Lesson 3

Roles of Technology for

Teaching and Learning
PREPARED BY : MR. ALJON P. SEGON
Lesson Outcomes
1. Identified roles of technology in teaching and learning
2. Appreciated the value of technology in supporting
student learning
 Excite
Are students of today interested to use technology in order to learn?
Do teachers have the skills to use technology to enhance their
teaching?
With the 4th Industrial Revolution, nobody can deny the influence of
technology in our lives. As future teachers of the 21st century, it is
high time that you prepare yourselves to integrate technology in
your classrooms. Using technology is a tool and a catalyst for change.
What then are the roles of technology for teaching and learning?
 Explore
As teaching and learning go together, let us explore what would be the
roles of technology for teachers and teaching and for learners and
learning.

According to Stosic (2015), educational technology has three domains:

1. Technology as a tutor.
2. Technology as a teaching tool.
3. Technology as a learning tool.
1. Technology
as a tutor.
Together with the teacher,
technology can support the
teacher to teach another person
or technology when programmed
by the teacher can be a tutor on
its own. The teacher will simply
switch on or switch off radio
programs, television programs or
play DVDs, or CDs that contain
educational programs. There are
on-line tutorial educational
programs, too.
2. Technology as
a teaching tool.
Like a tutor, technology is a
teaching tool, but can never
replace a teacher. This is like the
handyman, which is just there to
be reached. Like any other tool, it
is being used to facilitate and
lighten the work of the teacher. It
will be good if the teacher can also
create or develop technology tools
that are needed in the classroom.
3. Technology as
a learning tool.
While the teacher utilizes
technology as the tool for teaching,
likewise it is an effective tool for
learning. As a learning tool, it makes
learning easy and effective. It can
produce learning outcomes that call
for technology-assisted teaching.
Even the teachers who are teaching
can utilize similar tools for learning.
As a learning tool, it is very
interesting that even the elderly use
these tools for learning for life.
A. For Teachers and Teaching
Here are some examples of the myriad of roles that technology can do for
teachers and teaching.
1. Technology provides enormous support to the teacher as the facilitator of learning.
2. Technology has modernized the teaching-learning environment.
3. Technology improves teaching-learning process and ways of teaching
4. Technology opens new fields in educational researches.
5. Technology adds to the competence of teachers and inculcates scientific outlook.
6. Technology supports teacher professional development.
1. Technology provides enormous support to
the teacher as the facilitator of learning.
It transforms a passive classroom
to an active and interactive one,
with audio-visual aids, charts and
models, smart classrooms, e-
learning classrooms which
motivate and increase attention
level of learners. Many of these
can be searched on the web.
2. Technology has modernized the
teaching-learning environment.
The teachers are assisted and
supplemented with appropriately
structured instructional materials for daily
activities. There are varied available
technology-driven resources which can be
utilized for remedial lesson or activities.
Likewise there are also a lot of technology-
driven resources that can be used for
enrichment purposes. You may search for
the examples on the web.
3. Technology improves teaching-
learning process and ways of teaching.
This will make the act of teaching more
efficient and effective. There are arrays of
teaching methods and strategies that can use
technology which are found compatible with
learning styles. The multiple intelligence
theory of Howard Gardner tells us that there
is a genius in every child. This implies that
there must be varied ways of teaching as
there are many varied ways of learning. All the
learning styles can find support from
technology, so that teaching will be more
effective and efficient.
4. Technology opens new fields in
educational researches.
The areas of teaching testing and evaluation
are enhanced by technologies for teaching
and learning. Current educational researchers
will no longer find difficulty in interpreting
tests, assessment and other evaluation
