Lesson 9: Computers as Information and Communication and Technology

Computers as Information and Communication and Technology

         The advent of computer is recognized as the third revolution in education. Through computer technology, educators saw the amplification of learning along computer literacy. Computer assisted instruction was introduced using the principle of individualized learning through a positive climate that includes realism and appeal with drill exercises that uses color, music and animation. The evolving pace of innovation in today’s Information Age is so dynamic that within the first decade of the 21^st century, computer technology in education has matured to transform into an educative information and communication technology in education.

Figure 1. Uses of Computer as ICT in Education

THE PERSONAL COMPUTER (PC) AS ICT

            Instructional media consist of audio-visual aids that served to enhance and enrich the teaching-learning process. The educational communication media comprise the media of communication to audiences including learners using the print, film, radio, and television or satellite means of communication.

            Close to the 21^st century, however, such a distinction merged owing to the advent of microprocessor, also known as the personal computer. Here is a list of some programs normally installed in an ordinary modern PC:

Ø  Microsoft office – program for composing text, graphics photos into letters, articles, reports, etc.

Ø  PowerPoint – for preparing lecture presentations.

Ø  Excel – for spreadsheets and similar graphic sheets.

Ø  Internet Explorer – access to the internet.

Ø  Yahoo or Google – Websites: e-mail, chatrooms, Blog sites, news service, educational software, etc.

Ø  Adobe reader – graphs/ photo composition editing.

Ø  MSN – Mail/ chat messaging.

Ø  Windows Media Player – editing film/video.

Ø  GameHouse – Video Games.

           

            As I can recall, computer softwares such as Google have been a great aid on online surfing, PowerPoint has aided me through my reports and presentations, GameHouse provided fun and leisure, Encarta provides offline reliable sources of information, Microsoft office Word assisted in our written reports and assignments, and many more to mention.

            The use of computers has been undeniably efficient and productive to the human race. It is not just the humans which have been evolving, so as the computers have been evolving. The information age was highly revolutionized by Information and Communication Technology which have been evident to everyone.

            The application of computers constantly broadens driven by the technological advancements; however we should not be totally dependent on it because it has its limitations also. We should use the computers in a productive way to improve our way of living and not to destroy one another.

                                                                                                 

Lesson 7: Evaluation of Technology Learning

Evaluation of Technology Learning

                The students today were not only cognitively inclined, they were also flexible, analytical and creative. We had been discussing on the changing of instruction strategies from traditional instruction to a digital instruction and same is true with the assessment and evaluation. This is by the fact that not only did the traditional learners evolved into digital learners but as well as our society or the world has metamorphosed from traditional to a modernized or digital world.

Digital learning assessment should assess the essential knowledge and skills which would definitely require the use of digital evaluative tools that measure the new basic skills, to be able to prepare the students to function creatively, effectively and productively in a new world.

The six fluencies discussed in Lesson 6 reflect process skills and as students engage in problem-solving process, the assessment should also focus on the 4 Ds which empower students to solve problems using higher level theoretical and practical thinking. The product outcome learning shifted from verbal-textual to digital expression such as audio, video, PowerPoint, multimedia, etc.

The so called “mass amateurization” has been referred to the change in evaluation approach in a mass reach of students’ outputs. The personal and group activities should aim at bridging the gap between the amateur creators of outputs to professional creators of outputs and products in the real world. I should entail inculcating adeptness in publishing, visual creation, audio-video recording, internet website postings and multimedia productions. The writing process will have to assume the idea conception, planning, layout and graphics designing, editing, proofreading and publishing. Using the desktop publishing software will make the writing process easier and exciting for learners. We can also publish our outputs on internet through web sites, blogs, wikis, podcasts, and videos.

Since high school up to the present  I had undergone computer classes which requires computer based outputs such as video and photo editing, blog writing, etc. these outputs requires skills, creativity and enthusiasm to finish the outputs. My output were also based on the given set of criteria as a guide to develop the outputs.

As I reflect, the shift to the digital instruction and digital learning assessment is justified by the fact that the traditional world has metamorphosed to digital world. The assessment needs to conform to the new literacy of the 21^st century and not to the literacy of the past to prepare the students to face a high-tech world.

As an application, being a future educator, we should adopt a new mindset in instruction and evaluation. 

Lesson 6: Developing Basic Digital Skills

Developing Basic Digital Skills

In Lesson 5, we tackled about the different preferences of the old and new generation and now we will learn what are the skills that is needed to be developed by the “technology learners” or “digital learners.”  Today, the 3 R’s (writing, reading & arithmetic) which is the emphasis in the old generation does not need to be replaced by the new digital skills hence, the previously mentioned skills should complement to equip students to face the new millennium. Shown in the figure below is the list of the skills that is needed to be developed by the learners of the new generation.

