Análisis de la persona

The third mode of computer usage is as tutee. Computer as a Tutee or a Learner means you can give it a set of instructions, commands and tasks to carry out. For example, in Microsoft Excel where teachers usually use it to input students’ examination mark, it is troublesome to sort it out

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EDU258 - COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION METHODS

manually. So, you can just simply create a program or instruction to sort a set of numbers where you teach the computer how to compare the value of the numbers and then sort them. Another example is the robots where you actually give it a set of instructions or behaviour in order to interact with different conditions. Computer as a Tutee indirectly will develop high critical thinking among learners. Using computers as learners enables the teachers to emphasize on solving important problems rather than boring rote learning. Also in teaching with the computer, the child learns more deeply and learns more about the process of learning than he or she does from being tutored by software written by others. It gradually changes the learning experience. Apart from that, computers make a good tutee because of its innocence, patience, rigidity and its capacity for being initialized and starting over from scratch.

Using computer as a tutee requires organization, logical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Examples include; computer programming, hypermedia authoring and web page development. For you to teach the computer, you must learn how to write computer programs. To use the computer as tutee is to tutor the computer; for that, the student or teacher doing the tutoring must learn to program, to talk to the computer in a language it understands. The benefits are several. First, because you can‘t teach what you don‘t understand, the human tutor will learn what he or she is trying to teach the computer. Second, by trying to realize broad teaching goals through software constructed from the narrow capabilities of computer logic, the human tutor of the computer will learn something both about how computers work and how his or her own thinking works. Third, because no expensive predesigned tutor software is necessary, no time is lost searching for such software and no money spent acquiring it.

Learners gain new insights into their own thinking through learning to program, and teachers have their understanding of education enriched and broadened as they see how their students can benefit from treating the computer as a tutee. As a result, extended use of the computer as tutee can shift the focus of education in the classroom from end product to process, from acquiring facts to manipulating and understanding them.

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EDU258 - COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION METHODS

As you try to write programs of your own, you will probably find yourself benefiting from teaching the computer to teach someone else. For example, to write a good drill or tutorial, you must consider each of the following questions:

1. What kinds of questions should you ask, and how can you formulate these questions clearly enough that the learner‘s focus will be exactly where you want it to be?

2. What is the correct answer, and how can you recognize its many variations?

3. What are the incorrect answers that could be given?

4. What feedback will you provide for both correct and incorrect answers?

5. What will you do after the learner gives the correct answer?

6. What sort of remediation will you provide if the answer is incorrect?

7. What can you do to enable the learner to have all the necessary information to make a response?

8. How long should be learner be allowed to continue, and who should terminate the learning session?

9. How should information regarding the learner‘s performance be stored (if at all), and to whom should this information be given?

These are questions that must be answered by both teachers who program, the computer and those who work without computers. However, when teachers program a computer to teach something, they learn how to teach more effectively.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCIES 2

1. What are the major advantages of the use of computer as tutee?

4.0 CONCLUSION

The application of computer in education involves three modes and each of the modes is important

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EDU258 - COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION METHODS

for the smooth running of educational system. The use of computer is so important that there is no field of work or establishment that will not employ the services of the computer. The application requires a lot of organization, logical thinking and problem-solving skills. As a teacher, you need to make effective use of the computer in the teaching and learning processes;

hence, you also need to be very familiar with these modes of computer usage in educational system.

5.0 SUMMARY

In this unit, you have actually learnt how computer could be used in our education system as tutor (teacher), as tool (assistant) and tutee (learner).

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

1. State the modes of using computer in our educational system

2. Outline the five levels that are involved in the application of computer as tutor.

3. List three ways computer could be used as a tool.

4. Who was the brain behind the modes of computer?

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

Dent, C. (2001). The Computer as Tool: from Interaction to Augmentation. Downloaded on 18^th Sept. 2010 from http://www.burningchrome.com.8000/vedent/slis/otherpapers.

Timothy J.N; Donald A.S.; James D.L. James D.R. (2006) Educational Technology for Teaching and Learning. Pearson Education Ltd.

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EDU758 - COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION METHODS

UNIT 3

THE USE OF NETWORK AND INTERNET FOR INSTRUCTION 1.0 Introduction

2.0 Learning Outcomes 3.0 Main content