Educational technology

Educational technology is a field of study within education. The term Educational technology is often associated with instructional technology or learning technology, but educational technology is a broader term, or field of study encompassing the other two. Consider the differences between "Instructional" and "Educational." Educational technologies may include systems other than those related to instruction (e.g. registration or library systems).
The words educational and technology in the term educational technology have the general meaning. Educational technology is not restricted to the education of children, nor to the use of high technology. The particular case of the meaningful use of high-technology to enhance learning in K-12 classrooms and higher education is known as technology integration. The term is distinct from technology education: educational technology is about using technology to educate, whereas technology education is learning about technology. Several universities have recently opened tracks for graduate programs in the field of Educational Technology.

History

One of the earliest fields of study within educational technology was instructional systems design (ISD). This was developed by the United States military during World War II, in order to train large numbers of people more effectively. In a common ISD model, the ADDIE Model, the steps involved are: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.

Theories and practices

Three main theoretical schools have been present in the educational technology literature. These are Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. Each of these schools of thought are still present in todays literature but have evolved as the Psychology literature has evolved.

• Behaviorism

This theoretical framework was developed in the early 20th century with the animal learning experiments of Edward L. Thorndike. Many Psychologists like B.F.Skinner, and Ivan Pavlov used these theories to describe and experiment with human learning. While still very useful this philosophy of learning has lost favor with educators. But Behavior learning theory (e.g Classical Conditioning and Operant conditioning) is still very useful to explain lower level unconscious implicit memory and learning.

• Cognitivism

Cognition and learning is about the mechanisms by which people process information. Since the Cognitive Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, learning theory has undergone a great deal of change. Much of the empirical or psychological framework of Behaviorism was retained even though a new paradigm was begun. Like the Behavioral learning theories of the past, Cognitive learning theory is based on objective, empirical data. Cognitive theories look beyond behavior to explain brain-based learning.
New cognitive frameworks are emerging that complement and even explain the behavioral theories of previous eras. Today researchers are concentrating on topics like Cognitive load, Situated learning, and Information Processing Theory. These theories of learning are very useful as they guide the design of instructional technologies.

• Constructivism

Constructivism is the belief that students can guide their own learning through collaboration of others with similar ability and experiences. Technology allows for collaboration amongst a variety of people through a variety of sources, such as video-conferencing, blogging, smartboards, etc… Constructivist learning requires students to utilize their prior knowledge and experiences to formulate new, related, and/or adaptive concepts in learning. These new concepts are linked to the prior knowledge therefore, proving that all learning is connected. Constructivists’ believe that one learns by problem solving and incorporating real life experiences into newly acquired knowledge. The role of the teacher then becomes that of a facilitator of knowledge. Educators, from the constructivist’s perspective, must make sure that the prior learning experiences are appropriate and related to the concepts needed to be taught.
Constructivists rely on the importance of laying the ground work for learning. Jonassen (1997) suggests "well-structured" environments are useful for novice learners as "ill-structured" environments are useful for more advanced learners. Educators utilizing technology when teaching with the Constructivist perspective should choose technologies that reinforce prior learning perhaps in a problem-solving environment. Students are encouraged to self-reflect to make connections (prior knowledge to current experiences) and validate what is being learned.

Instructional Technique and Technologies

Problem Based Learning and Inquiry-based learning are active learning instructional techniques used to teach learners. Technology can be incorporated into project, problem, inquiry based learning as they all have a similar educational philosophy. All three are student centered, typically involving real world scenarios in which students are actively engaged in critical thinking activities. Both the process students engage in and end products of all the learning theories can be implemented with a number of technological tools.
Learners should be guided during the instructional process, but after initial instruction has taken place these more active techniques may be used. Quite often an instructor will introduce material through a lecture and then offer a think quest or web quest as reinforcement. These teaching strategies would be beneficial because they provide students with a structured presentation of the problem or project. During the first phase students begin the inquiry process, they can brainstorm using web mapping software or an interactive whiteboard to record their initial thoughts and create a plan of action. Both of these products promote student interaction and input into the developmental process.
"We find that when you put the two, (inquiry based learning and true technology integration) together there's a synergy created that really boosts students' learning" (Brannigan, 2002). Incorporating technology into project, problem, and inquiry based learning will make these educational theories applicable to today’s changing society.

