Article Review # 1

Article Review #1

The Importance of Learning Philosophies on

Technology Selection in Education

In the first part of the article it is discussed the nature of the learner and the nature of knowledge.  It is said that we are all born with a blank slate, tabula rasa.  However, the author is quick to point out that the idea of a blank slate is flawed.  That genetics do play a part in the development of an individual’s brain.  From the birth to adulthood we are all active participants in learning, rather than passive learners.  It is essential to understand the nature of knowledge to understand learning. 

The three learning philosophies and the social interactions that are framed within each that are explained in this article are the following, Socratic Method, behaviorism, constructivism. Though all three are fundamentally different all include social interaction.  It is the social interaction that is examined closer and a connection is made with different technologies to support each learning philosophy in the classroom.  In the classroom the behaviorist social interaction is very important, but would primarily be a teacher to student exchange.  The constructivist social interaction would be with the More Knowledgeable Other or the teacher. In this view the individual ideas would become shared ideas in a group.  Finally the social interaction that occurs in the Socratic Method is between peers and teachers to find the answers, this method is structured but ultimately it is the student who comes to the answer, not the explanation of the teacher. It is important that teachers actively select a learning philosophy to use rather than going on intuition, experience, or advice. 

Technology is referred to as contemporary digital technologies that can be used to support teaching.  The technologies include computers, the internet, and hardware, software, and infrastructures.  Technology allows for a quicker way to communicate and should be thoughtfully used in the classroom.  The behaviorist would use the technology in the classroom to reach a broad audience in a short amount of time.  A teacher can have a very large audience with no worries of time and distance.  Teachers would be able to offer richer artifacts and new forms of assessments that can be used and saved at later times for review by students.  The constructivist use of technology would be centered on blogs, wikis, discussion forums, social networks, and video conferencing.  Constructivist would have greater resources than the others.  The Socratic Method would use technologies would use real time, rapid response technologies such as webinars, live chat, and twitter. 

While there are a great number of technologies available, there are also disadvantages.  Some of the disadvantages include learner and teacher access to the technology, the ability to use, potential for distracting the learner, and the cost.  Disadvantages that can occur for the behaviorist are distractions and the variety of points of view that are available on the internet.  The constructivist would have to deal with the style of interaction, it would be very different that the classroom.  The Socratic Method would likely encounter difficulty with the taking part in meaningful and timely discussion due to the media used. 

It is necessary for the teacher to discuss and encourage meaningful interactions to be successful with the technologies. Teachers should adopt a learning philosophy to integrate into their teaching practice and include exploration and experimentation on a continuous basis. 

Social interaction is becoming more and more important in the classroom.  I know that my appraiser looks for how the students are interacting when visiting my classroom. This article provides teachers with different options to support social interaction in the classroom with meaningful learning.  In my opinion this article can be a very useful resource for teachers to pin point which learning philosophy is being used in the classroom when integrating technology.  I think that it provides great examples of relevant technologies that most all of us now have in our schools.  The explanation of the disadvantages I found really helpful, it gave me a bit of a warning of what can happen.  What I found to be the most intriguing part of the article was that the author suggest that we adopt a learning philosophy and develop it in our classroom.  Rather than going with the flow, pick one a stick to it!  I’m not sure how I feel with that, because I find that I use more than one.  However, one of the author’s purpose of the article was for teachers to “amplify” their teaching philosophy.  It is definitely food for thought!

References

Hickey, G. g. (2014). The Importance of Learning Philosophies on Technology Selection in Education. Journal Of Learning Design,7(3), 16-22.