Roles of Technology for Teaching and Learning

Are students of today interested to use technology in order to learn? Do teachers have the skills to use
technology to enhance their teaching? With the Fourth Industrial Revolution, nobody can deny the
influence of technology in our lives. As future teachers of the 21st century, it is high time that you
prepare yourselves to integrate technology in your classrooms. Using technology is a tool and a catalyst
for change. What then are the roles of technology for teaching and learning?

Task

In this lesson, you are expected to identify the roles of technology in teaching and learning. Likewise,
you will learn how to appreciate the value of technology in supporting student learning.

Process

As teaching and learning go together, let us explore what would be the roles of technology for teachers
and teaching and for learners and learning. According to Stosic (2015), educational technology has three
domains:

Technology as a tutor. Together with the teacher, technology can support the teacher to teach another
person or technology when programmed by the teacher can be a tutor on its own. The teacher will
simply switch on or switch off radio programs, television programs of play DVDs, or CDs that contain
educational programs. There are online tutorial educational programs, too.

Technology as teaching tool. Like tutor, technology is a teaching tool, but can never replace a teacher.
This is like a handyman, which is just there to be reached. Like any other tool, it is being used to
facilitate and lighten the work of the teacher. It will be good if the teacher can also create or develop
technology tools that are needed in the classroom.

Technology as a learning tool. While the teacher utilizes technology as the tool for teaching , likewise it
is an effective tool for learning. As a learning tool, it makes learning easy and effective. It can produce
learning outcomes that call for technology-assisted teaching. Even teachers who are teaching can utilize
similar tools for learning. As a learning tool, it is very interesting that even the elderly use these tools for
learning for life.

A. FOR TEACHERS AND TEACHING

There are numerous roles that technology plays in the job of teachers. As a tools, technology has
opened wider avenues in management of resources and management of learning. Likewise, it has
modernized the teaching-learning environment in schools. Here are some examples of the myriad of
roles that technology can do for teachers and teaching.

Technology provides enormous support to the teacher as the facilitator of learning. It transforms a
passive classroom to an active and interactive one, with audio-visual aids and models, smart classrooms,
e-learning classrooms which motivate and increase attention level of learners. Many of these can be
searched on the web.
Technology has modernized the teaching-learning environment. The teachers are assisted and
supplemented with appropriately structured instructional materials for daily activities. There are varied
available technology-driven resources which can be utilized for remedial lesson or activities. Likewise,
there are also a lot technology-driven resources that can be used for enrichment purposes. You may
search for examples on the web.

Technology improves teaching-learning process and ways of teaching. This will make the act of teaching
more efficient and effective. There arrays of teaching methods and strategies that can use technology
which are found compatible with learning styles. The multiple intelligence theory of Howard Gardner
tells us that there is a genius in every child. This implies that there must be varied ways of teaching as
there are many varied ways of learning. All the learning styles can find support from technology, so that
teaching will be more effective and efficient.

Technology adds to the competence of teachers and inculcates scientific outlook. Through the utilization
of theories of learning and intelligence, which are explained in references uploaded in the net, the
teachers are encouraged to imbibe skills to source these information with speed and accuracy.

Technology supports teacher professional development. With the demand of continuing professional
development for teachers, the availability of technology provides alternative way of attending
professional development online. For those who are involved as providers of continuing professional
development like trainers, facilitators or organizers, they can level up or enhance their delivery systems
with the support of technology tools.

B. FOR LEARNERS AND LEARNING

1. Support learners to learn how to learn on their own. All teachers fully understand that subject matter
or content is a means to achieve the learning outcomes. There are three categories of knowledge
according to Egbert (2009): declarative knowledge, structural knowledge, and procedural knowledge.

a. Declarative knowledge consists of the discrete pieces of information that answers the questions
what, who, when, and where. It is often learned through memorization of facts, drills and practice. It can
be learned by simple mnemonics or conceptual maps. Declarative knowledge is the fundamental
knowledge necessary for students to achieve more complex higher order thinking such as critical
thinking and creativity, inquiry and production.

b. Structural knowledge consists of facts or pieces of declarative knowledge put together to attain
some form of meaning. An example of declarative knowledge is "pencil". The idea that evolved from a
pencil is an understanding that: "it is something used to write." This is referred to as structural
knowledge. It can be presented by concept, maps, categorization or classification.

c. Procedural knowledge is knowledge in action or the knowledge of how to do something. It is based

on facts but learned through the process of procedural knowledge. Examples include how to drive a car,
how to use a cell phone, or how to speak English. Procedural knowledge is indicated by a performance
task or graphical representation of a concept.

The traditional sources of knowledge are printed books, modules and journals. Other sources are
primary sources such as information taken from research. However, knowledge or content can be
learned in many ways.

But how can technology support the learning of declarative, structural or procedural knowledge? To
teach content, time is always an issue of teachers. Oftentimes, we hear teachers say: "Too many things
to teach, too little time to do." Technology may be the answer, however the challenge is for teachers to
use technology to learn the technology first. As a facilitator of learning, the teacher can guide the
students to look for the resources and to utilize them appropriately. There are varied programs that can
be used by students offline of online for students. What should be necessary is that the students are
engaged, the tasks should focus on questions like how, why and which in addition to who, what, when
and where.

