ROLES OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

The Four Pillars of Education and the 21" Century Skills

Each learner must consider education as a life long learning and certain
skills are associated with each pillar of education. There are four pillars of
education, namely: Learning to learn, Learning to do. Learning to live together,
and Learning to be Educational Technology is closely related to the four pillars
because technology skills and tools help the learner attain them

Learning to learn enables one to address coping with situations that need
knowledge, greater intellectual curiosity, shapes the mental faculties and enables
one to make judgement on the things and situations they experienced.
Technology assists them to carry on with learning more efficiently through surfing
in the computer, discovering through research and applying gadgets to facilitate
the acquisition of knowledge:

Learning to do equips one with certain skills to undertake certain tasks to

be productive and competent. The learner puts into action what they learned and
the task is translated to actual manipulation or productivity Learning to do does
not stop at this point but, a learner should do the task over and over again to
attain skills leading to an efficient performance. Technology is applied along with
the task of doing something.

Learning to live together provides the individual the potential for

harmonious relationship with people around them. It also emphasizes the idea
about unity in diversity in terms of race, religion, and personal beliefs. Social
media helps people to be connected and understand other people's reactions by
focusing on others point of view. Forum for dialogue and discussions could help
lessen the gap among peoples' differences, in the world of work, in the
community and in the world collaborative projects, social activities, humanitarian
actions, and membership in organizations are some ways to enhance the
learners' ability to learn to live together.

Learning to be, gives an individual a picture of what he plans to be after

certain periods in his lifetime. The learners outlook about himself may vary from
time to time as he realizes certain episodes in his life. Example is, at a young
age, he wants to finish his elementary schooling, then secondary schooling and
later the tertiary preparation for the world of work. This pillar will provide a goal to
an individual on the specific knowledge. competencies, and tasks which one
should acquire for a successful life. This may concern aesthetic, artistic, scientific,
cultural, social and developing imagination and creativity The learner can also
discover technologies which will be necessary in attaining what he wants to be.
 ELEMENTS FOR USING TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

The following elements are justifications for the use of technology:

Element 1. Motivation

 Gaining Learner Attention

According to learning theorist, Robert Gagné, gaining the learner's

attention is a critical first event in providing optimal conditions for instruction.
Although other aspects of instruction must direct this attention toward meaningful
learning, the visual and interactive features of many technology resources seem
to help focus students' attention and encourage them to spend more time on
learning task (Pask-McCartney, 1989; Summers, 1990-1991). Substantial
empirical evidence indicates that teachers frequently capitalize on the novelty and
television-like attraction of computers and multimedia to achieve the essential
instructional goal of capturing and holding students' attention.

 Encouraging the Learner through Production Work

Production work makes learning more meaningful to students. The

teachers often try to engage them in creating their own technology-based
products. This strategy has been used effectively with word processing (Tibbs,
1989; Franklin, 1991), hypermedia (Volker, 1992; LaRoue 1990), computer-
generated art (Buchholz, 1991), and telecommunications (Taylor, 1989, Marcus,
1995) Students seem to like the activities because they promote creativity, self-
expression, and feelings of self-efficacy and result in professional-looking
products they can view with pride.

 Increasing Perceptions of Learner Control

Many students are motivated by feeling, they are in control of their own
learning (Amone & Grabowskd, 1991; Relan, 1992). Learner control seems to
have special implications for at-risk students and others who have experienced
academic failure. When students perceive themselves as in control of their
learning, the result has been called intrinsic motivation, or being motivated by the
awareness that they are learning. This finding, reported from the earliest users of
computer based materials, is considered as one of the most potentially powerful
reasons for using technology resources as motivational aids. However, when
learning paths become complex (with hypertext environments and interactive
videodisc applications), students with weak learning skills seem to profit most
when teachers supply structure to the activities (Kozma, 1991,1994; McNeil &
Nelson 1991)

 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
undesirable outcomes such as criminal activity. The drive to keep students in
school is an urgent national priority. Technology has an important role to play in
achieving this goal. Kozma and Croniger (1992) described several ways in which
technology might help to address the cognitive, motivational, and social needs of
at-risk students; Bialo and Slivin (1989) listed several software packages that
were either designed or adapted to appeal to these kinds of students.
Technology-based methods have successfully promoted several kinds of
motivational strategies that may be used individually or in combination.

