Educational Technologies and Learning Theories - Essay Example

Running Head: EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND LEARNING THEORIES Educational technologies and learning theories Name Institution Education technologies and learning theories Introduction One very integrated part of the human being is his/her learning which has developed significantly over time with various improvements in the way in which it is enhanced. Today there is the use of technology to facilitate various learning processes in what could be referred to as learning technology or simply educational technology which forms the basis of our discussion. This is defined as the creation and management of appropriate technologies to facilitate or better the performance and learning process. In much simpler terms, educational technologies could be referred to as being the tools which could prove helpful in making students’ learning more efficient. There is always the need to use the term educational technologies along with such terms as learning theory and another closely related term, that is, instructional theory. Educational technologies are such applications as the internet applications, software and even hardware materials. Another term that will be of importance will be instructional technology which entails the process, instructions and the system used. All these constitute an area of application in the education system that brings with it a number of discussions the main one being the question of its importance over the traditional way of teaching. It is always good to know the value that technologies add to students and the general learning fraternity before ruling it as being good or better than the system original in application. Here we are going to look at three of these technologies and evaluate their help to the students together with their relevance to the theories applied in learning and how. Also we shall get to discuss the technologies used and their application before we get to know why they are more advantageous to those applying them. The three to be considered as technologies will include WebQuest, free online dictionary: Japanese to English and English to Japanese and instructional software. Under instructional software, we shall consider a language learning aid named instant immersion which is an instructional audiovisual tool. This carries a dialogue to enable students form the necessary ideas about the use of grammar. The three technologies considered will be evaluated to check how they are important in relation to the theories of learning. The considered learning theories in this analysis are such as Cognitivitism, Constructivism, Behaviorism and lastly the most common with the digital age, that is, Connectivism. These are much changed however in the current day and time in relation to the changes in the literature associated with psychology. Behaviorism was developed by Ivan Pavlov where there is the consideration of the ways of behaving of the learners with various stimuli in their environment. This has however been awarded dismal attention and favor from the various educators (Mowrer and Klein 2001). In much later considerations, the verbal behavior was taken into account in the explanation of the learning process in human beings. Cognitivism on its side looked beyond the behavior for the learning explanation based on the brain. There is the consideration of the working of the human memory to boost learning and related experiences. It is normally referred to as short-term memory compared to the technological introduction of computers which serve as lengthy storage memories. Another theory is the theory of Constructivism that entails learners constructing their own perceptions from the information fed to them for learning as they get the experiences in the realities of life. It calls upon the use of prior knowledge by students and their experiences to create new concepts. The teacher here is more like just a facilitator of the learning process by giving guidance to the students as they go through the process. Finally the theory of connectivism is most common with the digital generation and it considers the failures in cognitivism, behaviorism and constructivism to bring out the effects of technology on lives today, the communication and more so the learning process. This theory is looked upon as a provider of all the relevant points about all the other learning theories. To relate these theories to the technologies at hand, we shall consider them in several formats of technologies which are active learning technologies, inquiry based technologies and problem based technologies. Instructional technology item analysis 1. WebQuest This is the first instructional technology considered in the analysis. Developed way back in 1995, WebQuest is an inquiry based technology that entails the students learning from information gathered from various internet sources and applying the obtained knowledge in explanation of some concepts. Through this, there is integration of technology and class work which serves to make learning easier, better and more interesting as it is more like real life learning. What the learning experience does in the process in boosting of the students’ motivation. The objectives of this technology are: To help students integrate their real life experiences with the learning in class. To help in the structural information search and its utilization within the specified limited timeframe. Learning the use of WebQuest at a junior level is beneficial and learners of different ages can have specific designs to suit them. This specific design is based on a clear purpose and/or objective within the mind. It is a better control of the use of students’ time due to encouragement of focus and organization in the use and not just the search for the needed information; the students stick to their tasks. The thinking of learners is elevated to higher levels entailing analysis, evaluation and synthesis of ideas. Along with these, cognitive practices like problem solving and critical thinking are well catered for through the integration with the technology. It is the choice of teachers to incorporate WebQuest in introduction of units or in the conclusion. This technology also fosters collaboration and group work and takes learning a whole step higher. With the provision of necessary websites, sharp students