Helping Students Build Knowledge: What Computers Should Do

Computers & Education, 2001

Several papers present the work of academics from the Spanish Open University (UNED) and the Catalan Open University (UOC) in developing comprehensive learning environments for distance learning use (pp. 37, 93, 275). In the last of these (p. 275), the authors illustrate UNED's efforts to design and develop a web-based learning environment which allows for reusability of resources, yet provides a sound, easy to use content design facility based on instructional templates. An interesting paper, 'Learning Basque in a distance-adaptive way', achieves a good balance of technical and pedagogical reasoning, revealing an unusual partnership of educational institutions (a university and a secondary school) with industry (a software company) and the media (a regional newspaper); all backed by financial support from the local government. The closing paper is somewhat different from the rest, which makes it stand out but also rounds off the collection on an unexpected, theoretical note. Entitled 'Computer-Human Learning. Learning through Natural Language on the Internet', it does not describe any particular system but rather considers the role of natural language in knowledge acquisition and development, recognising the role of linguists and computational linguistics as key contributors to the cognitive sciences and the use of computers in education in particular. Readers need to get over the hurdle of non-native language writing (or more likely poor translations) which makes reading the first two plenary lectures in particular a hard task, but most of the short papers in Part II are written in perfectly good English, with some painful exceptions. The book will be of interest primarily to computer scientists and developers of educational software. For others, it will provide a brief insight into artificial intelligence and the future of educational software, but they must be ready to deal with the abundance of technical terms and concepts presented. At £80, this book is more likely to be found on library shelves than in lecturers' studies.

Online Submission, 2010

Technology in education is considered in empirical and theoretical literature as both beneficial and harmful to children"s development. In the field of the early years settings there is a dilemma whether or not early childhood teachers should use technology as a teaching and learning resource. This paper has a pedagogical focus, discussing the advantages and the potential problems of computer practice to children"s learning and behaviour in the early years settings and also suggests teaching methodologies concerning beneficial computer practice. It establishes the educational value of technology, by linking digital activities to the relevant pedagogical learning theories that support this context. It is argued that implementing technological activities in the early years settings has beneficial results in children"s learning, when children interact with each other and adults guide discreetly their activities. In contrast, children"s individual overuse of computer activities may have negative effects on their learning and behaviour. The concluding remarks indicate the effectiveness of computer use in the field of the early years settings and the important contribution of adults in this practice. They further suggest teaching methodologies of computer use that have a beneficial impact on children"s learning. Their implications are discussed in the context of motivating researchers to further investigate the effects of digital activities in children"s learning but also as an interesting teaching and learning resource to early childhood teachers in everyday computer practice.

The future of children, 2000

Journal of Education and Practice, 2013

Training of young children is a crucial issue in the development of any nation for sustainability. These children naturally depend on the guidance of some adults both at home and at school. They begin by learning from their parents and when they enter school system, they need to transit under the guidance of trusted teachers who will be penchant and have flair for teaching young learners. In our contemporary, information technology is the bane of educational pursuit. Using computers for instruction has been proved to be effective but the use of computer in teaching young children in Nigeria primary school has not been found productive. One of the major reasons is that many teachers do not possess basic skills for teaching with computers while in other cases, the computers are not available. In this study, 58 teachers were identified for use using questionnaire; 41 penchant teachers and 17 inept teachers. Among the penchant teachers, eleven (11) did not have computer for instruction, twelve (12) had computer but could not effectively operate and use them for teaching while eighteen (18) could operate and use computer for training. Thus only 18 penchant teachers were compared with 17 inept teachers. Findings showed that; where teachers are penchant and have flair for young children, children do better, using computer in learning. one recommendation is that penchant teachers be accorded priority attention in their request for Instructional materials since they are likely to produce better result than their counterpart inept teachers. Keywords: Penchant Teacher, Inept Teacher, Flair, Computer, Young Learners

Psychological Reports, 2009

Effects of a 15-wk. computer-assisted course or regular instruction on concept development by 6-yr.-old kindergarten children in Ankara ( M age of sample = 66.0 mo., SD = 4.6; M age of girls = 65.0 mo., SD = 4.4; M age of boys = 66.0 mo., SD = 4.5). Children were assigned to two groups of 40 (Experimental group: 18 girls and 22 boys; M girls' age = 65.3 mo., SD = 3.7, M boys' age = 67.1 mo., SD = 4.1; Control group: 21 girls, 19 boys, M girls' age = 64.9 mo., SD = 5.01, M boys' age = 66.7 mo., SD = 5.1). All were given the Bracken Basic Concept Scale–Revised and a general information form. Mean posttest scores in concept development for the group given computer-assisted training were statistically significantly higher.

Technology is the collection of machines, processes, methods, transactions, systems, administration and supervision mechanism, which serves as a bridge between science and practice and helps meet human needs using available information, materials, sources and energy. The developments in technology and educational aims follow a parallelism, which requires the use of technological products at different education levels to improve thinking and learning forms. It is imperative that children are introduced to technology starting from pre-school ages. An education setting surrounded by suitable technological products both promote, the children's development and increases motivation to learn. With this respect, this study was carried out to investigate the contribution of technology to children's developmental areas, technology use in pre-school ages, the role of educators in technology use in pre-school ages, and to increase consciousness drawing attention to the topic since limited number of research with limited scope was found in literature.

