Reflection of the Article ‘Revolutionizing Learning in the Digital Age’

Last decade the slogan was the converting society from industrial age to information age. New slogan is that computer should not only use for information, but also should use for transmitting and accessing information. The revolutionary potentiality of technology is transforming learning and education. Near future the digital divide will be eliminated, but digital fluency will be the issue. Computer works like children’s finger paint not like the television (Resnick,2001). People develop a creativity attitude by using the computer. They can create their own web page, create their music and create their own simulated world like the second life where the participants in a virtual world are able to create a virtual person and they can personalize to look however they want. Children can create new video game. Therefore our children’s learning, playing and communicating are changing very rapidly.
Computers have been seen as important productivity tools for adults in the workplace. However, for children, productivity is not when children spend hours playing with the computer games. When they develop a skill like designing a web page or drawing a picture, it is productivity. Computer can foster creativity and social skill for children. Technology can provide a rich medium where children can be expressive, to become artists, musicians, writers. With computer tools they can be what they want to be today. Educational researchers recognize that getting to be a scientist, poet or artist is an important component of creative learning.
The future vision of our world includes objects and places which will become infused and augmented with computational power. Children will be freed from their desks to actively engage in play with real world objects merged with technologies. We have to go beyond adult center technology and create personal technologies that enable children to be who they want to be.
Therefore, according to Resnick, we need to update curricula for the digital age in order to prepare students with the new skills and ideas needed for living and working in a digital society. We should encourage our students to engage in collaborative projects and simulation software and cognitive tools rather than only memorizing the subject matters.

References

Resnik, M. (2001) Revolutionizing Learning in the Digital Age .Publications from the forum for the future of higher education. Boulder, CO: Educause. www.educause.com/resources.

The Virtual World of Second Life. Retrieved November 19,2006. from http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5182759758975402950

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Reflection on Assessment

Assessment is a powerful and continuous process that helps students to improve their learning as well as help teachers to monitor their performance that how well they can help them progress. Assessment is a measurement and evaluation of students’ learning. Today’s teachers have to face more challenge than before regarding assessment strategy. Today’s students need 21st century skills which creates an urgent demand on learners to acquire and practice the higher order thinking skills from the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating. Standardized test are not the only way of gauging student achievement.(www.edutopia.org) Performance assessments like collaborative projects, portfolios in that compile writing samples offer a richer, more holistic approach to evaluating what students know and can do. However traditional paper pencil test is also necessary to memorize the basic knowledge and apply by recalling the knowledge in the test. I think both are necessary to monitor student’s actual progress effectively. Some students are good in memorizing facts and express their thoughts in writings, but they are not good at performances. On the other hand some are not good in memorizing or writing, but they are good in performance based tests. However, I think, there is not much impact on the real world workplace for a person who has a good academic result, but it is completely depend on the capability of handling practical works.
Another thing always reflects on tests which is students’ socioeconomic background particularly in America. Educators always think about how to narrow the educational inequities. In this perspective language is one the issues for preventing higher achievement score. That’s why educators have to think about alternative assessments in order to ensure equity.

References:
North central Regional Educational laboratory.(1995). Critical Issue: Rethinking assessment and its role in supporting educational reform. http:/www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/assment/as700.htm.

North Certral Regional Regional Educational Laboratory.(1995). Critical Issue: Ensuring Equity with Alternative Assessments. http:/www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/assment/as800.htm.

Snowman, J. & Beihler, R. (2006). Psychology applied to teaching (11th edition).Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin

The George Lucas Educational Foundation. www.edutopia.org.

