Describe the notion of "relative advantage" with respect to improving technology implementation methods. Identify specific teaching and learning problems that technology can help address and how it can create learning opportunities that did not exist.
The term "relative advantage," in the context of educational technology, refers to the ability of technology to enhance a particular learning task in comparison to traditional methods. All technology has some cost to implement and use. To determine whether this is a cost worth paying, one must know what improvements to the learning experience will be obtained for that price.
My own field, science teaching, is a particularly opportune one for technological enhancement. Studying science often requires teachers and students to visualize complex objects or concepts which it would be impossible to depict without computer aid. Modern computers are powerfully equipped to illustrate these objects. Because the graphics they create can be changed in real time, an instructor can show students the shape of, for instance, the electron orbitals around a hydrogen atom at 90%, 95%, 99%, 99.9%... probability, showing how the probability of finding the electron tails off into the infinitesimal as it moves away from the atom. Even a highly skilled teacher would find it difficult to illustrate these on a blackboard.
On the other hand, technology is also easily misused in the classroom. Poorly constructed graphics can confuse students, mislead them, form incorrect associations and misleading analogies in their minds. We often find that the more powerful the technology, the greater the skill required to use it effectively. Edward Tufte, the dean of graphic representation in science, has powerfully demonstrated the vast differences that effective graphics make in the presentation of data. And all of us have suffered "PowerPoint poisoning" at the hands of inept presenters. Teachers introducing technology into the classroom should be careful to correctly calculate its cost — not only in dollars and cents, but in the effort that will be required from them to properly use and deploy it.
3 comments:
Well put and you are right that many educators utilize many computer and technological tools incorrectly...but that is why we have trainers, teachers, and researchers...so that we can learn how to incorporate new and old technologies into the classroom..
Tracy
I don't see a class in my program on how to illustrate electron orbital probabilities on the chalkboard... or any training in the use of chalkboards, for that matter!
Perhaps we should employ more democratic methods to solve this- let students choose their science teachers! I'll bet the ones that use cool Smartboards would have full classes and the "ditto-makers" would go wanting.
Brian
Training is certainly the first step in effective deployment of technology. On the other hand, there are still many other factors to be considered. Who trains the trainers? One of the reasons "PowerPoint abuse" is so notorious is because training materials often perpetuate, rather than correct, the abuses. You have to be sure the techniques you're being inculcated with are the right ones. It's also important to recognize your own strengths. Just as people can be good writers but bad artists or vice versa, different people will be better able than others to use different technologies. So it's also important to know which technologies work best for you.
Post a Comment