CHAPTER 3: THE ASSURE MODEL

ASSURE MODEL

Assure model is a procedural guide for planning and conducting instruction that incorporates media and technology.

ANALYZE LEARNER :

to identify learners, you must know your students, If instructional media and technology are to be used effectively, there must be a match between the characteristics of the learner and the content.

Several factors, however are critical for making good methods and media decision:

General characteristics General Characteristics

Include broad identifying description, such as age, grade level, job or position, and cultural or socioeconomics factors.

v  If learner apathy toward the subject matter is a problem, consider using a highly simulating instructional approach

v  Learners entering a new conceptual area for the first time may need more direct, concrete kinds of experiences

v  Heterogeneous groups may profit from an audiovisual experience

v  For instruction dealing with a familiar audience, analysis of general characteristics will be something given.

Specific country competencies

v  There will be an assumption that the learners are lack of knowledge or skills. But, the assumption is often mistaken.

v  The assumption that learners have the prerequisite knowledge or skill to begin the lesson can seldom be accepted casually in school settings.

v  Researchers studying the impact of different psychological traits on learning have reached the unexpected conclusion that students prior knowledge of a particular subject influences how and what they can learn more than does any psychological trait (Dick, Carey, 2001)

v  These realizations suggest that instructors must verify assumption about entry competencies through informal means or more formal means.

v  Prerequisites should be state in the same format as are objectives.

v  Reassessment measures, given before instruction and used to measure the content to be taught.

Learning styles

A cluster of psychological traits that determine how an individual perceives, interacts with, and responds emotionally to learning environments.

Gardner (1993) identified seven aspects; subsequently revise to nine: 1) verbal/linguistic, 2) logical and mathematical (scientific) 3) visual or spatial, 4) musical/rhythmic, 5) bodily or kinesthetic 6) interpersonal 7) intrapersonal 8)naturalist 9)existentialist

Gardner theory implies that teachers, curriculum, planners, and media specialists should work together to design curricula in which students have the chance to develop these different aspect of intelligence.

Learning style variables discussed in the literature can be categorized as perceptual preferences and strengths, information processing habits, motivational factors, and psychological factors.

Perceptual Preferences And Strength

Learners vary as to which sensory gateways they prefer using and which they are especially adapt to using.

The main gateways include auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic.

 Information Processing Habits

Gregore’s model of “mind styles”, elaborated by Butler (1986), groups learners according to concrete versus abstract and random versus sequential styles.

Concrete sequential learners prefer direct, hands-on experiences presented in a logical order

Concrete random learners lean toward a trial-and-error approach

Abstract random learners are distinguished by their capacity to draw meaning

Motivational Factors

Motivation is an internal state that leads people to choose to work towards or against certain goals and experience. Motivators can be categorized as either intrinsic motivators and extrinsic motivators. Intrinsic motivators are generated by aspect of experience of task itself.

Extrinsic motivators are generated by factors not directly related to experience or task.

A helpful approach to describing students motivation is Keller’s (1987) whose describes four essential aspects of motivation

            Attention refer to whether students perceive the instruction as interesting and worthy of their consideration

 Relevance refer to whether the students perceive the instruction as meeting some personal need or goal

Confidence refer to whether students expect to succeed based on their own efforts

  Satisfaction refer to the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards students receive from the instruction.

 Psychological Aspects

 Factor related to gender differences, health, and environmental conditions are among the most obvious influences of the effectiveness of learning.

Dunn and Dunn (1992) have developed standardized instruments to measure the learning style and environmental preferences of learners that cover these and other psychological factors.

Teachers who have prescribed individual learning programs based on analysis of these factors feel that they have practical value in improving academic achievement, attitude, and discipline.

1. State Objectives

An objective is a statement of what will be achieved, not how it will be achieved

Your statement of objectives should be as specific as possible

Why should you state instructional objectives?

a. You must know your objectives in order to make appropriate selection of methods and media

b. Your objectives will, in sense, guide your sequence of learning activities and your choice of media.

c. Knowing your objectives will also commit you to create a learning environment in which the objectives can be reached.

d. To help ensure proper evaluation

Select Methods, Media And Material

A systematic plan for using media amd technology certainly demands that the methods, media and material be selected systematically in the first place.

The selction process has three steps :

-Deciding the appropriate method for the given learning tasks.

-Choosing media format that is suitable for carrying out the method.

-Selcting, modifying, or designing specific material whithin the media format.

a. Choosing a method

Method is particular form of procedure for accomplishing or approaching something. A systematic or established one.

b. Choosing a media

A media format is physical form in which a message is incorporated and displayed.

Types of media format :

Ro : Real Object (models)

T   : Printed Text ( handouts, books, computer screen )

CB : Chalkboard or Whiteboard

OT : overhead transparancies

SL  : Slides

V   : Video ( tape, disc, television )

G   : Grapichs ( photos, chart, diagrams )

A   : Auido ( tape. CD )

CS : Computer Software

Obtaining specific Materials

Selecting available materials

Modifying existing materials

Designing new material

c. Selecting  available materials

The majority of instructional materials used by teachers and trainers are “off the shelf” that is, ready-made and available from school, district or company collections or other easily accesible resources.

