ROLES AND FUNCTIONS OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Roles of Technology in Delivering Lesson

·         Upgrading the quality of teaching-learning

·         Increasing teacher capability to teach effectively and students’ mastery

·         Broadening the delivery of education, i.e. Open University

·         Revolutionizing teaching from teacher-centered to student-centered.

·         Projected media shows details like parts of the nervous system, the fertilization of human beings, underwater life, Google Earth, etc.

Traditional Role

·         The learner learns from the technology and the technology serves as a teacher.

Constructivist Role

·         Technology helps the learner build meaningful experiences.

·         Technology is a learning tool to learn with not from.

·         From Constructivist View….

·         Technology as tools to support knowledge construction.

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

·         Technology as support to learning by doing.

·         Technology as social medium to support learning by conversing.

·         Technology as intellectual partner to support learning by reflecting.

If properly selected and used, instructional materials can do the ff:

·         Arouse and sustain the interest and attention of the students to learn.

·         Concretize abstract concepts to promote meaningful learning.

·         Makes learning more permanent because of rich experiences they provide.

·         Provide self activities for independent learning.

·         Increase vocabulary by eliminating verbalism.

·         Increase the quality of learning while decreasing the time spent.

·         Check pupil preparedness.

·         Make learning more interactive, hence learning is improved.

Guidelines in the selection of IM

Size

·         big enough to be seen by the farthest pupil.

·         Relativity of size observed compared to other materials.

Color

·         Colorful

·         Life like colors

·         Harmonious, complementary

Durability

·         It can be used several times

Economy

·         Worth its cost

·         Easy to prepare

Easy To Handle

·         Light and easy to manipulate

·         Easy to put up and store

Relevance

·         Materials are updated

·         It is related to the lesson

·         It is based on the needs, problems and experiences of the target clientele.

Novelty

·         The material possesses the element of newness.

·         It arouses curiosity and sense of discovery in the learners.

HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Evolution of Educational Technology

 

Education during the Ancient Times

·         Educational Technology started during the ancient civilization when man started to use pointed sticks to in script signs and symbols on the leaves and knives on bark of trees.

·         When the Egyptians devised a system of picture writing known as hieroglyphics.

·         In ancient Greece, the Spartan education emphasized the development of the physical body coupled with discipline.

·         Boys underwent exercises and activities that promoted bodily strengths such as dancing, wrestling, swimming, gymnastic, etc.

·         Girls stayed by their mothers who taught them the rudiments of housekeeping and motherhood.

·         In Athens, they believed that mind and body has strong relationship, thus activities to develop both were the concerns in the music schools, grammar schools and public gymnasium.  Instructional materials were designed and implemented during this period.

 

Education during the Medieval Era

·         Emperor Frederick 1 of Bologna in 1158 chartered the first university.

·         Students are required to write their theses and defend them in public before the deans, faculty and rectors.

·         The curriculum of the Arabs among the moors of Spain was the most organized and complete in the elementary, secondary and collegiate.

 

Education during the Renaissance Period

·         The intellectual development  such as Humanism, Reformation, Realism, Disciplinism and Rationalism contributed to the development of educational technology along with theories and practices.

·         Bacon advanced his ideas about education

·         Locke came out with his idea about the nature of child’s mind at birth in Tabula Rasa.

·         Johann Amos Comenius was recognized for developing the first picture book – the Orbis Pictus (The World in Pictures). He was considered the pioneer in instructional technology development.

·         Maria Montessori contributed her ideas about teaching, the use of multi-sensory materials.

 

Education during the Age of Naturalism

·         Jean Jacques Rousseau on his naturalistic view of education contained in his book Emile.

·         Herbart also came out with his five formal steps to teaching known as Herbartian Method of Teaching

·         Preparation, presentation, comparison and abstraction, generalization and application.

·         Peztallozi came out with his idea that teaching is more effective if it proceeds from concrete to abstract.

·         Froebel, the father of kindergarten emphasized the used of actual objects, which can be manipulated by the learners. He recommended the use of play and songs.

 

Educational Movements in the 19^th Century

·         John Dewey formulated the scientific theory of learning.

·         Edward Lee Thorndike advanced the three primary laws of learning.

·         This era paved way to the development of educational technology, including books, blackboards and equipment.

·         Photography was invented giving way to visual instruction.

·         Publication of audio-visual media texts in 1929.

·         Educational films were used as instructional media in 1926.

·         First instructional TV program was aired in 1932 at the State University of Iowa.

·         At the same time, the 16mm sound motion picture was developed.

 

Education in Contemporary Times

·         Most schools have already adopted the computerization of school’s practices.

·         Multimedia resources and computers are common fixtures in all classrooms.

·         School’s curricula have revised and enriched their curricular offerings to include computer applications.

·         Trainings and retooling of teachers with regard to the use of CAI.

MEANING OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

 Technology means……

·         TECHNOLOGY comes from the Greek word techne which means craft or art.

·         Technology is the applied side of scientific development (Dale 1969).

·         Technology refers to all the ways people use their inventions and discoveries to satisfy their needs and desires ( World Book Encyclopedia).

What is Educational Technology?

·         It refers to how people use their inventions and discoveries to satisfy their educational needs and desires.

·         It is a complex, integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices and organization for analyzing problems and devising solutions to those problems.

·         It is a theory about how problems in human learning are identified and solved.

·         It is a field involved in applying a complex, integrated process to analyze and solve problems in human learning.

·         It is a field study which is concerned with the practice of using educational methods and resources for the goal of facilitating the learning process.

Related terms….

·         Technology in Education – the application of technology in the processes involved in education.

·         Technology of Education – it refers to the techniques, methodologies and strategies used in the teaching-learning processes.

·         Instructional Technology – the designing, carrying out and evaluating of the total process of learning and teaching in terms of specific objectives.

·         Technology Integration – using learning technologies to introduce, reinforce, supplement and extend skills.

·         Educational Media – are channels or avenues or instruments of communication.

·         Educational Technology is more than hardware. It also includes processes, procedures and activities, instructional and curricular designs, learning environment and systems.

·         Educational Technology does not only includes recent inventions like computer and internet. It also includes traditional tools like chalkboard and charts that teachers have been using over the years.

Technology: Boon or Bane

After understanding the meaning of educational technology, it may be good to reflect on whether technology is a boon or bane to education.

Technology: Boon or Bane

Technology as Bane:

·         It fosters for a climate of bogus credentials

·         Technological literacy seems not to serve any legitimate economic need, rather some agenda. Ex. Yesterday’s reading test for custodians becomes now computers experiences.

·         It wastes time. Ex. The constant barrage of emails, ringing of CP’s leaves little time to concentrate on any job at hand.

·         People tend to pick up their phones when engaged in another conversation while talking to person in front.

·         Some argues that technology has enabled our generation to be lazy students.

·         Ex. They can make research through internet, using copy, cut, and paste method.

·         The web makes it easier for us to plagiarize.

·         Technology is also putting people out of jobs, using robot or machines as workers.

·         Hackers stealing personal information and using it for their advantage.

·         Newspapers subscription is dropping nationwide. Ex. Who wants to pay newspapers when you can read it on the web for free?

Technology as Boon:

·         It makes task easier and faster

·         It facilitates effective and efficient communication process.

·         It makes abstract concepts concrete.

·         And many more….