how those systems or similar systems work.
Instructional Games. Programs designed to increase motivation by adding
games rules to learning activities.
Problem-solving Software. Programs that teach or help students acquire
problem-solving skills by giving them opportunities to solve problems.
Criticisms
Tutorial Software
May be used...to address all instructional events from introduction to assessment. It
can be self-paced, used as an alternative learning strategy, and when teacher is not
possible. A possible learning station.
Characteristics of well-designed programs
Criticisms
Traditional instruction
Hard to find
Simulation Software
May be used...to demonstrate physical,process,procedural or situational simulations
of a real process. It is less structured and more learner-directed.
Characteristics of well-designed programs
Compresses time
Slows down process
Motivating, with increased user control
Makes experiments safe and possible
Saves money
Situations can be repeated and controlled
Good for introductory-level instruction
Fosters exploration & process learning
Encourages cooperation & group work
Criticisms
Instructional Games
Criticisms
May draw attention from the intrinsic value & motivation of learning
Over-emphasis on competition, individualization
Difficulty transferring skill to later non-game situations
Time
May contain violent or combat-type activity
May require extensive amount of physical dexterity
Problem-solving Software
May be used...improve problem solving skills such as recognition of goal, observing
& recalling information, inferring, predicting outcomes, making analogies and
formulating ideas.
Characteristics of well-designed programs...Three kinds
Criticisms
Could interfere with student's own effective processing
Not enough time devoted to process
Is taught in isolation
1. Allow students time to explore and interact with software, but do provide
structure in the form of directions, goals, work schedule...
2. Vary the amount of direction and assistance
3. Promote a "reflective learning environment." Let the students talk about their
work.
4. Stress thinking processes rather than correct answers
5. Point out the relationship of courseware skills and activities to other kinds of
problem solving
6. Let students work in groups
7. If assessments are done, use alternative to traditional paper-pencil tests.
Integrated Learning Systems (ILS)