Lesson 12 Information Technology in Support of Student-Centered Learning

In this lesson, we shall see how the teacher expands his options to make himself more effective and relevant in the 21^st millennium information age. In particular, the lesson shall respond to questions on student-centered learning approaches in the classroom.

The Traditional Classroom

 From the traditional teacher-learning, the teacher stands in front of the very well arranged student chairs. This situation is purposed to maintain classroom discipline and also to allow the teacher to control classroom activities through teacher-led discussions.

However, after spending so much time with the discussion that students get restless, they start talking to each other or simply stare away to lack of attention. Often enough, the teacher has to also manage these kinds of misbehaviour. One way of preventing this situation is to individually give them worksheets for them to work on.

The SCL Classroom

Desiring to gain effectiveness, efficiency and economy in administration and instruction, schools in these developed economies have also adopted the supports of ICTs. Their students have now become active not passive learners, who can interact with other learners, demonstrating independence and self-awareness in the learning process.

Generally the new school classroom environment is characterized by student individually or in groups. They perform computer word processing for text or graph presentation, prepare power-point presentation, search for information on the Internet, brainstorm on ideas, problems and project plans and as needed, the teacher facilitating instruction, also giving individualized instruction to serve individual needs.

Lesson 18: Tablets for Textbooks in Schools

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 conducive 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 millennium.

Having something that can replace heavy bulky books is 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 without hassle.

It is no longer impossible as what the 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 Philippines 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 there will always a way in achieving better and bigger things.

Lesson 16: The Internet & Education

What is Internet?

       "A computer network consisting of a worldwide network of computer networks that use the TCP/IP network protocols to facilitate data transmission and exchange"

       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.

        It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.

    The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW), the infrastructure to support email, and peer-to-peer networks.

What is things/sector under the internet?        

    The sectors that the internet has are the following:

         Retail, Service, Government, media & culture, non-profit and industry. Furthermore, kindly click here to continue 

What is inside the internet?

 The World Wide Web- Right now you're using is special part of the Internet. 

 It's called the World Wide Web (or just the Web, for short). The Web is what made the Internet so popular. Until the Web was created, the Internet was black and white and not read all over. 

 Pages were text-only, with no colour or graphics of any kind. It was great for scientific reports or government documents, but not for shopping for the latest CD from your favourite band or finding images for a school report. Consequently, the Internet was used primarily by scientists and engineers.

        In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, an Oxford-trained computer scientist, had an idea for a "global hypertext project. 

        To make his idea a reality, he developed new ways to navigate the Internet with a computer language called Hypertext Mark-up Language or HTML.

        Hypertext is a different way of moving through information. Instead of reading text from beginning to end, you interact with it. You click a link and suddenly you're not moving through the text from start to finish like you would in a book or a magazine article. Instead, you're making a quick side trip or jump. 

        HTML is more than just hypertext, though. It's also a markup language—a system of codes for how a computer should display text and images on a screen. Mark-up languages also determine how a computer should react to actions you make such as pressing a key or clicking a mouse button. 

        What made HTML such a perfect mark-up language for the web is can be read by many types of computers and is very economical. It allows Web designers to create graphically rich Web pages that are small in file size.

        Small file sizes are important on a network like the Web because they are faster and easier to exchange over the thousands of miles often separating computers.

        With the creation of HTML, the Web was born. HTML made it easy to create Web sites like this one that have images, videos and even sound. The small file allowed them to be quickly communicated over the Internet. Suddenly, everyone saw the potential of the Web as a global communications system and wanted to get on it. The Web grew rapidly. Today, millions of people access the Web daily for news, entertainment, shopping, education and business.

How does the Internet educate the learners/ students?

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.

Teachers have the chance to be able to teach at more than one place simultaneously. They may be in a small town but through the Internet, they can be linked to students in more populated areas. 

Also, the Internet enables administrators and teachers to spend less time on administration and record keeping. This would also give them more time to spend with their students.

How useful the Internet is? The advantage and disadvantage.
     

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. 

5) Message boards where people can discuss ideas on any topic. Ability to get wide range of opinions. People can find others that have a similar interest in whatever they are interested in. 

6) the internet provides the ability of emails. Free mail service to anyone in the country. 

7) Platform for products like SKYPE, which allow for holding a video conference with anyone in the world who also has access. 

8) Friendships and love connections have been made over the internet by people involved in love/passion over similar interests. 

9) Things such as Yahoo Answers and other sites where kids can have readily available help for homework. 

10) News, of all kinds is available almost instantaneously. Commentary, on that news, from every conceivable viewpoint is also available. 

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. 

5) Easy to waste a lot of time on the internet. You can start surfing, and then realize far more time has passed than you realized. Internet and television together of added to the more sedentary lifestyles of people which further exacerbate the obesity problem. 

6) Internet has a lot of "cheater" sites. People can buy essays and pass them off as their own far more easily than they used to be able to do. 

7) There are a lot of unscrupulous businesses that have sprung up on the internet to take advantage of people. 

