Lesson 18: Tablets for Textbooks in Schools

 

 

 

 

Today, books are still the primary medium of instruction in most schools. The disadvantage of using books for learning are debated upon. For school-graders, the loads of books are backbreaking due to weight and size. Publishing and printing millions of books for millions of public school children are just too expensive for the public purse. The errors in public school textbooks have also been exposed, errors resulting from wrong information, technical mistakes, and editorial lapses.

 

 

Today, technology is being viewed as a savior. Already computer games have been adopted in developed countries as a learning technology along with other audio-visual aids to teaching and learning. Classroom instruction which rides the vehicle of gaming admittedly makes learning more effective and more fun.

 

Use of tablets in public schools in the country maybe difficult considering certain factors, such as cost of one tablet for one student, books have more durability compare with electronic gadgets, and technical expertise for the learning software is not widely available.

Lesson 16: The Internet and Education

 

The internet, also simply called the NET, is the largest and far-flung networks system –of-all-system. Surprisingly, the internet is not really a network but a loosely organized collection of about 25,000 networks accessed by computers in the planet. It is astonishing to know that no one owns the internet. It has no central headquarters, no centrally offered services, and no comprehensive online index to tell users what information is available in the system.

How is everything coordinated through the Internet? This is done through a standardized protocol (or set of rules for exchanging data) called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). To gain access to the Internet, the computer must be equipped with what is called a Server which has special software (program) that uses the Internet protocol. Originally developed and still subsidized by the United States government, the Internet connect not only commercial, industrial, scientific establishments but all other sectors including education and its libraries, campuses, and computer centers.

The great attraction of the Internet is that once the sign-up fees are paid, there are no extra charges. Electronic mail, for example, is free regardless of the amount of use. In contrast, individuals using the Internet on their own personal computers must pay ongoing monthly fees to whoever is their service provider. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting around the Net

 

 The vast sea of information now in the Internet, including news and trivia, is an overwhelming challenge to those who wish to navigate it. Every day, the Net user- population and the available information continue to grow, and new ways are continuously being developed to tour the Internet.         

 

The most attractive way to move around the Internet is called browsing. Using a program called a browser, the user can use a mouse to point and click on screen icons to surf the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web (the Web), an Internet’s subset of text, images, and sounds are linked together to allow users to access data or information needed.

The future of the Internet seems limitless. Already its complexity has spawned and continue to spawn Net sites including new demand for services to business, industries, science, government, and even homes. Many experts predict that he Internet is destined to become the centerpiece of all online communications on the planet and in some future time in the solar system using interplanetary satellite communication stations.
 

A View of Educational uses of the Internet

          Today, even elementary school graders in progressive countries like the United States are corresponding via e-mail with pen pals in all 50 states. They ask probing questions like, “What is your state’s most serious problems,” or How much does pizza cost in your state? This educational activity prodded y their schools are paying dividends from increasing the pupil’s interest in Geography to a greater understanding of how people live in large cities and other places in the United States or the world.
 

 Educational software materials have also developed both in sophistication and appeal. There is now a wider choice from rote arithmetic or grammar lessons to discovery and innovation projects. But the real responsibility today is connecting with the world outside homes, classrooms, and Internet cafes.

And today schools are gearing up to take advantage of Internet access, where they can plug into the Library of Congress, make virtual visits to famous museums in the world, write to celebrities, and even send questions to heads of states.

Lesson 15: Understanding Hypermedia

 

 

 

 

Hypermedia is nothing but multimedia, but this time packaged as an educational computer software where information is presented and student activities are integrated in a virtual learning environment. Most educational IT applications are hypermedia and these include:

 

 

• Tutorial software packages
• Knowledge webpages
• Simulation instructional games
• Learning project management, and others

The presentation of information-learning activities in hypermedia is said to be sequenced in a non-linear manner, meaning that the learner may follow his path of activities thus providing an environment of learner autonomy and thinking skills.

 

 

 

Characteristics of hypermedia applications:

 

1. Learner control- the learner makes his own decisions on the path, flow of events of instruction.

2. Learner wide range of navigation routes- the learner has a wide range of navigation routes such as by working on concepts he is already familiar with. He may even follow a linear or logical path, even if the previous activity is half-completed. He may explore other sections opting to return or complete the previous activity.
 

