Lesson 17 :Tablets for Textbooks in School

Today, books are still the primary medium of instruction in most schools. Already, there is a disadvantage of using books for learning that are being debated upon. The errors in public school textbooks have also been exposed. errors resulting from wrong information. Technical mistakes and editorial lapses.

Today, technology is being viewed as a savior because the students are enamored by computer games. By that, the educators, have begun to think that the computer screen can very well serve as a power point educational medium.

In general, tablets as a primary learning tool can be replacing the textbooks tablets are conductive to higher thinking constructive and participative teaching and learning By, that parents gave full support to the IT advancement. Technology itself may be a key to problem resolution and Filipino ingenuity is called to respond to the challenge facing the digital generation of the millenium.

Having something that can make replace heavy bulky books as a good idea, the students will no longer suffer from carrying heavy books and if the only use tablets they can access their books anytime anywhere because it can be brought easily hassle.It is no longer impossible as what students in La Salle were experiencing. Even ordinary college students were no longer buying books in the store especially now that PDF format copies of the books were already available and free to be downloaded In the near future this kind of events will be achieve by all levels of schools in the Philippine it may sound impossible because of the current situation in our country that cannot even provide good classrooms and equipment. But nothing is impossible if there's  a will to become better these will always in achieving better and higher things.

Lesson 16 – The Internet and Education

Education these days has been the top priority for any family or individual person, and no doubt amongst the latest technologies to promote and maintain the education standards the internet comes first.

Internet is not only an access to websites, these days there is knowledge and information on every aspect of the educational world over the internet. The resources provided on various web pages are indeed very informative and useful for professionals and students related to every field of work. The only pre-requisite is the research over the internet for a specific educational topic, and then this information just needs to be filtered to gain the basic knowledge of what you are looking for. Therefore, these are true internet resources which deal with every individual's educational needs.

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to serve several billion users worldwide.

 How does the Internet educate the learners?

There is so much that students can do with the Internet. Not only can they communicate with international students, they can gain from others' knowledge and experiences, participate in chat rooms, share ideas and solutions and learn about the many diverse cultures out there.

While the Internet does a lot for students, there are also benefits for parents and teachers. The interactive learning that the Internet provides can help students and parents with little or no English skills to learn English. Parents can become more involved in their children's education by connecting the school with homes, libraries or other access ports.

Teachers can adjust to the different learning styles and in the classroom. They can also set their own pace of teaching. Individual teaching techniques can become more available, which has been proven to be a factor in student achievement.

Advantages: 

1) Information on almost every subject imaginable. 

2) Powerful search engines. 

3) Ability to do research from your home versus research libraries. 

4) Information at various levels of study. Everything from scholarly articles to ones directed at children. 

Disadvantages: 

1) There is a lot of wrong information on the internet. Anyone can post anything, and much of it is garbage. 

2) There are predators that hang out on the internet waiting to get unsuspecting people in dangerous situations. 

3) Some people are getting addicted to the internet and thus causing problems with their interactions of friends and loved ones. 

4) Pornography that can get in the hands of young children too easily. 

Lesson 15: Understanding Hypermedia

Hypermedia is nothing but multimedia, but this time packaged as an educational computer software where information is presented and student activities are integrated in a virtual learning environment. Most educational IT applications are hypermedia and these include:

*Tutorial software packages

*Knowledge webpages

*Simulation instructional games

* Learning project management, and others

Characteristics of hypermedia applications:

1. Learner control- the learner makes his own decisions on the path, flow of events of instruction.

2. Learner wide range of navigation routes - the learner has a wide range of navigation routes such as by working on concepts he is already familiar with. He may even follow a linear or logical path, even if the previous activity is half-completed. He may explore other sections opting to return or complete the previous activity.

3. Variety of media - Hypermedia includes more than one media (text, graphics, audio, animation and video clip) but does not necessarily use all types of media in one presentation. Since only virtual learning activity takes place, it is important from the standpoint of the teacher to optimize the learning process by identifying the characteristics of media application, as well as the advantages and limitations of such an application.

Lesson 14: The Software as an Educational Resource

Whenever people think about computers, they are most likely thinking about the computer machine such as the television-like monitor screen, the keyboard to type on, the printer which produces copies of text-and-graphics material, and the computer housing called “the box” which contains the electronic parts and circuits (the central processing unit) that receives/ stores data and direct computer operations. The computer machine or hardware is naturally an attention-getter.

 It’s more difficult to realize, however, that the computer hardware can hardly be useful without the program or system that tells what the computer machine should do. This is called software.

