It
would appear this blog is turning into a long praise of constructivism. That was not my intention, though I admit I
am an enthusiastic adherent and often find the answers to educational dilemmas to
be buried in the constructivist philosophy.
With that said, here it comes again to the rescue.
Constructivism and
distance learning make a complementary pairing.
In fact, evidence suggests that educators following a constructivist
philosophy in general tend to exhibit more frequent and more effective overall
use of technology (Overbay et al., 2010) which may explain why most distance
learning environments are designed based on a constructivist educational philosophy
( Pange and Pange, 2011). What are the
reasons this relationship exists?
One of those reasons
this may be that technology lends itself toward more complex projects and
engaging projects. The ability to use
these learner lead projects as primary assessment tool provides several layers
of advantage in the summative assessment stage.
Learners may utilize their strongest learning modality, optimizing their
potential to assimilate and demonstrate the new concepts. They can also minimize extraneous cognitive
load by using familiar contexts within which to perform assessed tasks (Sweller,
2007). As an added bonus, the educator
is not forced to grade the exact same project over and over.
Another large advantage
of constructivist type assessment in a distance learning environment is the
issue of time. Many e-learning classes
are shorter than the traditional classroom option. Trying to assess traditionally by testing
every individual basic concept along the way takes too much time out of an
eight week class. A constructivist,
however, realizes that demonstration of the most complex concepts necessitates
mastery of the supporting concepts as well, and reduces the total allocation of
resources necessary for assessment.
David Bennett
Overbay,
A., Patterson, A. S., Vasu, E. S., & Grable, L. L. (2010). Constructivism
and technology use: findings from the IMPACTing Leadership project. Educational
Media International, 47(2), 103-120. doi:10.1080/09523987.2010.492675
Pange,
A., & Pange, J. (2011). Is E-learning Based On Learning Theories? A
Literature Review. World Academy Of Science, Engineering & Technology,
8062-66
Sweller,
John. (2007). Human Cognitive Architecture, Handbook of Research on
Educational Communications and Technology, (31), 369-381, Taylor and
Francis Group
David,
ReplyDeleteThat last paragraph really crystalized the idea to me. I've been trying to figure out how to identify what it is that truly shows understanding of a concept, and the idea of the final project necessatating the understanding of the underlying principles truly describes it. One question, what do you think is necessary to identify the difference between individual and group learning to properly allocate grades?
Joe Greene
Isn’t the idea that those who are distance learners are pretty much constructing their own education from the resources provided? There is no one looking over their shoulder, so how they use the resources and what they grab from them in the way of new knowledge is entirely constructed by the learner. If it sounds as if you are offering up an opus of praise to constructivism, you have certainly justified it with your resources, so feel free not to be apologetic! Distance learners are not the usual students (Wood, 2005), so the distance educator should have no qualms about embracing constructivist thought and innovation in assessment.
ReplyDeleteReference
Wood, C. (2001). Highschool.com. Edutopia Magazine, April/May. 32-37.
I believe that online learners have a better opportunity to research and develop not only the resources that available but also find some of their own. Distance learning learners are unique as to how they learn. Most are dedicated to learning more than the ordinary in classroom student especially as they are using technology daily for their classes.
ReplyDelete