Learning and technology

Learning and Technology Running head: LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY

Learning and Technology Benjamin Stewart TEC 545 Sherrie Gurule September 10, 2006

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Learning and Technology Learning as a process can be enhanced through technology which can be used as a tool. Like any tool, educators must be able to use these tools to create educational environments that are productive. Whether it is a teacher-focused or student-centered classroom, technology plays an important role in the educational design.

Multimedia technology Multimedia technology is the integration of electronic devices that serve a particular purpose or improve an environment. For example, the Internet allows me to stay in contact with family and friends as well as to be more accessible to my students (personal experience). Using the Internet requires a computer and the world-wide-web.

Without the use of either of these two devices, Internet use would not be possible.

In the education field, multimedia technology can increase the learning environment in several ways. For example, audio and video recorders can be used in language learning so learners can see and hear their performance (personal experience).

This allows learners to self-critique their own work and to see their improvement over time (personal experience). Overhead projectors and projectors that connect to computers can give an additional visual aspect to learning (personal experience). For an English as a Second Language (ESL) reading comprehension class, projectors can help control the flow of the class since parts of texts can be read as a group (personal experience). Text can be highlighted to emphasize certain points and pictorials can be used to help students internalize the text as well (personal experience). Audio files, such as mp.3, accompany many texts online so learners can hear the text first, then read the text to further their understanding (personal experience). One particular web site is very

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useful in this regard: Voice of America (VOA) News (NewsVOA.com‌, 2006) (personal experience). VOA broadcasts news articles under a special English category that uses simpler vocabulary and broadcasters that speak slower so English language learners (ELL) have an easier time understanding what is being said.

Multimedia technology offers additional tools that foster a more productive educational learning environment. As educators, learning how to use these tools in the most productive way may not always be so straightforward. The computer as teacher (behavioralism), assistant (cognitivism), and learner (constructivism) are three basic learning aspects where technology can be useful.

Behavioralism Behavioralism can be defined as “an approach to psychology and learning that emphasizes observable measurable behavior� (Central Oregon Community College: Behavioralism, n.d.). Observable measurable behavior is the response of some stimulus.

In education, a stimulus (or input) can be in the form of teacher presentations, books, or the Internet. As mentioned earlier, the computer as teacher is an example of using multimedia technology in a behavioralist environment. B.F. Skinner was a proponent of behavioral learning that concentrated on response reinforcement, which could be in the form of grades, praise, candy, etc. In language learning, ELL performs drills and repetitive exercises, are give performance cues, and are exposed to model behavior in an effort to obtain the desired response.

Behavioralism appeared around the turn of the century, but by the late 1950s, behavioralism, as it pertained to language learning, began to draw criticism. Noam Chomsky, an educator and linguist, believes that language acquisition is structure related

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and not based on a stimulus-response phenomenon. He states that children can form grammatically correct sentences (response) without every being taught how to do so (stimulus). This is done through what he calls an innate grammar device (universal grammar) and through a structural-driven understanding of how sentences are formed.

A final aspect of behavioralism approach is that is views learning as a teacher lockstep approach, whereby the learner plays a passive role. This teacher-centered learning environment can produce a boring experience for the learner if this one approach is the one focus.

Cognitivism Cognitivism creates an educational learning design that centers on the processes of learning as opposed to the products of learning. Students use strategies that address learning how to learn. In a language learning design, students who are learning vocabulary might keep a separate notebook and add new words to a list they can refer to later as a study aid . Once they have many words added to their list, they can begin to categorize this list to help comprehension (personal experience).

Cognitivism also has a biological significance; that is, it focuses on how learners encode, maintain, and recall information. Learning designs should promote the transition of information from short-term to long-term memory. There are many extrinsic factors that influence learning that also fall under the cognitivist theory. Some include the following: extrinsic motivators, diet, whether the person is a morning or evening person, room temperature, and learning disabilities.