There are two kinds of software:

1. The system software. This is the operating system that is found or bundled inside all computer machines.

2. The application software. This contains the system that commands the particular task or solves a particular problem.

In turn the applications software may be:

(a) A custom software that is made for specific tasks often by large corporations.

(b) A commercial software packaged for personal computers that helps with a variety of tasks such as writing papers, calculating numbers, drawing graphs, playing games, and so much more.

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating system produced by the Microsoft, it is an operating system between the user and the computer. 

Instructional software

Can be visited on the Internet or can be bought from software shops or dealers. The teacher through his school should decide on the best computer-based instructional (CBI) materials for the school resource collection. But beware since CBIs need much improvement, while web-based educational resources are either extremely good or what is complete garbage.

Lesson 13: Cooperative Learning with the Computer

Cooperative or collaborative learning is learning by small groups of students who work together in a common learning task. It is often also called group learning but to be truly cooperative learning, 5 elements are needed:

1. A common goal

2. Interdependence

3. Interaction

4. Individual accountability

5. Social skills

Therefore not every group work is cooperative learning since students working on their work sheets physically sat around a table may be working together without these features of cooperative learning.

From several studies made on cooperative learning, it is manifested that cooperative learning in its true sense is advantageous since it:

*Encourage active learning, while motivating students
*Increases academic performance
*Promotes literacy and language skills

*Improves teacher effectiveness

In addition, there are studies show that cooperative learning enhances personal and social development among students of all ages, while enhancing self-esteem and improving social relations between racially and culturally different students.

Cooperative learning and the computer

Researchers have made studies on the learning interaction between the student and the computer. The studies have great value since it has been a long standing fear that the computer may foster student learning in isolation that hinders the development of the student’s social skills.

Now this mythical fear has been contradicted by the studies which show that when students work with computers in groups, they cluster and interact with each other for advice and mutual help. And given the option to work individually or in a group, the students generally wish to work together in computer-based and non-computer-based activities. Reflecting on this phenomenon, psychologists think the computer fosters this positive social behavior due to the fact that it has a display monitor – just like a television set – that is looked upon as something communal.

Therefore researchers agree that the computer is a fairly natural learning vehicle for cooperative learning.

Components of cooperative learning

Educators are still wary about the computer’s role in cooperative learning. Thus they pose the position that the use of computers do not automatically result in cooperative learning. There therefore assign the teacher several tasks in order to ensure collaborative learning. These are:

*Assigning students to mixed-ability teams

*Establishing positive interdependence

*Teaching cooperative social skills

*Insuring individual accountability, and

*Helping groups process information

These are in addition to assigning a common work goal in which each member of the group will realize that their group will not succeed unless everyone contributes to the groups’ success. It is also important for the teacher limits learning group clusters so there can be closer involvement in thinking and learning.

 

Lesson 12: Information Technology in Support of the Student-Centered Learning

It may be observed that classrooms are usually arranged with  neat columns and rows of student chairs, while the teacher stands in front of the classroom or sits behind his desk.  This situation is necessitated by the need to maintain classroom discipline, also to allow the teacher to control classroom activities through lecture presentation and teacher-led discussions.

The SCL Classroom

         

John Dewey has described traditional learning as a process in which the teacher pours information to student learners, much like pouring water from a jug into cups.  This is based on the long accepted belief that the teacher must perform his role of teaching so that learning can occur.  This learning approach is generally known as direct instruction, and it has worked well for obtaining many kinds of learning outcomes.

The problem with direct instruction approach to learning, however, is the fact that the world's societies have begun to change.  Of course, this change may not be strongly felt in many countries in which the economy longer depends primarily on the factory workers who do repetitive work without thinking on the job.  The traditional classroom and direct instruction approach to learning conform to this kind of economies.

Generally, the new school classroom environment is characterized by student individually or in groups:

• Performing computer word processing for text or graph presentations.
• Preparing power-point presentation.
• Searching for information on the internet.
• Brainstorming on ideas, problems and projects plans.
• As needed, the teacher facilitating instruction, also giving individualized instruction to serve individual needs.

Lesson 11 - The Computer as the Teacher's Tool

Constructivism was introduced by  Piaget (1981) and Bruner (1990).  They gave  stress to 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.  this is an effort to show that 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 a predetermined point of view according to the social perspectives of the community or society he lives in.

Social Constructivism is the effort to show that 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 a 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 suggested the interactive process in learning. A more capable adult (teacher or parent) can aid or complement what the learner sees in a given tasks or project.

 

The Computer’s Capabilities

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.

      

                                   Image       Video Footage    Animation    Text                                             

 Communication Tool

The computer has been used in communication as evident by social networking sites as to facebook, twitter and friendster. We can even chat/talk friends and families anywhere in the globe through yahoo messenger or the one in facebook or view them through the webcam. We can send messages and information through the internet in just seconds or minutes.

