LESSON 3

The Roles of Educational technology in Learning

“Technology makes the world a new a new phase.”

Focus questions.

·         What are the roles of educational technology in learning?

INTRODUCTION

            After understanding the comprehensive meaning of educational technology, let us now dwell the roles of educational technology in the teaching-learning process.

ACTIVITY

ANALYSIS

            Technology can play a traditional role, i.e., as delivery vehicles for instructional lessons or in a constructivist way as partner in the learning process. In the traditional way, the learner learns from the learning technology and the technology serves as a teacher.

            In the constructivist approach, technology is a learning tool to learn with, not from.

It makes the learner

·         Gather

·         Think

·         Analyze

·         Synthesize information

·         And construct meaning with what technology presents.

Technology serves as a medium in representing what the learner knows and what the learner knows and what he/she is learning.

ABSTRACTION

            From a constructivist perspective, the following are the roles of technology in learning: (Jonassen, at al 1999)

·         Technology as tools to support knowledge construction: for representing learner’s ideas, understandings and beliefs

For producing organized, multimedia knowledge bases by learners

·         Technology as information vehicles for exploring knowledge to support learning-by-constructing:

For accessing needed information

For comparing perspectives, beliefs and world views

·         Technology as context to support learning-by-doing:

For representing and stimulating meaningful real- world problems, situation and contexts

For representing beliefs, perspectives, arguments, and stories to others

For defining a safe, controllable problem space for student thinking

·         Technology as a social medium to support learning by conversing:

For collaborating with others

For discussing, and building consensus among the learners members of the community

For supporting discourse among knowledge-building communities

·         Technology as intellectual partner(jonassen 1996) to support learning-by-reflecting:

For helping learners to articulate and represent what they know

For reflecting on what they have learned and how they came to know it

For supporting learners internal negotiations a building making

For constructing personal representations of meaning for supporting mindful thinking