can search more deeply without necessarily leaving out the rest of the students who are more or less exposed to the same creativity as their colleagues. The students using this technology are always aware of what they ought to tackle and the time frame. The search could be about languages, history or general science. It does carry the status of being an easy to use technology especially considering the fact that it can be created with the help of the normal computer programs in the name of Microsoft office word, Dreamweaver, Notepad, Open office and FrontPage. Pre-designed WebQuest formats can be edited to fit the situation at hand. As analyzed above, it clearly comes out that WebQuest brings out a number of points related to the learning theories mentioned prior to it. It enhances so much of the constructivism theory of learning as most of the time the learners are expected to relate their findings with the working in their class. Cognivitism also comes in as the human mind is engaged in keeping the necessary information for a limited period of time while the electronic media serve as sources of long-term memory. The Connectivy theory also surfaces as the learners engage their minds in obtaining the relations between their searches and their assignment expectations. 2. Instructional Software (Instant Immersions v.3.0) A vital use of technology by learners is the use of instructional software where the students get to follow directions of a pre-designed software that gauges the progress and communicates to the student. One such software is Instant immersions v.3.0 that is used in the learning and application of Japanese language. It is an easy to use language learning tool which works in a comparable manner with Tense Buster which is an interactive learning tool for English to those learning it in foreign countries. This type of learning is what was mentioned earlier as being active learning technology. With special focus on Japanese language, it is also important to mention the use of yet another language software called the Rosetta Stone Version 3: Japanese level 1, 2 & 3 which allows for listening, viewing of images, and reading both in English and Japanese. Other unmentioned ones include Learn Japanese Now and Tell me more Japanese. The objectives of instant immersion v.3.0 which is under analysis can be listed as: To provide Japanese learners with the necessary interface to develop bilingual capabilities. To use audiovisual teaching format in order to make leaning of Japanese easy and fun filled. This software entails stepwise learning from basic vocabulary such as greetings to more complex ones with much ease in correction of mistakes. It is relatively easy to make use of as it only follows three steps which begin with the use of a printable dictionary to get the words and their pictures, then tutorials and finally quizzes which tests at four different levels. There is also a skill building that makes use of games and audiovisual guidelines together with written constructions to build the learners confidence and the writing ability. At this level, the learner gets even the pronunciation as they get to listen to what the natives speak through video clips. To finally confirm their firm grip on the language, the learners get to compete in games that are driven by skill which bolsters their confidence with the spoken language. These games are in form of structured topics which could include food, directions, weather among others. It is clear that the memory of the learner is put to test in the short-term as they engage in the fun filled learning process using this software. Therefore, the theory of cognitivism is hugely enhanced by the use of this technology in learning of the Japanese language. Still a much enhanced theory is that of constructivism where there is building on the learners’ observations in class to enhance what they get in the software-led learning. Connectivism is also brought out due to the technology being in line with the digital age. The major reason for the choice of this technology is that it is not only fun to use but also easy for learners to use and to even comprehend the teaching. The audiovisual technologies are a very vital part of learning according to Januszewski (2001, p. 12) where they are referred to as ‘an influence on educational technology.’ 3. Online resources Online resources are materials available for learning at various websites which could be accessed during the learners own research to get some kind of information. While some charge some amount, most are available for free and are still expected to comply with the learning ethics. The sources have a wide range starting with public library, Refdesk, periodical list and Google scholars among others. It is important to mention that these online sources also include news agencies like ABC (Australia), BBC and The Australian. Of equal importance a source of information is that of internet philosophy encyclopedia. These types of sources may not lie in active learning technologies but rather within the inquiry based technologies and problem based technologies. Where the learners query the sources for what they want and get the answers and explanations for the same. In consideration of the Japanese language which has formed a basis of our analysis, there are a number such sources like Rikai.com where one gets to check the meanings of different Japanese words by passing the mouse on the words and the meanings show along. This resource also carries a number of topics under which the learning is tackled. The most common however and the one that will be analyzed here in the free online dictionary: Japanese to English, English to Japanese. This is a dictionary of words in Japanese and those in English where in a bidirectional way, one is able to access the necessary words from whichever language he or she understands best. The main objectives of this resource are: To provide the learner with sufficient information on all the necessary translations between the two languages To make learning of Japanese easy with the use of dual directional approach for words and phrases starting from English or from Japanese. The use of this dictionary has minimal complications as all the learner has to do when online is to type in the phrase or word he/she would like to have translated from whichever of the two languages of consideration and then