Technology can play a traditional role, i.e. as delivery vehicles for instructional lessons or in a constructivist way as partners in the learning process.
In a constructive way, technology helps the learner build more personal interpretations of life in her/his world. Technology is a learning tool to learn with not from. It makes the learner gather, think, analyze, synthesize information and construct meaning with what technology presents
Technology as tools to support knowledge construction
For presenting learners’ ideas, understandings and beliefs
For producing organized, multimedia knowledge bases for learners
Technology as information vehicles for exploring knowledge to support learning-by-constructing:
For accessing needed information
For comparing perspectives, beliefs and world views
Technology as context to support learning by doing
for representing and simulating meaningful real-world problems, situations and contexts
for representing beliefs, perspectives, arguments, and stories of others
For defining safe, controllable problem space for student thinking
Technology as a social medium to support learning by conversing
For collaborating with others
For discussing, arguing, and building consensus among members of the community
For supporting discourse among knowledge building communities
Technology as intellectual partner
For helping learners to articulate and represent what they know
For reflecting on what they have learned and how they come to know it
For supporting learners’ internal negotiations and meaning making
For constructing personal representations of meaning for supporting mindful thinking
Whether used from the traditional or constructivist point of view, when used effectively, research indicates that technology not only “increases students’ learning, understanding, and achievement but also augments, motivation to learn, encourages collaborative learning and supports the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills” (Shacter and Fagnano, 1999)