2. Technology enhances learners' communication skills through social interactions. This is commonly
described as the transmittal of information from one person to another as single individual or groups of
individuals. According to Shirly (2003) in Egbert (2009), there are three basic communication patterns:

a. Point to point two-way or one-to-one like internet chat, phone conversation or even face-to-face
conversation.

b. One-to-many outbound like a lecture or television. There is no social interaction.

c. Many-to-many like group discussion, buzz session, heads together. This kind of interaction provides
opportunities for social interaction.

Social interaction occurs in two ways where the participants ask for clarification, argue, challenge each
other and work towards common understanding. Social interaction through communication occurs
through technology (directly between two persons via email, a cell phone or other communication
technology). It can also occur around technology like students discussing about a problem posed by a
software program or with support of technology like teachers and students interacting about the
worksheet printed from a website. In all the three modalities, communication occurs and technology is
involved.
 For this particular role, what are the benefits derived from technology supported communication?

Enables any teacher to guide the learners virtually and making learning unlimited because
communication and social interaction go beyond a school day or a school environment.

Enhances students' freedom to express and exchange ideas freely without the snooping eyes of the
teacher face to face.

Enhances learners to construct meaning from joint experiences between the two or more participants in
communication.

Help learners to construct meaning from joint experiences between the two or more participants in
communication.

Help learners to solve problems from multiple sources since there are limitless sources of information
that the teacher can direct or refer to learners.

Teaches learners to communicate with politeness, taking turns in sending information and giving
appropriate feedback

Enhances collaboration by using communication strategies with wider community and individuals in a
borderless learning environment.

Develops critical thinking, problem solving and creativity throughout the communication.

3. Technology upgrades learners' higher-order-thinking skills: critical thinking, problem solving and
creativity. Twenty-first century learning requires the development of higher-order thinking skills.
Technology has a great role in the development and enhancement of these skills.

Critical thinking is part of the cluster of higher order thinking skills. It refers to the ability to interpret,
explain, analyze, evaluate, infer and self-regulate in order to make good decisions. With the use of
technology, one will be able to evaluate the credibility of source, ask appropriately questions, become
open minded, defend a position on an issue and draw conclusion with caution. All of these
competencies are covered by Bloom's Taxonomy of Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation.

Teachers play a significant role in supporting learners with technology. How?

Ask a role model, teachers should display and practice critical thinking processes, so that the learners
can imitate them. Here are some ways that teachers can do to develop critical thinking.

a. Ask the right questions. Most often teachers ask questions to find out if the students can simply
repeat the information from the lesson. Although these are necessary questions like what, who, when,
and where, these do not develop critical thinking. Critical thinking questions should ask for clarity,
accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth and logic.
 Clarity: Here are some examples, Can you give examples of...

Accuracy: What pieces of evidence support your claim?

Precision: Exactly how much....

Breadth: What do you think will the other group say about the issue?

b. Use critical thinking tasks with appropriate level of challenge. Teachers should be mindful of the
readiness of the students. Students who have higher ability may find the task too easy, thus getting
bored early, while those who have low ability may find the task too difficult. Thus, there is a need to
have activities that are appropriate for the learners. These can be determined by interview, observations
and other forms to determine the level of readiness.

What are some simple ways that teachers should do?

1. Vary the questions asked.

2. Introduce new technologies.

3. Modify the leaners' groupings.

4. Modify the critical thinking task.

5. encourage curiosity.

By nature learners are curious. They ask lots of questions all the time. Why is the sky blue? Why do I
have to learn geometry? How do people choose what will they become in the future? Can robots solve
he problems of climate change? How? These questions will lead to critical thinking, but some of these
questions cannot be answered by the teacher. The unanswered questions are avoided or answered
unsatisfactorily. Sometimes teachers shut down the question that curtails the first step in critical
thinking. The internet as a problem solving and research tool can help find the answers to the questions.
Creativity is characterized as involving the ability to think flexibly, fluently, originally, and elaborately
(Guildford, 1986 & Torrance, 1974 in Egbert, 2009). Flexibly means able to use many points of view
while fluently means able to generate many ideas. Originally implies being able to generate new ideas
and elaborately means able to add details. Creativity is not merely a set of technical skills, but it also
involves feeling, beliefs, knowledge and motivation.

Seven Creative Strategies (Osborn, 1963). These have been simplified into fewer categories. To be
creative, one can use any of these strategies.

Substitute - Find something else to replace to do what it does.

Combine - Blend two things that do not usually go together.

Adapt - Look for other ways this can be used.

Modify/Magnify/Minify - Make a change, enlarge, decrease.

Put to another use - Find other uses.

Eliminate - Reduce, remove

Reverse - Turn upside-down, inside out, front-side back

What should teacher do to support student creativity? Here are some suggestions:

1. Provide an enriched environment.

2. Teach creative thinking strategies.

3. Allow learners to show what they can do.

4. Use creativity with technology.

Further, teachers can do the following to develop and enhance critical thinking, problem solving and
creativity. As a future teachers, try these suggestions.

Encourage students to find and use information from variety of sources both online and offline.

Assist students to compare information from different sources.

Allow student to reflect through different delivery modes like writing, speaking, or drawing.

Use real experiences and materials to draw tentative decisions.

Involve students in creating and questioning assessment.

To do these, the teacher should see to it that right questions are asked, student's tasks should be
appropriate to the levels of challenge and curiosity is encouraged.

There are several critical thinking tools and technology software that can support critical thinking
skills. You will encounter some of these in the succeeding lessons:

1. Encourages digital production projects

2. Popularizes e-learning modalities.

3. Enhances global awareness and citizenship.