Another reason for technology use is the motivation among students to enroll in
schools where teachers teach using technology. Research findings showed that
this was the reason given by college freshmen for enrolling in certain institution of
higher learning.

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 use of technology in molding the individual to meet the demands of
the 21" century through the following

 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 an endless chain of information.
Kozma (1991, 1994) reports that, while little research has focused on
hypertext to date, preliminary findings suggest that hypertext learning
environment "both calls on and develops skills in addition to those used
with prescribed books and materials". Computers handle the logistics of
this complex activity
  Enabling Learners Visualize Problems and Solutions
Kozma (1991) also reports that 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 means of "representing social situation and tasks such
as interpersonal problem solving, foreign language learning, or moral
decision making" The growing number of videodisc and CD-ROM products
designed for these kinds of topics (the AIDS videodisc from ABC News,
Computer Curriculum Corporation's Success Maker) confirms that
designers and educators are recognizing and exploiting these unique and
powerful qualities
 Tracking Learners' Progress
Students' progress can be recorded and reported in many ways.
Preparing portfolio on class accomplishment can be recorded in a log
book or in an electronic diary. A system of recording students' progress
can be done through computers’ program which can be availed of by both
the students and the parents within and after a grading period.
 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
lifelong learning Several computer programs enable students to solve
statistical data, researchers about different topics and other data related to
their interests ranging from humanities, the arts, history and many more.

Element 3. Support for New Instructional Approaches

Educators are beginning to look at technology resources to help make

these new directions at once feasible and motivational to students. Several new
instructional initiatives can benefit from applications of technology:

 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
videodiscs and multimedia. Example is development of a project done by
a small group. Each member has a task to do to complete the task.
Making an activity card for a project in chemistry can be an interesting
work like testing acid and metal. Each member can contribute an
observation to differentiate one from the other A rapporteur can be
assigned to list down all the observations to be reported to the class.
  Shared Intelligence. An emerging definition for intelligence is termed
shared intelligence or distributed intelligence. According to some
theorists, 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). Many students at present feel confident
in doing research work due to the speed of surfing in the internet. During
recitation, they refer to their IPod or small computers to immediately get
the ideas being asked from them.
 Problem Solving and Higher-level Skills. Students can solve problems
and represent their knowledge by engaging in higher level skills. Problem
solving can be done by:
 Sensing the problem
 Researching the problem
 Formulating the problem
 Finding the alternatives
 Choosing the solution
 Building acceptance
All of the above processes involve higher-level skills (Jonnaser, Daird
1999).

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
student needs and having direct contact with students. Teacher can be more
productive through training in technology-based methods and access accurate
information that may help them meet individual needs.

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. They need to be equipped
with the skills to learn to know by gathering information in addressing problems in
school and in real-life situations. Since the emergence of the Internet, many
processes involved in locating and communicating information now involve some
form of technology

 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 of Teacher Education (NCATE) to develop educational
technology standards for pre-service programs, also developed the National
Educational Technology (NET) for K-12 students.
 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 (Truett, 1996; Roblyer,
1998). Johnson and Eisenberg (1996) introduced the "Big Six" skills namely,
1. task definition
2. information-seeking strategies,
3. location and access,
4. use of information.
5. synthesis, and
6. evaluation.
The Information explosion fostered by the Internet has made the Big Six skills
more important to learning and more involved with technology.

 Visual Literacy. Visual is considered as subset of technology literacy.

Christopherson (1997) & Roblyer (1998), emphasized the need for improved
visual literacy skills so many people are heavily using images on visual
communications. 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 problems. Roblyer (1998) reports on research that correlates
visual literacy skills to higher scores on intelligence tests and to later success
in more technical vocational areas such as engineering Christopherson
observes that "students with visual communication skills are more
marketable" but these skills will soon be required rather than merely
desirable. These reports create a powerful reason for teachers to integrate
technology at early levels into students' communication methods.