UNIT 4

Roles of Educational Technology

Creating a curriculum that appreciates the power of technology in education can serve to
increase engagement in the classroom and make learning easier and more efficient.
Methods used within the classroom not only need to keep evolving, but also harness the effects
of the digital revolution in a positive and constructive manner. Creating a curriculum that appreciates
the power of technology in the learning process can serve to increase engagement in the classroom and
make learning easier and more efficient.
A common misperception surrounding the impact of technology on learning is that the Internet,
with all its factual data, has served to render our long-term memory as useless. Why commit to learning
something if a simple press of a button will give you the answers you are looking for? Proponents of this
argument therefore believe that the need to remember facts is no longer essential to our education.
However, these arguments often ignore the dynamic between long-term memory and working memory.
A person’s long-term memory has much more capacity than their working memory that can only
remember between 4-7 items before it becomes overloaded. Therefore, working memory space is
premium, in order for it to be free on a regular basis we have to commit certain facts to our long-term
memory. This is perhaps why researchers label long-term memory as ‘the seat of human intellectual
skill.’

Belief about Educational Technology

The history of educational technology reveals that many educators, parents and students
believe the reason for using technology are based in two major belief:
1. Technology is composed of tools to facilitate learning, thus should be used in education.
2. Research has shown the effectiveness of computer- based methods.
The teachers must identify specific contributions that technology can and should make to an
improved students’ achievement through teaching and learning with the use of the computer gadgets.

The Four Pillars of Education and the 21st Century Skills

1. Learning to learn
 -enables one to address coping with situations that need knowledge, greater intellectual
curiosity, shapes the mental faculties and enable one to make judgement on the things and situations
they experienced.
2. Learning to do
- equips one with certain skills to undertake certain tasks to be productive and competent. The
learner puts into action what they have learned.
3. Learning to live together
-provides the individual the potential for harmonious relationship with people around them. It
emphasizes the idea of unity in diversity.
4. Learning to be
-gives an individual a picture of what he plans to be after certain period in his lifetime. The
learner outlook about himself may vary from time to time as he realize certain episodes in his life.
Elements for Using Technology in Education
The following elements are justification for the use of technology:
1. Domain 1- Motivation
1. Gaining Learner Attention
- According to learning, theorist, Robert Gagne, gaining the learner’s attention is a critical first
event in providing optimal conditions for instruction.
2. Encouraging the Learner through Production Work
- Production work makes learning more meaningful to students. The teacher often try to engage
them in creating their own technology- based products.
3. Increasing perceptions of earner Control
-Many students are motivated by feeling, they are in control of their own learning. Learner
control seems to have special implications for at risk students who have experienced academic failure.

Technology Use as Motivation

Motivating students to learn more has assumed greater importance in recent years as we
recognize strong correlations between dropping out of school and understandable outcomes such as
criminal activity.
2. Element 2: Unique Instructional Capabilities
Element 2 which deals with instructional capabilities is closely related to the four pillars of
education namely: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be and learning to live together.
 They set the sue of technology in molding the individual to meet the demands of the 21 st
century through the following:
1. Linking learners to information sources (learning to know).
Through hypertext systems, as seen on many internet, web pages, students can select a
keyboard from a screen and get pointers from several other sources with information on the same topic.
These lead to other related sources and topics forming and endless chain of information.
2. Helping learners visualize problems and solution (learning to do)
Kozma (1991) also reports the interactive visual media (videodisc applications) seem to have
unique instructional capabilities for topics that involve social situations or problem solving. He notes
that these media provide powerful visual means of representing social situation and tasks such as
interpersonal problem solving, foreign language learning or moral decision making.
3. Tracking learners’ progress (learning to be)
Students’ progress can be recorded and reported in many ways. Preparing a portfolio on class
accomplishment can be recorded in a log book or in an electronic diary.
4. Linking learners to learning tools.
There are many ways by which the learners can use technology to link with information needed
in their lessons and in solving problems for life-long learning.

