The Teaching -Learning Matrix

OVERVIEW: The realities of the Information Age and the needs of students at the dawn of the 21^st Century necessitate increased opportunities to prepare preservice teachers within Constructivist learning environments. Technology can enhance this teaching-learning process. ElEd 253 acts as, not a prefect, but effective model of delivering Constructivist teaching through the extensive use of Educational Technology.

(1)THE SHIFT FROM A TEACHING TO A LEARNING PARADIGM

1.Teaching and learning are essential to one another. Lev Vygotsky, a cognitive psychologist, identifies three components of the educational process: (1) the learner, (2) the teacher, and (3) something..that the learner needs to know.

2.The shift "to a focus on students as learners, as consumes, and a active participants in the learning process is not only good, but essential."

3.In the current phase of the Information Age, the teacher component is diversifying and becoming more complex. In computer-based education the teacher is there; but has been "captured in silicon…embedded in the content resources…. In the book, the CD, the video, and in the Web.

4.In the Constructivist teaching-learning process, the teacher is a mentor, who "serves as the guide through the resources, as the manager of the learner or group of learners."

5.The mentoring teacher (1) observes the conditions of the learners and he environment; (2) frames the content to be learned by selecting the resources; (3) determines an appropriate selection-choice pattern or sequence for the use of the resources; (4) and continually adjust or shape the resources as the learners grow.

(3) DIRECT INSTRUCTION AND CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHING

1. Direct Instruction, especially lecturing, is appropriate and effective as long as the content is well organized and the learners are sufficiently motivated to pay attention. This knowledge-transfer approach has as its goal the transfer of knowledge (that is defined and stable) and of basic skills (that are observable and simple) to individual learners. If the content is rich and multifaceted, lecturing is ineffective because it lacks the active participation and meaningful, higher level thinking by the learners.

2. The Constructivist learning environment is more learner-focused and less teacher-focused. It embraces, instead of oversimplifies, the natural complexity of a subject by presenting multiple perspectives. The goal is not the accurate transfer of content from the teacher to the learner. Instead, the learner is given tasks (learning activities), resources, and support with which to construct their own version of the content, subject to revision through feedback and collaboration with other learners

3. A Constructivist use of technology presents information to the learner in multiple forms from multiple sources and invites the learner to make sense of it. The emphasis is on case studies, problem solving, and creation of meaning.

(2) ACTIVE LEARNING

1. Active learning encourages student-teacher contact, cooperation among students or student groups, prompt feedback, managing time-on-task situations, sharing of high expectations, the application of diverse talents and respect for a variety of ways of learning.

2. Technology-based resources assembled to promote active learning will enhance their effectiveness if they promote:

(1) multimedia and multisensory learning;

(2) hyperlinks and non-linear reasoning;

(3) communication patterns based on the architecture of the internet;

(4) Access resources and learning anytime, anywhere; and

(5) interactivity: reshaping roles for learners and teachers around the distribution of resources and the responsibilities for learning.

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