Pedagogy and Technology

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Competency IIB of the CT State Teacher Technology Competencies states:

B. Create new learning environments and develop new roles of teacher and learner.




What constitutes a so-called "Learning environment?"
A learning environment is any place, real or virtual, structured or unstructured, where learning happens.

Examples of “Learning Environments”:
  • Ski slope
  • Webquest
  • Video games
  • Kitchen
  • School / school bus
  • After-school program
  • Rhode Island coastline
  • Hell’s Kitchen
  • Super Mario Brothers
  • Life
  • Golf course
  • Poker table
  • Swimming pool
  • Constructivist Classrooms

What are these "new roles" of the teacher and student?
Teacher Roles:
Create an environment that allows for social and cognitive growth
  • flexible grouping
  • personal relationships
  • trust (approachable/accessible)
  • consider culture and backgrounds
  • Guide students, provide support when necessary (facilitate)
  • Provide activities that motivate students
  • consider/integrate student interest
  • Relate to students interest and events in their lives (be hip)
  • Mediator
  • Facilitator
Student Roles:
  • Collaborate with peers
  • Seek support when needed (from teacher, peers, professional, web & text resources)
  • Take ownership of learning (Self-advocate)
  • Technologically literate
  • Research skills
  • Scaffold learning to help create new ideas and strategies
  • Students care about understanding subject material rather than simply finishing an assignment
  • Relate new material to what he or she already knows

What is learner-centered pedagogy?
  • Topic is authentic, desirable and meaningful to the student
  • Problems are ill-defined to allow for investigatory, creativity, and ownership of of learning/information
  • Students are able to make meaningful connections between ideas and skills learned in the classroom to those in the real world
  • Students can:
    • synthesize information
    • form and test hypotheses
    • draw from prior knowledge/personal experience
    • solve problems
    • draw conclusions
    • Provide support for their ideas

How can technology help create environments driven by learners, not by teachers?
  • Create situations where the student can manipulate variables in order figure to out different possible outcomes
  • Learners are more likely comfortable and familiar with use of technological tools
  • Can often offer immediate personalized feedback to help learners set learning goals
  • Provide environments where learners can communicate and collaborate in a exclusive place
  • Pose questions using clickers to obtain a true picture of what the majority of learners in a class know and do not know to clear up misconceptions
  • Create environments and social learning networks with their peers
  • Customizable to fit the individual user/learner needs