Lesson 11

The Computer As The Teacher’s Tool

In the previous lesson, we saw how the computer can act as a tutor, particularly a long a behaviorist and cognitive at approach to a learning. But we also saw how certain computer software programs have been developed to foster other thinking skills and creativity.

In the Lesson, we shall again look at the computer, but this time from another perspective the computer as the teacher’s handy tool. It can in fact support the constructivist and social constructivist paradigms if learning.

Constructivism was introduced by Piaget (1981) and Brunet (1990).They gave stress t knowledge discovery of new meaning/concepts/principles in the learning process. Various strategies have been suggested to foster knowledge discovery, among these, is making students engaged in gathering unorganized information from which they can induce ideas and principles. Students are also asked to apply discovered knowledge to new situations, a process for making their knowledge applicable to real life situations.

While knowledge is constructed by the individual learner in constructivism, knowledge can also be socially constructed. Social constructivism is an effort to show the construction of knowledge is governed by social, historical and cultural contexts. In effect, this is to say that the learner who interprets knowledge has predetermined point of view according to the social perspectives of the community or society he lives in.

The psychologist Vygotsky stressed that learning is affected by social influences. He therefore, suggested the interactive process in learning. The more capable adult (teacher or parent) or classmate can aid or complement what the learner sees in a given class project. In addition, Dewey sees language as a medium for school coordination and adaptation. For Dewey human learning is really human languishing in that occurs when students socially share, build and agree upon meanings and knowledge.

The Computers Capabilities

Given its present-day speed, flexibility and sophistication, the computer can provide access to information, foster creative social knowledge-building, and enhance the communication of the achieved project package. Without the computer today’s learners may still be assuming the tedious task of low-level information gathering, building new knowledge packaging. But this is not so, since the modern computer can help teacher-and-students to focus on more high level cognitive tasks.

Based on the two learning theories, the teacher can employ the computer as a/an:

• An information tool
• A communication tool
• A constructive tool
• As co-constructive tool
• A situating tool

Informative tool.  The computer can provide vast amounts of information in various forms, such as text, graphics, sound, and video. Even multimedia encyclopedias are today available on the internet.

The learner itself provides an enormous database from which user an access global information resources that includes the latest news, weather forecasts, airline schedule, sports development, entertainment news and features has well as educational information directly use to learners. The Internet on Education can be sourced for kinds of educational resources on the internet.

Constructive Tool.  The computer itself can be used for manipulating information, visualizing one’s understanding, and building new knowledge. The Microsoft Word computer program itself is desktop publishing software that allows user to organize and present their ideas in attractive formats.

Co-constructivist tools. Students can use co-constructive tools to work cooperatively and construct a shared understanding of new knowledge. One way of co-construction is the use it f the electronic whiteboard where students may post notices to a shared document/whiteboard. Students may also cover it the same document from their homes.

Situating tool.By means of virtual reality (RS) extension systems, the computer can create 3-D images on display to give the user the feeling that are situated in virtual environment. A flight simulation program is an example of a situating tool which places the user in simulated flying environment.

Multi-User Domains or Dungeons (MUDs), MUD Object-Oriented (MOOs), and Multi-User Shared Hallucination (MUSHs) are examples of situating systems. MUDs and MOOs are mainly text-based virtual reality environments on the internet. When users log on to a MOO environment, they may interact with the virtual reality (such as by writing on a notice board) through simple text-based commands. A school-to-school or classroom-to-classroom environment is possible whereby the user can choose to walk around the campus, talk with other users who are logged to the same site.

To caution users, the computer as a situating tool is news and still undergoing further research and development.