1. Involving the Media/Technology Specialist

v  The media/technology specialist can be an important resource for you.

v  You may need new materials to update the content of unit

v  The media/technology specialist can tell you about materials housed in local resources center or school library media.

v  An appointed group of teacher may review selection and evaluation guides and identify new materials to be purchased for future use

v  Teachers tend to become more critical an selective as they increse their collective knowledge of media and material alternatives.

2.  Surveying the sources

Ø  You might survey some of the published reference guides or the Internet to get a generak idea of what is available

Ø  There are three types of guides that can help you select media: comprehenstive guides, selective guides, and evaluation guides.

Ø  Comprehenstive  guides help you identify the scope and possibilities.

Ø  A-V Online

Ø  Boeker’s complete video guides

Ø  Selective guides are a complication of the “best” instructional materials.

Ø  Only best computer programs

Ø  Best videos for children and young adults

Ø  The elementary school library collection

Ø  An advantages of these selective guides is that time has allowed the “best” to surface from a comparison of similiar products on the market.

Ø  A disadvantage is that during the time required for this process to take place, some items may have become outdated and newer items of good quality may not have been included.

Ø  Evaluative guides are current and will keep you to up to date about new materials.

- Booklist

- School Library journal

- Choice

-  Video rating Guide

Ø  Selection Criteria

Ø  The decision about wheter to use a particular piece of instructional material depends on several factors.

Ø  Recent research confird that criteria are critical in the appraisal of material ( McAlpine & Watson, 1994)

Among the questions to be asked about each specific piece of media  are following :

• Does it match curriculum ?

• Is it sccurate and current?

• Does it contain clear and concise language?

• Wil it motivate and maintain interest ?

• Does it provide for learner participation?

• Is it og good technical quality ?

• Is there evidence of its effectiveness (field-test results)?

• Is it free from objectionable bias and adversiting ?

• Is a user guide or other documentation included ?

The instructor’s personal file

Every instructor should develop a file of media refernces and appraisals for personal use. An excelent way for you to begin is to develop your own personal file of Appraisal Checklist by using the “Classroom Link Portofolio” CD-ROM.  Appraisal Checklist – Provide a systematic procedure for judging the qualities of specific materials.

Modifying Existing Materials

Ø  If you cannot locate entirely suitable materials and media off the shelf you might be able to modify what is available.

Ø  This be both challenging and creative.

Videocassette Recorders

Ø  Provide teachers with the opportunity to modify television programs that previsiously were available  only as shown the air.

Ø  Only frequenly modified media format is a set of  slides with an audio tape . if the visual are appropriate but the language is not, it is possible to change the language. It is aslso possible to change the emphasis on the narration.

Ø  If you try to out modified materials while they are still in more or less rough form. You can then make further modifications in response to student reaction until your materials meet your exact need.

Designing New Materials

Ø  It is easier and less costly to use available materials, with or without modification, than to start from scratch. Ther is a seldom justification for reinventing the wheel.

Ø  However, there may be times when your only recourse is to design your own materials. As in the case with selecting from available materials, you must consider certain basic elements when designing new materials.

Designing New Materials

Ø  Objectives : what do you want your students to learn ?

Ø  Audience  : what are the characteristic of your learners ?

Ø  Cost         : is sufficient money available in your budget to meet the cost of supplies ?

“ Don’t waste time and the money trying to produce slick professional materials when the simple inexpensive products will get the job done.”

4. Utilize Media and Materials

a.  review the Materials

           The teacher previews all the Websites under the resource section of the student WebQuest. Also, the student produced PowerPoint presentations, videos, play scripts, and audio materials, before allowing them to present before the class.

b. Prepare the Materials

            The teacher prepares student WebQuest page, handouts, and rubrics using MSWord software. The teacher makes sure that the necessary equipment is working and accessible for the students to use. The equipment available will be available in the classroom: video camera, digital camera, DVD player, CD burner, tape recorder, computers, TV monitor, projector, large screen, and blank video cassettes, audio tapes and CD’s.

5.  Require Learner Participation

Educators who realize active participation in learning, will enhance learning activities. According to John Dewey in the 90's.

To be effective, teaching should require mental active involvement. It is recommended that the activity that occurs allows students to apply new knowledge or abilities and receive feedback. In practice, it can involve student independence, computer-assisted teaching, internet activities or group work.

6. Evaluate and Revise

a. Assessment of learner Acievement

    Authentic, that is, requiring students to use processes that match the content with how the content is used in the real world.

Authentic assessment tasks usually have the following characteristics:

-have more than one correct approach

-Are thought provoking, not simply requiring recalculated products

-Require decision making, rather than just rote memorization.

-Develop thinking in a variety of ways

-Lead to other problems to be solved

-Raise others questions

Types of authentic assessments include the following

Ø Student projects such as writing assignments Performance such as giving speeches, or demonstration

Ø Oral questioning by both teachers and other student

Ø Discussions of controversial topics and current events

    Portfolios, including student work with summaries and reflections.

b. Evaluation of methods and media

Technology and media will be carried out by conducting surveys and observations.

c. Revision

Do students reach the goal? How do students react to the material and media presented? Are teachers satisfied with the value of the material chosen? The teacher must bend the reflection of the lesson and every component in it. Write down immediately before applying the lesson again.

