with ICT research or advancement
in Science and Technology”.
Electronic technology has dramatically penetrated into every area of society, and every aspect of our social and cultural lives. Most significant are the changes brought in our children by the technological revolution. Our children have been raised in a world of instant access to knowledge, a world where vivid images supplement information formerly presented solely through text.
Although technology has revolutionised our Indian Culture, it has been slow to have much impact on education. Teacher educators have been rushing to catch up with technology and to adjust the process of teaching, which has remained mostly the same for the past 100 years. This has caused an estrangement of schools from society and from the children in it, specifically because the way people are delivered information and absorb that information has changed greatly with the huge increase in the use of technology in society. How do we educate the “new child”, raised in a world of instant information, where interactive technologies have led them to believe they can act on the world with the press of a button. Students need to learn how to learn independently to deal with this explosion of knowledge. In the future much learning is likely to be through independent learning. A solution to this is to create a guiding philosophy that dictates changes in the curriculum and uses technology as effective pieces of those changes. This new philosophy would be based on constructivist theories of learning.
Constructivism emphasises the careful study of the processes by which children create and develop their ideas. Its educational applications lie in creating curricula that match children’s understanding, fostering further growth and development of the mind. Two specific features of constructivist philosophy include the following. The first is the notions that play and experimentation is valuable forms of learning. Play involves the consideration of novel combinations of ideas, and the hypothetical outcomes of imagined situations and events. It is a form of mental exploration in which children create, reflect on, and work out their understanding. Actual experimentation, the manipulation and testing of ideas provides children with direct, concrete feedback about the accuracy of their ideas as they work them out. Both play and exploration are self structured and self-motivated process of learning. The focus of constructivism, then, is the child as a self-governed creator of knowledge. Based on this, the educational practices are designed to facilitate children’s learning by nurturing their own, active cognitive abilities. To accomplish this end, a supportive environment, one in which they can create their own ideas, both individually and collaboratively must be provided. The term “child-driven learning environment” (CDLE) have been chosen to describe this new model of education.
Two key features of CDLEs are the changed relationship between teacher and student, and the provision of a resource-rich, activity-based curriculum for learning. A CDLE operates according to an egalitarian, cooperative structure where the ideas and interests of the children drive the learning process.
New CDLE classroom
The Visual Language Laboratory (VLL) developed and implemented by Erik F Strommen and Bruce Lincoln is a course in programming using a typical HyperCard environment that is meant to embody the CDLE model. Rather than lead the children through a teacher-directed, step-by-step introduction to Hyper Card procedures, the class is organised around student-oriented projects that utilise the Hyper Card system as an expressive medium. The focus is on single complex projects. First requiring the children to conceive and execute an entire program by the end of the course presents them with a rich, open-ended, self-directed task in which they can explore the various procedures and how they interact, rather than simply learn them in isolation from one another, in a rote fashion. Second, the emphasis on an end-product grounds child in a meaningful task, in which an initial idea is seen to undergo changes as if it is turned into an actual product.The class, is organized as a four-step process namely
- Exploration
- Conceptualisation
- Production
- Post-production
Exploration
During this period, the children are introduced to the system, and allowed to explore various pre-existing HyperCard programmes, so that they become familiar with the capabilities of the programming language.
Conceptualisation
In this the children devise a “story board” or “flow chart” of their own proposed programme.
Production
In this step, the children assemble the materials needed for their project and make a first attempt at developing the actual programme. This step often involves children spending time outside the classroom, either composing the text to be included in the programme or assembling the images and sound content that will be used. This initial programme and all previous versions to date are submitted to the educator for evaluation at this point.
Post-production
During this period, students modify the design and scripting of their projects in response to feedback from the educator and other students, in order to address problems encountered in the design process. Finishing touches such as full sound tracks and special effects are added at the end of this period. The final product, and all previous versions, is submitted to the teacher. The class culminates in a public presentation of the completed projects, to which parents, educators and students are invited.
In Visual Language Laboratory, two new types of assessment are possible. The first is assessment of children’s learning processes as they are occurring. Video taped records of student interactions as they work, reveals their grasp of the course material, as well as their ability to communicate it to others. The types of errors children perform, and how they correct them, are a rich source of information about children’s understanding. A second new form of assessment is the evaluation of a portfolio that shows the evolution of a child’s work as it is created, rather than of a single completed work or a set of isolated exercises. In VLL, children provide the educator with complete records of their progress in creating their programmes. These record are both printed and on disk. These different versions of the children’s projects, collected over time, allow the educator to follow the development of subsequent versions of the programme and evaluate the student’s progress in learning and applying different HyperCard procedures. Such records document the student’s progress in learning, and allow the educator to identify areas where individual students may require tutoring in specific procedures.
Conclusion
Technology has effectively revolutionized our society. An unexpected byproduct of this revolution has been the emergence of a generation of children weaned on multi dimensional, interactive media sources. If we are to give these children the education necessary to succeed in our technologically intense, global future a new form of educational practice, one that builds on children’s native learning abilities and technological competence, must replace our existing methods. The theoretical foundation for such changes exists, and the time to implement them is now. Our schools still remain in the past, while our children have been born in the future. The result is a mismatch between learner and educator. Only by revising educational practice in light of how our culture has changed can we close this gap, and reunite our schools with our children and the rest of our society.
References
1. Garvey, C.(1977).Play. Cambridge : Harvard university press
2. Rysavy, S.D.M., & Sales, G.C. (1991). Cooperative learning in computer-based instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 39, (71-79)
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