Technology can enhance and Improve the way students learn. In a teacher-centered approach, control is largely in the hands of the teacher. The teacher makes the decisions about what the students learn and students have little or no choice. At the other end of the continuum, the students are empowered and control what they learn. They actively seek out knowledge rather than having information handed to them.
The classic example of a teacher centered activity is a lecture. In this case, the students sit and listen while the lecture speaks. Students may have the opportunity to direct their own learning by asking questions at the end of the lecture. But by and large, the decisions about what materials the students are exposed to have already been made by the lecture. That is where technology comes in.
Technology Enhance Learning
Technology has expanded the richness of learning resources and made them easier to access. As a result, students are not as reliant on their teachers and textbooks as they were previously, and technology can facilitate student centered learning in rich and meaning enhancing ways. While technology can enhance student centered learning, it is not inherently student centered. For example, watching a video of your teacher online is no more student centered than listening to a face to face lecture in a lecture hall. In order for technology to be truly student centered, the learning must be inquiry based, active and interactive, and meaning making.
Enhance Project Based Learning
Here are some specific examples of how technology can enhance students centered learning. As already mentioned, project based learning is student centered. With project based learning, students research real world problems and produce a project based on their inquiry, which can be interdisciplinary. The project can be researched on systems engineering online masters and presented using web based materials. These projects can be huge undertakings, like designing a school that would be used in 2060. A teacher can ask her students to collect sentences spoken by native speakers of English, which uses targeted vocabulary. Students then share these sentences on their class wiki.
Web-Based Self-directed Research
Another example is self directed research that is web based. In this example, the teacher guides the students by making expectations clear. These expectations may be very large in scope or they may be very specific. The students usually have a choice of topic. They identify their own needs and then use the web to seek out learning objects. Teachers might provide the students with resources or ask the students to do an independent search.
Web Quest
A web quest is another form of inquiry based learning. Students answer a set of questions provided by the teacher based on internet resources that the teacher provides. The images and media available on the web makes some of these quests wildly creative. In some cases, they're timed and take on a game format.
Just in Time Teaching
Another example is just in time teaching, which was created by Gregor Novak. First students answer web based questions. This is usually done as homework. After they finish the homework, they submit their answers to the teacher using some form of technology. The teacher analyzes the material and identifies difficulty students are having and makes adjustments to the next lesson. Technology allows all of this to happen in a very short space of time. In the case of just in time teaching, instruction are based on students' needs.
Future Use of Technology
The use of technology in education can strengthen the connections between your students and learning objects, as well as contribute to the number and strength of these objects.
If, as teachers, you want to use technology and at the same time ensure that students are the center of their own learning, there are some questions you want to ask when utilizing technology. Does the learner identify his or her heart, her own needs and then pursue them? What is the student doing when he or she is using the technology?
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