Why Technology Is NOT Changing Education

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Why Technology Is NOT Changing Education

• Presented by Mike Barker
• Educational Media Creation Center, MIT
• 10/20/2000

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Todays Agenda

• What do we mean by education?
• What do we mean by technology?
• Lets take a look at some!

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What Do You Mean by Education?
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A Definition of Education

• Systematic training and instruction designed to
  impart knowledge and develop skill. (OAD)

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What Do I Mean By Education?

• The best education starts with a great teacher
  at one end of a log and a student who wants to
  learn at the other end.

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Rethinking University Teachinga framework for
the effective use of educational technologyby
Diana Laurillard
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Teaching Persuades

• teaching is essentially a rhetorical activity,
  seeking to persuade students to change the way
  they experience the world. It has to create the
  environment that will enable students to learn
  the descriptions of the world devised by others.

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Teaching is Mediated Learning

• teaching is mediated learning, allowing
  students to acquire knowledge of someone elses
  way of experiencing the world.

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Generating a teaching strategy

• there must be a continuing dialogue between
  teacher and student
• The dialogue must reveal both participants
  conceptions
• The teacher must analyze the relationship between
  the students and the target conception to
  determine the focus for the continuation of the
  dialogue
• The dialogue must be conducted so that it
  addresses all aspects of the learning process

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Rethinking University Teaching

• Education is a dialogue!

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What People Need to Learn

• Learner-Centered Environments
• Knowledge-Centered Environments
• Assessment to Support Learning
• Community-Centered Environments

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Learner-Centered Environments

• Effective instruction begins with what learners
  bring to the setting this includes cultural
  practices and beliefs, as well as knowledge of
  academic content.
• Learner-centered environments help students make
  connections between their previous knowledge and
  their current academic tasks.

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Learner-Centered Environments

• What you already know shapes what you can and
  will learn.

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Knowledge-Centered Environments

• The ability to think and solve problems requires
  knowledge that is accessible and applied
  appropriately.
• Concepts must be presented in ways that link
  learning to current understanding, so that
  students learn connected knowledge.

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Knowledge-Centered Environments

• We need to build knowledge and understanding, not
  just a catalog of disconnected facts.

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Assessment to Support Learning

• Feedback is fundamental to learning, but feedback
  opportunities are often scarce in classrooms.
  Summative assessments occur at the end of
  projects.

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Assessment to Support Learning

• What are needed are formative assessments, which
  provide students with opportunities to revise and
  improve the quality of their thinking and
  understanding.

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Assessment to Support Learning

• Assessments must reflect the learning goals that
  define various environments.

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Assessment to Support Learning

• I.e., we need to test our students in ways that
  focus on whether they are developing
  understanding and applying knowledge, and we need
  to test in ways that encourage them to improve
  afterwards.

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Community-Centered Environments

• Students, teachers, and everyone else in the
  community needs to value learning and hold high
  standards. These values and standards increase
  peoples opportunities and motivation to
  interact, receive feedback, and learn.
• Activities in homes, community centers, and
  after- school clubs can have important effects on
  students academic achievement.

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Community-Centered Environments

• I.e., when the people around you value learning,
  you will too.

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Four Areas for Learning

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Four Areas for Learning

• Learner-Centered what you already know shapes
  what you can and will learn
• Knowledge-Centered build knowledge and
  understanding, not just a catalog of disconnected
  facts
• Assessment test for understanding and
  knowledge, and encourage improvement
• Community-Centered when the people around you
  value learning, you will too.

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What Do You Mean By Technology?
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What Do I Mean By Technology?

• Web-based presentation and interaction
• Videostreaming
• Instructional Tutors
• Courseware
• Etc.

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What Do New Technologies Offer?

• Because many new technologies are interactive, it
  is now easier to create environments in which
  students can learn by
• doing,
• receive feedback,
• continually refine their understanding and
• build new knowledge.

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What Do New Technologies Offer?

• Technologies can help people visualize
  difficult-to-understand concepts.

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What Do New Technologies Offer?

• New technologies provide access to a vast array
  of information, including
• digital libraries,
• real-world data for analysis, and
• connections to other people.

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What Can We Do With New Technologies?

• Bring exciting curricula based on real-world
  problems into the classroom
• Provides scaffolds and tools to enhance learning
• Give students and teachers more opportunities for
  feedback, reflection, and revision
• Build local and global communities
• Expand opportunities for teacher learning

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Education Interaction

• The roots of education lie in a great teacher at
  one end of a log and a student who wants to learn
  at the other end.

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Returning to Our Roots

• Technology is helping us return to those roots. 
  The log may be made out of glass fiber, the
  connectivity complex, but technology is returning
  interactivity to the center stage of the
  educational enterprise.

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Some of Our Products

• Physics Interactive Video Tutor (PIVoT)
• Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)
• Public Broadcasting System (PBS)
• MITWorld

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References

• Rethinking University Teachinga framework for
  the effective use of educational technologyby
  Diana Laurillard, ISBN 0-415-09289-2, 1993
• How People LearnNational Research Council, 1999