Lesson 8: Higher Thinking Skills through IT-Based Projects

In this lesson, we shall discuss four types of IT-based projects which can effectively be used in order to engage students in activities of a higher plane of thinking. To be noted id the fact that these projects differ in the specific process and skills employed, also in the ultimate activity or platform used to communicate completed products to others.

            It is to be understood that these projects do not address all of the thinking skills shown previously in the Thinking Skills Framework. But these projects represent constructivist project.

            Key Elements of a constructivist approach:

a)      The teacher creating the learning environment.

b)      The teacher giving students the tool

c)      The teacher facilitating learning.

Now let us see four IT-based projects conducive to develop higher thinking skills and creativity among learners.

I.   RESOURCE-BASED PROJECTS

The teacher steps out of the traditional role of being an context expert and information provider, and instead lets the students find their own facts and information.

The general flows of events in resource-based projects are:

1. The teacher determines the topic for the examination of class.
2.  The teacher presents the problem to the class.
3. The students find information on the problem/questions.
4. Students organize their information in response to the problem/questions.

TRADITIONAL AND RESOURCE-BASED LEARNING

Traditional learning model	Resource-based learning model
Teacher is expert and information provides	Teacher is a guide and facilitator
Textbook is key source of information	Sources are varied (print, video. Internet, etc.)
Focus on facts information is packaged in neat parcels	Focus on learning inquiry, quest, or discovery
The product is the be-all and end-all of learning	Emphasis on process
Assessment is quantitative	Assessment is quantitative and qualitative.

II.   SIMPLE CREATIONS

In developing software, creativity as an outcome should not be equated with ingenuity or high intelligence. Creating is more consonant with planning, making, assembling, designing or building.

Three kinds of skills/abilities:

• Analysing- distinguishing similarities and differences/ seeing the project as a problem to be solved.
• Synthesizing- making spontaneous connections among ideas, does generating interesting or new ideas.
• Promoting- selling of a new ideas to allow the public to test the ideas themselves.

The five key task to develop creativity:

•  Define the task- clarify the goal of the completed project to the student.
•  Brainstorm- the students themselves will be allowed to generate their own ideas on the project. Rather than shoot down ideas, the teacher encourages ideas exchange.
•  Judge the ideas- the students themselves make an appraisal for or against any idea. Only when students are completely off check should the teacher intervene.
•  Act- the students do their work with the teacher a facilitator.
• Adopt flexibility- the students should be allowed to shift gears and not follow an action path rigidly.

III.  GUIDED HYPERMEDIA PROJECTS

The production of self-made multimedia projects can be approached into different ways:

•  Instructive tools- such as in the production by students of a power point presentation of a selective topic.
•  Constructive tools- such as when students do a multi-media presentation (with text, graphs, photos, audio narration, interviews, video clips, etc. to simulate a television news show.

IV. WEB-BASED PROJECTS

Students can be made to create and post web pages on a given topic. But creating new pages, even single page web pages, maybe tool sophisticated and time consuming fort the average student.

            It should be said, however, that posting of web pages in the Internet allows the students (now the web page creator) a wider audience. They can also be linked with other related sites in the Internet. But as of now, this creativity project maybe to ambitious as a tool in the teaching-learning process.

Reflection:

               As a future teacher I realized that these four IT Based projects is very important in teaching because it  can help us  molding our students, with the help of these students will be able to create something and decide anything for there self. It also helps the learners  to develop their higher thinning  skills step by step. In four IT Based Projects the one that I really like is the Simple creation,because in simple creation learners will be able to know how to draw,paint,write and many more.

Lesson 10: The Computer as a Tutor

                   The computer is one of the wonders of human ingenuity, even in its original design in the 1950s to carry out complicated mathematical and logical operations. With the invention of the microcomputer (now commonly referred to PCs or personal computers), the PC has become the tool for programmed instruction.

                Educators saw much use of the PC. It has become affordable to small business, industries and homes. They saw its potential for individualization in learning, especially as individualized learning is a problem since teachers usually with a class of forty or more learners. They therefore devised strategies to use the computer to the break the barriers to individualized instruction

Computer-assisted instruction (CAI)

                The computer can be a tutor in effect relieving teacher of many activities in his personal role as classroom tutor. It should be made clear, however, that the computer cannot totally replace the teacher since the teacher shall continue to play the major roles of information deliverer and learning environment controller. Even with the available computer and CAI software, the teacher must;

•  Insure that students have the needed knowledge and skills for    any computer activity
•  Decide the appropriate learning objectives
•  Plan the sequential and structured activities to achieve objectives
•  Evaluate the students’ achievements by ways of tests the specific expected outcomes.