Thought of Learning for Mastery

Learning is continuous and complex process. Traditional belief that a child who is born with very low IQ, can not develop mastery in any subjects or area, has been changed. Teacher must completely involve in the student’s learning process. First, he or she has to define a strategy how each and every student of a class can develop mastery in every subject. Mastery in subjects depends on five criteria. Achievement test or aptitude test can judge students’ mastery in subjects. So this test can motivate students to involve in subjects. The more they involve, the more they develop in the mastery in subjects. Teacher can develop students in mastery through presentation, explanation and home task. Teacher need to evaluate how much student understand his or her instruction. If it is not, he or she has to define a new way of instruction. Frequent feedback, reward can increase the students’ perseverance in a learning situation. For example, if one student does not get a good grade in mathematics, sometimes it means that he or she does not like to involve in that subject area, whenever that particular student gets a reward for some task related to that subject, he will be motivated and will push to continue his learning on that area and it will result to mastery. Again student can achieve mastery if they devote the amount of time needed to the learning (Bloom, 1968). When student achieve mastery in subjects, obviously they can develop lifelong interest in learning.
With the advent of instructional technology today’s teachers can meet the individual problem and solve their problem in a scientific way, in order to develop students’ mastery in subjects. Nowadays innumerable computer software is available to help them mastery in different subjects with the guidance of teacher though. Now teacher as a facilitator and computer as an intellectual partner provide students at every level materials and guidance to develop optimization of the learning process.

References:

Bloom, B. S., (May 1968). Learning for mastery. Evaluation Comment, 1(2), 1-12

Atkinson, R. C., (1967). Computerized instruction and the learning process. Technical Report No.122, Stanford, California. Institute for Mathematical studies in the social sciences.

Bloom, B. S. (Ed.), (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: Handbook 1, cognitive domain, New York: David McKay Company.

Reflection of ‘Computer as Mindtools for Engaging Learners in Critical Thinking’

The more and more integration of Technology in classroom setting and learning affects the more and more increasing responsibility towards teachers and Pedagogy. Today’s teachers need to use technology as a tool to help student read, write, apply critical thinking, synthesize information and put together in a structured way. They have to think about that how technology can be applied to the learning process. Pupils should use computer as a facilitate tool to enhance the effects of learning knowledge and cultivate their mind in thoughtful way.
Jonassen, chad Carr and Hsiu-Ping Yueh describes Mindtools as a ‘way of using a computer application program to engage learners in constructive, higher order, critical thinking, about the subjects they are studying.’ The learner enters an intellectual partnership with the computer and begins to access and interpret information and organize personal knowledge in new ways. Mindtools are computer based tools and learning environments which serve as extensions of the mind. For example, databases, spreadsheets, semantic network (concept map), computer conferencing, Hypermedia construction. As I believe in constructivism, it is the Mindtools that helps knowledge construction, in which learner organize and represent what they know and foster creativity and higher order thinking skill through collaboration. Constructivist learning environment provide a question, problem or project learner attempts to solve. In the perspective of Cognitive process, by using computer as Mindtools, learner becomes more self reliant thinker and problem solver and help learner transcend mental limitations. Actually learner provide intelligence not computer and learner compel to engage in deep thinking. In pedagogy, the semantic organization tool can be used to represent knowledge in different subjects which engages learner in critical thinking and creative thinking about subject.
Therefore, Mindtool represent all effective and efficient way of integrating computer in a school setting. They can be used across the school curricula to engage students in thinking deeply about the subject they are studying and they can act as an intellectual partner that facilitates knowledge construction and reflection by learners. Mindtool softwares are readily available and affordable and they can provide variety of scaffold.
According to “Gardner, individuals are creative in specific domain”. He suggested that providing students with ways to be creative allows them to find and solve problems and communicate ideas in various forms’. Therefore, by providing different Mindtools to the students, teachers let them enhance their creativity through hand eye coordination, mental rotation, mental mapping, spatial visualization.

References

Jonassen, D., Carr, C., & Yueh, H. (1998). Computers as mindtools for engaging learners in critical thinking: Tecktrends, 43(2), 24-32.

Jonassen, D. (2000). Computer as Mindtools for School: Engaging Critical Thinking.2nd edition.(Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice Hall) www.chss.iup.edu/jrmcdono/ED455-methods/mindtools.htm.

Jonassen, D. (2000). Mindtools for Engaging Critical Thinking in Classroom. www.coe.missouri.edu/~jonassen/courses/mindtools/mindtools/html.