Engaged Learning in Technology

The Encyclopedia of Educational Technology [1] places the theories and practices of educational technology into six categories: cognition and learning, analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. In today’s society technology is an ever increasing factor in many aspects of life. From our homes to businesses it continues to drive society. In education, technology is a compelling force that needs to be coupled with the curriculum to create an engaged learning atmosphere that allows learners to become skilled technicians with an endless passion for learning. With the use of technology students will become engaged learners who are responsible for their own learning. They engage in the learning process by problem solving, reflecting, synthesizing, evaluating, and continuously applying their new skills.
According to NCREL, learning should be authentic and set up to be challenging, multidisciplinary, and real world based. Assessment is an ongoing process connecting the curriculum and instruction. This assessment is achieved through observations, interviews, examining artifacts, and presentation both by students and teachers. Teachers are facilitators who guide the students in the process of their learning. They need to construct meaningful, interactive, lessons that engage the students in the curriculum.
Teachers need to be fully aware of the technology that engages students on a daily basis, and use that technology as a stepping stone to build upon in the classroom.
The use of this technology begins early. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 31 percent of children age three and under are already using computers. Sixteen percent use them several times a week, 21 percent can point and click with a mouse by themselves, and 11 percent can turn on the computer without assistance. What's more, a third of children -- many as young as 11 years old -- use blogs and social networking sites at least two or three times a week. Yet two-thirds of parents don't even know what a blog is, according to a report by NCH Children's Charities and Tesco Telecoms.
The information found in these studies, confirms the importance of technology in the classroom.
Technology is a powerful tool that can be used in the engaged learning process. This process creates a classroom that is an environment for a continuous learning community.

publisehd by www.wikipedia.org

Behavior modification

Behavior modification is a technique of altering an individual's behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the extinction of maladaptive behavior through positive and negative punishment.

Description

While founded in behaviorism, behavior modification has long been used by psychotherapists, parents, and caretakers of those with special needs who don't necessarily have a behaviorist "philosophy." It involves some of the most basic methods to alter human behavior, through operant reward and punishment. Classical conditioning, which aims to affect changes in behavior through associations between stimuli and responses, can also be a component of behavior modification, but it is generally less useful in applied settings because it focuses solely on basic involuntary reactions to stimuli and not on conscious learning associated with a behavior's function or context.Strictly following behavioral principles, there is no analysis of the individual's thoughts, but many argue that the therapy can be improved with cognitive components. In recent years, the concept of punishment has had many critics, though these critiques tend to not apply to negative punishment (time-outs) and usually apply to the addition of some aversive event. The use of positive punishment in certified behavior analysts is restricted to extreme circumstances when all other forms of treatment have failed and when the behavior to be modified is a danger to the person or to others. In clinical settings positive punishment is usually restricted using a spray bottle filled with water as an aversive event. When mis-used, extreme punishment can lead to affective (emotional) disorders, as well as to the target of the punishment eventually focusing only on avoiding punishment (i.e., "not getting caught") rather than improving behavior.

Techniques

Therapy cannot be effective unless the behaviors to be changed are understood within a specific context. Therefore, a functional assessment is needed before performing behavior modification. One of the most simple yet effective methods of functional assessment is called the "ABC" approach, where observations are made on Antecedents, Behaviors, and Consequences. In other words, "What comes directly before the behavior?", "What does the behavior look like?", and "What comes directly after the behavior?" Once enough observations are made, the data are analyzed and patterns are identified. If there are consistent antecedents and/or consequences, then an intervention should target them in order to increase or decrease the target behavior.Many techniques in this therapy are specific techniques aimed at specific issues.The only way of giving positive reinforcement in behavior modification is in providing compliments, approval, encouragement, and affirmation; a ratio of five compliments for every one complaint is generally seen as being the most effective in altering behavior in a desired manner.

Criticism

Behavior modification is critiqued in person-centered psychotherapeutic approaches such as Rogerian Counseling and Re-evaluation Counseling[1]. The argument is that these methods involve connecting with the human qualities of the person to promote healing and that behaviorism is denigrating to the human spirit.[citation needed]Further criticism extends to the presumption that behavior increases only when it is reinforced. This premise is at odds with research conducted by Albert Bandura at Stanford University. His findings indicated that violent behavior is imitated, without being reinforced, in studies conducted with children watching films showing various individuals 'beating the daylights out of Bobo'. Bandura believed that human personality and learning is the result of the interaction between environment, behavior and psychological process. While Behaviorism continues to grow as a science by including environmental factors, for example, it could be criticized for being reductionist.

Behavior modification in nature

• Behavior Modification can refer to a parasitic organism directly affecting its host's behavior (as opposed to gross biology) in a way which enhances the probability of its transmission.
• fasciola hepatica and Dicrocoelium dendriticum modify ant behavior so they can be transmitted to their host ruminant.
• toxoplasma gondii can modify rodent behavior so they are attracted to cats, resulting in their transmission to the host feline.

Published www.wikipedia.org

Alternative education

Alternative education, also known as non-traditional education or educational alternative, describes a number of approaches to teaching and learning other than mainstream or traditional education. Educational alternatives are often rooted in various philosophies that are fundamentally different from those of mainstream or traditional education. While some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, others are more informal associations of teachers and students dissatisfied with some aspect of mainstream or traditional education. Educational alternatives, which include charter schools, alternative schools, independent schools, and home-based learning vary widely, but often emphasize the value of small class size, close relationships between students and teachers, and a sense of community.

Terminology

Other words used in place of alternative by many educational professionals include non-traditional, non-conventional, or non-standardized, although these terms are used somewhat less frequently and may have negative connotations and multiple meanings. Those involved in forms of education which differ in their educational philosophy (as opposed to their intended pupil base) often use words such as authentic, holistic, and progressive as well. However, these words each have different meanings which are more specific or more ambiguous than simply alternative.

