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Topic2: Technology and Technologies for Learning

TECHNOLOGY

Technology and Learning: Terms, definitions and application

Technology according to Galbraith (p.12, 1967) is “the systematic application of scientific or other
organized knowledge to practical tasks”.

Seels & Richey (p.9, 1994) defined instructional technology as “the theory and practice of design,
development, utilization, management and evaluation of processes and resources of learning. Some
developers of programmed instruction called it technology for learning.

The term technologies for learning is used to refer to both the products and the process of technology as
they are applied to human learning.

The word learning is highlighted and used in this book instead of instruction to put on the spotlight on the
learning process rather than on the instruction process as it is possible for learning to occur without
instruction.

3. Technologies for Learning

WHAT ARE TECHNOLOGIES FOR LEARNING?

Technologies for learning are specific teaching- learning patterns that serve reliably as templates for
achieving demonstratively effective learning.

3.1 COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Cooperative learning involves small heterogeneous groups of students working together to achieve a
common academic goal or task while working together to learn collaboration and social skills.

Cooperative learning has gained momentum in both formal and informal education from two converging
forces: first, the practical realization that life outside the classroom requires more and more collaborative
activity, from the use of teams in the workplace to everyday social life, and second, a growing awareness
of the value of social interaction in making learning meaningful.

Advantages
 Active learning. Cooperative learning requires students to actively interact with others
 Social skills. Students learn to interact with others developing their interpersonal, communication,
leadership, compromise, and collaboration skills.
 Interdependence. Positive interdependence and accountability are developed as students interact
to reach a common goal.
 Individual accountability. When a group’s success depends on the input of each individual in it,
individuals learn to be accountable for their actions.

Limitations
 Student compatibility. It is sometimes difficult to form groups of students who will work together
well. The teacher must know her students well to form groups that will function effectively.
 Student dependency. If you allow the best students to carry the others, you may create
dependency and defeat the purpose of cooperative learning. The challenge is to devise
management systems that require learners to truly collaborate.
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 Time consuming. Cooperative learning requires more time to cover the same amount of content
than do some other methods.
 Individualist. Individuals who prefer to work independently do not like cooperative learning.
 Logistical obstacles. The teacher must arrange a lot of information, students responsibilities, and
assessment activities.

Integration
Cooperative learning is defined as the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to
maximize their own and each other’s learning.

Assigning students to work on a presentation of topic, dividing among them the different sub-topics, and
although their efforts were pooled at the end, this does not reflect cooperative learning, because most of
the work was done independently. The notion of cooperative learning entails a deeper level of
interaction, based on the principle that articulating and negotiating your ideas with others forces you to
process information in a way that improves meaningfulness and retention.

Slavin, Kagan, David and Johnson revealed that not only does cooperative learning yield better
acquisition and retention of lesson content, it also promotes better interpersonal and thinking skills. This
research highlighted the importance of interdependence as the key to success in cooperative learning.

Two particular formats are presented as examples of cooperative learning technologies: Johnson and
Johnson’s Learning Together model, and Slavin’s Team-Assisted Individualization (TAI).

3.1.1 Learning Together Model

Johnson and Johnson’s interdependent learning group, known as the Learning Together Model, requires
four basic elements:
 Positive interdependence. Students must recognize that all the members of the group are
dependent on each other to reach success.
 Face-to-face helping interaction. After silently working on the problem on scratch paper, the
learners teach other and discuss any confusion or misconceptions.
 Individual Accountability. Students know that they will be tested individually, with the results
given back to the individual and the group. One way to reinforce individual accountability is
to randomly select one student’s test to represent the whole group.
 Teaching interpersonal and small-group skills. Students cannot just be thrown together and
told to cooperate. To function effectively as group, they must be taught the skills of
communication, leadership and conflict management and must learn to monitor the
processes in their group, making corrections if there are shortcomings.

3.1.2 Team-Assisted Individualization (TAI)

TAI was specifically intended to avoid some of the problems encountered with individualized programmed
instruction. It incorporates features that allow students to proceed more efficiently and effectively on their
own with fewer demands on the teacher for individual checking and motivating. TAI follows this pattern:

1. Teaching groups. The teacher gives lesson to small heterogeneous groups – learners who are at
about the same point in the curriculum. These lessons prepare students for major concepts in
upcoming units.
2. Team formation. Every eight weeks, students are assigned to four-member teams that are as
heterogeneous as possible in terms of achievements levels, gender and ethnic background.
3. Self-instructional materials. Students work independently using self-instructional materials, which
include step-by-step procedures for solving problems, a set of problems, self-test items, and a
summative test.
4. Team study. Student work in pairs with their assigned team, working on problems and having
their partner check their solutions.
5. Team scores and team recognition. Team scores are computed at the end of each week;
certificates are given to those who greatly exceed the criterion level.
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3.1.3. Computer-Based Cooperative Learning

Computer assistance can alleviate some of the logistical obstacles to using cooperative learning methods,
particularly the task of managing information, allocating different individual responsibilities, presenting and
monitoring instructional material, analyzing learner responses, administering tests, and scoring and
providing remediation for those tests.

