Lesson 8: Higher Thinking Skills through IT-Based Projects

In this lesson, we shall discuss four types of IT-based projects which can effectively be used in order to engage students in activities of a higher plane of thinking.
It is to be understood that these projects do not address all of the thinking skills shown previously in the Thinking Skills Framework. But these projects represent constructivist project.

Now let us see four IT-based projects conducive to develop higher thinking skills and creativity among learners.


I. RESOURCE-BASED PROJECTS


The teacher steps out of the traditional role of being an context expert and information provider, and instead lets the students find their own facts and information.


TRADITIONAL AND RESOURCE-BASED LEARNING

Traditional learning model	Resource-based learning model
Teacher is expert and  information provides	Teacher is a guide and facilitator
Textbook is key source of information	Sources are varied(print,  video. Internet, etc.)
Focus on facts Information is packaged In neat parcels	Focus on learning inquiry, quest, or discovery
The product is the be-all and end-all of learning	Emphasis on process
Assessment is quantitative	Assessment is quantitative and qualitative.

II. SIMPLE CREATIONS


In developing software, creativity as an outcome should not be equated with ingenuity or high intelligence. Creating is more consonant with planning, making, assembling, designing or building.
Three kinds of skills/abilities:
· Analyzing- distinguishing similarities and differences/ seeing the project as a problem to be solved.
· Synthesizing- making spontaneous connections among ideas, does generating interesting or new ideas.
· Promoting- selling of a new ideas to allow the public to test the ideas themselves.

The five key task to develop creativity:

Define the task- clarify the goal of the completed project to the student.
Brainstorm- the students themselves will be allowed to generate their own ideas on the project. Rather than shoot down ideas, the teacher encourages ideas exchange.
Judge the ideas- the students themselves make an appraisal for or against any idea. Only when students are completely off check should the teacher intervene.
Act- the students do their work with the teacher a facilitator.
Adopt flexibility- the students should be allowed to shift gears and not follow an action path rigidly.

III. GUIDED HYPERMEDIA PROJECTS


The production of self-made multimedia projects can be approached into different ways:

• Instructive tools- such as in the production by students of a power point presentation of a selective topic.

• Constructive tools- such as when students do a multi-media presentation (with text, graphs, photos, audio narration, interviews, video clips, etc. to simulate a television news show.

IV. WEB-BASED PROJECTS


Students can be made to create and post web pages on a given topic. But creating new pages, even single page web pages, maybe tool sophisticated and time consuming fort the average student.

It should be said, however, that posting of web pages in the Internet allows the students (now the web page creator) a wider audience. They can also be linked with other related sites in the Internet. But as of now, this creativity project maybe to ambitious as a tool in the teaching-learning process.

Reflection:


In our modern world as a teacher we need to think of unique kinds of projects and this lesson had given us an idea to use these kinds of projects, to be able to make our students' creativity and skills increased. Our job is to make our students to come out on their boxes, so that they will experience a lot of things that would make them a creative and full of knowledge person.

Lesson 11: The Computer as the Teacher’s Tool

    We will study here not just about what a computer is, we will know here what could be the capabilities of the computer in terms of using it as a tool in learning.

Constructivist was introduced by Piaget (1981) and Bruner (1990). They gave stress to knowledge discovery of new meaning/concepts/principles in the learning process. Various strategies have been suggested to foster knowledge discovery, among these, is making students engaged in gathering unorganized information from which they can induce ideas and principles. Students are also asked to apply discovered knowledge to new situations, a process for making their knowledge applicable to real life situations.

While knowledge is constructed by the individual learner in constructivism, knowledge can also be socially constructed. Social constructivism. This is an effort to show that the construction of knowledge is governed by social, historical and cultural contexts. In effect, this is to ay that the learner who interprets knowledge has a predetermined point of view according to the social perspectives of the community or society he lives in.

Learning Framework	Constructivism	Social Constructivism
Assumption	Knowledge is constructed by the individual.	Knowledge is constructed within a social context.
Definition of Learning	Students build their own learning.	Students build knowledge influenced by the social context.
Learning Strategies	Gather unorganized information to create new concept/principle	Exchange and share from ideas, stimulates thinking.
General Orientation	Personal discovery of knowledge.	Students discuss and discover meanings
Example	8*5-8+8+8+8+8	Two alternative job offers option 1-8 hrs/day for 6days/week Option 2-9 hrs/day for 5 days/week

FIGURE 7 SUMMARY OF THE TWO LEARNING PERSPECTIVE

The Computer’s Capabilities

Given its present-day speed, flexibility and sophistication, the computer can provide access to information, foster creative social knowledge building, and enhance the communication of the achieved project package. Without the computer, today’s learners may still be assuming the tedious task of low-level information gathering, building and new knew knowledge packaging. But this is not so, since the modern computer can help teacher-and-students to focus on more high level cognitive tasks. Based on the two learning theories, the teacher can employ the computer as a/an:· As an information tool

· A communication tool

· A constructive tool

· As co-constructive tool

· A situating tool

Informative tool 

The computer can provide vast amounts of information in various forms, such as text, graphics, sound and video. Even multimedia encyclopedias are today available on the internet. The internet itself provides and enormous database from which user can access global information resources that includes the latest news, weather forecasts, airline schedule, sports development, entertainment news and features, as well as educational information directly useful to learners. The internet on education can be sourced for kinds of educational resources on the internet. Along the constructivist point of view, it is not enough for learners to download relevant information using the computer as an information tool. Students can use gathered information for composition or presentation projects as may be assigned by the teacher. 