CHAPTER 2: TECHNOLOGIES FOR LEARNING

What are technologies for learning?    

The concept an operating system (windows, for example) might be a helpful analogy. An operating system consist of a package of rule and procedures that provides a standardize, consistent pattern for using the computer. Once this template is installed, the user doen’t. In a similar way, technologies for learning are packages of tested and proven procedures, ready to be “loaded” with some specific content and to lead learners through a particular kind of learning experience.

            Technologies for learning combat boredom by providing a change of pace from lecture and seatwork and by adding motivational featires that excite learner interest. They also provide a means for individualizing instruction to a greater degree. Their creators were guided by different theoritical prespectives, so they have different rationales for doing so. All the technologies discussed here emphasize active and continous practice of relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes, and all as part of the total system, provide for rapid, effective feedback. Many of them are driven by the search for ways to build intepersonal feedback into all instruction.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING

            Cooperative learning involves small heterogeneous groups of student working together to learn colaboration and social skills. Group members are interdependen-that is, each is dependent on the others for achieveing their goal. Learning involves active participation by all students. These should be practiced in a realistic, often simulated context while receiving feedback from peers, the teacher or computer.

            Cooperative learning has gained momentum in both formal and informal education from two converging forces: first the practical realization that life outside the classroom requires more and more collaborative activity, from the use of teams in the workplace to everyday social life, and second, a growing awareness of the value of social interaction in making meaningful.

Advantages

Ø  Active learning. Cooperative learning “requires” students to actively interact with others.

Ø Social skill. Students learn to interact with other developing their interpersonal, communication, leadership, compromise, and collaboration skills.

Ø  Interdependence. Positive interdependence and accountability are developed as students interact to reach a common goal.

Ø  Individual accountability. When a group’s success depends on the input of each individual in it, individuals learn to be accountable for their actions.

Limitation

Ø  Student compability. It is sometimes difficult to form groups of students who will work together well. The teacher must know her students well to form groups that will function effectively.

Ø  Student dependency. You may create dependency and defeat the purpose of cooperative learning. The challange is to devise management systems that require learner to truly collaborative.

Ø  Time consuming. It requires more time to cover the same amount of content than do some other methods.

Ø  Logistical obstacles. The teacher must arrange a lot of information, student responsibilities, and assesment activities.

Integration

Ø  Students can learn cooperatively not only by being taught with materials but also by prodecing materials themselves. Ex/ produce a videotape or powerpoint presentation related to historical content being studied.

Ø  The notion of students wrorking together in small groups is not new, but ensuring that their efforts are truly collaborative has recently become a point of emphasis. Ex/ make a project tim to prepare a report on Peru.

Learning Together Model

Johnson and Johnson’s (1993) interdependent learning group , known as the Learning Together Model, requires four basic elements :

1. Positive interdependence. Student must recognize that all the members of the group are dependent on each other to reach success. The teacher creates positive goal intedependence by requiring teammates to agree on objectives, strucures role intedependence by assigning each student a role.
2. Face to face helping interaction. The learner teach each other and discuss any confusion or misconception.
3. Individual accontability. It’s to randomly select one student’s test to represent the whole group to reinforce individual accountability.
4. Teaching interpersonal and small groups skill. They must be taught the skills of communication, leadership, and conflict management and must learn to monitor the processes in their group, making connections if there are shortcomings.

Team-Assisted Individualization (TAI)

            Robert Slavin (1985) and his colleagues have developed a different format for cooperative learning, Team-Assisted Individualization (TAI), which they develped for mathematics instruction in grades three to six.  TAI has achieved impressive result in field test. Not only do TAI students score higher on computation and aplication skills, they also show better social relation wth disabilities and with students of another ethnic and cultural origin. Specifically intended to avoid some of the problems encountered with individualized programmed instructions.

TAI follows this pattern:

1. Teaching groups. The Teacher gives short lessons to small homogenous group –learner who are at about the same point in the curriculum. It prepare students for major concepts in upcoming units.
2. Team formation. Every eight weeks, student are asssigned to four member teams that are as heterogenous as possible in terms of acheivement levels, gender, and ethnic bacground.
3. Self-instructional materials. Student work independently using self-instructional materials, which include step by step procedures for solving problems, a set of problems, self-test items, and a summative test.
4. Team study. Student work in pairs within their assigned team, working on problems and having their partner check their solutions.
5. Team scores and team recognition. Team scores are computed at the end of each week; certificates are given to those who greatly exceed the criterion level.

Computer-Based Cooperative Learning

Computer assistance can alleviate some of the logistical obstacles to using cooperative learning methods, particulary the task of managing information, allocationg different individual responsibilities, presenting and monitoring instructional material, analyzing learner responses, administering tests, scoring and providing remediation for those tests.

            Group oriented programs of this sprt can also deal with the logistical problems of assisting a number of groups simultaneously, as is necessary in the single computer classroom. The software manages a rotation of the teams so that there is the little tome lost waiting in line.

Games

            A game is an activity in which participants follow prescribed rules that differ from those of real life as they strive to attain a challenging goal.  To be challenging, goals should have a probability of achievement of approximately 50 percent. A goal that is always or never attained presents no real challenge; the outcome is too predictable. People exhibit the most interest and motivation when the challenge is in the intermediate range.

