Computers in Education

1
Computers in Education

• The role of ICTs in Meaningful Education. Week 2

Study Period 2, 2006
Ruth Geer
2
Learning

• How do you learn best?
• How might technology help you learn?

3
Auditory Learning

• Sound 1
• Sound 2
• Sound 3
• Sound 4
• Sound 5

4
Visual learning
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School Change

• many demands on schools
• lifelong learning
• changing roles for teachers and students
• demands from the knowledge society
• change because of ICTs

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National Agenda

• knowledge society
• information economy
• life long learning
• globalisation.

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Strategic Framework for the Information Economy 6

• education and training is a crucial underpinning
  to Australias success in the information
  economy. Our education and training systems must
  equip all Australians to be enterprising,
  innovative, adaptable and socially responsible
  participants in the information economy.

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Learning for the Knowledge Society An Education
and Training Action Plan for the Information
Economy.

• 1. All students will leave school as confident,
  creative and productive users of new
  technologies, including information and
  communication technologies, and understand the
  impact of those technologies on society
• 2. All schools will seek to integrate information
  and communication technologies into their
  operations, to improve student learning, to offer
  flexible learning opportunities and to improve
  the efficiency of their business practices.

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The new and the old

• student role - active
• Curriculum - meaningful
• Social - cooperative
• Assessment deeper level of understanding
• teacher role facilitator, cognitive
  apprenticeship
• technology use primary source, communication,
  exploratory, discovery

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Standards and ICT Usage

• why standards?
• industry, competence, moving on
• what standards?
• basics, operations, office applications,
  learning technologies(?)
• whose standards?
• the Ed. Dept., the professional association, the
  ACS
• how to assess standards?
• implicit, explicit, performance

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Theories

• Behavioral theories
• Theorists - Skinner, Thorndike, Gagne
• - observable indications of learning
• - sequence of stimulus - response actions
• Information processing theories
• Theorists - Atkinson, Ausubel, Gagne ( guided
  development of Artificial Intelligence)
• - model of memory
• - receive and store information

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Information Processing theories
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Constructivist theories

• Dewey learning as a social experience
• Vygotsky learning as a cognitive building
  process
• Piaget learning occurs through stages of
  cognitive development
• Bruner learning is cognitive growth through
  interaction with the environment
• Gardner learning is shaped by innate
  intelligencies

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Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
His researches in developmental psychology and
genetic epistemology had one unique goal how
does knowledge grow? His answer is that the
growth of knowledge is a progressive construction
of logically embedded structures superseding one
another by a process of inclusion of lower less
powerful logical means into higher and more
powerful ones up to adulthood. Therefore,
children's logic and modes of thinking are
initially entirely different from those of
adults.
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Howard Gardner (1943- )

• GARDNER, the major proponent of the theory of
  multiple intelligences, is Professor of Education
  at Harvard University

Linguistic Musical Logical/Mathematical Spatial Ki
nesthetic Intrapersonal Interpersonal Naturalist
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Jerome Bruner (1915 - 2004)
Bruner asserts that learning is an active
process. Children are more likely to understand
remember concepts that they discover themselves
through interaction with others and the
environment.
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Mental activities

• Short term memory (working memory there is a
  limit)
• Long term memory (permanent storage of memory
  skills)
• Episodic memory (Stored representation of a
  sequence of events)
• Declarative knowledge (factual knowledge base)
• Procedural knowledge (stored methods/ how to
  perform a process)
• Metacognitive knowledge (personal insights into
  the accomplishment of cognitive tasks)

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Integration into the classroom

• Type A encouraging the acquisition of ICT skills
• Type B using ICTs to enhance student abilities
  within existing curriculum
• Type C ICTs as an integral component of broader
  curriculum reforms
• Type D introducing ICTs as an integral component
  of the reforms
• http//www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/pu
  blications_resources/profiles/making_better_connec
  tions.htm

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Reflection

• What are the qualities that teachers can bring
  into a learning environment that computers do not
  have?
• What do we know about the impact of ICTs?
• What are the flaws/ problems in proving the
  impact of ICTs on student learning?
• http//www.sbceo.k12.ca.us/ims/techcen/EETT/Impac
  tofET.pdf
• http//images.apple.com/education/research/pdf/Edu
  ResearchFSv2.pdf
• http//technologysource.org/article/impact_of_comp
  uters_on_schools/

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References

• EdNA Schools Advisory Group (2000) " Learning in
  an online world School Education Action Plan for
  the Information Economy". Available at
  http//www.dest.gov.au/schools/publications/2000/l
  earning.htm Accessed February 2004.
• DETYA (2000) Learning for the Knowledge Society
  An Education and Training Action Plan for the
  Information Economy. Canberra Available at
  http//www.dest.gov.au/schools/publications/2000/l
  earning.htm Accessed February 2004.
• DEST (2001) Making better connections. Available
  at http//www.dest.gov.au/schools/publications/200
  2/MBC.pdf Accessed August, 2004.
• Grabe and Grabe (2004) Integrating Technology
  for Meaningful Learnuing Chapter 2, pp37-78.

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Task for Week 2

• Read Chapter 2 of study guide some of the
  associated readings. There are plenty of readings
  both from the lecture study guide that you can
  do be selective!
• Create a web page and record key aspects from
  your readings this week. You might like to
  reflect on the following questions
• What is meaningful learning?
• Do computers enhance student learning?
• What changes are needed for meaningful learning
  to occur?
• Computer skills -Explore the advanced features of
  Word
• Track changes
• Index Tables
• Styles
• Headers footers