(Toolbox 1) The Roles of Educational Technology in Learning

[Toolbox 1] The Roles of Educational Technology in Learning
Do This First!
Directions: Go back to your learning experiences in school. Recall specific ways by which the
use of educational technology help you learn. Based on your experiences, which greater role did
technology play in your learning experiences: technology-as-teacher or technology-as-partner
in the learning process? Explain your answer in two to three sentences only. Attach this page to
the learning activity sheet.
Think About This!
Technology can play a traditional role, i.e., as delivery vehicles for instructional
lessons or in a constructivist way as partners in the learning process. In the traditional way, the
learner learns from the technology and the technology serves as a teacher. In other words, the
learner learns the content presented by the technology in the same way that the learner learns
knowledge presented by the teacher. In the constructivist way, technology helps the learner build
more meaningful personal interpretations of life and his/her world. In the constructivist approach,
technology is a learning tool to learn with, not from. It makes the learner gather, think, analyze,
synthesize information and construct meaning with what technology presents. Technology serves
as a medium in representing what the learner knows and what he/she is learning.
Explore!
From the traditional point of view, technology serves as a source and presenter of
knowledge. It is assumed that “knowledge is embedded in the technology (e.g. the content
presented by films and tv programs or the teaching sequence in programmed instruction) and the
technology presents that knowledge to the student (David H. Jonassen, et al, 1999).
Technology like computers is seen as a productivity tool. The popularity of word
processing, databases, spreadsheets, graphic programs and desktop publishing in the 1980s
points to this productive role of educational technology.
With the eruption of the INTERNET in the mid 90s, communications and multimedia have
dominated the role of technology in the classroom for the past few years.
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[Toolbox 1] The Roles of Educational Technology in Learning
From the constructivist point of view, educational technology serves as learning tools that
learners learn with, it engages learners in “active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and
cooperative learning. It provides opportunities for technology and learner interaction for
meaningful learning. In this case, technology will not be mere delivery vehicle for content. Rather
it is used as facilitator of thinking and knowledge construction.
From a constructivist perspective, the following are roles of technology in learning:
(Jonassen, et al 1999).
 Technology as tools to support knowledge construction:

o For representing learners’ ideas, understandings and beliefs
o For producing organized, multimedia knowledge bases by learners
 Technology as information vehicles for exploring knowledge to support learning-by-
constructing:
o For accessing needed information
o For comparing perspectives, beliefs and world views
 Technology as context to support learning-by-doing:
o For representing and stimulating meaningful real-world problems, situations and
contexts
o For representing beliefs, perspectives, arguments, and stories of others
o For defining a safe, controllable problem space for student thinking
 Technology as a social medium to support learning by conversing:
o For collaborating with others
o For discussing, arguing, and building consensus among members of a community
o For supporting discourse among knowledge-building communities
 Technology as intellectual partner (Jonassen 1996) to support learning-by-reflecting:
o For helping learners to articulate and represent what they know
o For reflecting on what they have learned and how they came to know it
o For supporting learners’ internal negotiations and meaning making
o For constructing personal representations of meaning
o For supporting mindful thinking
Whether used from the traditional or constructivist point of view, when used effectively,
research indicates that technology not only “increases students’ learning, understanding and
achievement but also augments motivation to learn, encourages collaborative learning and
supports the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills” (Schacter and Fagnano,
1999). Russell and Sorge (1999) also claim the proper implementation of technology in the
classroom gives students more “control of their own learning… tends to move classrooms from
teacher-dominated environments to ones that are more learner-centered. The use of technology
in the classroom enables the teacher to do differentiated instruction considering the divergence
of students’ readiness levels, interests, multiple intelligences, and learning styles. Technology
also helps students become lifelong learners.
Reference:
Corpuz, Brenda B. and Lucido, Paz I. educational technology 1. 776 Aurora Blvd., cor. Boston Street, Cubao, Quezon
City, Metro Manila: LORIMAR PUBLISHING, INC.
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Think About This!

 Technology as tools to support knowledge construction:

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