Unit 7: Chapter 9-Technology to Support Learning

In chapter 9, you will explore how technology has become an important tool in education. Technology can increase access to knowledge and promote learning. The chapter highlights five ways that technology can contribute to effective learning environments:

• “Bringing real-world problems into classrooms through the use of videos, demonstrations, simulations, and Internet connections to concrete data and working scientists.
• Providing “scaffolding” support to augment what learners can do and reason about on their path to understanding. Scaffolding allows learners to participate in complex cognitive performances, such as scientific visualization and model-based learning, that is more difficult or impossible without technical support.
• Increasing opportunities for learners to receive feedback from software tutors, teachers, and peers; to engage in reflection on their own learning processes; and to receive guidance toward progressive revisions that improve their learning and reasoning.
• Building local and global communities of teachers, administrators, students, parents, and other interested learners.
• Expanding opportunities for teachers’ learning.”

Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology

• Computer-mediated instruction

This chapter distinguishes two key processes for organizing computer-mediated instruction—synchronous and asynchronous communication—and a variety tools for implementing it.