Lesson 5 - The Cone of Experience.

" The Cone is a visual analogy, and like all analogies, it does not bear and exact detailed relationship to the complex elements it represents." -Edgar Dale

    

Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience is a virtual representation on learning resources arranged to degrees of abstractness. The farther you move away from the base of the cone, the more abstract learning resources becomes. Arranged from the least to the most abstract the learning resources presented in the cone of experience are:

Direct proposal experiences

  - These are first hand experiences which serve as the foundation of our learning. We build up our reservoir of meaningful information and ideas through seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling. In the context of the teaching-learning process, it is learning by doing. If I want my student to learn how to focus a compound light Microsoft, I will let him focus one, of course, after I showed him how.

Contrived experiences

  - In Here, we make use of a representative model or mock ups of reality for practical reasons and so that we can make the real-life accessible to the students’ perceptions and understanding. For instance a mock up of Apollo, the North capsule for the exploration of the moon, enable the North American Aviation Co. to study the problem of lunar flight.

Dramatized experiences

  - By dramatization, we can participate in a reconstructed experience, even though the original event is far removed from us in time. We relieve the outbreak of the Philippine revolution by acting out the role of characters in a drama.

Demonstrations

  - It is a visualize explanation of an important fact, idea or process by the use of photographs, drawings, films, displays or guided motions. It is showing how things are done. A teacher in Physical Education shows the class how to dance tango.

Study Trips

  - These are excursions and visits conducted to observe an event that is unavailable within the classroom.

Exhibits

  - These are displays to be seen by spectators. They may consist of working models arranged meaningfully or photographs with models, charts, and posters. Sometimes exhibits are “for your eyes only”. There are some exhibits, however, that include sensory experiences where spectators are allowed to touch or manipulate models displayed.

 Television and Motion Pictures

  - Television and motion pictures can reconstruct the reality of the past so effectively that we are made to feel we are there. The unique value of the value of the messages communicated by film and television lies in their feeling of realism, their emphasis on person s and personality, their organized presentation and their ability to select, dramatize, highlight and clarify.

Recordings, Radio, Still Pictures

  - These are visual and auditory devices may be used by an individual or a group. Still pictures lack the sound and motion of a sound film. The radio broadcast of an actual event may often be likened to a televised broadcast minus its visual dimension.

Visual Symbols

  - These are no longer realistic reproduction of physical things for these are highly abstract representations. Example are chart, graphs, maps and diagrams.

Verbal Symbols

  - They are not like the objects or ideas for which they stand. They usually do not contain visual clues to their meaning. Written words fall under this category. It may be a word for a concrete object (book), an idea (freedom of speech), a scientific principle (the principle of balance), a formula ( e=mc²)

                The Lines that separate the learning experience should not be taken to mean that the learning experiences are strictly delineated. The Cone of Experience should not be taken literally. Come to think of it. Even from the base of the cone, which is direct purposeful experiences, we already use words- verbal symbols- which are the most abstract. In fact, we use words that are verbal symbols, the pinnacle of the cone, across the cone from top to bottom. Or many times verbal symbols are accompanied by visual pictures, still pictures.

                Three pitfalls that we, teachers should avoid with regard to the use of the Cone of Experiences are:

                Using one medium in isolation

                Moving to the abstract without an adequate foundation of concrete experience.

                Getting stuck in the concrete without moving to the abstract hampering the development of our student’s higher thinking skills.

   

LESSON  2 -  TECHNOLOGY: BOON OR BANE?

Technoloy is in our hands. We can use it to build or destroy."

  

•   Educational Technology is a boon because it has a great advantage in our lives especially in our studies . It can make our life more easier and comfortable. It controls the world in which we live in. It helps us in many ways and understand the things that are happening around us. We can create beyond our imagination of what we can do and explore many things that educational technology can offer. It can also widen our knowledge because it is unlimited of the information we wanted to know. It could only be a bane if we abuse our privilege in using and applying it in our lives. Especially when you are to addicted with it in a way that it cannot help you anymore nor can destroy you. So it is really depends upon us on how to use it and for what purpose to use it as, it has been used for good as well as bad causes.

•  Technology is a blessing for man. With Technology, there is a lot that we can do which we could not do then.

•   When not used properly, Technology becomes a detriment to learning and development. 

•  In Education, technology is bane when:

• The learner is made to accept as Gospel truth information they get from the internet.  

• The learner surfs the internet for pornography.

• The learner has an uncritical mind on images floating on television and computers that represent modernity and progress. 

• The TV makes the learner a mere spectator not an active participant in  the drama of life.

• The learner gets glued to his computer for computer-assisted instruction unmindful of the world and so fails to develop the ability to relate to others.

• We make use of the Internet to do character assassination of the people whom we hardly like.

• Because of our cell phone, we spend most of our time in the classroom or in our workplace texting.

• We use, overuse and abuse TV or film viewing as strategy to kill time.

•  If we use Technology to help students and teachers become caring, relating, thinking, reflecting and analyzing and feeling beings, then it is a boon, a blessing. But if we abuse and misuse it and so contribute to our ruin and downfall and those of other persons, it becomes a bane, a curse.