Those who subscribe to the cognitivist theory should consider the age (or maturity) of the learner since learning strategies depend on brain development. They

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should also consider why the learner is taking that part particular class. And finally, what are the interests of the learners. Strategies should organize information that makes sense for the learner and the learner should view the instruction as relevant to their own personal goals.

Constructivism Constructivism is sometimes considered part of cognitivism, especially when the terms active learning and student-centered approach are mentioned. “Constructivist approach to learning emphasizes authentic, challenging projects that include students, teachers and experts in the learning community. Its goal is to create learning communities that are more closely related to the collaborative practice of the real world” (Lin Hsiao, 1996). Learners construct their own meaning as opposed to teachers dictating meaning to them.

In language learning, ELLs practice

ordering food, talking on the telephone, going to the doctor, and conversing in social situations

(personal experience). The idea is that language

learners get used to communicating in situations they are likely to find themselves in one day. This can also be a motivating factor as well since they see their performance as being relevant.

The other end of the constructivist pendulum is objectivism. Whereas constructivism is based on a subjective sense of reality, objectivism is based on an objective sense of reality.

Objectivists claim that constructivists

create their own reality, therefore their own meaning, and this is the way to learn.

Objectivists center on preparing input so that learners

create new knowledge based on an objective “truth”.

Although both

constructivism and objectivism are extremes, most educators fall somewhere in between.

Learning and Technology In summary, behavioralism, cognitivism, and constructivism each have their place in the educational environment.

Focusing on only one

learning theory would not be in the best interest of the learner.

A

better way to think of these three learning theories might be as falling somewhere within a triangle of the three theories:

Behavioralism

Cognitivism

Constructivism

It is important to understand, as educators, the different aspects of these three theories (see Appendix 1) and then decide how to implement each of these three within the educational environment that is most appropriate for a given group of learners.

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Learning and Technology References Central Oregon Community College: Behavioralism. (n.d.). Retrieved on September 10, 2006 from http://web.cocc.edu/cbuell/theories/behaviorism.htm Instructional Design Knowledge Base: Select Instructional Models/Theories to Develop Instructional Prototypes. (2006). Retrieved on September 10, 2006 from http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/models_theories.htm Lin Hsiao, J. (1996). Retrieved on September 10, 2006 from http://www.edb.utexas.edu/csclstudent/Dhsiao/theories.html#construct NewsVOA.com: Special English. (2006). Retrieved on September 10, 2006 from http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/index.cfm

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Appendix 1

Basic Principles Objectivism/Behaviorism Cognitivism/Pragmatism Constructivism/Interpretivism Learning happens when a correct response is demonstrated following the presentation of a specific environmental stimulus

Learning is a change of knowledge state

Knowledge acquisition is described as a mental activity that entails internal Learning can be detected by coding and structuring by observing an organism over the learner a period of time Learner is viewed as an Emphasis is on observable active participant in the and measurable behaviors learning process Uses a "black box" metaphor - the learner is a black box, what happens inside is unknown

Emphasis is on the building blocks of knowledge (e.g. identifying prerequisite relationships of content)

Emphasis is on relationships Emphasis on structuring, between environmental organizing and sequencing variables and behavior information to facilitate optimal processing Instruction utilizes consequences and Focus is on how learners reinforcement of learned remember, retrieve, and behaviors store information in memory Believes behavior is guided by purpose Examines the mental structure and processes related to learning Cues are antecedents to behavior and set the conditions for its occurrence Learning is viewed as an active process that occurs within the learner and which can be influenced by the learner The outcome of learning is not only dependent on what the teacher presents but also on what the learner does to process this

Learners build personal interpretation of the world based on experiences and interactions Knowledge is embedded in the context in which it is used (authentic tasks in meaningful realistic settings) Create novel and situation-specific understandings by "assembling" knowledge from diverse sources appropriate to the problem at hand (flexible use of knowledge) Believes that there are many ways (multiple perspectives) of structuring the world and its entities Believes that meaning is imposed by the individual rather than existing in the world independently

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information.