3.2 GAMES
The term game, simulation and simulation game are often used interchangeably. But because these
terms have different meanings, they will be discussed separately.

Game is an activity in which participants follow prescribed rules that differ from those of real life as they
strive to attain a challenging goal. The distinction between play and reality is what makes game exiting.
Most people seem to enjoy setting aside the logical rules of everyday life occasionally and entering an
artificial environment with different dynamics.

Advantages
 Attractive. Games provide attractive frameworks for learning activities. They are attractive
because they are fun! Children and adult alike tend to react positively to an invitation to play.
 Novel. As a departure from usual classroom routine, games arouse interest because of their
novelty.
 Atmosphere. The pleasant relaxed atmosphere fostered by games can be especially helpful for
those (such as low achievers) who avoid other types of structured learning approach.
 Time on task. Games can keep learners in repetitious tasks, such as memorizing multiplication
tables. What would otherwise be tedious drill becomes Fun

Limitations
 Competition. Competitive activities can be counter-productive for students who are less
interested in competing or who are weak in the content or skill being practiced.
 Distraction. Without careful management and debriefing, students can get caught up in the
excitement of play and fail to focus on the real objectives.
 Poor design. To be instructionally meaningful the game activity must provide actual practice of
the intended academic skill. A fatal shortcoming of poorly designed games is that players spend
a large portion of their time waiting for their turn, throwing dice, moving markers around a board,
and performing similar trivial actions.

Integration
Instructional games are well suited to the following:
 Attainment of cognitive objectives, particularly those involving discrimination, or memorization, such
as grammar, phonics, spelling, arithmetic skills, formulas, basic science concepts, place names,
terminology, and so on
 Adding motivation to topics originally attract little student interest, such as grammar rules, spelling
and math drills
 Small group instruction, provide structured activities that students or trainees can conduct by
themselves without close instructor intervention
 Basic skills such as sequence, sense of direction, visual perception, number concepts, and following
rules, which can be developed by means of card games.
 Vocabulary building. Various commercial games such as Boggle, Fluster, scrabble and Probe have
been used successfully by teachers to expand spelling and vocabulary skills, although they were
designed and are marketed primarily for recreational purposes.

Adapting the Content of Instructional Games

Although most teachers do not design new instructional games from scratch, they often adapt existing
games by changing the subject matter while retaining the game’s structure. The original is referred to as
a frame game because its framework lends itself to multiple adaptations. When one is modifying a frame
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game, the underlying structure of a familiar game provides the basic procedure of play, or dynamics of the
process.

Here are some sample adaptations:

 Safety tic-tac-toe
 Spelling rummy
 Reading concentration
 Word Bingo

3.3 SIMULATIONS
A simulation is an abstraction or simplification of some real-life situation or process. In simulations,
participants usually play a role that involves them in interactions with other people or with elements of the
simulated environment. Simulations are by design active. They provide realistic practice with feedback in
realistic context, and include social interactions.

Team simulations allow students to use their individual differences. Some computer-based simulations
adjust their difficulty level based on the ability of the player.

Simulation and Problem-Based Learning

One particular value of simulation is it implements learning method as directly and clearly as possible. In
problem-based learning, the learner is led toward understanding principles through grappling with a
problem situation. Most simulations attempt to immerse participants in a problem.

The great advantage of this sort of firsthand immersion in a topic is that students are more likely to be
able to apply to real life what they have practiced in simulated circumstances.

Simulators
The device employed to represent a physical system in a scaled-down form is referred to as simulator.
Simple simulators are in widespread use in applications such as training workers in a range of manual
skills from CPR to welding.

Advantages
 Realistic. The prime advantage of simulations is that they allow practice to real-world skills under
conditions similar to those in real life.
 Safe.
 Simplified

Limitations
 Time consuming
 Oversimplification

Integration
 Training in motor skills, including athletic and mechanical skills, and complex skills that might
otherwise be too hazardous or expensive in real life settings
 Instruction in social interaction and human relations, where displaying empathy and coping with
the reactions of other people are major goals
 Development of decision-making skills (e.g., microteaching in teacher education, mock court in
law school, management simulations in business administration)

3.3.1 Role Plays - refers to a type of simulation in which the dominant feature is relatively open-ended
interaction among people. It has proven to be a motivating and effective method of developing skills.
Examples of tasks for role playing are counseling, interviewing, sales and customer services, supervision
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and management. Examples of simulated settings are committee meetings, negotiation sessions, public
meetings, work teams and one-on-one interviews.

