Monday, April 30, 2007

Computer Mediated Instruction



According to Wikepedia .org, Computer Mediated Communication is a form communication between two or more individual people who interact and/or influence each other via separate computers. According to Tim Daniels and Melinda Pethel, Computer mediated communication has created a major shift in how educators and students feel about teaching and learning. Allowing students to learn in more convenient locations and offer classes at more convenient times. I agree that in some cases that computer learning may be better.

According to Daniels and Pethel, Asynchronous Communication allows participants to post whenever they want to and save their posting. The postings are able to be viewed by participants. Asynchronous technology include: blogs, wikis, bulletin boards, chat (online), email, etc. I myself enjoyed the blogs. According to Daniels and Pethel, the primary benefit of asynchronous communication is its flexibility and ability to fit into everyone’s schedule. Individuals can access the system at their own convience, and many kinds of information including documents and file attachments can be shared. According to Hiltz and Wellman (1997) 52% of the asynchronous classroom students reported that they were more likely to stop attending classes. Without strict deadlines in the asynchronous environment, and with no teacher watching over them, many students fail to contribute to the deliverables. I agree that if there are no strict guidelines the student will stray. It is so easy to apply for an online course, but if you do not have anything that is pushing you to focus and apply your self, then you will not. I am the type of student that I may be able to succeed in the asynchronous environment, because I have my children to provide for. However, I know this would be really hard for me. I need one on one teaching.

According to Daniels and Pethel, Synchronous communication requires the learner and instructor being online at the same time and communicating in real time. Synchronous communication tools are: shared whiteboards, live presentation tools, learner control tools including hand raising, approval feedback and audio/video control, etc. Synchronous classroom interaction allows students to obtain real time interactive feedback from their own computers. According to Hiltz, 2002, classes taught by synchronous technologies have a higher motivation and completion rate than asynchronous technologies. If I took an online course, the synchronous technology will work better for me. I need to be able to ask my teacher questions, when I have a problem. This is how I learn, without some form of hands on teaching, I would be lost. According to Daniels and Pethel, implementing Computer Mediated Communications in the classroom can be used to support a variety of learning experiences. The instructor is not limited to one set of services or tools but can use several to create a learning environment which will best suit his or her student’s learning needs. I agree that if the technology is used in the correct way, it can enhance student’s learning abilities.

Overall, I feel that who ever created computer mediated communication learning is a genius.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Information Processing

Information Processing


According to Michael Orey, Information processing also known as (IP) is a cognitive processing theory. IP theory seeks to explain how the mind functions. The basis IP model has three components: sensory register (SR), short –term memory (STM) or working memory, and long-term memory (LTM). Orey states, “short term memory is also know as working memory, and is where consciousness exists. Short term memory is where the world meets what is already known, and where thinking is done. We perceive and attend to stimuli; that information is then actively processed based on information stored in long term memory. Long term memory is the final stage in the (IP) model. It is also known as call memory. LTM is everything we know and know how to do. LTM is catergorized as one of three types of memory; declarative, procedural or episodic. Declarative knowledge can be defined as knowledge needed to complete a sentence. Episodic is memory for specific events in one’s life: a memory of your first kiss of your first kiss or of your graduation. I find the Episodic sometimes difficult. When I try to remember something from the past I can’t. I am good with remembering faces, but I have a hard time putting names with them. I sometimes feel stupid, because I know people who are my age or older that can remember every thing. I often wonder, what causes me to forget things.

According to Orey, there is an analysis of instructional sequence of the CALLA model is comprised of five steps, which are explained below as they relate to the above scenario. Preparation, presentation, and practice may be necessary in a single lesson before the final two (assessment and expansion) are reached. In the preparation stage, emphasis is on bringing out and highlighting student’s existing knowledge. In the presentation, the second phase of the sequence calls for students to deal with an authentic text one that has not been modified for ESL students in this case, the listening text handout of the story. In the practice, here according to O’Malley and Chamont, “learners discuss, investigate, and reflect on the text they have read, listen.” The evaluation process this stage refers not to conventional assessment of learning through tests, but to self-evaluation of learning through dialogue journals, self-checklists of achievement or objectives, which the authors term “Learning Logs.” Expansion, the final phase of the sequence, as its name implies, allows students to use what they have learned in new contexts. An example of this, is having them rewrite or retell a story.

I feel that learning logs are a good way for students to keep up with a process they need to complete a task. For example, creating a children’s book, the students will be given a rubric from the teacher. The students have to implement everything the teacher wants into the book. If while they are creating the book, check off each accomplishment after it is done. The book phase will be simpler and later reward the student with a wonderful grade and feeling of satisfaction.

Monday, March 5, 2007

Piaget and Cognitive Development

Piaget and Cognitive Development


According to Bhattacharya and Han, Piaget two major principles guide intellectual growth and biological development adaptation and organization. Assimilation and accommodation are both part of the adaptation process. Piaget believed that human beings possess mental structures that assimilate external events and accommodate them to fit their mental structures. According to Bhattacharya and Han, cognitive development is a complex process comprising three principal concepts affecting the development process: assimilation, accommodation and equilibration.
According to Piaget, assimilation occurs when a child perceives new objects or events in terms of existing schemas or operations. Piaget emphasized the functional quality of assimilation, where children and adults tend to apply any mental structure that is available to assimilate a new event, and actively use this newly acquired mental structure.