On the other hand, the student in CAI play their own roles as learners as they;

•  Receive information
• Understand instruction for the computer activity
• Retain/keep in mind the information and rules for the computer activity
• Apply the knowledge and rules during the process of computer learning

During the computer activity proper in CAI the computer too plays its roles as it:

•  Act as a sort of tutor (the role traditional played by the teacher)
•   Provides a learning environment
•   Delivers learning instruction
•  Reinforces learning through drill and practice
•  Provides feedback

                Today, educators accept the fact that the computer has indeed succeeded in providing an individualized learning environment so difficult for a teacher handling whole classes. This is so, since the  computer able to  allow individual student to learn out their own pace, motivate learning through a challenging virtual learning environment, assist student through information needed during the learning process, evaluate student responses through immediate feedback during the learning process also give the total score to evaluate the student’s total performance.

CAI Integrated with Lesson

                CAI computer learning should not stop with the drill and practice activities of students in effect, CAI work best in reinforcing learning trough repetitive exercise such that student can practice basic skills or knowledge in various subject areas. Common types of drill and practice programs include vocabulary building, math facts, and basic science, and history or geography facts. In these programs, the computer presents a question/ problem the first and the student is asked to answer the question/problem. Immediate feedback is given to the student’s answer. After the number of practice problems and at the end of the exercise, the students get a summary of his overall performance.

                 The question arises: When and how can teacher integrate drill and practice programs with their lessons? The following suggestion can be made:

• Use drill and practice programs for basic skills and knowledge that require rapid or automatic response by students (e.g. multiplication table, letter and word recognition, identification of geometric shapes, etc.)
• Ensure that drill and practice activities conform to the lesson plan/curriculum.
•  Limit drill and practice to 20-30 minutes to avoid boredom.
• Use drill and practice to assist students with particular weakness in basic skills.

        In integrating computer programs in instruction, use tutorial soft ware associated with cognitive learning. While practice exercise or learning by doing is still the heart of each tutorial, the tutorial software should be able to:

• Teach new content /new information to students (in as much as CAI provides practice on old or already learned content)
• Provide comprehensive information on concepts in addition to practice exercise
• Can be effectively used for remediation, reviewing or enrichment
• Allow the teacher to introduce follow-up question to stimulate student learning.
•  Permits group activity for cooperative learning

SIMULATION PROGRAMS

                Simulation software materials are another kind of software that is constructivist in nature. This simulation software:

• Teacher strategies and rules applied to real-life problems/situation
• Ask students to make decision on models or scenarios
•  Allow students to manipulate elements of a model and get the experience of the effect of their decisions

           An example of such software is SimCity in which students are allowed to artificially manage a city environment. Decision-making involve such factors as budget, crime, education, transportation, energy resources, waste disposal, business/ industries available. (Note: soft ware may not be available on local computer shops. Still concept-learning is helpful).



Reflection:

    I agree that computers are the wonders of human ingenuity. A computer can be a tutor but it can't replaced the teacher, although computer can Act as a sort of tutor, provides learning environment, delivers learning instruction but still it cannot substitute or replaced the teacher, because I believe that teacher is much better than the computer, and the computer has limitation but a teacher don't have limitation they can do a lot of things that a computer cannot do.

Lesson 14: The Software as an Educational Resource

                   If the people heard the word computer, they are most likely thinking the hardware. Hardware is naturally an attention-getter, example of hardware are the printer, keyboard, mouse etc. We cannot use the hardware without the software. Software is the program or system that tells what the computer needs to do. Software has two kinds, and these are the system software and application software. System software is the operating system which can found inside all computer machines while the application software is the one which contains the system that commands the particular tasks, under the application software are the custom software and commercial software. Custom software is made for specific tasks often by large corporations. Commercial software packaged for personal computer that helps with a variety of tasks like writing papers, calculating numbers, drawing graphs and many more.