3.4 SIMULATION GAMES

A simulation game combines the attributes of simulation (role playing, a model of reality) with the
attributes of a game (striving toward a goal, specific rules). One of the major reasons for using simulation
and gaming methods is that they provide conditions for holistic learning. That is, through the modeling of
reality and through the players’ interactions as they strive to succeed, learners encounter a whole and
dynamic view of the process they are studying.

Integration
Instructional simulation games are found in curriculum applications that require both the repetitive skill
practice associated with games and the reality context associated with simulations. Societal processes,
cultural conflicts, historical eras, and ecological systems are popular topics.
In general, teachers frequently use instructional simulation games to provide an overview of a
large, dynamic process. The excitement of play simulates interests in the subject matter, and the holistic
treatment of the game gives students a feel for the total process before they approach parts of it in a
linear way.

Cooperative Simulation Games

In recent years, sports psychologists and educational psychologists have developed new theories
questioning the value and necessity of competition in human development. They contend that if children
are nurtured on cooperation, acceptance and success in a fun-oriented atmosphere they develop strong,
positive self concepts. Out of this new awareness has come the “new games” movement, generating
hundreds of cooperative games that challenge the body and imagination but that depend on cooperation
and success.

3.5 LEARNING CENTERS

Learning Center is a self-contained environment designed to promote individual or small group learning
around a specific task. A learning center may be as simple as a table and some chairs around which
students discuss, or it maybe as sophisticated as several networked computers used by a group for
collaborative research and problem solving.

Limitations
 Cost
 Management
 Student responsibility
 Student isolation

Specialized types of centers

 Skill centers’
 Interest centers
 Remedial centers

Advantages
 Self-pacing
 Active learning
 Teacher Role

3.6 PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION

Programmed instruction usually refers to learning done by an individual using printed materials or a
computer. Programmed instruction led to the development of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and the
same principles are currently incorporated in web-based instruction.

Advantages
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 Self-pacing
 Practice and Feedback
 Reliable
 Effective

Limitations
 Program design
 Tedious
 Lack of social interaction

3.7 PROGRAMMED TUTORING

Programmed tutoring is a one-on-one method of instruction in which the tutor’s responses are
programmed in advance in the form of carefully structured printed instructions. If the learner responds
correctly, she is reinforced and goes on to a new item. If the response is incorrect, a series of
increasingly clearer prompts or hints are given.

Advantages
 Self-pacing
 Practice and Feedback
 Reliable
 Effective

Limitations
 Labor intensive
 Development cost

3.8 PROGRAMMED TEACHING

Programmed teaching, also known as direct instruction, is an attempt to apply the principles of
programmed instruction in a large-group setting. In this approach a whole class is broken into smaller
groups of 5 to 10 students. The smaller groups are led through a lesson by a teacher, paraprofessional
or student peer following a highly prescriptive lesson plan. The critical features of these lessons include
unison responding by learners to prompts (or cues) given by the instructor, rapid pacing and procedures
for reinforcement or correction.

Programmed teaching lessons are designed to generate high rates of responding by all students. To
avoid inattention or mere imitation of other students’ responses, all are required to respond vocally at the
same time, at a hand signal by the instructor.

Programmed teaching can be regarded as a technology for learning in that it has a definite pattern:
teacher cue, unison vocal response, and reinforcement or correction.

3.9 PERSONALIZED SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION

Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) is sometimes referred to as the Keller Plan after Fred Keller,
who developed it. It can be described as a template for managing instruction. It is derived from the same
roots as mastery learning, the idea that all students can succeed – achieve basic mastery – but need
different amounts of time and practice to get there.

PSI differs from the whole-class application of mastery learning in that it adheres to the notion of using
individual self-study as the main form of learning activity.

The essential idea of PSI is that the learning materials are arranged in sequential order and that the
student must demonstrate mastery of each unit before being allowed to move on to the next. Mastery is
determined by means of a test taken whenever the student feels ready for it. Proctors are a critical
component of PSI, for it is their one-to-one assistance that makes the system personalized.
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Advantages
 Self-pacing
 Mastery
 Effective

Limitations
 Development cost
 Behaviorist commitment
 Self-discipline