I love computers! I consider it as the most awesome invention in the history of humankind. Who would contradict to this one? And I dare you to give me an invention that is more valuable than computer. Computer is responsible for all the advancement in technology! Cannot think of anything else, right? I guess so. Computer as many of us would say, make our lives easier and better. Computers perform a wide variety of activities in our daily lives reliably, accurately, and quickly. I am here saying as a digital learner that in my schooling computer takes a very hefty role. Truly, computer is my companion. Computer serves as my tutor. And this is what we are going to discuss in this blog post. Especially it’s assistance in education.
The computer is one of the wonders of human ingenuity. Educators saw much use of the PC. They saw its potential for individualization in learning, especially as individualized learning is a problem since teachers usually with a class of forty or more learners. This is a common scenario here in the Philippines, right? What I mean is, the forty or more learners in a classroom. They therefore devised strategies to use the compute to break barriers to individualized instruction.
The computer-assisted instruction (CAI) which acts as a tutor and provides a learning environment should never replace the teacher since the teacher shall continue to play the major roles of information deliverer and learning environment controller. Even with the availability of CAI, the teacher must insure that students have the needed knowledge and skills for any computer activity (which by the way is VERY important! How would you teach something with the use of CAI if you yourself cannot master to operate a computer? Come on guys, seriously?!). The teacher must decide the appropriate learning objectives. Teachers should know their specific goals. They must plan sequential and structured activities to achieve objectives. And lastly, teacher must evaluate the students’ achievement by ways to tests and specific expected outcomes.
Not only the teachers are the proponents of the effectiveness of CAI but the students as well should do their part as the learners. The students in CAI play their own roles as learners as they receive information, understand the instructions for the computer activity, retain the information and rules for the computer activity and apply the knowledge and rules during the process of computer learning.
CAI INTEGRATED WITH LESSONS
CAI works best in reinforcing learning through repetitive exercises such that students can practice basic skills or knowledge in various subject areas. Common types of drill and practice programs include vocabulary building, math facts, basic science, and history or geography facts. In these programs, the computer presents a question/problem first and the student is asked to answer the question/problem, immediate feedback is given to the student’s answer. After a number of practice problem, at the end of the exercise, the students get a summary of his/her overall performance.
When and how can teachers integrate drill and practice programs with their lessons?
- Use drill and practice programs for basic skills and knowledge that require rapid or automatic response by students
- Ensure that drill and practice activities conform to the lesson plan/curriculum
- Limit drill and practice to 20-30 minutes to avoid boredom.
- Use drill and practice to assist students with particular weakness in basic skills.
In integrating computer programs in instruction, use tutorial software associated with cognitive learning. While practice exercise or learning by doing is still the heart of each tutorial, the tutorial software should:
- Be able to teach new content/new information to students
- Provide comprehensive information on concepts in addition to practice exercises
- Be effectively used for remediation, reviewing or enrichment
- Allow the teacher to introduce follow-up questions to stimulate students’ learning
- Permit group activity for cooperative learning
With the integration of CAI in education, simulation softwares are another kind of software that is constructivist in nature. It teaches strategies and rules applied to real-life problems/situations, asks students to make decision on models or scenarios, and it allows experience of the effects of their decisions. I didn’t able to try using this software but I think is suites best with engineering students because as stated from the games definition, SimCity, the student or the simulator will build a city and decides on what tools/materials will he/she use in building it, considering financial limits and etc.
Example:
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| In SimCity, the player is given the task of founding and developing a city, while maintaining the happiness of the citizens and keeping a stable budget. |
While relating to low-level learning objectives, instructional computer games add the elements of competition and challenge. I would really love to play this game but the only problem is I didn’t have any software of it available. It is also created a long time ago so the tendency is that, its animation is far more advanced that the newer instructional computer games.
Example:
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| GeoSafari, an educational toy company that releases various technological educational toys. |
Problem solving softwares are more sophisticated than the drill and practice exercises and allow students to learn and improve on their problem solving ability. Since problems cannot be solved simply by memorizing facts, the students have to employ higher thinking skills such as logic, recognition, reflection, and strategy-making.
Example:
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| Thinkin' Things Collection 1 is a set of tools and toys that strengthen auditory and visual discrimination develop spatial awareness and foster visual and musical creativity. |
The Multimedia Encyclopedia can store a huge database with texts, images, animation, audio and video. Students can access any desired information, search its vast contents, and even download/print relevant portions of the data for their composition or presentation. I love this software. Aside from I love reading factual and trivial books, this software can really help students in gathering or getting reliable information.
Example:
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| Children's Encyclopedia, could be used as a conventional reference library. It covered scientific subjects such as geology, biology and astronomy but such scientific terms were generally avoided. |
Electronic books provide textual information for reading, supplemented by other types of multimedia information. These are useful for learning reading, spelling and word skills.
Example:
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| Little Critter in this interactive book app as he and his Grandma spend a day at the beach! Explore pictures, learn new vocabulary, and personalize the story with your own narration. |
The following examples of CAI being shown above are the presentation of how educators can integrate CAI in their lessons and applications that are applicable in achieving their tools. I will discuss further with the gory details on the CAI’s applications by educators in my next blog post. Those examples above are just few of the vast number of educational softwares available worldwide. All you have to do as a student is to choose for the list and enhance or practice the skills you want to learn or enhanced more. It just a matter of picking and judging what software you are going to use and how will you use that software to boost your talent and skills. Like me, example, as a BSED Physics student, I want to practice my problem solving skills because as we all know Physics is all about problems, (even though I don’t really care about them, haha, I am oblige to do so.) so I installed software in my laptop and also in my smartphone. Softwares like pHet, Physics problem solver, Pocket Physics, Physics Formulas and many more. These softwares are very useful in my studies. They really serve as a guide in my education.
So, how about you? Do you use one of the softwares mentioned above? How do you use computer as a tutor? Just comment in this post below.
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