Lesson 3: Roles of Educational Technology in Learning

Technology can play a traditional role, i.e., as delivery vehicles for instructional lessons or in a constructivist way as partners in the learning process.

• From the traditional Point Of View, technology serves as source and presenter of knowledge. (David H. Jonassen 1999)
• Technology like computer is seen as a productivity tool.
• With the eruption of the INTERNET in the mid 90s.
• From the contructivist Point of View, educational technology serves as a learning tool that learners learn with.

From contructivist perspective, the following are roles of technology in learning: (Jonassen, et al 1999)

• Technology as tools to support knowledge construction:

For representing learners’ ideas, understanding and beliefs for organized, multimedia knowledge bases by learners. 

For producing organized, multimedia knowledge bases by learners

• Technology as information vehicles for exploring knowledge to support learning-by-constructing:

For accessing needed information

For comparing perspectives, beliefs and world view

• Technology as context to support learning-by-doing:

For representing and simulating meaning realworld problems, situations and context. 

For representing beliefs, perspectives, arguments, and stories of others. 

For defining a safe, controllable problem space for student thinking.

•  Technology as a social medium to support learning by conversing:

For collaborating with others. 

For discussing, arguing, and building consensus among members of a community 

For supporting discourse among knowledge building communities. 

•  Technology as intellectual partner (Jonassen 1996) to support learning by reflecting: 

For helping learners to articulate and represent what they know. 

For reflecting on what they have learned and how they came to know it. 

For supporting learners internal negotiations and meaning making. 

For constructing personal representations of meaning 

For supporting mindful thinking.