results. There are available programs that can
analyze and interpret results with speed and
accuracy. Reference retrieval is also hastened
because many of the research materials are
in digital form. Technology has also provided
access to big data that can be processed for
problem solving and inquiry.
5. Technology adds to the competence of
teachers and inculcates scientific outlook.
Through the utilization of theories of
learning and intelligence, which are
explained in references uploaded in
the net, the teachers are encouraged
to imbibe skills to source this
information with speed and accuracy.
6. Technology supports teacher
professional development.
With the demand of continuing professional
development for teachers, the availability of
technology provides alternative way of
attending professional development online.
For those who are involved as providers of
continuing professional development like
trainers, facilitators, or organizers, they can
level up or enhance their delivery systems
with the support of technology tools.
 B. For Learners and Learning
1. Support learners to learn how to
learn on their own.
2. Technology enhances learners'
communication skills through social
interactions.
3. Technology upgrades learners'
higher-order-thinking skills: critical
thinking, problem solving and
creativity
1. Support learners to learn how to
learn on their own.
All teachers fully understand that subject matter or content
is a means to achieve the learning outcomes. There are
three categories of knowledge according to Egbert (2009):
declarative knowledge, structural knowledge, and
procedural knowledge.
a. Declarative knowledge
b. Structural knowledge
c. Procedural knowledge
 Declarative knowledge
It consists of the discrete pieces of information that answers the
questions what, who, when, and where. It is often learned through
memorization of facts, drills and practice. It can be learned by
simple mnenomics or conceptual maps. Declarative knowledge is
the fundamental knowledge necessary for students to achieve
more complex higher order thinking such as critical thinking and
creativity, inquiry and production.
 Structural knowledge
It consists of facts or pieces of declarative knowledge put
together to attain some form of meaning. An example of
declarative knowledge is "pencil". The idea that evolved
from a pencil is an understanding that: "it is something
used to write." This is referred to as structural knowledge.
It can be presented by concept maps, categorization or
classification.
 Procedural knowledge
It is knowledge in action or the knowledge of how to do
something. It is based on facts but learned through the
process of procedural knowledge. Examples include how
to drive a car, how to use a cell phone, or how to speak
English. Procedural knowledge is indicated by a
performance task or graphical representation of a
concept.
2. Technology enhances learners' communication
skills through social interactions.
This is commonly described as the transmittal of information from one person to
another as single individual or groups of individuals. According to Shirly (2003) in
Egbert (2009), there are three basic communication patterns:
a. Point to point two-way or one-to-one like Internet chat, phone
conversation or even face-to-face conversation.
b. One-to-many outbound like a lecture, or television. There is no social
interaction.
c. Many-to-many like group discussion, buzz session, heads together. This
kind of interaction provides opportunities for social interaction.
Social interaction occurs in two ways where
the participants ask for clarification, argue,
challenge each other and work towards
common understanding. Social interaction
through communication occurs through
technology (directly between two persons via
email, a cell phone or other communication
technology). It can also occur around
technology like students discussing about a
problem posed by a software program or
with support of technology like teachers and
students interacting about the worksheet
printed from a website. In all the three
modalities, communication occurs and
technology is involved.
For this particular role, what are the benefits derived
from technology- supported communication?
a. Enables any teacher to guide the learners virtually and making learning
unlimited because communication and social interaction go beyond a
school day or a school environment

