THE ROLES OF EDUCATIONAL
TECHNOLOGY
Lesson 3 IN LEARNING
“Technology makes the world a new place”
Learning • Illustrate with concrete
Outcome: examples the roles of
educational technology in
learning
Focus • What are the roles of education technology
Question: in learning?
Introduction After understanding the
comprehensive meaning of
educational technology, let us
now dwell on the roles od
educational technology and
whether it is a boon or bane in
the teaching –learning process.
ACTIVITY 1. Go back to your learning experiences in school. Recall
specific ways by which the use of educational
technology helped you learn.
2. Get a partner the share your experiences.
3. Volunteer to share your experiences with the rest of
the class.
ANALYSIS 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 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.
Discussion Based on the experiences
Question: shared,which greater role did
technology play in your learning
experiences: technology-as-a-
teacher or technology-as-a-
partner in the learning process?
ABSTRACTION
From the traditional point of view, technology serves as 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 of 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.
From the constructivist point of view, educational technology serves a learning tools
that learners learn with it,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 the constructivist perspective , the following are roles of technology in
learning(Jonassen, et al 1999)
• Technology as tools to support knowledge construction:
- for representing learners’ ideas, understanding and beliefs
- for producing organized, multi-media knowledge bases by learners
• Technology as information vehicles for exploring knowledge to support learning-by-
constructing:
- for accessing needed information
- for comparing perspective, beliefs and world views
• Technology as context to support learning-by-doing:
-For representing and simulating meaningful real-world problems, situations
and contexts
- for representing beliefs,perpectives,arguments,and stories of others.
- for defining a safe , controllable problem space for student thinking
• Technology as a social medium to support learning by conversing:
- for collaborating with others
- for discussing, arguing and building consensus among members of a
community
-for supporting discourse among knowledge-building communities
• Technology as intellectual partner(Jonassen 1996) to support learning-by-reflecting:
- for helping learners to articulate and represent what they know
- for reflecting on what they have learned and how they came to know it
-for supporting learners internal negotiations and meaning making
-for constructing personal representations of meaning
-for supporting mindful thinking
Application
1. Based on the roles of educational technology from the constructivist’s perspective given
above, identify under which role and process is illustrated by each of the following:
a. Water samples from ponds, streams, and faucets were analyzed locally, then transmitted to
researchers who pooled the data and returned them to all sites, where students drew
conclusions and compared them with those of other classes(Jonassen, 1999).
b. Students were asked to give a graphic presentation of the causes and effects of alcoholism.
c. Students were asked to conduct an in-depth research on the causes and effects of global
warming by the extensive use of books, journals and the internet and to give a powerpoint
presentation of their findngs.
d. Students were assigned to and gather proposals from various sectors on how to solve the
present rice crisis and on how to prevent the same in the future and make a video
presentation on their interviews.
e. Student groups were asked to read and analyze a comic strip and present their own
thinking also by way of a comic strip.
2. Give at last 3 uses or functions of educational technology.Caegorize them either as
technology as teacher(source of knowledge)or technology as partner in learning (one that
engages the student in thinking and in the construction of knowledge and meaning). Use
the table given below.an example for each category is given for you.
Technology as teacher Technology as partner in learning
1. Video presentation on the tourist spots in the 1. Setting up an experiment shown through
country video presentation and requiring the student
to predict the outcome of the experiment
3. The constructivists’ thinking is this: Technology cannot teach students.Rather,learners
should use the technologies to teach themselves and others. Do you agree with the
constructivists? Discuss with your group. You will be asked to share your answers with the
class.
4. Is there anything pedagogy wrong with the traditional use of technology as a presenter
of knowledge like the teacher as a source of knowledge? Discuss in your small group then
share your answer with the class.
5. Why use technology in teaching?answer this question based on what you learned from
this lesson.Present it in your own creative way,other than merely enumerating them.
SUMMING UP Educational technology plays
various roles. From the traditional
point of view, it serves as presenter
of knowledge just like teachers. It is
also serves as productivity tool. With
internet technology has facilitated
communication among people.
From the constructivist perspective,
educational technology is a
meaningful learning tool by serving
as a learning partner.
Making the Recall how the roles of technology
connection from the constructivist perspective ,
were demonstrated by your
professors/instructors in class or by
speakers/facilitators in seminars you
attended. In your mind,identify
those roles that were demonstrated.
The younger generation of teachers is
No other admittedly better than the older generation of
teachers when it comes to the use of tche most
Choice but to recent technology, like the computer.The younger
crop of teachers,unlike the older generation, was
learn How to blessed with basic computer courses in their
college curriculum.But if the older group of
Use Recent teachers would like to remain responsive and
relevant by keeping their teaching fresh,
Technology interesting and challenging, there is no choice but
to learn how to use them. an idiot’s guide to
in the computer in your teaching.
It is part of your continuing professional
Classroom development to become a “digital native” and not
remain a “digital immigrant” It is good to become
a “netizen” or a “screenager” able to participate
not only in seminars but also in “webinars”
THANK
YOU
Ruby S. Balando
Catarman N. Samar
