MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Teacher Education

Castro Ave., Laoag City, 2900 Ilocos Norte, Philippines

cte@mmsu.edu.ph(077) 600-2014 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Teacher Education

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 Stoic (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, television programs or play DVDs, or CDs that contain
educational programs. There are online tutorial 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.

Castro Ave., Laoag City, 2900 Ilocos Norte, Philippines

cte@mmsu.edu.ph(077) 600-2014 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Teacher Education

A. Roles of Technology 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 of roles that technology can do for teachers and teaching.

1. Technology provides enormous support to the teacher as the facilitator of learning. It

transforms 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. 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.

Castro Ave., Laoag City, 2900 Ilocos Norte, Philippines

cte@mmsu.edu.ph(077) 600-2014 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Teacher Education

4. Technology opens new fields in educational research. 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 encouraged to imbibe skills to source
this 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. Roles of Technology 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

Castro Ave., Laoag City, 2900 Ilocos Norte, Philippines

cte@mmsu.edu.ph(077) 600-2014 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Teacher Education

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 more complex 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 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 utilized them appropriately. There are varied programs that can be
used by students off-line or on-line for students. 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.

Castro Ave., Laoag City, 2900 Ilocos Norte, Philippines

cte@mmsu.edu.ph(077) 600-2014 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Teacher Education

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 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 support of 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

Castro Ave., Laoag City, 2900 Ilocos Norte, Philippines

cte@mmsu.edu.ph(077) 600-2014 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Teacher Education

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. Let's
discuss this in the lesson.

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 ways 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,

Castro Ave., Laoag City, 2900 Ilocos Norte, Philippines

cte@mmsu.edu.ph(077) 600-2014 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Teacher Education

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.
4. Modify the critical thinking task.
5. 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 questions 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

Castro Ave., Laoag City, 2900 Ilocos Norte, Philippines

cte@mmsu.edu.ph(077) 600-2014 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Teacher Education

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 labelled 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.

Castro Ave., Laoag City, 2900 Ilocos Norte, Philippines

cte@mmsu.edu.ph(077) 600-2014 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Teacher Education

Ang learning material na ito ay hindi ipinagbibili at eksklusibong ginawa para lamang sa mga mag-
aaral ng Mariano Marcos State University – College of Teacher Education.

Disclaimer: Ang lahat ng mga larawan at mga lekturang materyal na nakapaloob at makikita sa
modyul na ito ay copyrighted ng mga nagmamay-ari. Hindi inaari ng awtor ng modyul ang mga
ito. Kung pagmamay-ari mo ang ilan sa mga larawan at mga lekturang materyal na nakapaloob
at makikita sa modyul na ito at hindi mo ninanais na maisama ito, kontakin lamang ang awtor sa
e-mail address na dlruiz@mmsu.edu.ph at ito ay gagawaran ng agarang solusyon.

Castro Ave., Laoag City, 2900 Ilocos Norte, Philippines

cte@mmsu.edu.ph(077) 600-2014 www.mmsu.edu.ph