Advantages:

1. Attractive. It provide attractive frameworks for learning activities because they are fun. Children and adults alike tend to react positively to an invitation to play..
2. Novel. As a departure from normal classroom routine, games arouse interest because of their novelty.
3. Atmosphere. It relaxed atmosphere fostered by games can be especially helpful for those who avoid other types of structured learning activities.
4. Time on task. It can keep learners interested in repetitious tasks, such as memorizing multiplication tables.

Limitations:

1. Competition. Competitive activities can be counter-productive for students who are less interested in competing or who are weak in the content or skill being practiced.
2. Distraction. Student can get caught up in the excitement of play and fail to focus on the real objectives.
3. Poor design. A fatal shortcoming of poorly designed games is that players spend a large portion of their time waiting for their turn, throwing dice,moving markers, around a board, and performing similar trivial actions.

Integration:

1. Attainment of cognitive objectives, particularly those involving recognition, dicrimination, or memorization.
2. Adding motivation to topics that ordinarily attract little student interst.
3. Small group instructio, providing structured activities that student or trainees can conduct by themselves without close instructor supervision.
4. Basic skills such as sequence, sense of directions, visual perceptions, number concept, and following rules which can be developed by means of card games.
5. Vocabulary building. Various commercial games have been used succesfully by teachers to expand spelling and vocabulary skills.

Adapting The Content Of Instructional Games

            Familiar games such as tic-tac-toe, rummy, constration, and Jeopardy, which were intended for recreation rather than instructio, can serve as potential frameworks for your own instructional content. Some televion game shows have been modeled after such parlor games; they can suggest additional frameworks. Here are some sample adaptions :

1. Safety tic-tac-toe. Use a three by three grid, each row represents a place where safety rules pertain to home, school and street. Team take turns selecting and trying to answer safety related question, attempting to fill in three squares in a row.
2. Spelling rummy. Using alphabet cards instead of regular playing cards, players attempt to spell short words following the general rules of rummy.
3. Reading concentration. This game using about a dozen matched picture-word pairs of flashcards. Cards are placed face down, on each turn the player turns over two card, seeking to match a pair.
4. Word bingo. Each player’s card has a five by five grid with a vocabulary word in each square. The reader randomly select words, players thn seek the words on their boards, and if they are found, the square is marked.

SIMULATIONS

            A simulations is an abstraction or simplication of some real-life situation or process. Participant usually play a role that involves them in interactions with other people or with elements of the simulated environment.

            Stimulations are by design active. They are nit a “spectator sport”. Stimulations provide realistic practice with feedback in a realistic context. Most simulations include social interaction. One type of simulation, role play, provides relatively open-ended social interaction between and among individuals. However, there are some simulations, such as flight simulators, in which there is no social interaction. Team simulation allow students to use their individual differences. Some computer-based simulations adjus their difficulty level based on the ability of the “player”.

Simulation and Problem-Based Learning.

            One particular value of simulation is that it implements the problem-based learning  method as directly and clearly as possible. In problem-based learning , the learner is led toward understanding principles through grappling with a problem situation. Most simulation attempt to immerse participants in a problem.

            The great advantage of this sort of firsthand immersion in a topic is that students are more likely to be able to a play to real life what they have practiced in simulated circumstances. This raises the issue of the degree of realism captured by a simulation. A common defect in poorly designed simulations is an overemphasis on chance factor deteermining outcomes. Much of he reality is spoiled if chance-element cards cause players to gain or lose great quantities of points or other resources regadless of their strategic decisions. An overemphasis on chance or overly simplied representation of real relationships might end up teaching lessons quite contrary to those indeed.

Simulators

            Competencies in the motor skill domain require practice under conditions of high feedback, which gives learners the feel of the action. Although it might be ideal to practice such skill under real-life conditions,. Sample simulators are in widespread use in applications such as training workers in a range of manual skills from CPR to welding. One famliar example of a simulator is the flight trainer, a mock-up of the interior of the cockpit complete and control gauges. The device employed to represent a physical system in a scaled-down form.

Advantages:

1. Realistic. They allow practice of real world skills under conditions similar to those in real life.
2. Safe. Learners can practice risky activities, ex/ cardiopulmonary resusciation without risking injury to themselves or to others.
3. Simplified. It intended to capture the essential features of a situation without dwelling on details that might be distracting or too complex for the learner’s current level of understanding.

Limitations:

1. Time consuming.  it are often used with problem based learning methods, allowing learners to immerse themselves in a problematic situation and to experiment with different approaches.
2. Oversimplications. Learner should take place in fully realistic situations, with all the complexity of real life. They would be concerned that a stimulation might give students a false understanding of tje real life situation.

Integration:

1. Training in motor skills, inscluding athletic and mechanical skills, and complex skills that might  otherwise be too hazardous or expensive in real life settings.
2. Instruction in social istruction and human relation, where displaying empahty and coping the reactions of other people are major goals.
3. Development of decision making skills ex/ microteaching in teacher education, mock court in law school, management simulations in bussiness administration.

Role Plays

            Role play refers to a type of stimulation in which the dominant feature is relatively open-ended interaction among people. In essence, a role play asks someone to imagine that she is another person or is in a particular situation; the person then behaves as the other person would or in the way rge situation seems to demand. The purpose in many cases is to allow the person’s own traits to emerge so that they can be discussed and possibly modified.