3. Element 3: Support for the new instructional approaches

The educational system is struggling to revamp its instructional goals and methods in
preparation for the complex demands of life in the technology-driven 21 st century (SCANS Report, 1992)
Educators are beginning to look at technology resources to help make these new directions at once
feasible and motivational to the students.
Here are some new instructional initiatives can benefit from applications of technology:
1. Cooperative Learning
-Cooperative learning demonstrates the value of small groups with members coming from
different learning abilities. Many technology based activities lend themselves to cooperative, small
group work, development of hypermedia products and special purpose database and research projects
using online and offline databases and videodisc and multimedia.
2. Shared Intelligence
As emerging definition for intelligence is termed shared intelligence or distributed intelligence.
According to some theories, the capabilities afforded by new technologies make the concept of
intelligence as something that resides in each person’s head too restrictive Intellectual partnership with
computers suggests the possibility that resources enable and shape activity and do not reside in one or
another agent but are genuinely distributed between persons, situation and tools (Polin, 1992).
3. Problem Solving and Higher- level Skills
Students can solve problem and represent their knowledge by engaging in higher level skills.
Problem solving can be done by:
1. Sensing the problem
2. Researching the problem
3. Formulating the problem
4. Finding the alternatives
5. Choosing the solution
6. Building acceptance

4. Element 4: Increased Teacher Productivity

Freeing time to work with students by helping with production and record keeping tasks.
Providing more accurate information quickly.
Allowing teachers to produce better- looking more “student- friendly” materials quickly.
Using technology resources can help teachers cope with their growing paperwork load. Teachers and
organizations realized that they spend less time on record keeping and preparation so they can spend
more time analyzing students needs and having direct contact with students.

5. Element 5: Required Skills for an Information Age

The final and most compelling reason for integrating technology into teaching and learning is
the need for students to learn skills that will prepare them to become lifelong learners in an information
society. Since the emergence of the internet, many processes involved in locating and communicating
information now involve some form of technology.
1. Technology Literacy
Soloman (1995) says that “Technology for students is about economic competitiveness. The
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) , the group that collaborated with the National
Council for the Accreditation for Teacher Education (NCATE) to develop educational technology
standards for pre- service programs, also developed the National Educational Technology (NET) for K-12
students.
 Table 4.1
ISTE National K- 12 Educational Technology Standard
1. Basic operations and concepts
Students
 Demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology system
and are proficient in the use of technology
2. Social ethical, and human issues
Students
 Understand the ethical , cultural and societal issues related to technology.
 Practice responsible use of technology system, information and software.
 Develop positive attitudes toward technology use that support lifelong learning,
collaboration, personal pursuit and productivity.
3. Technology productivity tools
Students:
 Use telecommunications to collaborate, publish and interact with peers, experts and other
audiences.
 Use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to
multiple audiences.
4. Technology research tools
Students:
 Use technology to locate, evaluate and collect information from variety of sources.
 Use technology tools to process data and report results.
 Evaluate and select new information resources and technological innovation based on the
appropriateness to specific tasks.
5. Technology problem- solving and decision-making tools.
Students:
 Use technology resources for solving problems and making informed decisions.
 Employ technology in the development of strategies for solving problems in the real world.
2. Information Literacy
-Although information literacy skills may be simply a subset of the technology literacy skills,
some educators think they are so important that they should receive special emphasis. Johnson and
Elsenberg (1996) introduced the big six skills namely:
1. task definition
2. Information- seeking strategies
3. Location and access
4. Use of information
5. Synthesis
6. Evaluation

3. Visual Literacy
-Visual literacy is considered as subset of technology literacy, Christopherson (1997) affirmed
that a visually literate person can interpret, understand and appreciate the meaning of visual messages,
communicate more effectively through applying the basic principles and concepts of visual design:
produce visual messages using the computer and other technology and use visual thinking to
conceptualize solutions to the problems.

Enrichment Activity

I- Activity 4

Direction: Do what is asked in each problem.

1. Learning to Know
Write one paragraph discussing how technology can increase students’ ability to find answer to the
questions raised in class.

2. Learning to Do
Plan an activity that includes the use of technology to teach your classmates how to learn the
following : You may choose only one.
a. making a toy
b. writing a poem
c. solving a problem of a teenager
d. improving basic speech
3. Learning to Be
Explain the technology you will use to attain what you want to be 5 years from now.

4. Learning to Live Together

Illustrate the technologies which can be applied or used to enhance harmonious relationship with
your:
a. family members
b. classmates
c. teachers

II- Think about It

Direction: Given the following roles of Educational Technology, find an instructional material that can best
suit these roles. Get a picture or a screenshot of the instructional material and place it in the box
designated. Opposite it, describe how you will use the instructional material to describe the role.

1. Motivation

2. Unique Instructional Capabilities

3. Support for New Instructional Approaches

4. Increase Teacher Productivity

5. Required Skills for an Information Age

III- Assess

Direction: Create a meaning for the letters of EDTECH that would indicate the role of Educational
technology
in the 21st century classroom. The roles should be based on research findings Remember.