Constructive Tool

The computer itself can be used for manipulating information, visualizing one’s understanding and building new knowledge. The Microsoft Word computer program itself is a desktop publishing software that allows uses to organize and present their ideas in attractive formats.

Co-constructive Tools


Students can use constructive tools to work cooperatively and construct a shared understanding of new knowledge. On ways of co-constructive is the use of the electronic whiteboard where students may post notices to a shared document/whiteboard. Students may also co-edit the same document from their homes.

Situating Tool


By means of virtual reality (RS) extension systems, the computer can create 3-D images on display to give the user the feeling that are situated in a virtual environment. A flight simulation program is an example of situating tool which places the user in a simulated flying environment.
To caution users, the computer as a situating tool is news and still undergoing further research and development.

Reflection:

Students can build their own knowledge, and with the help of computers they can explore more and increase their skills and creativity and independence in some ways. So if the students use computer in a proper way, not just for entertainment, it will become a big factor in constructing knowledge.

Lesson 12: Information Technology in Support of Student-Centered Learning Classroom

The Traditional Classroom

When we say traditional classroom what comes into your mind? Traditional classroom is where the teacher is the center of the classroom. They are the ones who have the authority to fill their pupils' knowledge. The students are just listener and all they have to do is to pay attention to what their teacher have always saying. 

The SCL classroom

The SCL or student-centered learner is the opposite of the traditional classroom, in this learning process the students are working in the classroom they have the authority to do what they want, and the teacher serves only as a facilitator. the teacher let her student to discover things through interdependence or even through themselves individually. 

In our modern world and with this type of learning process the ICT have a big factor in developing one's skill and creativity in the way of what they want.

Generally the new school classroom environment is characterized by student individually or in group:

· Performing computer word processing for text or graph presentation.

· Preparing power-point presentation

· Searching for information on the internet

· Brainstorming on ideas, problems and project plans

· As needed, the teacher facilitating instruction, also giving individual instruction to serve individual needs.

But even though SCL is much indeed, most of the teachers used a collaboration of traditional way of learning and the SCL, and so by this the teaching and learning process have much greater success.

Reflection:

Both Traditional and Student centered learning process have advantages and disadvantages. Like on Traditional Learning process its disadvantage is that it is boring on the side of the student because they only sit and listen to their teachers instruction. And the good news is that in new learning process known as the SCL the student will never be board because they are going out of the box, meaning they could express what they what to do. On the other hand the disadvantage of SCL is that there is less management in the classroom unlike in the traditional classroom, all sits are organized and the class is well arranged.

Lesson 13: Cooperative Learning with the Computer

The creativity of the teacher will have to respond to the situation, and so cooperative learning will likely be the answer to the implementation of IT supported learning in our schools. But the situation may not be that bad since there are motivational and social benefits to cooperative learning and these can compensate for lack of hardware that educators face.

Defining cooperative learning

Cooperative or collaborative learning is learning by small groups of students who work together in a common learning task. It is often also called group learning but to be truly cooperative learning, 5 elements are needed:


1. A common goal

2. Interdependence

3. Interaction

4. Individual accountability

5. Social skills

Therefore not every group work is cooperative learning since students working on their work sheets physically sat around a table may be working together without these features of cooperative learning.
From several studies made on cooperative learning, it is manifested that cooperative learning in its true sense is advantageous since it:
(a) Encourage active learning, while motivating students
(b) Increases academic performance
(c) Promotes literacy and language skills
(d) Improves teacher effectiveness


Cooperative learning and the computer

Researchers have made studies on the learning interaction between the student and the computer. The studies have great value since it has been a long standing fear that the computer may foster student learning in isolation that hinders the development of the student’s social skills.

Components of cooperative learning


Educators are still wary about the computer’s role in cooperative learning. Thus they pose the position that the use of computers do not automatically result in cooperative learning. There therefore assign the teacher several tasks in order to ensure collaborative learning. These are:
· Assigning students to mixed-ability teams
· Establishing positive interdependence
· Teaching cooperative social skills
· Insuring individual accountability, and
· Helping groups process information

Reflection:

In the modern way of teaching we should let the student to build knowledge through doing activities by themselves. We should develop the 5 elements in collaborative learning, the creativity of the child could be enhance more if they are collaborating their ideas with their peer or group mates.