Reflection of the article ‘A word of Learning’

Seymour Papert mentioned explicitly about the principles of learning. Usually Schools are encouraged to follow certain rules. Teachers need to focus on how students are able to solve the problems or to find out the correct answer, not to focus on rule or the way. Child can think about how they can solve problem individually. Student can able to solve a problem, when they spend little time to think about that. So, it is the thinking that fosters learning.
Papert suggested that school have to think more carefully about standard approaches to special education. Teacher has to think more profoundly about those disabilities and find the way to solve them. Motivation always does not work. Constructivism is built on the assumption that child will do best by finding for themselves the specific knowledge they need.
Everybody might have some learning difficulty in some area like author’s difficulty to remember the name of the flower or flower dyslexia. Learning explodes when one stay with it. The more connection means the more depth in that area. The new connection supports one another more effectively and those are long lasting and go in many direction. In my view, cultivation of knowledge is the key to someone’s success. The more someone cultivate something, the more he or she gains knowledge. Therefore, even though knowledge passes through a pipeline from teacher to student, interconnectivity of knowledge play a vital role in learning.

References:

Papert, S. (1993), The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer. New York, NY: Basic Books

Reflection of the article “Now more than ever: Will High-Tech Kids Still Think Deeply?”

The authors consider the advantages and disadvantages of information technology on children. Before flooding school with technology, critical thinking skills should be used to consider how technology will be affecting the way people think and the modes people need for learning. Now with modern technology, two dimensional quality of linear thinking is being replaced by multidimensional thinking. If we use technological tools well, we will be enhancing our modes of thinking and our capacity for critical thinking. So, it is necessary to developing a new literacy that will incorporate all the types of literacy, circular, linear and multidimensional. Today’s children are not learning with books. It could be disastrous for higher education and research. In my view, as a teacher, I should include oral tradition through plenty of physical activity, singing, making things with hands, listening to and reading literature, drawing pictures with crayons and paints, sending and receiving letters and pretending, as part of our literacy program. Otherwise, they will never develop reading and writing skills. I think, in accordance with traditional literacy, digital literacy has to be developed in children. It is a special kind of mindset, a special kind of thinking. It also involves retrieving data from the web, which requires the user’s knowledge. In the past, we have used manipulative to visually represent mathematical ideas. The possibilities provided by new technologies to represent ideas continue to expand; some include graphing calculators, spreadsheets and interactive geometry programs. In this way, today’s children will develop a new literacy which incorporate all types of literacy, circular, linear and multidimensional.

References

Tarlow, Mary-Claire & Spangler, Katherine L. (Nov 2001). Now more than ever: Will High-Tech Kids still thinks deeply? The Education Digest, PA Research II Periodicals. 67(3), 23-27
Pearson Greg and Yong Thomas (2002). Technically speaking: Why all American need to know more about Technology. Washington, D.C. National Academy Press.

Reflection on the article ‘An Evaluator Looks at Cultural Diversity’

The author of this article, Thomas C. Reeves considers cultural diversity as a serious issue in the evaluation of Instructional programs and products in the national and international level. Cultural sensitivity is the essential elements in the evaluation of education and training. He also suggests strategies for culturally sensitive evaluation and gives examples of cultural sensitivity and cultural bias and provides a rating scale for multicultural sensitivity in instructional products. In my view, cultural sensitivity is a delicate issue. Therefore, it is necessary to identify less obvious sources of cultural bias. Evaluators need to be familiar with different cultural knowledge, cultural characteristics, history, values, belief systems and behaviors of the members of ethnic group. Evaluator need to be able to adopt to cultural differences and to adopt approaches that lend themselves to cultural sensitivity. Evaluators should involve groups of evaluation that are important in policy and programming, particularly when evaluating issues of social responsibility. I think that through intensive study focusing on cultural sensitivity, Evaluator can overcome the shortcomings of instructional programs and products. As a result, the products could be acceptable to everybody irrespective of color, religion, race gender and disable through out the world.
According to Author, the ultimate goal should not design culturally neutral instructional materials, but should create learning environments that are enriched by the unique values that are inherent in different cultures. New millennium’ new challenge to the Evaluator is a new concept of ‘emancipatory evaluation’. Last of all, I think that Evaluators working in a different country or in a different cultural setting will find that their first important task is to learn about their culture and its implications for the program evaluation.

References:
Reeves, T. C. (1997, March-April). Educational Technology. An Evaluator Looks of Cultural Diversity, p. 27-31
EDD Publication, Canada. (2000, March). Evaluation Forum Newsletter.