ICT as situating tool

ICT as situating tool

Situating tool is an application that helps learners in an environment to experience the context and happening. A flight simulation can also be one of the examples of situating tool since it places the user in a situation flying environment.

Situating tool can be useful when a certain real-life experience is impossible or difficult to perform. For example if we want to go somewhere where we have never been before, then we can use goggle map to find out the location and even the route.

                       

Simulations can be used to teach any subjects. However, I feel that it is mostly used in science subject as it has got more features related to science. One good example of situating tool is ‘virtual reality’ extension system; the computer can create 3-D images on display to give the students the feeling that is situated in the virtual environment. The advantages of using situating tool are that you can guide the student’s learning and at the same time students also get the supportive services from the ICTs.

                              

Co-constructive tools

Co-constructive tools are applications that support the construction of knowledge through a shared understanding that is collaboratively consolidating the ideas. Students may also co-edit the same document from their homes. Some examples of the tools which we can use to co-construct our knowledge are; Google docs, electronic whiteboard, blogs and wikis, discussion forum on portals. Google docs, blogs and Moddle apps are free so, we can use it while other tools like electronic whiteboard is not free so we don’t have access to it.

It is important to teach our students using computer tool because they can co-edit, meaning they can edit each other’s work, communicate to share ideas which in turn promote collaborative learning. They are involved in series of cognitive process like explanation, problem finding and solving. In here learning becomes active and intentional as students participate to edit, refine and construct their work.

                         

We even learned about the advantages of using Google docs and it’s features like; edit, comment and view which gives the user full right to change the setting. The users can give right to the viewers to edit if he/she is competent enough, selects who comments and who can’t and even select who can just view their work on Google docs. Any type of changes made while working on Google docs gets automatically saved. In order to access Google docs we can either check our mail or browse googledocs.com online and login our Gmail account which will directly take us to Google docs

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ICT as a constructive tool

 ICT as a constructive tool can be defined as the application that helps learners maneuver information, visualize one’s understanding and construct their own knowledge based on their previous knowledge and experiences. Students can use constructive tools to work cooperatively and construct a shared understanding of new knowledge. Some of the examples of constructive tools are electronic bulletin board, simulation, multimedia authoring tools, social networking sites (blog, face book, twitter, etc.)

Constructive believes that learning happens through personal construction of meaning by the learners. The learners construct meaning through experiences and that meaning is influenced by the interaction of prior knowledge and new events. Through use of constructive tools, we can use different applications such as concept map, word, spread sheet and PowerPoint.

After learning about constructive tool, we were asked to create a PowerPoint simulation on advertising of our own village. It was bit challenging at first. I took so much time to create a simple simulation but as I go on exploring it was quit interesting. It helped me in exploring the different animation features on PowerPoint and build interest in constructing my own learning.

Constructive tools in teaching and learning can be integrated in many ways. Some of the methods to integrate constructive tools are as follows;

•   Teachers can teach/deliver the lesson through new ways using constructive tools (simulation, PowerPoint, spreadsheet, etc.)
• It can be used by teachers for assessing student’s learning by providing feedback and comments.
•    Applications like PowerPoint and spreadsheet helps learners in building new knowledge on their prior knowledge. 
•   Letting students to explore basic technology tool to create a brainstorm or concept map for their work or any other subject matter.

Constructive tools are widely used in our college. The tutors teach us using the projector in PowerPoint, spreadsheet and Microsoft word. Likewise, the students also use these applications to design assignments and homework. In addition, it triggers constructive learning by helping learners to adopt, explore and practice.