Advances in technology have had a tremendous impact on
society. The Internet has changed how we communicate, learn, and conduct our
business and personal affairs. In the educational community, the level of
technology integration can deeply affect what teachers do and what their
students experience. Within the last two decades, affordable technology has
allowed schools to experience a growing investment in technology for the
teaching/learning process. Because technology is changing so rapidly, it
"… is causing more and more confusion about the best way to use it in
schools" (Bailey 1997, p. 57). The ways that teachers incorporate
technology into their teaching and classroom may deeply affect what they do and
what their students experience (Sheingold & Hadley, 1990).
MTI - Social Studies
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
- The relevance of having knowledge of the different technology related learning theories
Three main theoretical schools or philosophical frameworks have been present in the educational technology literature. These are Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. Each of these schools of thought are still present in today's literature but have evolved as the Psychology literature has evolved. For e.g. Behaviorism’s theoretical framework was developed in the early 20th century with the animal learning experiments of Ivan Pavlov, Edward Thorndike, Edward C. Tolman, Clark L. Hull, B.F. Skinner and many others. Many psychologists used these theories to describe and experiment with human learning. While still very useful this philosophy of learning has lost favor with many educators. B.F. Skinner wrote extensively on improvements of teaching based on his functional analysis of Verbal Behavior and wrote "The Technology of Teaching", an attempt to dispel the myths underlying contemporary education as well as promote his system he called programmed instruction.
The importance of technology integration in the teaching/learning process
.
The integration of learning technologies into high school
classrooms is being promoted and supported around the world. Underlying the
promotion and support are claims that successful integration will lead to
enhanced learning outcomes (DoE, 1998). These claims are difficult to justify,
however. Research into the impact of learning technologies on the quality of
students’ learning outcomes is limited and outdated according to Honey, Culp
and Carrigg (2000). A limiting factor has been the difficulty of defining and
measuring enhanced learning outcomes attributable specifically to the use of
learning technologies (Mitchell & Bluer, 1997).
The teacher must always be flexible when teaching his/her
lesson. Another way of getting students to understand a content is the use of
technology e.g."the computer". This is a means for reaching the
instructional objectives in the classroom. Therefore, students who are
able to use the computer can grasp the content better, while those who are not
able to do so will also learn a new way of getting the content instead of just
learning from a textbook, because not all students learn from one method of
teaching.
Technology integration is important
because we are living in the technology age. As Training teachers and students,
it is also imperative that we develop some necessary skills which everyone will
need for the working world which will include: knowing how and when to use
technology and choosing the most fitting technology instrument for the task,
among having good communication and interpersonal skills.
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