Rather than call them literacy skills, these are better referred as fluency skills conveying the ease and facility in acquiring and using them. Let us now familiarize ourselves as to what these six fluencies are.

Ø  Solution Fluency – the capacity and creativity in problem solving.

Ø  Information Fluency – ability to access, retrieve, assess and rewrite the information.

Ø  Collaboration Fluency – refers to teamwork with virtual or real partners in the online environment.

Ø  Media Fluency – media refers to mass communication or digital sources. The ability to evaluate the message of a chosen media and creative ability to publish digital messages.

Ø  Creativity Fluency – refers to the artistic proficiency by way of design, art, and story-telling to package a message.

Ø  Digital ethics – principles of leadership, global responsibility, environmental awareness, global citizenship, and personal accountability.

            There is also a new proposed taxonomy in the development of the higher thinking skills (shown below) from the general framework of Bloom’s taxonomy of thinking skills which requires information processing, idea creation, and real-world problem solving skills.

Figure 1. Proposed Taxonomy

            This was patterned after the how the human brain works. The human brain is divided into two hemisphere: the right and left hemispheres. These two hemispheres have their specific inclination in terms of brain activity. The brain activity is shown in the figure below.

In the instructional process, there is also what we call an “instructional shift” from lecture-to-tasks to digital tasks-to-learning. In this approach, skills are developed and the learning outcome is achieved by students themselves. The structured problem solving process known as the 4 D’s also exemplifies the instructional shift in digital learning:

Ø    Define the problem

Ø    Design the solution

Ø    Do the work

Ø    Debrief on the outcome

Because of the shift in the instruction, there also occurred a shift in terms of skills in which as mentioned earlier were the fluency skills. These skills has been within the new generation and would be new to the old generation. In my own experience, the some of the above mentioned fluencies have been basically acquired before I knew what it was. The full functionality of these skills will be achieved through trainings, practice and application to the real world. For instance, before I had known information fluency,I had been accessing information from the internet when answering some of my assignments in elementary and high school and was also very particular in the design of my PowerPoint presentation when I had my reports in class.

Reflecting on these, I realized to incorporate and develop these digital skills to the basic literacy of the 3 Rs in which one should be able to complement these literacies and skills to attain success in the millennial world. As we adjust our way of teaching to effectively match the digital world of information and communication technology, we must be clear on what basic skills, knowledge and values are we going to develop to the digital learners.

As future educators, we should shift our teaching and learning process from the traditional teacher-centered to the student-centered learning wherein we will encourage discovery learning and know that our role as teachers would be to act as facilitator of learning and not the give all spoon-feeding type of learning. Let us move away from the center stage of the classroom and let the students have the limelight of the teaching-learning process.

Lesson 5: Preferences of the Technology Generation

Lesson 5

Preferences of the Technology Generation

As society evolves, so do were the people particularly the learners. Today’s generation is referred as “Technology Generation” integrated to the industrial revolution and the swift technological advancements. We cannot deny the fact that there occurs the so called “generation gap” between the young and the older generations due to their different preferences thus, it is important in the field of education to know and recognize the varying preferences of the learners. The table below shows the contrasting preferences of the old and the new generation.

Table 1. Preferences of the Old and New Generation

I would also consider myself belonging to the new generation of learners. I started to learn operating the computer and cellphones when I was in kindergarten. I spend most of my time at my grandparents’ house who owned a desktop computer and had student boarders. As a kid, I usually play games on the computer and constantly borrows on the cellphones of the boarders. Nobody taught me how to operate these gadgets instead, I just watched and observed the people around me and imitate what they were doing and eventually I just noticed myself manipulating these gadgets at my own free will. I started to acquaint myself in internet surfing at elementary, owned my first cellphone at grade 5. In grade three, I transferred schooling in a rural area somewhere in Don Carlos Bukidnon where I can say that their mode of teaching the students was more on traditional method: gardening classes, spending most of our time in values education or vocational classes, we mostly read the books or copy what was written on the board until my hands were swollen, the teachers gave more focus on how the students would pass the tests and the rewards were given at the end of the school year through awarding of medals, ribbons and certificates. I could recall that I felt being sent to a primitive civilization for a punishment of some sort. I easily get bored in classes, lost my interest at school and preferred to cut class to watch movies at home or play games.

As I reflect at my experiences as a future educator, I felt the importance of discussing the differences in perceptions between the different generations and find methods to mitigate the occurring generation gap. Educators should be open minded to the changes brought by time, learn to become accustomed and accommodate to the products of change in our society and in the educational system. Teachers should never be held up of their pasts but rather ride to the modernizations and try to understand the different perspectives of the learners.

As an application of what I had learned from this lesson, flexibility and creativity is a must for the teachers to blend into the effects brought about by constant global changes.