STIMULATION GAMES

A simulation game combines the attributes of a simulation with the attributes of a game. Participation in simulation games, players can see the whole process and its dynamic interrelationships in action.

Integration: a simulation games require both the repetitive skill practice associated with games and the reality context associated with simulations. The teacher frequently use it to provide an overview of a large, dynamic process.

LEARNING CENTERS

            A self contained environment designed to promote individual or small group learning around a specific tasks. It may be as simple as a table and some chairs around which student discuss, or it may be as sophisticated as several networked computers used by a group for collaborative research and problem solving. Learning centers should encourage active participantion rather than just sitting and reading a book. Most learning centers provide student practice with feedback through individualized activities. Learning centers tend not to provide realistic contexts and not to provide social interaction. They tend to be designed for use by individuals, however, they can be designed for pairs or triads.

Advantages:

1. Self-pacing. Centers encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning and allow them to learn at their own pace, thus minimizing the possibility of failure and maximizing the likelihood of success.
2. Active learning. It provide for student participation in the learning experience, student responses, immediate feedback to student response.
3. Teacher role. It allow the teacher to play more of a coaching role, moving around the classroom and providing individual help to students when they need it.

Limitations:

1. Cost. A great deal of time must be spent in planning and setting up center around in collecting and arranging for center materials.
2. Management. Teacher who manage it must be very good at classroom organization and management.
3. Student responsibility. Independent student will be successful only insofar as students are able and willing to accept resposibility  for their own learning.
4. Student isolation. It need not be limited to individual student use; small groups can be assigned to work together. If student do work alone, you must make other provitions to provide for the social dimension of learning.

Integration:

1. Skill centers. It can provide students with an opportunity to do additional practice, typically to reinforce  a lesson previously taught through other media or methods.
2. Interest centers. It can stimulate new intersest and encourage creativity.
3. Remedial centers. It can help students who need additional assistance with a particular concept or skill.
4. Enrichment centers. It can provide stimulating additional learning experiences for students who have completed other classroon activities.

PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION

Programmed instruction is a method of presenting new subject matters to students in a graded sequence of controlled steps. Students work through the programmed material by themselves at their own speed and after each step test their comprehension by answering an examination question or filling in a diagram. They are then immediately shown the correct answer or given additional information. Computers and other types of teaching machines are often used to present the material, although books may also be used.

Advantages

1.     Self-pacing. Progammed instruction allows individuals to learn at their own pace at a time and place of their choice.

2.  Practice and feedback. It requires learner to participate actively in their learnng and provides immediate feedback for each practice attempt.

3.   Reliable. This technology provides a reliable form of learning, in that the instructional routine is embodied in print so that it can be mass produced an experienced by many people in exactlly the same form.

4. Effective. Hundreds of research studies compare programmed instruction with conventional instruction. Summaries of these studies indicate slight superiority for programmed instruction.

Limitation

1.   Program design. As with many other media and technologies, the quality of the software varies greatly. Some programmed materials are poorly designed and have little value.

2.     Tedious. The repetition of the same cycle and plowing through an endless series of small steps taxes rge attention spamn and patience of many students. For highly motivated learners with the required reading skills and self-discipline, programmed instruction can give them a chance to go off on their own and progress as far and as fast as they like. For other it can be tedious.

3.     Lack of social interaction. Most programmed materials are meant to be used by one individul at time. Long periods of independet study are inappropriate or younger children. Even older students and adults prefer more special interaction in their learning. Some kinds of skills and understanding are enchanced by the socia exchange of group-based intsructiion. Affective and interpersonal skills are unlikely candidates for programmed intruction.

Integration

Programmed instuction is particullary useful as an enrichment activity. It can help provide higly motivated student with additional lerning experiences that the teacher might ordinaraly be unable to provide because of classroom time pressure.

PROGRAMMED TUTORING

Programmed tutoring is a one to one method of instruction in which the tutor’s responses are programmed in advance in the form of carefully structured printed instruction. in typical program the tutor and student go through the lesson material together.

If the learner responds correctly, she is reinforced and goes on to a new item. If the response is incorrect, a series of increasingly clealer prompts or hints is given. For example, in teaching a begonning reader to follow writen instructions, the students’s book might say, “point to your teacher when first shown the intruction, the tutor might follow this sequence of proms:

1.     “read it again” (wait for response)

2.     “what does it say”

3.     “what does it tell you do?”

4.     Do what it tells you to do”

Advantages

1.  Self pacing. Programmed tutoring shares with programmed instruction the characteristic of individualized pacing.

2.     Practice and feedback. Programmed tutoring requires learner participation. The use of live tutor as a mediator adds immensely to the flexibitity of the feedback system, and it adds another major advantage over printed self-instructional material by employing social reinforces in the form of praise (“that’s great. Oh good answer”)

3.  Reliable. Programmed tutoring provides reliable instruction in that the written instructions for the tutor.

4.   Effective. The effectiveness of programmed formats. Has been well established through the evaluation studies carried out by its originator.

Limitation

1.     Labor intensive. Programmed tutoring depends on the availability of volunteer tutors. In schools, tutoring is usually done by peers, older students, or parents.

