Using Computers for Instruction

One of my mid-term readings for ECOMP 5106--Integrating Technology with the Curriculum is Using Computers for Instruction by Dr. Linda Mensing Triplett. Dr. Triplett seems to share the dream of many that computers move beyond simple instructional aids and into the realm of helping students create their own meanings.

Though computers can be used to deliver drill and practice type instruction and to supplement teacher directed activities, computer technology best supports student centered and constructivist teaching methods in which the learner is viewed as actively collaborating with computer technology to construct knowledge.

This certainly seems to be what edublogs are aiming for. Indeed, IT brings a wide range of constructivist possibilities.

In Kozma's view, the goal of teaching is to improve each student’s ability to use knowledge for authentic (real world) tasks. Therefore instruction should involve providing students with the tools needed to develop the skills of constructing informed responses and for assessing alternative responses. Rather than using computers to structure learning experiences or to enhance recall of material, Kozma advocated for the use of computers as tools which could help students consciously manipulate their own learning processes to construct knowledge.

I do, however, find myself wrestling with what exactly this might end up looking like in my own classroom. The article continues, discussing educational uses of computers as existing in three forms: learning from computers, learning about computers, and learning with computers. Naturally, learning with computers helps satisfy the constructivist ideal, and the bullet points help define some of how this might all look in the classroom. Three points stand out.

• computers support explorations by helping students access information for comparing perspectives, world views, and beliefs.
  
• computers support conversation and collaboration among members of learning communities.
  
• computers are intellectual partners that support learning by helping learners to articulate and represent what they know and by helping students construct personal representations of learning.
  

Much of this directly supports/corroborates the rationale for using blogs in the classroom. Other projects that come to mind in light of these points are student publications--brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, web pages--researched using the internet, organized and illustrated in graphic design programs, and published in print or on-line for specific audiences.

This last part, the specific audience, seems to be a key component. Students can learn by constructing meaning in any variety of ways, but if the end product lands on a teacher's desk and goes no farther, what is the ultimate point of creating the product. Certainly the students learn, which satisfies the teacher; however, this misses answering the students' question, "Why are we doing this?"