How to Teach using Today’s Technology Moti Frank

How to Teach using Today’s Technology PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS Social Constructivism (Vygotsky, 1986) – states that learners construct knowledge or understanding as a result of active learning, thinking and doing in social contexts. – suggests learners learn concepts or construct meanings about ideas through their interaction with others. – Five key characteristic features active engagement use and application of knowledge multiple representations use of learning communities authentic tasks Hence, a teacher’s task is to tutor students and teach them how to learn.

How to Teach using Today’s Technology TERMINOLOGIES Distance Learning - Learner is physically distanced from both the teacher and the institution providing the instruction. Asynchronous Learning - The teaching and the learning are conducted simultaneously. Hence the teacher and the learner are separated both in time and distance. Synchronous Learning - There is no time lag between the teacher and the learner despite physical distance.

How to Teach using Today’s Technology 5 Commonly Used Models 1.Creating a course website for face-to-face teaching 2.Synchronous Distance Learning (SDL) 3.Asynchronous Delivery Mode 4.Virtual Laboratory, Visualisation and Multimedia 5.The Web as an Information Source

How to Teach using Today’s Technology Creating a course website for face-to-face teaching Benefits (Teachers) - choose among many options for organizing courses and applying pedagogical principles - continuously update the course content - communicate with students - provide links to relevant sites and databases - follow students’ progress - Deliver home assignments - Perform automatic checking of MCQs Is this what the teachers in our schools are really feeling? Do we constantly find time to update the course content? How can we help our schools maximise usage?

How to Teach using Today’s Technology Creating a course website for face-to-face teaching Benefits (Students) - Comfortable means for viewing/downloading learning material - Access to the material at anytime from any place. - Easy submission of homework through site - Communication tool between students and teachers - Received immediate feedback as well as hints and directions on how to continue in case of mistakes - Develop independent learning and collaborative learning skills Is this what the students in our schools are really feeling? How many students actually use it as a communication tool? Could this communication be easily achievable through other means?

Creating a course website for face-to-face teaching Pedagogical Idea -Individual learning is enriched when there is interactive socal support in the building of knowledge and development of thought processes. Examples Learning Management Systems (LMS) Forums Discussions Challenges Written communication skills are mandatory Confrontation with abundance of lengthy and tedious messages Possibility of becoming an additional burden on students Message submitter does not receive immediate feedback Shy students may hesitate to expose themselves and written messages before their classmates

How to Teach using Today’s Technology Synchronous Distance Learning (SDL) Benefits (Teachers) -Give students ongoing and timely performance feedback -Virtual office hours -Communication in real time -Creates a community, team decision making and brainstorming -Comments from students can be in various modes: , vocal, etc Challenges -Weak/Shy students may feel uncomfortable -Lack of immediate contact with students -Lack of eye contact -Cannot use theatrics in class to demonstrate examples

How to Teach using Today’s Technology Synchronous Distance Learning (SDL) Preparation - Attend workshop to familiarise with the system and distance learning - Technical teams to be ready at all times to offer assistance. - Planning of slides for lecturing (sufficient) - Difficulty in teaching Mathematics, eg drawing graphs

How to Teach using Today’s Technology Synchronous Distance Learning (SDL) Implementation - Teacher assigns homework and returns it (through electronic marking) - Teaching assistant to help prepare classroom - Distribute ‘skeleton’ slides - Testing of equipment before actual lesson - Meet students face to face at the beginning, middle and end of course - Separation of students to facilitate Q&A Is this possible for us to carry out? How can we overcome the challenges? Is it possible for us to carry this out? How different is this from our E-Learning Portal?

How to Teach using Today’s Technology Asynchronous Distance Learning Benefits (Teachers) - Especially useful when there are a large number of students - Flexibility of time and space - Relatively simple to implement - No time limit - Ability to continually update learning material - Capacity to send messages quickly to all students in the course - Links to databases and relevant Internet sites - Possibility to automatically check exercises and manage grades - Possibility of knowing students better than in normal frontal lessons Benefits (Students) - Submit assignments electronically - Lessons are at a suitable pace

How to Teach using Today’s Technology Asynchronous Distance Learning Challenges -Problem of motivation -Lack of face-to-face interaction in learning -Teachers cannot respond spontaneously to ongoing events -Teachers must invest greater effort in writing up course content Is this possible for us to carry out? How can we overcome the challenges? What is the possibility of us carrying this out?

How to Teach using Today’s Technology Virtual Laboratory, Visualisation and Multimedia Relate mainly to sensory and semiotic levels Research shows visual and auditory effects do not necessarily improve learning and thus using technology per se does not guarantee success. Learning is meaningful when learners integrate the verbal representations with the visual representations and the prior knowledge Hence, it is important to have task appropriate graphics. Pictures facilitate learning only if the learners have low prior knowledge

How to Teach using Today’s Technology Virtual Laboratory, Visualisation and Multimedia Animations - Can offer learners an explicit dynamic representation of the situation - Research found no difference between animations and static illustration with respect to facts and small difference in favour of animation for comprehension Teachers need to plan according to the principles below: - Students learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone. - Pictures facilitate learning only if learners have poor prior knowledge and if subject is visualised in a task- appropriate way. - Animations are more effective when learner can control pace and direction - In Science, it is not sufficient to just present virtual experiments.

How to Teach using Today’s Technology The Web as an Information Source Information Literacy - The ability to access, evaluate and use information from a variety of sources. 8 Criteria for evaluating Websites (Beck 1997) - Accuracy - Authority - Objectivity - Currency - Coverage - Format and Presentation - Citations - Efficiency

How to Teach using Today’s Technology The Web as an Information Source Limitations of Using E-Learning -Literacy (finding relevant information by themselves) -Information overload -Isolation and Social Estrangement -Surfing (aimless surfing) -Non-linear text (organization of text) -Effects (eg graphics, design at the expense of content) -Writing ability -Visual literacy -Addiction -Motivation and self-drive -Copying -Digital gap -English -Law Breaking -Technical Problems

How to Teach using Today’s Technology Feedback Advantages - Feedback is more efficient in a situation where goals were defined - Immediate feedback given by the computer - stimulates more confidence - leads to better self-efficacy - improves performance compared to feedback given by teachers - focuses the attention on the task Idea of negative feedback (feedback about mistake made by a student) Students can proceed: 1)Redouble the effort to meet the goal 2)Decrease the goal level to one that can be achieved 3)Reject the feedback 4)Give up

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