Meaningful Learning with Technology

By: Archie Ryan B. Cutanda

What Drives Learning?

is the understanding of and effort invested in completing a task or activity

It is the nature of the task that student Intend to perform that will best determine the nature of the learning that results.

In order for students to learn meaningfully

-They must be willfully engaged in a meaningful task:

Active activities. Constructive activities. Intentional activities. Authentic activities. Cooperative activities.

schools should help studentsschools should help studentsto learn how to recognize and solve to learn how to recognize and solve

problemsproblemsComprehend new phenomenaComprehend new phenomenaConstruct mental models of those Construct mental models of those

phenomenaphenomenaGiven a new situationGiven a new situationSet goals and regulate their own Set goals and regulate their own

learninglearning

Active Active (Manipulative/Observant)(Manipulative/Observant)

Learning is a natural, adaptive human Learning is a natural, adaptive human process.process.

learn and adapt to their environment.learn and adapt to their environment.

Developed sophisticated skills.Developed sophisticated skills.

Advanced knowledge about the world Advanced knowledge about the world around them when they need to or want around them when they need to or want to.to.

Characteristics of Meaningful Characteristics of Meaningful Learning.Learning.• ActiveActive Manipulative/ObservantManipulative/Observant• IntentionalIntentional Goal directed/RegulatoryGoal directed/Regulatory• ConstructiveConstructive Articulate/ReflectiveArticulate/Reflective• AuthenticAuthentic Complex/ContextualizedComplex/Contextualized• Cooperative Cooperative Collaborative/ConversationalCollaborative/Conversational

Constructive Constructive (Articulative/Reflective)(Articulative/Reflective)

• Learn the lessons that their activity has to teach.• Learners articulate what they have Accomplished.• Learners Reflect on their activity and observation.• Learners observe and what they understand.• Learners integrate their new experiences with their prior

knowledge about the world.• Learners establish goals for what they need to learn in

order to make sense out of what they observe.• Learners begin constructing their own simple mental

models that explain what they observe.• learners mentally represent their understanding in

different ways using different thought processes.

Intentional (Goal-Directed/Regulatory)

All human behavior is goal directed (Schank, 1994). That is, everything that we do is intended to fulfill some goal. learners are actively and willfully trying to achieve a cognitive goal

(Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994) Technologies have traditionally been used to support teachers' goals

but not those of learners. Technologies need to engage learners in articulating and representing

their understanding, not that of teachers. Learners use technologies 'to represent their actions and construction. Learners use computers to do skillful planning for doing everyday

tasks or constructing and executing a way to research a problem they want to solve, they are intentional and are learning meaningfully.

Authentic Authentic (Complex/Contextual)(Complex/Contextual) Most lessons learned in schools Most lessons learned in schools

focus on general principles.focus on general principles. Most lessons learned in schools Most lessons learned in schools

focus theories.focus theories. teachers and professors remove teachers and professors remove

those ideas from their natural those ideas from their natural contexts in order to be able to cover contexts in order to be able to cover the curriculum more efficiently.the curriculum more efficiently.

Teachers read a simplified problem Teachers read a simplified problem and immediately represent the and immediately represent the problem in a formula.problem in a formula.

Cooperative (Collaborative/Conversati

onal)• Humans naturally work together in learning and knowledge-building communities.• Humans naturally seek out others to help them to solve problems and perform

tasks.• learners seldom have the opportunity to "do anything that counts" in

collaborative teams despite their natural inclinations.• learners out of more natural and productive modes of thinking.• Learners, they believe, must be accountable for their own knowledge, so even if

you agree, at least in principle, with collaborative learning principles.• learners in teams.• Learners are strategic enough to know "what counts", in classrooms, so if they are

evaluated individually, collaborative learning activities will fail because students realize that their outcomes are not important.

• Learners working in groups must socially negotiate a common understanding of the task and the methods they will use to accomplish it.

• Learners become part of knowledge-building communities both in class and outside of school, they learn that there are multiple ways of viewing the world and multiple solutions to most of life's problems.

• Characteristics of meaningful learning are interrelated, interactive; and interdependent.

How Does Technology Facilitate Learning?

Some of the first educational technologies were illustrations in 17th-century books and slate chalkboards in 18th-century classrooms.

Educational technologies in the 20th century include lantern-slide and opaque projectors, later radio, and then motion pictures.

During the 1950s, programmed instruction emerged as the first true educational technology.

first technology developed specifically to meet 6 Chapter 1 educational needs.

technology, including computers, educators recognized its importance and debated how to apply each nascent commercial technology for educational purposes.

Learning With Technology

Technology is more than hardware. Technology consists also of the designs and the environments that

engage learners. Technology can also consist of any reliable technique or method for

engaging learning, such as cognitive learning strategies and critical thinking skills.

Learning technologies can be any environment or definable set of activities that engage learners in active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative learning.

Technologies are not conveyors or communicators of meaning. Technologies support meaningful learning. when they fulfill a learning

need.

Technologies should function as intellectual tool kit~ that enable learners to build more meaningful personal interpretations and representations of the world.

Learners and technologies should be intellectual partners, where the cognitive responsibility for performance is distributed by the part of the partnership that performs it better.

How Technologies Foster Learning

Technology as tools to support knowledge construction.

Technology as information vehicle for exploring knowledge to support learning by constructing.

Technology as authentic context to support learning by doing.

Technology as social medium to support learning by conversing.

Technology as intellectual partner (Jonassen, 2000) to support learning by reflecting.

How Technologies Foster Thinking

Causal Analogical Expressive Experiential Problem Solving

Conclusion

- Meaningful learning will 'result when technologies engage learners in the following:

• Knowledge construction, not reproduction

• Conversation, not reception• Articulation, not repetition• Collaboration, not competition • Reflection, not prescription

References

• Becker, H. J.. (1985). How schools use microcomputers: Summary of a 1983 national survey. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EO 257448)

• Clark, R. (1983). Mere vehicles. Review of Educational Research, 53(4), 445-459.• Hadley, M., & Sheingold, K. (1993).Comrnonalities and distinctive patterns in teacher

interaction of computers. American Journal of Edilcation, 101(3), 261-315.• Hume, D. (1739/2000). A treatise of human nature. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.• Jonassen, D. H. (2000). Computers as mindtools in schools: Engaging critical

thinking . .Columbus, OH: Merrill/Prentice Hall.• Jonassen, D. H., & Ionas, 1. G. (2007). Designing effective supports for causal reasoning.

Educational Technology: Research and Development, 55.• Polkinghorne, D. (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. Albany: State University

of New York Press.• Scardamalia, M. & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge building communities.

Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3(3), 265-283.

• Schank, R. C. (1994). Goal-based scenarios. In R. C. Schank & E. Langer (Eds.), Beliefs, reasoning, and decision making: Psycho-logic in honor of Bob Abelson (pp. 1-33). Hillsdale, NI: Lawrence Erlbaum.