2.     Development. The success of programmed tutoring depends on the design of the tutoring guides, their development requires an investment of time and expertise.

Integration

Reading and mathematics have been by far the most popular subjects for tutoring. Being basic skills and higly structured by nature, these subjects lend themselves well to this approach. Remidial instruction is the typical aplication of tutoring program.

PROGRAMMED TEACHING

            Programmed teaching, also known as direct intruction, is an attempt to apply the principles of programmed intruction in large-group setting. In this approach, a whole class is broken into smaller groups of 5 to 10 students. These smaller groups are led through a lesson by a teacher, professional, or student peer following a highly prespective lesson plan. The critical features of these lesson include unison responding by learners to prompts (or cues) given by the instructor, rapid pacing and procedures for reinforcment or correction.

PERSONALIZED SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION

            Personalized System of Intruction (PSI) differs from the whole-class aplication of mastery learning in that adheres to the notion of using individual self-study as the main form for learning activity. In many PSI courses there are no whole –class learning activities at all; in some cases, hoewever there are used for course orientation, guest speakers, and review sessions.

Advantages

1.     Self-facing. PSI allows students to progress at their own rate and to take full resposnsibility for detemining when, where, and how they study. And although this is not often done because of constraints of cost and convenience, students with differing learning sytles and interests could be given study materials best suited to their needs.

2.     Mastery. The main clain of PSI is that it prevents the “accumulation of ignorance” students are not allowed to go on to advanced units until they show the most frequent causes of failure in conventional intruction is that students plunge ahead into new material without completely grasping prerequistie knowledge or skills.

3.     Effective. The effectiveness of PSI has been documented in a large number of studies comparing PSI and conventional versions of courses.

Integration

In secondary education it has been most successful in mathematics, engineering and psychology and slightly less successful in the life sciences and social sciences.

CHAPTER 1: MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY AND LEARNING

A. LEARNING

Learning is the development of new knowledge, skills or attitudes as an interact with information and the environment. The learning environment includes the physical facilities, the psychological atmosphere, instructional methods, media and technology.

1. Psychological Perspectives on Learning

• Behaviorist Perspective

In the mid 1950s the focus of learning research started to shift from from stimulus design (communication) to learner response to stimuli. At the forefront of the movement was B.F. Skinner. He based his learning theory, known as reinforcement theory, on a series of experiment with pigeons, and he reasoned that the same procedures could be used with humans. The result was the emergence of programmed instruction, a technique of leading a learner through a series of instructional steps to a desired level of performance.

• Cognitive Perspective

Cognitivists create a mental model of short-term and long term memory. New information is stored in short-term memory, where it is “rehearsed” until ready to be stored in long-term memory. If the information is not rehearsed, it fades from short-term memory.

Learners then combine the information and skills in long-term memory to develop cognitive strategies, or skills for dealing with complex tasks. Cognitivists have a broader perception of independent learning than that held by behaviorists. A close look at the work of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget illustrates how a cognitive psychologist views the mental processes individuals use in responding to their environment. The three key concepts of mental development in Piaget’s work are schemata, assimilation, and accommodation (Piaget, 1977).

• Schemata 

Schemata (singular, schema) are the mental structures by which individuals organize their perceived environment. Schemata are adapted or changed during mental development and learning. They are used to identify, process, and store incoming information and can be thought of as categories individuals use to classify specific information and experiences.

Very young children learn to distinguish between mother and father. They soon separate dogs from cats and later become aware of different varieties of dogs: These differentiations based on experience lead to the development of schemata, or the ability to classify objects by their significant characteristics.

• Assimilation 

Assimilation is the cognitive process by which a learner integrates new information and experiences into existing schemata. Piaget borrowed the term from biology, where it refers to the process by which an organism eats food, digests it, and then assimilates or changes it into a usable form.

During learning, assimilation results from experiences. With new experiences, the schema expands in size but does not change its basic structure. Using the process of assimilation, the individual attempts to place new concepts into existing schemata.

• Accommodation

The process of modifying existing or creating new ones is called accommodation. Because schemata change with experience, adult learners have a broader and more elaborate range of schemata than do children. When dealing with a new concept or experience, the learner attempts to assimilate it into existing schemata. There are two possible responses:

1. The learner can create a new schema into which the new stimulus is placed, or
2. The existing schema can be modified so that the new stimulus will fit. Both of these process are form of accommodation.

• Constructivist Perspective

Constructivism is a movement that extends beyond the beliefs of the cognitivist.  It considers as the essence of learning. The shift is from passive transfer of information to active problem solving. Constructivists emphasize that learners create their own interpretations of the world of information. The constructivist believes that learning occurs most effectively when students are engaged in authentic tasks that relate to meaningful contexts. The ultimate measure of learning is therefore based on the ability of the student to use knowledge to facilitate thinking in real life.

• Social-Psychological Perspective

Social psychology is another well-established tradition in the study of instruction and learning. Social psychologists look at the effects of the social organization of the classroom on learning. In recent years, researchers such as Robert Slavin have taken the position that cooperative learning is both more effective and more socially beneficial than competitive and individualistic learning (Slavin, 1990). Slavin developed a set of cooperative learning techniques that embodies the principles of small-group collaboration, learner-controlled instruction, and rewards based on group achievement.

