THE ROLES OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY IN LEARNING

FOCUS QUESTION

•What are the roles of educational technology in learning?

ACTIVITY

•Go back to your learning experiences in school. Recall specific ways by which the use of educational
technology helped you learned.

•Volunteer to share your experiences with the rest of the class

ANALYSIS

•TECHNOLOGY can play a traditional role, as delivery vehicles for instructional lessons or in a
constructivist way as partners in the learning process.

In the TRADITIONAL WAY:

•The learner learns from the technology and the technology serves as a teacher.

In the TRADITIONAL WAY:

•In other words, the learner learns the CONTENT presented by the TECHNOLOGY in the same way that
the learner learns knowledge presented by the teacher.

In the CONSTRUCTIVIST WAY:

•TECHNOLOGY helps the learner build more meaningful personal interpretations of life and his/her
world.
In the CONSTRUCTIVIST WAY:

•Technology is a learning TOOL to learn with, not from.

In the CONSTRUCTIVIST WAY:

•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
he/she is learning.

DISCUSSION QUESTION

•Based on the experiences shared, which greater role did technology play in your learning experiences:
technology-as-teacher or technology-as-partner in the learning process?

ABSTRACTION

•From the traditional point of view, technology serves as source and presenter of knowledge. It is
assumed that “knowledge is embedded in the technology (such as content presented by films and TV
programs or the teaching sequence in programmed instruction) and the technology presents that
knowledge to the student. (David H. Jonassen, et al, 1999)

ABSTRACTION

•Technology like computers is seen as a productivity tool. The popularity of word processing, databases,
spreadsheets, graphic programs and desktop publishing in the 1980s to this productive role of
educational technology.

ABSTRACTION

•With the eruption of the INTERNET in the mid 90s, communications and multimedia have dominated
the role of technology in the classroom for the past few years.

ABSTRACTION
•From the CONSTRUCTIVIST POINT OF VIEW, educational technology serves as learning tools that
learners learn with. It engages learners in “active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative
learning. It provides opportunities for technology and learner interaction for meaningful learning.

ABSTRACTION

•In this case, technology will not be mere delivery vehicle for content. Rather it is used as facilitator of
thinking and knowledge construction.

ABSTRACTION

•From a constructivist perspective, the following are roles of technology in learning:

ABSTRACTION

1. TECHNOLOGY AS TOOLS TO SUPPORT KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION:

–For representing learners’ ideas, understandings and beliefs

–For producing organized, multimedia knowledge bases by learners

ABSTRACTION

2. TECHNOLOGY AS INFORMATION VEHICLES FOR EXPLORING KNOWLEDGE TO SUPPORT LEARNING-BY-

CONSTRUCTING

–For accessing needed information

–For comparing perspective, beliefs and world views

ABSTRACTION

3. TECHNOLOGY AS CONTEXT TO SUPPORT LEARNING-BY-DOING

–for representing and simulating meaningful real-world problems, situations and contexts

–For representing beliefs, perspectives, arguments, and stories of others

–For defining a safe, controllable problem space for student thinking

ABSTRACTION

4. TECHNOLOGY AS SOCIAL MEDIUM TO SUPPORT LEARNING BY CONVERSING

–For collaborating with others

–For discussing, arguing, and building consensus among members of community

–For supporting discourse among knowledge-building communities

ABSTRACTION

5. TECHNOLOGY AS INTELLECTUAL PARTNER 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 and meaning making

–For constructing personal representations of meaning for supporting mindful thinking

•Whether used from the traditional or constructivist point of view, when used effectively, research
indicates that technology “ increases students’ learning, understanding and achievement but also
augments motivation to learn, encourages collaborative learning and supports the development of
critical thinking and problem solving skills”.

•Russel and Sorge (1999) also claims that the proper implementation of technology in the classroom
gives students more “control of their own learning and... Tends to move classroom from teacher-
dominated environments to ones that are more learner-centered. The use of technology in the
classroom enables the teacher to do differentiated instruction considering the divergence of students’
readiness levels, interests, multiple intelligences and learning styles. Technology also helps students
become lifelong learners.