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Today in class we talked about the notion that Technology’s role in the learning process can be separated into “Learning From,” “Learning With,” and “Learning About” with the further notion that there could be other aspects not yet discovered. Here, I focus on the “Learning From” and “Learning With” classifications, as “Learning About” seems a little too obscure for me to address at the moment. This is purely an exploratory exercise and is written with only a limited exposure to the concepts themselves (comments here are not meant to debunk a whole field of experts, but rather to understand their viewpoints better!).
To begin with, I am not exactly sure what the concept of “Learning With” and “Learning From” is supposed to convey to the reader, but presumably, the concepts must convey some sort of higher abstraction of the issues surrounding two techniques of using techology as a teaching tool.
What makes this concept a difficult one for me to get my arms around is that it seems to be that, in order to firmly classify a technology’s role into one of these roles you must consider not only the technology being employed, but also the context in which the technology itself is being utilized as well as the content of the lesson itself. And it seems to me that as soon as you consider the context of the lesson(s) to be taught, all barriers seem to break down in attempting to clearly classify technology’s role in the lesson(s).
There are two major approaches to using media and technology in schools. First, students can learn "from" media and technology, and second, they can learn "with" media and technology. Learning "from" media and technology is often referred to in terms such as instructional television, computer-based instruction, or integrated learning systems. Learning "with" technology is referred to in terms such as cognitive tools and constructivist learning environments.
Okaaay...I think I get the general gist of what's being said here. In "learning from," the student is basically a recepient of information whereas "learning with," the student is fully engaging his/her mental facilities to figure out and solve the problem, thereby deriving his own answers, which the educator presumably has directed the exercises enough that the student derives the correct answers that the educator desired.
Her example was someone learning about the properties of triangles in geometry class. In the “Learning From” situation, the student is merely receiving the information. That is, he/she is being presented with the fundamental theories of a triangle, such as having three sides, three angles, sum of angles adding to 180 degrees, etc.. Whereas a tool such as Geometer’s Sketchpad represents an example of the “Learning With” concept in that it presents the learner with a triangle and then allows the student to manipulate the shape in various ways to quickly see many, many iterations of triangles and thereby discover the various properties of a triangle, perhaps without being explicitly told every single thing about triangles.
From the discussions in class, it appears on the surface that if you classify a technology’s role as “Learning From” then the student is a very passive audience to the learning process and plays virtually no role in what information is presented to him nor other salient parameters such as how the new information is presented, speed of lesson presentation, complexity of information to be digested, etc.. Watching an educational program on TV, instructional software that is really no more than an elaborate powerpoint presentation, or attending a lecture in which the instructor has no interaction with the class (i.e. no question and answer; just pure presentation) are really the only three scenarios that come to mind that can, without question be classified in this way.
On the other hand, “Learning With” seems to elicit the notion of some sort of interaction with the technology itself or somehow engaging in the technology in such a way that student learns something from his activities. The student, in effect, influences the lesson plan (to whatever extent) by actively choosing what to look at and when and thereby also controls the speed of new information absorption through his interaction with the technology. Also, the very idea, “Learning With” seems to scream “side-by-side,” or really, a cooperative effort of some sort. In other words, the technology engages the student, gets some sort of feedback from him and frames new information based on student performance or demonstration of mastering lessons so far presented. And vice versa! For the student could be said to engage the technology to get some feedback and then choose to engage the technology down another route based on the answers he/she receives (e.g. web-surfing and “Ask the Expert” sessions at conferences).
In short, the distinguishing factor between “Learning From” and “Learning With” seems to be the amount of influence and interaction the student has over the subject matter’s presentation.
Lets try taking a technology from black and white in the “Learning From” scenario to gray area to black and white in “Learning With” scenario. A particular device from childhood comes to mind. It is that device about the size and shape of a large wall clock that has various animals arranged and pictured similar to the numbers on the face of a clock. This educational toy is capable of playing various animal sounds by pointing a device in the middle to a particular animal and pulling the string to cause the device to play the sound of the animal currently pointed at.
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Scenario |
Technology’s Role Clarity of Role |
Explanation |
|---|---|---|
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Mother holds animal wheel and proceeds to turn pointer to each animal on the wheel, announces the name of the animal then plays the sound for her baby. As soon as one sound finishes playing, she points to the next sound and repeats the process. |
Learning From Black and White |
The child has little to no interaction with the technology other than to receive the information. |
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Mother holds the animal wheel and proceeds to turn the pointer to each animal on the wheel. At first, she announced the animal’s name and played the sound, but now she’s asks her baby what the name of the animal is, what sound it makes, etc. and will play the sound a number of times until her child consistently answers correctly. |
Learning From Gray |
The child is starting to interact with the technology, if indirectly so. This falls more squarely in the “Learning From” role as the Mother is still predominantly directing the child, but also has some “Learning With” aspects as the child is actively naming the animals and mimicking their sounds and the lesson also progresses at the child’s pace. |
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Child picks up the animal wheel and repeatedly pulls the string to hear a sound and is probably mimicking the sound just played as well as actively associating the sound with the animal. Each time the sound completes, the pointer is resting on a new sound and the child simply pulls the string again to hear another sound. |
Learning With Gray |
The child is definitely interacting directly with the toy and is using the toy to learn to associate animal with sound, but the lesson itself is still being driven by the technology and the child is not really controlling things except to pull the string, which can be likened to turning on the TV and watching Sesame Street and participating in the sing-a-longs. |
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The Child picks up the animal wheel turns the pointer to a specific animal and pulls the string to hear a sound that she then mimics and presumably associates with the animal pictured. |
Learning With Black and White |
In this scenario, the child is now fully in the driver seat of the “lesson plans” in that she’s choosing which animals she wants to hear and when. The child is thinking about what she wants to listen to next and is relying on the technology to deliver that information when and where she is ready for it. |
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