b. Enhances students' freedom to express and exchange ideas freely

without the snooping eyes of the teacher face to face

c. Enables learners to construct meaning from joint experiences between

the two or more participants in communication
For this particular role, what are the benefits derived
from technology- supported communication?
d. Help learners solve problems from multiple sources since there is limitless sources
of information that the teacher can direct or refer to the learners

e. Teaches learners to communicate with politeness, taking turns in sending

information and giving appropriate feedback

f. Enhances collaboration by using communication strategies with wider community

and individuals in a borderless learning environment

g. Develops critical thinking, problem solving and creativity throughout the

communication
 3. Technology upgrades learners' higher-order-thinking skills:
critical thinking, problem solving and creativity

Twenty-first century learning requires the development of

higher-order- thinking skills.
Technology has a great role to play in the development and
enhancement of these skills.
Critical thinking
is part of the cluster of higher order thinking skills.
It refers to the ability to interpret, explain, analyze,
evaluate, infer and self- regulate in order to make
good decisions. With the use of technology, one
will be able to evaluate the credibility of the
source, ask appropriate questions, become open-
minded, defend a position on an issue and draw
conclusion with caution. All of these competencies
are covered by Bloom's Taxonomy of Analysis,
Synthesis and Evaluation.
As a role model, teachers should display and practice critical thinking
processes, so that the learners can imitate them. Here are some ways
that teachers can do to develop critical thinking.
a. Ask the right questions.
Most often teachers ask questions to find out if the students can simply repeat the
information from the lesson. Although these are necessary questions like what,
who, when and where, these do not develop critical thinking. Critical thinking
questions should ask for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth and
logic.
Clarity: Here are some examples: Can you give examples of …
Accuracy: What pieces of evidence support your claim?
Precision: Exactly how much
Breadth: What do you think will the other group say about the issue?
 As a role model, teachers should display and practice critical thinking
processes, so that the learners can imitate them. Here are some ways
that teachers can do to develop critical thinking.
b. Use critical thinking tasks with appropriate level of challenge.
Teachers should be mindful of the readiness of the students. Students who have higher
ability may find the task too easy, thus getting bored early, while those who have low
ability may find the task too difficult. Thus, there is a need to have activities that are
appropriate for the learners. These can be determined by interview, observations, and
other forms to determine the level of readiness.
What are some simple ways that teachers should do?
1. Vary the questions asked.
2. Introduce new technologies.
3. Modify the learners' grouping.
4. Modify the critical thinking task.
5.Encourage curiosity.
 Creativity
is characterized as involving the ability to
think flexibly, fluently, originally, and
elaborately (Guildford, 1986 & Torrance,
1974 in Egbert, 2009). Flexibly means able to
use many points of while fluently means
able to generate many ideas. Originally
implies being able to generate new ideas
and elaborately means able to add details.
Creativity is not merely a set of technical
skills, but it also involves feelings, beliefs,
knowledge and motivation.
Seven Creative Strategies (Osborn, 1963).
These have been simplified into fewer categories. To be
creative, one can use any of these strategies.
1. Substitute - Find something else to replace to do what it
does.
2. Combine - Blend two things that do not usually go together.
3. Adapt - Look for other ways this can be used.
4. Modify/Magnify/ Minify - Make a change, enlarge,
decrease.
5. Put to another use - Find other uses.
6. Eliminate - Reduce, remove.
7. Reverse - Turn upside-down, inside out, front-side back.
What should teacher do to support
student creativity?
Here are some suggestions:
1. Provide an enriched environment.
2. Teach creative thinking strategies.
3. Allow learners to show what they can do.
4. Use creativity with technology.
Further, teachers can do the following to develop
and enhance critical thinking, problem solving
and creativity.
As a future teacher, try these suggestions.
1. Encourage students to find and use information from variety
of sources both on-line and off-line.
2. Assist students to compare information from different sources.
3. Allow student to reflect through different delivery modes like
writing, speaking, or drawing.
4. Use real experiences and material to draw tentative decisions.
5. Involve students in creating and questioning assessment.
To do these, the teacher should see to it that right questions
are asked, student's tasks should be appropriate to the levels
of challenge and curiosity is encouraged.
There are several critical thinking tools and technology
software that can support critical thinking skills. Some of
these you will encounter in the succeeding modules:
1. Encourages digital production projects
2. Popularizes e-learning modalities
3. Enhances global awareness and citizenship
 Task 3.1: Experience as a Learner
Write a paragraph about your personal experience on how technology has
influenced your life as a learner from elementary, high school and college.

How Technology Influenced My Life as a Learner

 Task 3.2: Experience as a Future Teacher
Write a paragraph on how you are going to use technology when you will
become a teacher?
How will I use Technology When I Become a Teacher?
 Task 3.3
Make a group Summary of Task 1 and Task 2
1. Form a group ( 10 Groups )
2. Share what you have written in Task 1 and Task 2
3. Make a summary of all the members’ answer for Task 1 and
Task 2

Share the results to the whole class