Bicol UniversityCollege of Agriculture and Forestry

Lesson 11: The Computer as Teacher's Tool

Judith C. NapucaoIII-BAT-ATE 2

Bachelor in Agricultural Technology Major in Agricultural Technology Education

We saw the computer can act as a tutor,

particularly along a behaviorist and

cognitivist approach to learning. We also saw how computer

programs have been developed to foster

higher thinking skills and creativity.

We shall again look at the computer, but this time from another perspective the computer as the teacher's handy-

tool.In fact it can support the constructivist and social constructivist paradigms of

learning.

Constructivism was introduced by

Piaget (1891) and Bruner (1990). They

gave stress to knowledge

discovery 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.

While knowledge is constructed by individual learner in constructivism, knowledge can also be socially

constructed. Social constructivism is an effort to show that the construction of knowledge is governed by social,

historical, and cultural contexts.

.

Students build knowledge influenced by the social context and the learning

strategies here is the exchange and share , form

ideas that stimulates thinking. Students discuss and discover meanings.

The Computers Capabilities

Computer can provide access to information, foster creative social knowledge-building

and enhance the communication of the

achieved project package.

Without computer, today's learners may still be

assuming tedious tasks of low-level information

gathering, building and new knowledge packaging. But this is not so, the modern

computer can help teacher-and-students to focus on

more high cognitive level.

Based on the two learning theories , the teacher can

employ the computer as a/an :

Informative ToolThe computer can provide vast amounts of information in various forms such as text, graphics, sounds, and video.

The internet itself provides an enormous database from which user can access global information resources that includes the latest news, weather forecasts, airline schedule, sports development, entertainment news as well as educational information directly useful to learners.

The Computer Room in MORMS.

Communication Tool

Given the fact that the Internet can serve as a channel for global communication, the computer can very well be the key tool for video teleconferencing sessions.

Constructive ToolThe computer itself can be used for manipulating information, visualizing one's understanding, and building new knowledge.

The Microsoft Word computer programs

itself is a desktop publishing software

that alloows users to organize and present

their ideas in attractive formats.

Co-constructive Tool

One way of co-construction is the use

of the electronic whiteboard where students may post notices to a shared

document/whiteboard.

The Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) is an example of an integrated environment developed by the

Ontario Institute for Education. Within CSILE, students can enter their ideas in notes and

respond to each other's ideas.

Manifest in the students generated database are higher level thinking process-explaining, problem solving/finding, expertise and development, literacy improvement.

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 programs is an example of a situating tool which places the user in a 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 the users log to a MOO environment , they may interact with the virtual reality 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 user, the computer as a situating tool is news and still

undergoing further research and development.

.

Activity : • Log on Singapore's History City Learning community (http://www.is.nuss.sg/RND/cs/idl/HistoryCity/overview.html)

Try History City's activities of collecting, trading, and creating interactive dioramas. Report your experience to the class.

Thank You ! 😊🙌