3. Variety of media- Hypermedia includes more than one media (text, graphics, audio, animation and video clip) but does not necessarily use all types of media in one presentation. Since only virtual learning activity takes place, it is important from the standpoint of the teacher to optimize the learning process by identifying the characteristics of media application, as well as the advantages and limitations of such an application.

 

In the use of hypermedia the following instructional events will prove useful to the teacher:

• Get the learner's attention
• Recall prior learning
• Inform learners of lesson objectives
• Introduce the software and its distinctive features
• Guide learning, eliciting performance
• Provide learning feedback
• Asses performance
•  Enhance retention and learning transfer 

 

Lesson 14: The Software as an Educational Resource

 

 

In this lesson we will tackle about the software system that could be used in teaching and learning process. The computer is useless if the software is not installed in it. This lesson not just how to use computer or even know what are the parts that comprises a computer. We will begin our lesson by knowing what are the two kinds of software.
     

There are two kinds of software:

1. The System software. This is the operating system that is found or bundled inside all computer machines.

 

 

2. The Application software. This contains the system that commands the particular task or solves a particular problem.

 

 

In turn the applications software may be:

 (a) A custom software that is made for specific tasks often by large corporations,

 

 

(b) A commercial software packaged for personal computers that helps with a variety of tasks such as writing papers, calculating numbers, drawing graphs, playing games, and so much more.

 

Microsoft Windows

 

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating system produced by the Microsoft, it is an operating system between the user and the computer. 

 

 

 

Instructional software can be visited on the Internet or can be bought from software shops or dealers. The teacher through his school should decide on the best computer-based instructional (CBI) materials for the school resource collection. But beware since CBIs need much improvement, while web-based educational resources are either extremely good or what is complete garbage.

 

Lesson 13: Cooperative Learning with the Computer

 

Defining cooperative learning               

Cooperative or collaborative learning is learning by small groups of students who work together in a common learning task. It is often also called group learning but to be truly cooperative learning, 5 elements are needed:

1. A common goal                    
2. Interdependence
3. Interaction
4. Individual accountability
5. Social skills

 Therefore not every group work is cooperative learning since students working on their work sheets physically sat around a table may be working together without these features of cooperative learning.

 

From several studies made on cooperative learning, it is manifested that cooperative learning in its true sense is advantageous since it:

(a) Encourage active learning, while motivating students

(b) Increases academic performance

(c) Promotes literacy and language skills  

(d) Improves teacher effectiveness

          In addition, there are studies show that cooperative learning enhances personal and social development among students of all ages, while enhancing self-esteem and improving social relations between racially and culturally different students.  

Cooperative learning and the computer
    Researchers have made studies on the learning interaction between the student and the computer. The studies have great value since it has been a long standing fear that the computer may foster student learning in isolation that hinders the development of the student’s social skills.  



                Now this mythical fear has been contradicted by the studies which show that when students work with computers in groups, they cluster and interact with each other for advice and mutual help. And given the option to work individually or in a group, the students generally wish to work together in computer-based and non-computer-based activities. Reflecting on this phenomenon, psychologists think the computer fosters this positive social behavior due to the fact that it has a display monitor – just like a television set – that is looked upon as something communal.

Therefore researchers agree that the computer is a fairly natural learning vehicle for cooperative (at times called promotive ) learning.


Components of cooperative learning
            Educators are still wary about the computer’s role in cooperative learning. Thus they pose the position that the use of computers do not automatically result in cooperative learning. There therefore assign the teacher several tasks in order to ensure collaborative learning. These are:

• Assigning students to mixed-ability teams
•  Establishing positive interdependence
• Teaching cooperative social skills
• Insuring individual accountability, and
• Helping groups process information

          These are in addition to assigning a common work goal in which each member of the group will realize that their group will not succeed unless everyone contributes to the groups’ success. It is also important for the teacher limits learning group clusters (six is the ideal number in a group) so there can be closer involvement in thinking and learning.

Lesson 12: Information Technology in Support of the Student-Centered Learning

 

 

 

The Traditional Classroom

 

 

It may be observed that classrooms are usually arranged with  neat columns and rows of student chairs, while the teacher stands in font of the classroom or sits behind his desk.  This situation is necessitated by the need to maintain classroom discipline, also to allow the teacher to control classroom activities through lecture presentation and teacher-led discussions. 