Microsoft windows

               It is an operating environment between the user and the computer operating system. Microsoft Windows also called “a shell”. Whenever we turned on a computer, we can see a colorful graphics interface called GUI, we can see it on the computer screen or monitor. Software that designed for Microsoft Windows is Windows 95, but Windows 95 already improved with Windows 2003, 2007 and also 2010. Windows is in itself a self-contained operating system which provides:

•  User convenience
•  A new look
• Information center
• Plug and play
• Instructional Software

                   It is the computer programs that serve as tools to be used by teachers to preface for instruction and maintain records. It can be visited on the Internet and we can buy it from software shops or dealers. The teacher through school should decide on the best computer-based instructional materials for the school resource collection. CBI needs much improvement so teacher should be aware on it. To evaluate the computer the computer-based education materials, here are the guidelines:

• Be extremely cautious in using CBIs and “free” Internet materials
• Don’t be caught up by attractive graphics, sound, animation, pictures, video clips, and music forgetting their instructional worth.
• Accuracy, coherence, logic of information
• Relevance/effectiveness in attaining learning objectives
• Absence of biased materials (e.g. gender bias or racial bias)

Reflection:


           The teacher always used the web-based softwares in teaching,because it is attractive they used colorful graphics, sounds and videos. Software is very important, it can do a lot of things and without the software we cannot used the computer.

Lesson 15: The Internet and Education

Internet,

- also simply called the Net,

- it is the largest and far-firing network system-of-all-system.

-originally developed and still subsidized by the United State government

-connect not only commercial, industrial, scientific establishments

It connect to all the sectors including education and libraries, campuses and computer centers.

How is everything coordinated through the Internet?

This is done through a standardized protocol called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol(TCP/IP).

   To gain access to the internet the computer must be equipped with what is called a Server which has a special software (program) that uses the Internet protocol.

Getting around the Net

           The vast sea of information now in the Internet, including news and trivia, is an overwhelming challenge to those who wish to navigate it. In everyday, the internet continue to grow, it is continuously developed to tour the Internet.

          Browsing is the most attractive way to move around the Internet. A program, which is browser, can use a mouse to point and click on screen icons to surf the Internet,  The web or  an Internet' s subset of text, images ,and sounds are linked together to allow users to access data or information need.

The future of the Internet seems limitless. Already its complexity has spawned and continues to spawn Net sites including new demand for services to business, industries, science, government and even homes. Many experts predict that the Internet is destined to become the centerpiece of all online communications on the planet and in some future time in the solar system using interplanetary satellite communication stations.

A view of  educational uses of the Internet

                Educational software materials have also developed both in sophisticated and appeal. There is now a wider choice from rote arithmetic or grammar lesson to discovery and innovation projects. But the real possibility today is connecting with the world outside homes, classrooms, and Internet cafes. And today schools are gearing up to take advantage of Internet access, where they can plug into the Library of Congress, make virtual visits to famous museums in the world, write to celebrities and even send questions to heads of states.

Reflection:

                I beleive that Internet is very imporant in education because it helps the learner and the teacher, it always help us in our research, also if where going to communicate to others. It has a big role in education and in community.

Lesson 16: Understanding Hypermedia

            Hypermedia is nothing but multimedia, but this time packaged as an educational computer software where information is presented and student activities are integrated in a virtual learning environment. Most educational IT applications are hypermedia and these include:

• Tutorial software packages
• Knowledge web pages
• Simulation instructional games
• Learning project management and others

             The presentation of information-learning in hypermediais said to be sequenced in a non linear manner,meaning that the learner may follow his path of activities thus providing an environment of learner autonomy and thinking skills

Characteristics of hypermedia applications

The two important features that are outstanding among other features:

1.)Learner control - This means the learner makes his own decisions on the path, flow or events of instruction.

2.)Learner wide range of navigation routes - the learners controls the sequence and pace of his path depending on his ability and motivation.

In the use of hypermedia the following instructional events will prove useful to the teacher:

• Get the learner's attention
• Recall prior learning
• Inform learners of lesson objectives
• Introduce the software and its distinctive features
• Guide learning,eliciting performance
• Provide learning feedback
• Asses performance
• Enhance retention and learning

            
Reflection:
    Hypermedia is very effective to use, it is very useful tool for a the teachers,it can use to motivate the learners and with the use of hypermedia,the teacher easily catch the attention of the students.