8) Hackers can create viruses that can get into your personal computer and ruin valuable data. 

9) Hackers can use the internet for identity theft. 

10) It can be quite depressing to be on the internet and realize just how uneducated so many people have become in today's society.

Conclusion

          Internet really play a vital role  in to days generation, particularly in education/academe because schools are now incorporating technology in the curriculum we are the so called digital learner somehow we became dependent in the net because we find in cost effective, convenient and timely by just one click we can have the information  we needed.

          However, it has also a lot of disadvantages we may have the information quickly but not a guarantee that it is reliable because not all the info the net gives are true, there are also people who took advantage and used the net as sort of pornography, hacking, extortion and the like that really alarming.

         Hence, we should be mindful of the things that we are doing with this technology because somehow this may break or make a person, it should be balance and make sure that the information we gather is came from those reliable sources.

     

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

The presentation of information-learning activities in hypermedia is said to be sequenced in a non-linear manner, meaning that the learner may follow his path of activities thus providing an environment of learner autonomy and thinking skills.

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, or

(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

Also referred to as program, Microsoft Windows or Windows for short is an operating environment between the user and the computer operating system. Also called a shell, it is a layer that creates the way the computer should work. Windows uses a colorful graphics interface (called GUI – pronounced “gooee”) that can be seen on the computer screen or monitor whenever the computer is turned on.

The user can work with on-screen pictures (icons) and suggestions (menus) to arrive at the desired software. Windows 95 (now improved with Windows 2003 and 2007) is software designed for Microsoft Windows. Actually, Windows is in itself a self-contained operating system which provides

· User convenience – just click a file name to retrieve data or click from program to program as easy as changing channels in your TV screen

· A new look – fancy borders, smooth and streamlined text fonts

· Information center – Windows puts all communications activities (e-mail, downloads etc. in a single screen icon); adapts/configures the computer for the Internet.

· Plug and play – configures the computer with added components, such as for sound and video.

Instructional Software

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. In evaluating computer-based educational materials, the following can serve as guidelines:

· Be extremely cautious in using CBIs and “free” Internet materials

· Don’t be caught up by attractive graphics, sound, animation, pictures, video clips and music forgetting their instructional worth

· Teachers must evaluate these resources using sound pedagogical principles.

· Among design and content elements to evaluate are: the text legibility, effective use of color schemes, attractive layout and design, and easy navigation from section-to-section (such as from game to tutorial to drill-and-practice section)

· Clarity in the explanations and illustrations of concepts and principles

· Accuracy, coherence, logic of information

· Their being current since data/statistics continually change

· Relevance/effectiveness in attaining learning objectives

· Absence of biased materials (e.g. gender bias or racial bias)

Lesson 13 Cooperative Learning with the Computer

Defining cooperative learning

This is learning by small groups of students who work together in common learning task. There are 5 elements of cooperative learning:

·        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 worksheets physically sat around a table may be working together without these features of cooperative learning.

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

(  a)  Encourages active learning, while motivating students

(  b) Increases academic performance

(  c)  Promotes literacy an language skills

(  d) Improves teacher effectiveness

Cooperative learning and the computer

Researchers have made studies on the learning interaction between the student and the computer. Given the opportunity to work individually or in group, the students generally wish to work in computer-based and non-computer-based activities. Psychologists think the computer fosters this positive social behaviour due to the fact that it has a display monitor-just like a television set-that is looked upon as something communal.

Components of cooperative learning

·        

         1. Assigning students to mixed-ability teams

·        2. Establishing positive interdependence

·        3. Teaching cooperative social skills

·        4. Insuring individual accountability, and

·        5. Helping groups process information

Discussion:

     1.     Discuss the difference between peer competition and positive interdependence in a group. Simply said, aren’t there debates in group work?

 Peer competition is the learning that happens with peers. They exchange ideas with each other. Confidence in peer competition is more exercised. In positive interdependence, there is learning within the group. Others may be shy and others may be confident enough to share their ideas.

     2.     What can be done in case some members of a group do not show positive interpersonal and communication skills? Can the teacher help in this situation?

 There are persons who are too shy to express what they want and share what they know. The teacher may help by letting them contribute one by one so that they can overcome their shyness.

     3.     Do skills in listening, negotiating, compromising, punctuality, tolerance (giving others a chance to speak) part of the social skills needed in group work?

  These things are probably the most important things in a group work. It can surely help to let the students enjoy peace while learning.

    4.     How can group members ensure that each member of the group is also accountable for the group work, and not totally depended on others? In practical terms, how can the teacher grade individual students fairly in a group activity for one single output?

 The participation of everyone in the group must be strictly observed for the teacher to know how he/she gives grade to each and to be fair for those who actively and willingly contribute to the topic. One from the group may be obligated to list all the names of contributors to each topic they take.

    5.      While cooperative learning is a very good avenue for teachers to help students learn effectively, why is it not to be adopted in all classroom learning situations?

 Cooperative learning should be applied often but the teacher should also have the time to discuss so that students may also learn from the teacher and not just only from the group.