 

 

 

The SCL Classroom

 

John Dewey has described traditional learning as a process in which the teacher pours information to student learners, much like pouring water from a jug into cups.  This is based on the long accepted belief that the teacher must perform his role of teaching so that learning can occur.  This learning approach is generally known as direct instruction, and it has worked well for obtaining many kinds of learning outcomes.

The problem with direct instruction approach to learning, however, is the fact that the world's societies have began to change.  Of course, this change may not be strongly felt in many countries in which the economy longer depends primarily on the factory workers who do repetitive work without thinking on the job.  the traditional classroom and direct instruction approach to learning conform to this kind of economies. 



Generally, the new school classroom environment  is characterized by student individually or in groups:

• Performing computer word processing  for text or graph presentations.
• Preparing power-point presentation.
• Searching for information on the internet.
• Brainstorming on ideas, problems and projects plans.
• As needed, the teacher facilitating instruction, also giving individualized instruction to serve  individual needs.

 

 



Lesson 11: The Computer As the Teacher's Tool

 

 



 

 

Constructivism was introduced by  Piaget (1981) and Bruner (1990).  They gave  stress to knowledge discovery of new meaning/concepts/principles in the learning process.  Various strategies have been suggested to foster knowledge discovery, among these, is making students engaged in gathering unorganized information from which  they can induce ideas and principles.  Students are also asked to apply discovered knowledge to new situations, a process for making their knowledge applicable to real life situations. 

 

While knowledge is constructed by the individual learner in constructivism, knowledge can also be socially constructed.  Social constructivism.  this is an effort to show that the construction of knowledge is governed by social, historical and cultural contexts.  In effect, this is to say that the learner who interprets knowledge has a predetermined point of view according to the social perspectives of the community or society he lives in. 

The psychologist Vygotzky  stressed that learning is affected by social influences.  He therefore suggested the interactive process in learning.  The more capable adult (teacher or parent) or classmate can aid or complement what the learner sees in a given class project.  In addition, Dewey sees language as a medium for social coordination and adaptation.  For Dewey human learning is really human languaging that occurs when students socially share, build and agree upon meanings and knowledge.

 SUMMARY OF THE TWO LEARNING PERSPECTIVE

Learning Framework	Constructivism	Social Constructivism
Assumption	Knowledge is constructed by the individual.	Knowledge is constructed within a social context.
Definition of Learning	Students build their own learning.	Students build knowledge influenced by the social context.
Learning Strategies	Gather unorganized information to create new concept/principle	Exchange and share from ideas, stimulates thinking.
General Orientation	Personal discovery of knowledge.	Students discuss and discover meanings
Example	8*5-8+8+8+8+8	Two alternative job offers option 1-8 hrs./day for 6days/week Option 2-9 hrs./day for 5 days/week

 

The Computer's Capabilities      Based on the two learning theories, the teacher can employ the computer as a/an:

• An information tool
• A communication tool
• A constructive tool
• As co-constructive tool
• A situating tool

Informative Tool

Still Image

Video Footage

Animation

    

Text

    

 

 

 

 

 

The computer can provide vast amounts of information in various forms, such as text, graphics, sounds , and video.  Even multimedia encyclopedias are today available on the internet.

 
 The internet itself provides and enormous database from which user can access global information resources that includes the latest news, weather forecasts, airline schedule, sports development, entertainment news and features, as well as educational information directly useful to learners. The internet on education can be sourced for kinds of educational resources on the internet. Along the constructivist point of view, it is not enough for learners to download relevant information using the computer as an information tool. Students can use gathered information for composition or presentation projects as may be assigned by the teacher. 

Communication Tool

 

Constructive Tool

 

The computer itself can be used for manipulating information, visualizing one’s understanding and building new knowledge. The Microsoft Word computer program itself is a desktop publishing software that allows uses to organize and present their ideas in attractive formats.

 

 

 

 

 

Co-constructive Tool

 Students can use constructive tools to work cooperatively and construct a shared understanding of new knowledge. On ways of co-constructive is the use of the electronic whiteboard where students may post notices to a shared document/whiteboard. Students may also co-edit the same document from their homes.

Situating Tool

 

By means of virtual reality (RS) extension systems, the computer can create 3-D images on display to give the user the feeling that are situated in a virtual environment. A flight simulation program is an example of situating tool which places the user in a simulated flying environment.
To caution users, the computer as a situating tool is news and still undergoing further research and development.