Thursday 24 March 2016

Application of Information Technology in Teaching and Learning



Teaching is an art. Presentation of material is the style of art. Producing quality in teaching is the essence of art. Teaching major components are content, communication and feedback.
            There is a close relationship between teaching and learning and to improve learning it is necessary to modify, improve and develop teaching quality. Teachers are key position to act as catalyst to initiate curricula, design programs and to meet future needs of the students. The qualification of a teacher in the present time should include competence in the designated teaching areas, technological awareness and effectiveness in teaching.

             There are various ways teacher can make use of IT to improve their teaching. They can make teaching a web-based learning. When the course is Web-based, the course web-site extends the classroom beyond its physical and temporal boundaries. The teacher is immediately connected to students’ discussion and other activities occur well beyond the classroom and well after class hours.
            Every age has its needs of development and education is an aid to such a development. It must be attuned to the age it operates in the 21st century, being primarily a knowledge manager of 21st century would be a knowledge worker with a mandate to lead, to facilitate, to motivate, to encourage and to empower his co-workers, students and the community. The students have to function as knowledge workers rather than subservient, uncommitted, non-productive, uncreative robots that carry-out tailor made task based on role ability. We need generators of knowledge, creators of knowledge, promoters of knowledge and self-teachers with skills to operate in a competitive world.
            Just as the development of printing Press forever changed the teaching enterprise. IT represents a fundamental change in the basic technology of teaching and learning. IT after great potential but in order to reap the benefits, institutions will have to transform themselves in fundamental ways.  
            A pertinent question is what can IT contribute to increasing learning? The most humble answer to this is that it offers economics of scale. After a front end investment, the cost of usages per incremental student is apt to be low. Moreover, access to very large amount of information can be obtained at low incremental cost.
IT after mass customization, Technology allows faculty to accommodate individual difference in students’ goals, learning styles and abilities.
            IT eases the limits of time and space for educational activities. Such activities as chat sessions with teacher, assignments on net are important especially for non-traditional students who after have job or family responsibilities limiting their possible school hours.
            IT enables self-paced learning with sensitivity to different learning styles and continuous assessment of students’ progress. The areas that can profit most from IT based strategies are those subjects that have large number of students and in the case of some multimedia programmes, those areas trigger further practice automatically so that students receive more instruction just in time when they need it most. IT provides the data needed to map the relation between cost and benefit, thus opening the way for experimentation and innovation.
            Because of its capacity to focus on individual assessment, IT makes the teaching and learning enterprise much more out-come oriented.
            IT will empower students to have greater control over the learning process. Students will decide, when to learns, how to learns, what to learner and how that learning is to be certified.

            Achieving information technology’s full potential would require far more extensive changes, which would be problematic. A small core of traditional institutions and traditional learners, who can afford may continue to seek out the traditional education that has been the hallmark of over system while the bulk of students deprived of these facilities for various reasons may take shelter under IT based teaching and learning.






            

Saturday 27 December 2014

ADVANCE ORGANIZER MODEL

          Advance Organizer Model is given by David Ausubel who is one of the educational psychologist. This theory of meaningful verbal learning deals with three concerns:-
(a)     How knowledge (curriculum content) is organized;
(b)    How the mind works to process new information (learning); and
(c)     How teacher can apply these ideas about curriculum and learning when they present new material to students (instruction). This model is designed to strengthen student’s cognitive structure.
          In this model teacher plays the role of organizer of subject matter and presents information through lectures, readings and providing tasks to the learner to integrate what has been learned. In this approach, teacher is responsible for organizing and presenting what is to be learned. The learner’s primary role is to master ideas and information. The Advance Organizers provide concepts and principles to the students directly.
          According to Ausubel whether the material is meaningful or not depends more on the preparation of the learner and on the organization of the material than it does on the method of presentation.
Structures
          Ausubel maintains that a person’s existing cognitive structure is the foremost factor governing whether new material will be meaningful and how well it can be acquired and retained.
          As per the views of Ausubel there is a parallel between the way subject matter is organized and the way people organize knowledge in their minds (their cognitive structures).In the present study AOM is used as a tool to help the students to attain the concepts of English Grammar with the comprehension of study material of secondary level IX grade students.
COMPONENTS OF ADVANCE ORGANIZER MODEL
(a) Syntax:
          The Advance Organizer Model has three phases of activity. Phase one is the presentation of the advance organizer; Phase two is the presentation of the learning task or learning material; and Phase three is the strengthening of cognitive organization. Phase three tests the relationship of the learning material to existing ideas to bring about an active learning process.
Diagram 1
Syntax of the Advance Organizer Model



Table 1
Phases of Advance Organizer Model
Phase
Outline
Activity
Phase one
Presentation of Advance Organizer
1.      Clarify aims of the lesson.
2.      Present organizer:-
a.       Identify defining attributes
b.      Give examples
c.       Provide context
d.      Repeat


3.      Prompt awareness of learner’s relevant knowledge and experience.
Phase two
Presentation of learning Task or Material
1.      Present material.
2.      Maintain attention.
3.      Make organization explicit.
4.      Make logical order of learning material explicit.
Phase three
Strengthening Cognitive organization
1.      Use principles of integrative reconciliation.


2.      Promote active reception learning.
3.      Elicit critical approach to subject matter.
4.      Clarify.
(b) Social System:
          In Advance Organizer Model the teacher retains control of the intellectual structure, to relate the learning material to the organizers and to help students differentiate new material from previously leads to the successful acquisition of material.

(c) Principles of Reaction:-
          Negotiation of meaning and responses between the teacher and the learner clarifies the meaning of the new learning material with existing knowledge of the students. Mutual interaction between teacher and learner responsively connect organizers and learning material.

(d) Support System:-
          The effectiveness of the advance organizer depends on an integral and appropriate relationship between the conceptual organizer and the content. This model provides guidelines for recognizing structural materials.

(e) Instructional and Nurturant Effects:-
          The instrumental values of this model are – the ideas themselves that are used as the organizer are learned, as well as information presented to the students.
Diagram 2
Instructional and Nurturant Effects af AOM



Diagram 3
A Diagrammatic Representation of Strategies of AOM

 
Diagram 4
Concept Attainment Model and Advance Organizer Model as the Member of Information Processing Family