Week 2 Further reading....technology and learning

This week the further reading called to me, more than acticity 2c (which was labelled as optional if I did 2b)

Instructional Technology:Pedagogy for the Future

An interesting discourse in this paper about the role of technology, as related to pedagogies that already exit. In fact the paper points out that some pedagogies have already changed and we can use technology to enhance them in different ways.

Affordances come into play here (thank you H807!).Technology can afford a number of things.

Point one – the use of specific technology should match the learning approach.Computer assisted instruction, possibly some audio and some video can afford the presentation of facts and skills, drills and practice and maybe beneficial for the behaviorist approach, where learning is teacher centred. The constructivist approach, where the teacher and learner share responsibility for active learning, and where learning is also about developing metacognitive skills can benefit from technology that increases interactions and enables the learner to get more hands on. The use of the internet, email, audio and video can help to develop the metacognitive skills. The internet and conferencing technology have greater interaction and high reliance on the learner engagement – it is more learner centred – and thus more appropriate for the humanist approach, where the acquisition of knowledge is followed by the individual personalism of what that means in the context of oneself, others understanding and the world.

Internet and conferencing technology would be inappropriate for learners who demand more of a teachers time and some technology may push learners outside of their comfort zone, with too much focus on independent study. However audio only may be frustrating for the learner centred approach as there is no interaction.

Point 2 – Age and development does matter: the use of technology should match conceptual appraoch. Here the paper dicusses the fact that young people develop their ability to learn and  until about 12, they cope best with concrete examples when being presenting with information. IT could be used to excellent effect to do this. As ideas become more abstract, and the learners and their thinking mature, the use of conferencing, video and internet can increase the personal  interactionand shared experiences. Once again it is about teaching at an appropriate level. Too high a level of abstraction will frustrate those who need concrete examples. Those who need abstract examples, will be bored with concrete examples.

Some interesting things to ponder moving forward.

Radical Pedagogy.

I loved reading this paper – it was very enaging. This paper presents many of the views about the good and the bad of using technology in education and asks us to consider the approach. It remind us that traditionally pedagogical appraoches involve the teacher as the knowledge giver and the student as receiver.

Key points : Technology and pedgogy are interrelated – “no school can be better than it’s teachers”

The paranoia and promise are explored: zealots promising that technology will transform educationa nd critics warning of the ‘development of a generation of antisocial nerds’, or concerns that without technology society will fall behind. (I am sure these arguments surfaced in the paper about developing countries.) Technology can be presented as a trojan horse (reducing costs, improving teaching, providing evidence of excellence, helping upskill graduate) and there is a need to critical engage with with.

We are provided with an intersting insight from Postman:

“In introducing the personal computer to the classroom, we shall be breaking a four hundred year old truce between the gregariousness and openness fostered by orality and the introspection and isolation fostered by the printed word. Orality stresses group learning, cooperation, and a sense of social responsibility….”

 Are these not the same arguments that are being proposed in the opposite way for social learning using technology?!!

The paper makes it clear that what happens in the classroom is the responsibility, and later talks of the need for teachers to be rewarded for being good teachers, and the importance of upskilling them. (Again echoes from the developing countries paper).

“It is not enough for educators to provide students with a map of the information highway. There are critical questions to consider about highways in general, and how humans travel through their environment”

• Learning requires active participation of the student
• People learn in different ways at different rates
• Learning is both an individual and a group process

 Instructional technology: pedagogy for the future, The Journal, December 1997 (last accessed 16^th February 2012).

Travers, A. and Decker, E. (1999) New technology and critical pedagogy, Radical Pedagogy (last accessed 16^th February 2012).