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 a desktop publishing software that allows users to organize and present their ideas in attractive formats.

Co-constructive Tool

Students can use constructive tools to work cooperatively and construct a shared understanding of new knowledge. One way of co-construction is the use of the electronic whiteboard where students may post notices to a shared document/whiteboard. Students may also co-edit 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 a virtual environment. A flight simulation program is an example of a situating tool which places the user in simulated flying environment.

Lesson 10- The Computer as a Tutor

The computer is one of the wonders of human ingenuity, even in its original design in the 1950's to carry out complicated mathematical and logical operations. With the invention of the microcomputer (now commonly referred to PCs or personal computers), the PC has become the tool for programmed instruction.Educators saw much use of the PC. It has become affordable to small business, industries and homes. They saw its potential for individualization in learning, especially as individualized learning is a problem since teachers usually with a class of forty or more learners. They therefore devised strategies to use the computer to the break the barriers to individualized instruction

Computer-assisted instruction (CAI)

The computer can be a tutor in effect relieving teacher of many activities in his personal role as classroom tutor. It should be made clear, however, that the computer cannot totally replace the teacher since the teacher shall continue to play the major roles of information deliverer and learning environment controller. Even with the available computer and CAI software, the teacher must. Insure that students have the needed knowledge and skills for any computer activity. Decide the appropriate learning objectives. Plan the sequential and structured activities to achieve objectives. Evaluate the students’ achievements by ways of tests the specific expected outcomes.

On the other hand, the student in CAI play their own roles as learners as they:

• Receive information
• Understand instruction for the computer activity
• Retain/keep in mind the information and rules for the computer activity
• Apply the knowledge and rules during the process of computer learning

During the computer activity proper in CAI the computer too plays its roles as it:

• Act as a sort of tutor (the role traditional played by the teacher)
• Provides a learning environment
• Delivers learning instruction
• Reinforces learning through drill and practice
• Provides feedback

Today, educators accept the fact that the computer has indeed succeeded in providing an individualized learning environment so difficult for a teacher handling whole classes. This is so, since the  computer able to  allow individual student to learn out their own pace, motivate learning through a challenging virtual learning environment, assist student through information needed during the learning process, evaluate student responses through immediate feedback during the learning process also give the total score to evaluate the student’s total performance.

CAI Integrated with Lesson

CAI computer learning should not stop with the drill and practice activities of students in effect, CAI work best in reinforcing learning trough repetitive exercise such that student can practice basic skills or knowledge in various subject areas. Common types of drill and practice programs include vocabulary building, math facts, and basic science, and history or geography facts. In these programs, the computer presents a question/ problem the first and the student is asked to answer the question/problem. Immediate feedback is given to the student’s answer. After the number of practice problems and at the end of the exercise, the students get a summary of his overall performance.

SIMULATION PROGRAMS

Simulation software materials are another kind of software that is constructivist in nature. This simulation software.Teacher strategies and rules applied to real-life problems/situation Ask students to make decision on models or scenarios.Allow students to manipulate elements of a model and get the experience of the effect of their decisions.An example of such software is SimCity in which students are allowed to artificially manage a city environment. Decision-making involve such factors as budget, crime, education, transportation, energy resources, waste disposal, business/ industries available.

INSTRUCTIONAL GAMES

While relating to low level learning objectives (e.g. basic spelling or math skills), instructional computer games add the elements of competition and challenge.

An example is GeoSafari which introduces adventure activities for Geography History and Science. The program can be played by up to four players to form teams. Learning outcomes can be achieved along simple memorization of information, keyboarding skills, cooperation and social interaction, etc.

PROBLEM SOLVING SOFTWARE

These are more sophisticated than the drill and practice exercises and allow students to learn and improve on their own problem solving ability. Since problems cannot be solved simply by memorizing facts, the students have to employ higher thinking skills such as logic, recognition, reflection, and strategy-making.

The Thinking Things 1 is an example of a problem solving software in which the team learners must help each other by observing comparing.

MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA AND ELECTRONIC BOOKS

The Multimedia Encyclopedia can score a huge database with text, images, animation, audio and video. Students can access any desired information, search it vast contents and even download/print relevant portions of the data for their composition or presentation. An example is the eyewitness children’s encyclopedia.

Electronic books provide textual information for reading supplemented by other types of multimedia information (sounds, spoken words, pictures, animation). These are useful for learning reading, spelling and word skills. Examples are Just Grandma and Me animated storybook which offer surprises for the young learner’s curiosity.