Approaches to Instruction

Instruction is the arrangement of information and environment to facilitate learning. By environment we mean not only where instruction takes place but also the methods, media, and technology needed to convey information and guide the learner’s study. Instructions and instructional designers need to develop an eclectic attitude toward competing schools of learning psychology.

Finding a Middle Ground

Inspired by each of the psychological perspectives, designers have developed powerful frameworks for instruction. Indeed, successful instructional practices have features that are supported by virtually all the various perspectives:

• Active participations
• Practice
• Individual differences
• Feedback
• Realistic contexts
• Social interaction

The learning frameworks that we will examine in detail all attempt to incorporate a number of these pedagogical features.

2. Philosophical Perspective on Learning

If teachers perceive learners as machines, they will treat them as such, with or without the use of instructional media and technology. If teachers perceive their students as human beings with rights, privileges, and motivations of their own, with or without the aid of media and technology, they will view students as people engaged in learning. In other words, it is the way that media and technology are used, not the media and technology themselves, that tend to mechanize people.

Students with a high level of anxiety are prone to make mistakes and to learn less efficiently when under pressure. Many times, stressful learning situations for high- anxiety students make it difficult for them to succeed. Given the same sequence of instruction mediated through technology that will continue only at the command of the students, it may be possible to reduce the pressure.

B. MEDIA

A medium (plural, media) is a channel of communication. Derived from the Latin word meaning “between”, the term refers to anything that carries information between a source and a receiver. The purpose of media is to facilitate communication.

Since the turn of the century, teachers have used various types of audio and visual aids to help them teach. Recently, teachers have expanded their repertoire of materials and procedures to include the new technologies for learning. The newer techniques include the use of computers, compact discs, digital videodiscs (DVDs), satellite communication, and the internet.

The Concrete-Abstract Continuum

In general, as you move up Dale’s Cone of Experience toward the more abstract media, more information can be compressed into a shorter period of time. It takes more time for students to engage in a direct purposeful experience, a contrived experience, or a dramatized experience than it does to present the same information in a videotape, a recording, a series of visual symbols, or a series of verbal symbols.

C. THE ROLES OF MEDIA IN LEARNING

Media can serve many roles in learning. The instruction may be dependent on the presence of a teacher (instructor directed). Even in this situation, media may be heavily used by the teacher. On the other hand, the instruction may not require a teacher. Such student-directed instruction is often called “self-instruction” even though it is in fact guided by whoever designed the media.

• Instructor-Directed Instruction

The most common use of media in an instructional situation is for supplemental support of the “live” instructor in the classroom. Certainly, properly designed instructional media can enhance and promote learning and support teacher-based instruction. But their effectiveness depends on the instructor.

Research has long indicated the importance of the instructor’s role in effective use of instructional media. For example, early studies showed that when teachers introduced films, relating them to learning objectives, the amount of information students gained from films increased (Wittich & Fowlkes, 1946).

Advance organizers can be effective instruments for ensuring that media play their proper role as supplemental supporters of instruction. Many commercially available materials today have built-in advance organizers, which may be used as is or adapted by the instructor. Specific examples from this text include the photo essays at the beginning of each chapter, the chapter outlines, lexicons, and the chapter organization chart.

• Instructor-Independent Instruction

The use of self-instructional materials allows teachers to spend more of their time diagnosing and correcting students problems, consulting with individual students, and teaching  one on one and in small groups. Indeed, under certain circumstances, the entire instructional task can be left to the media. Experimental programs have demonstrated, for example, that an entire course in high svhool physics can be successfully taught through the use of videotapes and workbooks without direct classroom intervention  by the teacher. Successful computer-based courses in calculus have been developed for use by able students whose high schools have no such course.

• Media Portfolios

A portfolio is a collection of student work that illustrates growth over a period of time. Portfolios often include such artifacts as student-produced illustrated books, videos, and audiovisual presentations. Portfolios allow students to do the following:

a) Gather, organize, and share information
b) Analyze relationships
c) Test hypotheses
d) Communicate the result effectively
e) Record a variety of performances
f) Reflect on their learning and activities
g) Emphasize their goals, outcomes, and priorities
h) Demonstrate their creativity and personality

Portfolios could contain the following artifacts:
1. Written documents such as poems, stories, or research papers.
2. Media presentations, such as slide sets or photo essays.
3. Audio recordings of debates, panel discussions, or oral presentations.
4. Video recordings of students’ athletic, musical, or dancing skills.
5. Computer multimedia projects incorporating print, data, graphics, and moving images.

Portfolio assessment is consistent with the constructivist philosophy, which emphasizes that what is important is the knowledge that students themselves construct. The idea of portfolio assessment, then, is to measure students’ achievement by their ability to create tangible products exemplifying their accomplishments in term of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Portfolios provide a broad picture of what students know and can do. They can portray both the process and products of student works, as well as demonstrate student growth. Students reflection should be an important component of portfolios. Self-reflection actively involves students in assessing their own learning and actively promotes reflection on their work and abilities.

