Technology Applications in Education Chapter 6

1. Technology Applications in EducationChapter 6 Theories of Learning and their Application to Technology Shena Anglin Technology in the Classroom Dr. M. Minott March 5, 2010

2. Where are we coming from? • Early 1900s - Psychological theories that were relevant for education were E.L. Thorndike’s dream.

3. Technology awoke the dream!

4. Child-Centered Education • Technology has shifted our interest back to the child-centered education that John Dewey distinguished from Curriculum-based education back in 1902

5. Let’s decide what’s best • The way technology is utilized is largely dependent on the educator’s concept of the way human beings learn. • The educator decides how he/she wants the learners to learn: i.e. what are the goals at the end of instruction. • What should student be able to do?

6. So what have we learned about the way that we learn • We have learned that when the learner builds an understanding of the material presented then retention and transfer of the knowledge to new situations is better. • This is the Constructivist Concept oflearning.

8. Constructivist Learning • Currently the most widely accepted learning theory • Students active in trying to make sense of material presented • Seen as “knowledge construction” • Learners apply their own cognitive functions to learn the material instead of rote memorization.

9. Other Concepts of Learning • Response-Strengthening • As in programmed drill and practice with feedback • Consistent with Thorndike’s law of effect • Knowledge Acquisition (a.k.a Empty Vessel Metaphor) • Information is delivered by educator • Students learn by adding new information to their long-term memories

10. These Concepts have Some Merit • Drill and practice is useful in developing speed in spelling or addition/subtraction problems. • Knowledge delivery/acquisition model useful in presenting large amounts of information to the learner. • Researchers learned that humans process incoming information instead of gradually learning a behaviour as with animals. • So the advent of electronic computers of the 1950s highly influenced this learning style.

11. Acquisition vs. Construction • Information in and can be retransmitted • Assumes students will learn equally well when presented with same information no matter the format • Internet useful • Assessment is on how much is recalled • Learner active in constructing knowledge • Students need to be guided on how to process effectively • Student “makes sense” of a process or system • Assesses transfer

12. Does constructivist learning have any shortcomings? • It does not adequately consider the motivational, social, cultural and biological bases of learning • Suppose a person is not interest • Suppose the info is irrelevant socially or culturally to the student • Suppose there are some learning problems

13. Types of Constructivism • Cognitive Constructivism • Individually mediated • Socially mediated –learner constructs knowledge in a group discussion for e.g. • Social Constructivism • Learning is a sociocultural event which takes place in social or cultural groups • Ignores the individual aspect of learning and says that all knowledge is stored as public knowledge

14. Types of Constructivism Cont. • Radical Constructivism – degree to which knowledge construction is based on outside world • Ranges from: • Knowledge is discovered (non-radical) • Knowledge is invented (radical) • The radicals assume that instruction is pointless as communications mean different things to different people and teacher does not know what students know

15. How Cognitive Construction Works • Selecting • Images • Selecting • Words Pictorial Model Images Prior Integrated Cognitive Structure Knowledge Verbal Model Words

16. What does it mean for today? • Instructional technology should guide the cognitive processes of the learner. • Deep understanding and meaningful learning should be the objective of the educator

17. Constructivist Multimedia Learning Summarized • Learning is an active process involving selecting, organizing and integrating • Human beings have separate visual and auditory channels • The capacity of working memory is limited

18. Therefore: • The order in which learner receives information is important (Contiguity Effect) • Successive vs. Simultaneous Tonight @ 8pm on HBO

19. Eight studies proved that students performed better on transfer assessment when presented pictures and narration simultaneously

20. More Technology Implications • The Coherence Effect in Multimedia presentation is also important • Students hearing irrelevant background sound performed poorly on transfer tests

21. More Technology Implications • Modality Effect • Animation and On-screen text hinders knowledge contruction as both are processed in the visual channel. • Animation works well with narration (not with text)

22. More Technology Implications • Redundancy Effect • How do you think a combination of animation on-screen text, and narration would work.

23. What we have learned about the way that we learn has influenced the way we design instructional technology for today and the future. • Educational tehnology should guide the cognitive processes and foster a better understanding (sense-making) of the material, as in similationsfor better transferability to other applications/real-life situations.