Embedded Theories (TOP) Objectivism/Behaviorism Cognitivism/Pragmatism Constructivism/Interpretivism Pavlov's Classical Conditioning

Component Display Theory

Cognitive Flexibility Theory

Dual Coding Theory

Generative Learning Theory

Skinner's Operant Conditioning

Elaboration Theory

Knowledge as Tools

Stimulus-Response Theory

Gestalt Theory

Situated Cognition

Thorndike's Laws and Connectionism

Mental Models

Social-Cultural Learning

Information Processing

Schema Theory Subsumption Theory

Principal Theorists (TOP) Objectivism/Behaviorism Cognitivism/Pragmatism Constructivism/Interpretivism Bandura

Anderson

Bransford and the CTGV

Pavlov

Ausubel

Bruner

Skinner

Gardner

Dewey

Thorndike

GagnĂŠ

Grabinger

Merrill

Lave & Wenger

Norman

Papert

Novak

Piaget

Reigeluth

Spiro and colleagues

Rummelhart

Vygotsky

Goals of Instruction (TOP)

Learning and Technology Objectivism

Cognitivism/Pragmatism Constructivism/Interpretivism

Communicate or transfer behaviors representing knowledge and skills to the learner (does not consider mental processing)

Communicate or transfer knowledge in the most efficient, effective manner (mind-independent, can be mapped onto learners)

Instruction is to elicit the desired response from the learner who is presented with a target stimulus

Learning results when information is stored in memory in an organized, meaningful way.

Instruction is a process of supporting knowledge construction rather than communicating knowledge

Teachers/designers are responsible for assisting learners in organizing information in an optimal way so that it can be readily assimilated

Do not structure learning for the task, but engage learner in the actual use of the tools in real world situations

Learner must know how to execute the proper response as well as the conditions under which the response is made Learner acquires skills of discrimination (recalling facts), generalization (defining and illustrating concepts), association (applying explanations), and chaining (automatically performing a

Focus of instruction is to create learning or change by encouraging the learner to use appropriate learning strategies

Build personal interpretations of the world based on individual experiences and interactions (constantly open to change, cannot achieve a predetermined, "correct" meaning, knowledge emerges in relevant contexts) Learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge

Learning activities should be authentic and should center around the “problematic” or “puzzlement” as perceived by the learner The focus is on the process not the product Role of teacher is a mentor not a “teller” Encourage reflective thinking, higher-order learning skills Encourage testing viability of ideas and seeking alternative views

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specified procedure).

Instructional Models (TOP) Objectivism

Cognitivism/Pragmatism Constructivism/Interpretivism

ComputerBased Instruction

Collins & Stevens Inquiry Teaching Model

Contract Learning

Keller's ARCS Model of Motivation

Action Learning Anchored Instruction Authentic Learning

Merrill’s Component Display Case-Based Learning Individualized Model Instruction Cognitive Apprenticeship Programmed Instruction Information Processing Model Systems Approach

Cognitive Flexibility Hypertext Collaborative Learning Communities of Practice Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILEs) Discovery Learning Distributed Learning Epistemic Games Generative learning Goal-Based Scenarios (GBSs) Inquiry-Based Learning Microworlds/Simulations MOOs and MUDs Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

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REALs Reciprocal Teaching Situated Learning WebQuest(s)

Implications for Instructional Design

(TOP)

Objectivism/Behaviorism Cognitivism/Pragmatism Constructivism/Interpretivism Behavioral objectives

Cognitive objectives

Authentic assessment methods

Dick & Carey instructional design model

Learning strategies

Learning through exploration

Learning taxonomies (GagnĂŠ's intellectual skills)

Problem-oriented activities

Performance-based assessment Systems models

"Rich" environments Prerequisite skills Task analysis

Events of Instruction

(Instructional Design‌2006)

Visual formats and mental models