Lesson 3: ROLES OF TECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

As teaching and learning go together, let us explore what would be the roles
of technology for teachers and teaching and for learners and learning. According to
Stosic (2015), educational technology has three domains:

1. Technology as a tutor. Together with the teacher, technology can support the
teacher to teach another person or technology when programmed by the
teacher can be a tutor on its own. The teacher will simply switch on or switch
off radio programs, TV programs or play DVSs, or CDs that contain educational
programs, too.
2. Technology as a teaching tool. Like a tutor, technology is a teaching tool,
but can never replace a teacher. This is like the handyman, which is just there
to be reached. Like any other tool, it is being used to facilitate and lighten the
work of the teacher. It will be good if the teacher can also create or develop
technology tools that are needed in the classroom.
3. Technology as a learning tool. While the teacher utilizes technology as the
tool for teaching, likewise it is an effective tool for learning. As a learning tool,
it makes learning easy and effective. It can produce learning outcomes that call
for technology-assisted teaching. Even the teachers who are teaching can
utilize similar tools for learning. As a learning tool, it is very interesting that
even the elderly use these tools for learning for life.

A. For Teachers and Teaching

There are numerous roles that technology plays in the job of teachers. As a
tool, technology has opened wider avenues in management of resources and
management of learning. Likewise, it has modernized the teaching-learning
environment in schools. Here are some examples of the myriad roles that
technology can do for teachers and teaching.
1. Technology provides enormous support to the teacher as the
facilitator of learning. It transform a passive classroom to an active and
interactive one, with audio-visual aids, charts and models, smart
classrooms, e-learning classrooms which motivate and increase attention
level of learners. Many of these can be searched on the web.
2. Technology has modernized the teaching-learning environment.
The teachers are assisted and supplemented with appropriately structured
instructional materials for daily activities. There are varied available
technology-driven resources which can be utilized for remedial lesson or
activities. Likewise there are also a lot of technology-driven resources that
can be used for enrichment purposes. You may search for the examples
on the web.
3. Technology improves teaching-learning process and ways of
teaching. This will make the act of teaching more efficient and effective.

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 There are arrays of teaching methods and strategies that can use
technology which are found compatible with learning styles. The multiple
intelligence theory of Howard Gardner tells us that there is a genius in
every child. This implies that there must be varied ways of teaching as
there are many varied ways of learning. All the learning styles can find
support from technology, so that teaching will be more effective and
efficient.
4. Technology opens new field in educational researches. The areas of
teaching testing and evaluation are enhanced by technologies for teaching
and learning. Current educational researchers will no longer find difficulty
in interpreting tests, assessment and other evaluation results. There are
available programs that can analyze and interpret results with speed and
accuracy. Reference retrieval is also hastened because many of the
research materials are in digital form. Technology has also provided
access to big data that can be processed for problem solving and inquiry.
5. Technology adds to the competence of teachers and inculcates
scientific outlook. Through the utilization of theories of learning and
intelligence, which are explained in references uploaded in the net, the
teachers are encourage to imbibe skills to source these information with
speed and accuracy.
6. Technology supports teacher professional development. With the
demand of continuing professional development for teachers, the
availability of technology provides alternative way of attending
professional development online. For those who are involved as providers
of continuing professional development like trainers, facilitators or
organizers, they can level up or enhance their delivery systems with the
support of technology tools.

B. For Learners and Learning

1. Support learners to learn how to learn
on their own. All teachers fully understand
that subject matter or content is a means to
achieve the learning outcomes. There are
three categories of knowledge according to
Egbert (2009): declarative knowledge,
structural knowledge, and procedural
knowledge.
a. Declarative knowledge consists of the
discrete pieces of information that
answers the questions what, who, when, and where. It is often learned
through memorization of facts, drills and practice. It can be learned by
simple mnemonics or conceptual maps. Declarative knowledge is the
fundamental knowledge necessary for students to achieve higher order
thinking such as critical thinking and creativity, inquiry and production.
b. Structural knowledge consists of facts or pieces of declarative
knowledge put together to attain some form of meaning. An example of
declarative knowledge is “pencil”. The idea that evolved from a pencil is
an understanding that: “it is something used to write.” This is referred to

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 as structural knowledge. It can be presented by concept maps, categorization
or classification.
c. Procedural knowledge is knowledge in action or the knowledge of how to
do something. It is based on facts but learned through the process of
procedural knowledge. Examples include how to drive a car, how to use a cell
phone, or how to speak English. Procedural knowledge is indicated by a
performance task or graphical representation of a concept.

The traditional sources of knowledge are printed books, modules and

journals. Other sources are primary sources such as information taken from
research. However, knowledge or content can be learned in many ways.
But how can technology support the learning of declarative, structural or
procedural knowledge? To teach content, time is always an issue of teachers.
Oftentimes, we hear teachers say: “Too many things to teach, too little time to
do.” Technology may be the answer, however the challenge is for teachers to
use technology to learn the technology first. As a facilitator of learning, the
teacher can guide the students to look for the resources and to utilize them
appropriately. There are varied programs that can be used by students off-line or
on-line. What should be necessary is that the students are engaged, the tasks
should focus on questions like how, why and which in addition to who, what,
when and where.