Lesson 1

Meaning of Educational Technology

" Technology is more than hardware. Technology consists of the designs and the environments that engage learners." -- D. Jonassen

•  Educational technology is a modern way of acquiring knowledge through the use of educational medium for the betterment of our learning and improve our educational standards. It can simplify and make our lives more easier and faster. Educational technology refers to all the processes and systems of learning  that can satisfy our needs and can develop our human capabilities to learn by using it in our daily lives.

•  To understand the meaning of Educational Technology, it would be good to begin with the meaning of Technology. The word " Technology " comes from the greek word techne which means craft or art. Based on the etymology of the word " Technology ", the term educational Technology, therefore, refers to the art or craft of responding to our educational needs.

 TECHNOLOGY 

•    Is not just a machine, it is a " planned systematic method of working to achieve planned outcomes -- a process not a product. Technology is the applied side of scientific development".

•    Is any valid and reliable process or procedure that is derived from basic research using the scientific method.

•   -Refers to " all the ways people use their inventions and discoveries to satisfy their needs and desires."

 EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 

•  Consists of the designs and environments that engage learners and reliable techniques or method for engaging learning such as cognitive learning strategies and critical thinking skills.

 Is a theory about how problems in human learning are identified and solved. As a theory, educational technology has an " integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events." 

   Is a field involved in applying a complex, integrate process to analyze and solve problems in human learning.

 Is a field study which is concerned with the practice of using educational methods and resources for the ultimate goal of facilitating the learning process. As a field, it operates within the total field of education. 

  Is a profession like teaching. It is made up of organized effort to implement the theory, intellectual technique and practical application of Educational Technology.  

  It is the application of scientific findings in our method, process or procedure of working in the field of education in order to affect learning.

 TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

•  -It is the application of technology to any of those processes involved in operating the institutions which house the educational enterprise. 

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY

•    It refers to those aspects of educational technology that " are concerned with instruction as contrasted to designs and operations of educational institutions.

•    It is also a systematic way of designing, carrying out and evaluating the total process of learning and teaching in terms of specific objectives. "

TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION 

•    Means using " Learning technologies to introduce, reinforce, supplement and extend skills." 

LESSON 4 - SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO TEACHING

"A plan that emphasizes the parts may pay the cost of failing to consider the whole, and plan that emphasizes the whole must pay the cost of failing to get down to the real depth with respect to the parts." 

 

-- C.West Churchman

The systems approach views the entire educational program as a system of closely interrelated parts. It is an orchestrated learning pattern with all parts harmoniously integrated into the whole: the school, the teacher, the students, the objectives, the media, the materials and assessment tools and procedures. Such an approach integrates the older, more familiar methods and tools of instruction with the new ones such as the computer. 

The systems' approach to instruction is simple in theory but far from being simplistic in practice. It is not just a matter of teacher formulating his/her lesson objective and then directly teaching the student. There are a lot of elements or factors that the teacher has to take into consideration - students' needs, interests, home background, prior experiences, developmental stage, nature and the like. The teacher, in the choice of the most appropriate teaching method, learning activities and learning resources, considers capability, the developmental stage of his students and of course his/her lesson objective. His/her choice of assessment method for learning is likewise dependent on the lesson objective. The action the teacher takes after getting assessment results is based on the assessment results, acceptability of remedial measure to parents and students, like a tutorial class after class hours. Will an extra hour after class devoted to tutorial be acceptable to the students and parents concerned?

The phrases or elements are connected to one another. If one element or one phase of the instructional process fails, the outcome which is learning is adversely affected. The attainment of the learning objective is dependent on the synergy of all elements and of all actors involved in the process.

The purpose of a system instructional design is "to ensure orderly relationships and interaction of human, technical and environmental resources to fulfill the goals which have been established for instruction." ( Brown, 1969 ).

LESSON 3 - THE ROLES OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY IN LEARNING

"Technology makes the world a new place" 

•  Educational technology helps the learners to support and represents their ideas and knowledge. Learners will build their own knowledge and improve their learning capacities not relaying to anyone, but teachers will only facilitate the learner to learn in their own with the help of these educational technologies. Because every learner have own abilities to learn from their own way. Educational technology helps a learner explore all the knowledge they want  and   attain their goals in life

• From the traditional point of view, technology serves as source and presenter of knowledge. It is assumed that “knowledge is embedded in the technology (e.g. the content presented by films and tv programs or the teaching sequence in programmed instruction) and the technology presents that knowledge to the students.”

•   Technology like computers is seen as a productivity tool. The popularity of word processing, databases, spreadsheets, graphic programs and desktop publishing in the 1980s points to this productive role of educational technology.

•  From the constructivist point of view, educational technology serves as learning tools that learners learn with. It engages learners in “active, constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative learning. It provides opportunities for technology and learner interaction for meaningful learning. In this case, technology will not be more delivery vehicle for content. Rather, it is used a s facilitator of thinking and knowledge construction.”

  From a constructive perspective, the following are roles of technology in learning:

• Technology as tools to support knowledge construction.
•  Technology as information vehicles for exploring knowledge to support learning-by-constructing.
• Technology as context to support learning-by-doing.
• Technology as a social medium to support learning by conversing.
• Technology as intellectual partner to support learning-by-reflecting.

•  Whether used from the traditional or constructivist point of view, when used effectively, research indicates that technology " increases students learning, understanding and achievement but also augments motivation to learn, encourages collaborative learning and supports the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills."