“We should not take the whole technology without any filtering. The technology that we may use in the education should be an appropriate technology”
Appropriate Technology is the most learning effective, cost effective technology "available" for illustrating and communicating, while stimulating curiosity, enthusiasm, creativity, innovation, and active student participation in the learning process.
When my friend, Mr. Richard was working as an education technologist overseas at a university during the day, he taught electronics to people working in the electronics industry in the evening. The learning technologies that he chose were based upon the learners past academic history (not grades) and their entry level understanding of the basic principles of electronics.
For instance, he found that using simple technologies for instance bottles with holes and water was the best technology for conveying understanding and clarifying issues like Voltage, Current and Resistance. Even though he had access to a wide range of higher technologies he found that basic technologies (which raise the learners curiosity and participation) where they learn through "discovery principles" were most effective in achieving true understanding and higher order thinking skill.
When he was teaching mathematics (in electronics he use a lot of math) he always came back to the whiteboard as the most effective technology for "developing understanding", because all students could participate easily and contribute to the development on the whiteboard without the need for specific skills in using the technology.
Often the students had not used math for several years and the more complex formulas sometimes posed difficulties so he would break them down into steps using basic math processes, during which the students could contribute and thus reinforce their confidence until they felt confident enough to utilize more complex formulas effectively. Again participation in the process he believes is critical (even for large groups of learners).
He could have used higher technologies but he believes that the whiteboard is one of the most effective tools because of its simplicity and the fact that it is always ready when we need it. The white/black board is still the most used learning medium globally (and it's always ON :-).
When he teaches now, he still rely upon simple technologies, even though he have 8 computers now (3 laptops and 5 desktops) because of the issues of student activity raised above, but also because he can conducts the lesson effectively anywhere without concerns for power failures and technical problems, and he still believes that they are the most effective for creating an active-learning environment even though in his technology profession he uses all the latest technologies.
Therefore, with his experience, we can see that higher order thinking skill should be our priority. However, it doesn’t mean that we discredited high-tech. Our brain (and imagination) is still the best technology for generating learner interest and stimulating the learning process.
I got many knowledges in your post,, hehe
ReplyDeletebtw He has many experiences yaa,, I agree with his idea which is still using whiteboard, because sometimes if teacher always use PPT (for instance) how if the electricity off that day?
sometimes technology can destroy our performance...
and also for school which has less technology, white board is very useful..^0^
ok, and now how about the interactive smartboard that more advanced than the whiteboard?
ReplyDeletegreat :) really like this post ,
ReplyDelete"Our brain (and imagination) is still the best technology for generating learner interest and stimulating the learning process."
fall in love with your statement nice ;)
eventhough, the technology is exist around us but we cannot maximal our thinking skill it will be useless ..
but when we confront the situation without any kinds of tech we can still go ahead with our creativity :)
like like like like this :D
Thanks beb, Let's sahpe both of our mind and our tech skill.. :)
ReplyDelete