Highly able pupils differ considerably from their age-mates with respect to their learning potentials, actual levels of development, and learning styles in various areas of competence. From very young onwards, these pupils may experience serious motivational, social, and cognitive problems when attending regular education. The research question focuses on how to specify and support learning processes of highly able pupils in such ways that these pupils can achieve according to their real potentials in primary education. A second related question asks for the empirical effects of adequate learning arrangements on highly able pupils in primary education. The method to answer these questions is as follows. First, theoretical specification of the required support of highly able pupils is based on characteristics of these pupils and on pedagogical, psychological, educational, and organisational outcomes of empirical research. It is shown that, even in learning arrangements designed for highly able pupils, the adequacy and progress of their learning processes may be blocked by education characteristics that come much too late, and offer much too less learning support or challenges. Second, this conclusion leads to the formulation and specification of three dimensions that seem to respond to the learning needs of highly able pupils. These dimensions refer to the differentiation of the curriculum, development and implementation of supportive Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and continuous monitoring and improvement of learning processes. Each dimension is made concrete in five guidelines. Third, prototypes of both relevant curricula and ICT support were developed in collaboration with school practice. Fourth, using a longitudinal intervention design, an experimental study is being conducted in which five randomly selected primary schools function as control schools and five randomly selected primary schools act as experimental schools. In the experimental schools, screening of relevant beginning characteristics of incoming four-year old pupils by parents and teachers is followed by a more diagnostic approach to assess the actual cognitive, social, and other competencies of each pupil. Then, development, playing and learning for each pupil are based as much as possible at the levels of their actual competencies in each area. Learning is organised in small groups of pupils, to enhance self-regulatory processes. In the conference paper and presentation, information is given about each of the four research steps. With respect to the fourth step, the information given regards the characteristics of the experimental design and school situations, the various roles of the didactic ICT prototype, the training of teachers, the implementation of the experimental characteristics in school practice, and the main first effects of the experiment with the teachers in practice. Concrete effects of the intervention on the learning processes and outcomes of the highly able pupils will be presented in the future.

Revista Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado. Continuación de la antigua Revista de Escuelas Normales

Ha habido una mayor determinación para introducir la codificación y el pensamiento computacional al principio de la educación. Por lo tanto, la programación ha crecido progresivamente y ha adquirido un enfoque esencial en la educación europea siguiendo las tendencias internacionales. Esta idea de introducir la programación informática en el aula no es reciente, surgió en 1960 por las investigaciones de Seymour Papert. Las potencialidades de enseñar lenguajes de programación infantiles como incubadora de ideas poderosas comenzaron en esa década, pero se extendieron y continúan utilizándose hoy en día de una manera mucho más vasta. La programación se utilizó como una herramienta para involucrar a los niños en nuevas formas de pensar, pero mucho más crítica que eso, poniendo al estudiante en un papel para pensar en el proceso de pensamiento. Entonces, con este contexto en mente, nuestro objetivo es presentar una serie de ideas importantes que rigen la forma en que el pensamiento comput...

1995

Computers in Human Behavior, 1985

A meta-analysis of 32 comparative studies showed that computer-based education has generally had positive effects on the achievement of elementary school pupils. These effects have been different, however, for programs of @line computer-managed instruction (CMI) and for interactive computer-assisted instruction (CAI). The average effect in 28 studies of CAI programs was an increase in pupil achievement scores of O. 47 standard deviations, or from the 50th to the 68th percentile. The average effect in four studies of CMI programs, however, was an increase in scores of only O. 07 standard deviations. Study features were not significantly related to study outcomes. Computers are fast becoming an important factor in elementary school teaching. The number of computers in American elementary schools has increased by a factor of at least 10 during this decade, and the majority of schools now own them (Becker, 1983). The use of computers in teaching is nonetheless a difficult subject to bring into focus. Researchers and developers disagree on some of the basic issues. Even the terminology in the area is open to dispute. The acronym CAI is often used, but it is variously interpreted as standing for computer-assisted instruction, computer-aided instruction, computer-augmented instruction, or computer-administered instruction. Other terms used in the area are computer-managed instruction, computerbased learning, and computer-based instruction. Computer-based education, or CBE, is becoming increasingly popular as a generic term for the area because it encompasses a broad spectrum of computer applications (Hall, 1982). Researchers also differ in their opinions on the best way to subdivide the area. Early taxonomies of CBE usually distinguished between four uses of the computer in teaching (Atkinson, 1969; Watson, 1972): (a) In drill-and-practice applications, the teacher presents lessons to pupils by conventional means, and the The material in this report is based upon work supported by a grant from the Exxon Education Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Exxon Education Foundation. The authors thank David Shwalb and Jolie Spring for their invaluable assistance in locating studies for the report.