2. Technology enhances learners’ communication skills through social

interactions. This is commonly described as the transmittal of information from
one person to another as single individual or groups of individuals. According to
Shirly (2003) in Egbert (2009), there are three basic communication patterns.
a. Point to point or two-way or one-to-one like Internet chat, phone
conversation or even face-to-face conversation.
b. One-to-many outbound like a lecture, or television. There is no social
interaction.
c. Many-to-many like group discussion, buzz session, heads together. This kind
of interaction provides opportunities for social interaction.

Social interaction occurs in two ways where the participants ask for clarification,
argue, challenge each other and work towards common understanding. Social
interaction through communication occurs through technology (directly between two
persons via email, a cell phone or other communication technology). It can also occur
around technology like students discussing about a problem posed by a software
program or with technology like teachers and students interacting about the worksheet
printed from a website. In all the three modalities, communication occurs and
technology is involved.
For this particular role, what are the benefits derived from technology-supported
communication?
a. Enables any teacher to guide the learners virtually and making learning
unlimited because communication and social interaction go beyond a school
day or a school environment.
b. Enhances students’ freedom to express and exchange ideas freely without the
snooping eyes of the teacher face-to-face
c. Enables learners to construct meaning from joint experiences between the
two or more participants in communication

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 d. Help learners solve problems from multiple sources since there is limitless
sources of information that the teacher can direct or refer to the learners
e. Teaches learners to communicate with politeness, taking turns in sending
information and giving appropriate feedback
f. Enhances collaboration by using communication strategies with wider
community and individuals in a borderless learning environment
g. Develops critical thinking, problem solving and creativity throughout the
communication

3. Technology upgrades learners’ higher-order thinking skills: critical

thinking, problem-solving and creativity. Twenty-first century learning
requires the development of higher-order thinking skills. Technology has a great
role to play in the development and enhancement of these skills.

Critical thinking is part of the cluster of higher order thinking skills. It

refers to the ability to interpret, explain, analyze, evaluate, infer and self-
regulate in order to make good decisions. With the use of technology, one will be
able to evaluate the credibility of the source, ask appropriate questions, become
open-minded, defend a position on an issue and draw conclusion with caution. All
of these competencies are covered by Bloom’s Taxonomy of Analysis, Synthesis
and Evaluation.

Teachers play a significant role in supporting learners with technology.

How? As a role model, teachers should display and practice critical thinking
processes, so that the learners can imitate them. Here are some way that
teachers can do to develop critical thinking.

a. Ask the right questions

Most often teachers ask questions to find out if the students can
simply repeat the information from the lesson. Although these are
necessary questions like what, who, when and where, these do not
develop critical thinking. Critical thinking questions should ask for clarity,
accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, and logic.
Clarity: Here are some examples: Can you give examples of…
Accuracy: What pieces of evidence support your claim?
Precision: Exactly how much…
Breadth: What do you think will the other group say about the
issue?

b. Use critical thinking tasks with appropriate level of challenge

Teachers should be mindful of the readiness of the students.
Students who have higher ability may find the task too easy, thus getting
bored early, while those who have low ability may find the task too
difficult. Thus, there is a need to have activities that are appropriate for
the learners. These can be determined by interview, observations and
other forms to determine the level of readiness.
What are some simple ways that teachers should do?
1. Vary the questions asked.
2. Introduce new technologies.
3. Modify the learners’ grouping.

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 4. Encourage curiosity.

By nature learners are curious. They ask lots of questions all the time.
Why is the sky blue? Why do I have to learn geometry? How do people choose
what will they become in the future? Can robots solve the problems of climate
change? How? These question will lead to critical thinking, but some of these
questions cannot be answered by the teacher.
The unanswered questions are avoided or answered unsatisfactorily.
Sometimes teachers shut down the question that curtails the first step in critical
thinking. The internet as a problem solving and research tool can help find
answers to the questions.

Creativity is characterized as involving the ability to think flexibly,

fluently, originally, and elaborately (Guildford, 1986; Torrance, 1974 in Egbert,
2009). Flexibly means able to use many points of view while fluently means able
to generate many ideas. Originally implies being able to generate new ideas and
elaborately means able to add details. Creativity is not merely a set of technical
skills, but it also involves feelings, beliefs, knowledge and motivation.
Seven Creative Strategies (Osborn, 1963). These have been simplified
into fewer categories. To be creative, one can use any of these strategies.
1. Substitute. Find something else to replace to do what it does.
2. Combine. Blend two things that do not usually go together.
3. Adapt. Look for other ways this can be used.
4. Modify/Magnify/Minify. Make a change, enlarge, decrease.
5. Put to another use. Find other uses.
6. Eliminate. Reduce, remove.
7. Reverse. Turn upside-down, inside out, front-side back.

All together, the strategies will be labeled as SCAMPER.

What should teacher do to support student creativity? Here are some

suggestions:
1. Provide an enriched environment.
2. Teach creative thinking strategies.
3. Allow learners to show what they can do.
4. Use creativity with technology.

Further, teachers can do the following to develop and enhance critical thinking,
problem-solving and creativity. As a future teacher, try these suggestions.
1. Encourage students to find and use information from variety of sources both
on-line and off-line.
2. Assist students to compare information from different sources.
3. Allow student to reflect through different delivery modes like writing,
speaking, or drawing.
4. Use real experiences and material to draw tentative decisions.
5. Involve students in creating and questioning assessment.