Lesson 11  The Computer as the Teacher's Tool

       In the previous, we saw how the computer can act as a tutor, particularly along a behaviorist and cognitive approach to learning. But we also saw how certain computer software programs have been developed to foster higher thinking skills and creativity.

          

  In this lesson, we shall again look at the computer, but this time from another perspective the computer as the teacher's handy-tool. It can in fact support the constructivist and social constructivist paradigms of constructivist learning.

          

Constructivism was introduced by Piaget (1981) and Bruner (1990). 

They gave stress to knowledge discovery of new meaning/concept/principles in the learning process. Students area also asked to apply discovered knowledge to new situations, a process for making their knowledge applicable to real life situations.

         While knowledge is constructed by the individual learners in constructivism, knowledge can also be socially constructed. Social Constructivism. This is an effort to show that the construction of knowledge is governed by social, historical and cultural contexts.

       
The psychologist Vygotsky stressed that learning is affected by social influences. He therefore suggested the interactive process in learning. The more capable adult (teacher or parent) or classmate can aid or complement what the learner sees in a given class project.

The Computer's Capabilities

       Given its present-day speed, flexibility and sophistication, the computer can provide access to information, foster creative social knowledge-building, and enhance the communication of the achieved project package. Without the computer, today's learners may still be assuming the tedious tasks of low-level information gathering, building and new knowledge packaging. But this is not so, since the modern computer can help teacher-and-students to focus on more high level cognitive tasks.

Based on the two learning theories, the teacher can employ the computer as a/an:

Informative tool

      

   The computer can provide vast amounts of information in various forms, such as text, graphics, sound, and video. Even multimedia encyclopedia is today available on the Internet.

Constructive tool

  

   The computer itself can be used for manipulating information, visualizing one's understanding, and building new knowledge. The Microsoft Word computer program itself is desktop publishing software that allows users to organize and present their ideas in attractive formats.

Co-constructive tool

    

  Students can use constructive tools to work cooperatively and construct a shared understanding of new knowledge. One way of co-construction is the use of the electronic whiteboard where students may post notices to a shared document/whiteboard. Students may also co-edit the same document from their homes.

Situating tool

            

By means of virtual reality (RS) extension system, the computer can create 3-D images on display to give the users the feeling that are situated in a virtual environment. A flight simulation program is an example of a situating tool which places the user in a simulated flying environment.