Tuesday, November 6, 2012

- The impact of the various technology tools you encounter on the teaching and learning process


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).


- 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



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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.