Chapter 2 technologies for learning

Chapter 2 Technologies for Learning

WHAT ARE TECHNOLOGIES FOR LEARNING?

            Technologies for learning define as specific learning pattern that serve reliably as template for achieving demonstrably effective learning. In chapter 1 there was provided a definition of technology that differentiated between hard technology, products such as computers and satellites, and soft technology, Processes or ways of thinking about problems.

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. Group members are interdependent that is, each is dependent on the others for achieving their goal. As technology for learning, cooperative learning involves active participation by all students.

GAMES

            The term game, simulation, and simulation game are often used interchangeably. A 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. Although most teachers do not design ne instructional games from scratch, they often to adapt existing game by changing the subject matter while retaining the game’s structure. The original game is referred to as frame game because its framework lends itself to multiple adaptation. When one is modifying a frame game, the underlying structure of a familiar game provides the basic of play, the dynamic of the process.

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. A business management simulation, for example, might put participants into the role of production manager of a mythical corporation, provides them with statistic about business conditions, and direct them to negotiate a new labor contract with the union bargaining team. The device employed to represent a physical system in a scaled down form is referred to as a simulator.

            Role play refers to a type of simulation in which the dominant feature is relatively open-ended interaction among people. In essence, a role play ask someone to imagine that she is another person or is in particular situation; the person then behaves as the other person would or in the way situation seems to demand. The purpose is to learn something about another kind of person or about the dynamic of an unfamiliar situation.

SIMULATION GAMES

            A simulation game combines the attribute of a simulation (role playing, a model of reality) with the attribute of a game (striving toward a goal, specific rules). Like a simulation, it may be relatively high or low in its modeling reality. Like a game, it may or may not entail competition.

            In recent years, sport psychologists and educational psychologists have developed new theories questioning the value and necessity of competition in human development. They contend 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 for success.

LEARNING CENTERS

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

PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION

            Programmed instruction was chronologically the first technology for learning and is an explicit application of principles of learning theory operant conditioning or reinforcement theory. The earliest programmed instruction text arranged the frame across the page in horizontal strips. The student could check the correct response for each question only by turning the page. Later this method was relaxed, allowing the frames to be arranged vertically, as in conventional printed pages, and became known as linear programming.

            The pattern of frames in intrinsic programming resembled the branches of a tree, it became known as branching programming. The major advantage of the branching format is that learners who catch on quickly can move through the material much more efficiently, following the “prime path.”

PROGRAMMED TUTORING

            Programmed tutoring (also referred to as structured tutoring) is a one to one method of instruction in which the tutor’s responses are programmed in advance in the form of carefully structured printed instruction.

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. These smaller groups are led through a lesson by a teacher, paraprofessional, or student peer following a highly prescriptive lesson plan.

PERSONALIZED SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION

            The final technology for learning is the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI), sometimes are 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. A major principle of mastery learning is that students should not be permitted to go on to later units of study until they have demonstrated that they have mastered the prerequisite knowledge and skills.