Overview

While pedagogical controversy is very old, "alternative education" presupposes some kind of orthodoxy which the alternative is in opposition to. In general, this limits the term to the last two or perhaps three centuries, with the rise of standarized and, later, compulsory education at the primary and secondary levels. Many critics in this period have suggested that the education of young people should be undertaken in radically different ways than ones in practice. In the 19th century, the Swiss humanitarian Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, the American transcendentalists Amos Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau, the founders of progressive education John Dewey and Francis Parker, and educational pioneers such as Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner (founder of the Waldorf schools), among others, all insisted that education should be understood as the art of cultivating the moral, emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of the developing child. Anarchists such as Leo Tolstoy and Francisco Ferrer y Guardia emphasized education as a force for political liberation, secularism, and elimination of class distinctions.
More recently, social critics such as John Caldwell Holt, Paul Goodman, Frederick Mayer, George Dennison and Ivan Illich have examined education from more individualist, anarchist, and libertarian perspectives, that is, critiques of the ways that they feel conventional education subverts democracy by molding young people's understandings. Other writers, from the revolutionary Paulo Freire to American educators like Herbert Kohl and Jonathan Kozol, have criticized mainstream Western education from the viewpoint of their varied left-liberal and radical politics.

Modern forms

A wide variety of educational alternatives exist at the elementary, secondary, and tertiary levels of education. These generally fall into four major categories: school choice, alternative school, independent school, and home-based education. These general categories can be further broken down into more specific practices and methodologies.

School choice

The public school options include entirely separate schools in their own settings as well as classes, programs, and even semi-autonomous "schools within schools." Public school choice options are open to all students in their communities, though some have waiting lists. Among these are charter schools, combining private initiatives and state funding; and magnet schools, which attract students to particular themes, such as performing arts.

Alternative school

An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional.[1]
Many such schools were founded in the United States in the 1970s as an alternative to mainstream or traditional classroom structure. [2] A wide range of philosophies and teaching methods are offered by alternative schools; some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, while others are more ad-hoc assemblies of teachers and students dissatisfied with some aspect of mainstream or traditional education. In 2003 there were approximately 70 alternative schools in the United Kingdom. In the UK public funding is not available for alternative schools and therefore alternative schools are usually fee-paying institutions. [3] In the USA an increasing number of public school systems are offering alternative streams (language-immersion, Montessori, Waldorf), but the majority of alternative schools are still independent and thus without governmental support.

Popular education

Popular education was related in the 19th century to the workers' movement [citation needed]. Such experiences have been continued through-out the 20th century, such as the folk high schools in Scandinavian countries, or the "popular universities" in France

Independent school

Independent, or private, schools have more flexibility in staff selection and educational approach. The most plentiful of these are Montessori schools, Waldorf schools (the latter are also called Steiner schools after their founder), and Friends schools. Other independent schools include democratic, or free schools such as Sands School, Summerhill School and Sudbury Valley School, Krishnamurti schools, open classroom schools, those based on experiential education, as well as schools which teach using international curriculum such as the International Baccalaureate and Round Square schools. An increasing number of traditionally independent school forms now also exist within state-run, public education; this is especially true of the Waldorf and Montessori schools. The majority of independent schools offer at least partial scholarships.

Home-based education

Families who seek alternatives based on educational, philosophical, or religious reasons, or if there appears to be no nearby educational alternative can decide to have home-based education. Some call themselves unschoolers, for they follow an approach based on interest, rather than a set curriculum. Others enroll in umbrella schools which provide a curriculum to follow. Many choose this alternative for religious-based reasons, but practitioners of home-based education are of all backgrounds and philosophies.

Correctional Education

Other

There are also some interesting grey areas. For instance, home-educators have combined to create resource centers where they meet as often as five or more days a week, but their members all consider themselves home-educated. In some states publicly run school districts have set up programs for homeschoolers whereby they are considered enrolled, and have access to school resources and facilities.Also, many traditional schools have incorporated methods originally found only in alternative education into their general approach, so the line between alternative and mainstream education is continually becoming more blurred.There are a number of education-based after school options which are available to students. For example, Policy Debate, or a number of other types of debate, offer students the opportunity learn skills which are not taught in classrooms. In debate, students are taught how to read and think critically, how to analyze books, newspaper and magazine articles, and how to speak persuasively. Students are also exposed to politics, world news, public policy, philosophy, economics, and international relations.

Internationally

Australia

Preshil, in Kew, Australia, was established in the 1930s. It is one of the few alternative schools in Australia that is unaffiliated with any doctrinal or theological movement. Its primary school has run since established by Margaret Lyttle in 1931, and the secondary school since the late 1970s. See also Village School, Vic; Currambena Primary, NSW; Melbourne Community School, Vic; Collingwood College, Vic; Fitzroy Community School, Vic; Lynall Hall, Vic; Berengarra, Vic Candlebark School, Vic and Brisbane Independent School, Qld.

etc.

published by www.wikipedia.org