According to Piaget, accommodation refers to the process of changing internal mental structures to provide consistency with external reality. Piaget believed that cognitive development in children is contingent on four factors: biological maturation, experience with the physical environment, and experience with the social environment equilibration. According to Wood, Smith, and Grossniklaus, Piaget stages of cognitive development derived from his observation of children. Piaget understood that children were creating ideas. They were limited to receiving knowledge from parents or teachers. Piaget’s works provides the foundation on which constructionist theories are based. Piaget identified four major stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. Piaget believed that all children pass through these phases to advance to the next level of cognitive development. In each stage children pass through these phases to advance to the next level of cognitive development.

During each stage, children demonstrate new intellectual abilities and increasingly complex understanding of the world. Piaget first stage, sensorimotor, begins at birth and lasts until 18 months-2 years of age. This stage involves the use of motor activity without the use of symbols. Knowledge is limited in this stage, because it is based on physical interactions and experiences. Infants cannot predict reaction therefore must constantly experiment and learn through trial and error. Piaget’s second stage, preoperational usually occurs during the period between toddlerhood and early childhood (7 years). During this stage children begin to use language; memory and imagination also develop. In the preoperational stage, children engage in make believe and can understand and express relationships between the past and the future. Piaget’s third stage, concrete operational develops between the ages of 7 to eleven years.

In education, an important implication of Piaget’s theory is adaptation of
instruction to the learner’s development level of learning. The teacher’s role is to facilitate learning by providing a variety of experiences. I agree that teachers must implement learning in a variety of ways. We as educators must be aware that all students learn differently. Therefore to accommodate all students, and not leave any child behind, we must implement different ways to learning certain materials. As educators we must evaluate our students, making sure that the materiel that we introduce is not too advanced or not advanced enough for students to learn.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism


I found the article by Melissa Standridge on behaviorism to be interesting and enlightening. According to Standridge, Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behavior. I agree, “Behavior can be unlearned and replaced by another.” I feel that behavior is learned. We learn from our surrounding. I feel our behavior derives from what is accepted by society. There is good and bad behavior in all of us. How we choose to act on that behavior is up to society and us. For example, if a society accepts a person that assault another person without punishment, then that person will continue to do the same thing. If society punishes that person, they will likely stop.

According to Standridge, in assuming that human behavior is learned, behaviorists also hole that all behaviors can also be unlearned, and replaced by new behaviors. The desired response must be rewarded in order for learning to take place. I agree that for a behavior to change, the person must be aware of that behavior that needs to be changed. For example, if a child is continuing to misbehave in class, if the teacher does not address it, the behavior may stop or get worse. According to Standridge, in education, advocates of behaviorism have effectively adopted this system of rewards and punishments in their classrooms by rewarding desired behaviors and punishing inappropriate ones. For example, if a teacher wishes to teach the behavior of remaining seated during the class period, the successful student’s reward might be checking the teacher’s mailbox, and running an errand. John B. Watson and B. F Skinner are the two principal originators of behaviorist approaches to learning. Watson believed that human behavior resulted from specific stimuli that elicited certain responses. Pavlov study was on the digestive process and salivation that occurred in dogs. Pavlov discovered conditioned stimulus and conditioned response.

Skinner developed operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is the rewarding of part of a desired behavior or a random act that approaches it. Skinner did his research using animals. According to Standridge, behaviorist’s techniques have long been employed in education to promote behavior that is desirable and discourage that, which is not. Among the methods derived from behaviorist theory for practical classroom application are contracts, consequences, reinforcement, extinction, and behavior modification. Consequences occur immediately after a behavior whether they are positive or negative. Positive reinforcement is presentation of a stimulus that increases the probability of a response. Teachers may provide positive reinforcement by, smiling at students after a correct response, commending students for their work, selecting them for a special project, and praising students’ ability to parents. I feel that every teacher should live by this positive reinforcement. It is important that we constantly reward our students.

We as educators must be able to reinforce positive behavior in all of our students in order for them to succeed. When a behavior develops, if negative, we must know how to handle the situation and turn it around to a positive.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Digital Immigrants

Valencia Cartledge
Education Technology
Article Response



I agree that the way that students are taught in schools and in college must change to an extent. Today we live in a technology base world. I feel that if you don’t understand or refuse to learn some technology, you will be lost. I agree with Prensky when he stated, “today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors. However, I don’t believe that we should just teach the students technology; I think they need to learn the old way of learning and incorporate technology teaching as an aid. I am a Digital Immigrant, I step a little forward to using technology, but I do also have a foot in the past. Teach me how to do the work and later show me how technology can assist me. According to Prensky, “we older folks are having to learn a new language to keep up with our children.” I feel that if we don’t make some type of attempt to learn it, we will always be one step behind our children.

According to Prensky, the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language, are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language. I don’t feel that this is the biggest problem facing education is Digital Immigrant instructors. I feel the biggest problem in education is parents; the government and teachers are not working together to make sure that the students are getting a good education.

According to Prensky, “Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer the graphic before their text rather than the opposite.” I agree with Prenksy on this observation. I disagree with Prensky when he stated, “Digital Immigrants typically have very little appreciation for these new skills that the Natives have acquired and perfected through years of interaction and practice. I disagree with this statement, I am an Immigrant and I do appreciate these new skills, once I have learned them. I agree with Prensky, when he stated,” Children raised with the computer “think differently from the rest of us. We have a computer in our home; I see a big difference between my children and I. In the old days I had to read hardback books and research on my own. Now my children can just pull up what ever they need on the computer. I agree with VanSlyke when he stated, “The Internet, being a primary medium of this emerging culture, is certainly not something that we in education can ignore. But before we discard all of our Digital Immigrant notions of teaching and learning, we should answer a number of questions.” Are all the students, for example, exposed to information technology and video games to the same extent?

I feel that the technology can assist our students in learning once they have mastered the
skills first that they will late use on the computer.