Support of Pedagogy by Technology

More and more technology is becoming a part of our everyday life and also our education. The way we use this technology in education is something that is not yet agreed upon however. The question however is, is their one best way to use technology in education or is it dependant on the context and the way education is given shape.  In other words, does the used pedagogy have an influence on the way technology is being used. Today we will be looking at this question by studying 5 different kinds of pedagogy and seeing what we can do to support these ways of learning by the use of technology. The form of technology we will be looking at is a Content Management System (CMS). A great example of such a system is BlackBoard 

Traditional Learning:

I would like to start with just simple traditional learning. We are all familiar with this kind of pedagogy since it will be the one we’ve most likely encountered at one point in our life. The teacher stands in front of the class and explains the subject matter. All students pay attention to this and then go to work on exercises that are given.

Supporting this via a CMS can be done in a myriad of ways. Most of them are most likely only using the standard features of the online environment. Teachers can put the assignments online and provide additional information for the students to use.  

Inquiry Learning

The second form of pedagogy I’d like to discuss is inquiry learning. This is a personal favourite of mine. In inquiry learning the knowledge is constructed by the student instead of being given by the teachers. The teachers start off with giving a question. The students than go out on their own and find the answers for these questions. They then report these answers and discuss them amongst each other and reflect on the answers.

To support this via a CMS we could look into more advanced features. Many CMS’ come featured with options for students to discuss amongst themselves. In inquiry learning discussion can be of great value since not all answers found will be the same. The use of discussion boards or chat sessions can help students with discussing these answers amongst themselves and helping with the reflection.

Leittext method

The Leittext method is a method often used in practical education. This method is based around 3 points. 1. Independent Learning. 2. Thinking ahead and planning 3. Learning from your own mistakes. By engaging in practical assignments students gain knowledge, apply this knowledge and practice practical skills. The students are being guided by ‘Leitfragen’ or guiding questions. These questions guide the students to take a systematic approach of thinking about the skills they need to learn and help regulate the way the students learn. This method focuses on learning complete skills.

The question of how to support the students can be answered in many ways. Independent learning lends itself great for support by a CMS. The teachers can provide the information and allow the students the use this information how, when and where they want. More interesting features could be using a planning feature. Students could use a planning tool within the CMS which teachers can look at as well so they can monitor how well the students are planning and how well they are sticking to this planning.

Collaborative learning

Collaborative learning is a way of learning where two or more people collaborate to learn. Thus far this seems to be quite obvious. The idea behind collaborative learning is based on the idea that knowledge is created where people come together and share knowledge and take on asymmetric roles. In collaborative learning students come together in a way where the end product is a result of the work of the individuals and the students need to rely on each other.

Collaborative learning can be supported in similar ways as inquiry learning. However as said collaborative learning also requires the students to share knowledge. A file exchange system where students can share the products of their work and share information can be of great help.

Experiential Learning

The final form of pedagogy I’d like to discuss is experiential learning. Experiential learning is learning by reflecting on what we’re doing. It’s a form of learning where the focus lies on experiencing the content that is to be learned rather than learning it from a textbook. By experiencing the content rather than it just being told the learning can be more individualized.

Supporting this kind of learning with a CMS can be quite tricky. The idea is that students do not study the content by just reading about it by going out in the real world to experience it. This is off-course hard to accomplish with a system which is not placed in the real world. Where the CMS can help is in the reflection. Students can share their experiences and discuss their findings.

In conclusion we can state that CMS’ can be used in many ways to support different forms of pedagogies. Obvious ways can be collaboration but we’ve seen that more CMS’ can be used in more interesting ways. Personally I feel that with the addition of technology we can support students in their learning process and there are many unexplored avenues we can go down. However I don’t feel I’ve explored them all thus far and I’m hoping you can help me figure out other interesting ways.