• Electronic Portfolios

Electronic portfolios are a means of organizing, designing, and viewing traditional styles of portfolios. They are was assessing student learning using technology. Physical and social development can be measured as well (Campbell, 1996). Electronic portfolios have advantages over traditional portfolios in the way they are created and navigated. Creating electronic portfolios can expand the size of the audience to include other teachers, principals, parents, and students.

To create electronic portfolios with full capabilities hardware is needed: a computer with audio and video capabilities, video camera, digital camera, color scanner, software program and internet accessibility.

• Distance Education

Distance education is a rapidly developing approach to instruction worldwide. The approach has been widely used by business, industrial, and medical organizations. The distinguishing characteristics of distance education is the separation of the instructional team and student’s during the learning process. As a consequence, the course content must be delivered by instructional media. In addition, radio, broadcast television, and teleconferences are utilized for “live” distance education.

• Education for Exceptional Students

Media play an important role in the education of students with exceptionalities. Adapted and specially designed media can contribute enormously to effective instruction of all students an can help them achieve at their highest potential regardless of their innate abilities. Adjusting instruction for all exceptional groups requires heavy reliance on media and materials and the appropriate selection of these materials to fit specific purposes.

D. METHOD

Instructional methods have been described as “presentation form” such as lecturers and discussions. Method are the procedures of instruction selected to help learners achieve the objectives or to internalize the content or message. Media then, as already defined, are carriers of information between a source and a receiver.

Ten Method Categories

• Presentation

In the presentation method, a source tells, dramatizes or otherwise disseminators in formation to learners. It is a one way communication controlled by the source, with no immediate response from or interaction with learners. The source may be a textbook, an audiotape, a videotape, a film, an instructor, and so forth. Reading a book, listening to an audiotape, viewing a videotape, and attending a lecture are examples of the presentation method.

• Demonstration

Demonstrations may be recorded and played back by means of media such as video. If two-way interaction or learner practice with feedback is desired, a live instructor or a tutor is needed.

• Discussion

Discussion involves the exchange of ideas and opinions among students or among students and teacher. It can be used at any stage of the instruction/learning process, and in small or large groups. It is a useful way of assessing the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of a group of students before finalizing instructional objectives, particularly if it is a group the instructor has never taught before.

• Drill and Practice

In drill-and-practice learners are led through a series of practice exercise designed to increase fluency in a new skill or to refresh an existing one and received some instruction on the concept, principle, or procedure that is to be practiced. To be effective, the drill-and-practice exercises should include feedback to reinforce correct responses and to remediate errors learners might make along the way.

• Tutorial

A tutor-in the form of a person, computer software, or special printed materials-presents the content, poses a question or problem, requests a learner’s response, analyzes her response, supplies appropriate feedback, and provides practice until the learner demonstrates a predetermined level of competency. Tutoring is most often done one on one and is frequently used to teach basic skills, such as reading and arithmetic.

Tutorial arrangements include instructor-to-learner, learner-to-learner, computer-to-learner, and print-to-learner. The computer is especially well suited to play the role of tutor because of its ability to deliver speedily a complex menu of responses to different learner inputs.

• Cooperative Learning

Many educators have criticized the competitive atmosphere that dominates many classrooms in public schools and higher education. They believe that pitting student against student in the attainment of grades is contrary to the social requirements of cooperation in life and in most on-the-job situations. Teacher and students often  find themselves in a situation where the main emphasis is on test taking and grading. There are other ways to assess student learning, such as the portfolios described earlier in this chapter. Competition in the classroom also interferes with students learning from each other.

Students can learn cooperatively not only by discussing text and viewing media but also by producing media. For example, the design and production of a video or a slide set as a curriculum project presents an opportunity for cooperative learning. The teacher should be a working partner with the students in such learning situations.

• Gaming

Gaming provides a playful environment in which learners follow prescribed rules as they strive to attain a challenging goal. It is a highly motivating technique, especially for tedious and repetitive content. The game may involve one learner or a group of learners. Games often require learners to use problem-solving skills or to demonstrate mastery of specific content demanding a high degree of accuracy and efficiency.

One common type of instructional game is related to learning about business. Participant form management teams to make decisions regarding a mythical corporation, the team with the highest corporate profits is the winner.

• Simulation

Simulation involves confronting a scaled-down version of a real-life situation. It allows realistic practice without the expense or risks otherwise involved. The simulation may involve participant dialog, manipulation of materials and equipment, or interaction with a computer.

Interpersonal skills and laboratory experiments in the physical sciences are popular subjects for simulations. In some simulations learners manipulate mathematical models to determine the effect of changing certain variables, such as controlling a nuclear power plant. Role playing is another common example of the simulation method.

• Discovery

The discovery method uses an inductive, or inquiry, approach to learning; it present problems to be solved through trial and error. The aims of the discovery method Is to foster a deeper understanding of the content through involvement with it. The rules or procedures that learners discover may be derived from previous experience, based on information in reference books, or stored in a computer database. Discovery learning can assume the form of helping students to seek the information they wish to know about a topic of specific interest to them.

• Problem Solving

Problem solving involves placing students in the active role of being confronted with a novel problem situated in the real world. Students start with limited knowledge, but through peer collaboration and consultation they develop, explain, and defend a solution or position on the problem. It uses reality-based, problem-centered materials that are often presented by media. As a part of solving the problem, students go to the library media center and/or access computer databases through the internet.