check the translation. The only set back may arise for those whose computers cannot support Japanese text. The text can however be enabled by a software purchased from www.kanjikit.net. It is a dictionary powered by ‘A little Internet Search Engine’ (ALISE). The choice of this technology lies solely in its dual way of accessing vocabulary between the languages being analyzed. Cognivitism, connectivism and constructionism are much enhanced theories because of this being a modern age technology that comes with the digital applications. The learners, as observed, engage their memory and their ability in linking the information to get the right vocabulary. This is a tool in the learning of Japanese that helps teachers have little difficulties in guiding the students. Advantages of using educational technologies The ultimate reason for employing these technologies lie in their ability to better the learning process and to make it easy to understand whatever is being taught, in our case, language (Japanese). First of all, there is the ease of access to course materials in the view that the teachers can use website materials to teach even students they may not be physically near with. This is in the case of using online resources which may not need much guidance for the learners. In consideration of instructional software, it is important to state that, there is an opportunity of self evaluation by the student due to the fact that there is feedback for every stage of their learning. The computer on its side is considered much more patient with the learner unlike a human teacher. This leads to the student learning more in a short period of time as compared to what they could achieve with the traditional methods applied in teaching. The same software applied in this classes help the students to retain the knowledge for longer due to their audiovisual enhancements like in the case of instant immersion v.3.0 discussed above. Students using instructional software as a technology in their learning get the opportunity to learn at the pace they are most comfortable with and thus the effect on the students that are not so gifted may not be too negative as they need to sit back and carry on with their learning at a self satisfying pace. This is not only an advantage of instant immersion but as well of using WebQuest as a learning tool. It has to be mentioned that the technologies used in education makes it cheaply accessible by many learners. For example the only cost in using instant immersion is that of buying the initial software and then from there on the product can be used by many others. The use of technology makes the number of students the teacher is able to handle at one instant more as he/she merely acts as an instructor. The students get to do most of their leaning on their own. However difficult the topic of study therefore, there is always an assurance that it will be understood because of the reassurance of the availability of the materials unlike in the traditional way of teaching where most of the knowledge depended on the knowledge of a single teacher. Finally, because of the fact that the outcome of the learning can be evaluated in terms of the time it takes, the student knowledge achievement and the ability to apply it, there is always a chance to improve the strategies to yield the desired outcome. In fact, in some cases, the instructions that the students use can be altered if need be in order to put the learning on the right track. Disadvantages of using educational technologies With all the mentioned positives, educational technologies have some criticisms. One most mentioned is that of the initial cost of applying them where it is stated that the cost of setting up and using a computer system together with teaching the students to use the instructional guides for their learning is high. In other words, there is the call for training of the users on how to make use of the technologies lest the technology will have little or no meaning to them. This is also spelled out in the National Educational Association of the United States (NEA) (2004, p. 30). It is important to mention that this may not carry much significance once the students know how to use them. Also, the issue of failure of the technologies though rare should not be ignored as it occurs on several occasions and may call for training on troubleshooting or replacement. An example of a technology that may necessitate replacement in case of failure is instant immersion. After all the analysis of the various learning theories and schools of thought, there is need to make a clear deduction that the advantages of using the available learning technologies as preferred to the previous traditional ways is well emphasized. Conclusion Learning theories named as cognivitism, connectivism, constructivism and behaviorism have been considered with relation to the use of technologies in the learning arena in the current times. The meanings of the theories which carry much meaning in the past and current day learning has also been spelled out as it has been found that, the various technologies employed in learning more or less oscillate around the theories. The three considered technologies have been observed to have a lot to do with the learners’ memory, the ability to relate class work to the practical experiences and the linking up ability since the digital information age was also considered. The technologies handled have been found to carry a list of advantages much superior to that of the disadvantages. It has been observed that as time progresses, so does the need to make accurate use of technology in imparting knowledge as it is faster, cheaper and much more efficient compared to the traditional methods. Therefore it can be concluded that the use of educational technologies is important and should be applied for the good of the learning fraternity in the current and future times. References Januszewski, A. (2001). Educational technology: the development of a concept. Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, Inc. publishers. Mowrer, R.R. & Klein, B.S. (2001). Handbook of contemporary learning theories. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., publishers. National Education Association of the United States (2004). Gains and Gaps in Educational Technology: A NEA Survey of Education. Washington, DC: NEA Professional Library. Read More