Modeling with Technologies

I think the first thing that we learned in this class was to make sure that we let the students learn with the technologies and not just to let the technologies teach the students. The first paragraph in this chapter talks about that, how a lot of technologies used in the classroom are simply to teach students. They try to memorize and understand the content that is presented with technology and then they are trying to master the content without much experience. So far in this class we have learned how to use many different technologies for students to use for their real benefit. In this chapter in particular it talks about different technologies that can help students “conceptualize, organize and solve problems” (pg. 82). Some of the tools that are presented are called Mindtools. They include databases, concept mapping, spread sheets, miroworlds, systems modeling tools, expert systems, hyper media construction tools, constraint based discussion boards and visualization tools. Contrary to the way that technologies are usually used Mindtools have students teaching the computer and not the other way around. I intend on using these different tools to help my students learn more effectively in my classroom. I think that I would have been using the technologies negatively like it talked about at the beginning of the chapter if I was not made aware of the other tools.

The first Mindtool that is presented in the chapter are concept maps. We briefly learned about them last week, I think it is a great tool to use for organizing thoughts. I think that it can be used in my classroom because they can use these technological concept maps to help them organize even better than a paper version can. I did not think that the computer ones were that much more effective than paper versions but now I believe that the computer based concept maps are more effective. One reason that I think that these are better for students to use is that the students are able to reorganize their thoughts as many times as they want. They are able to add text and delete tax without making their concept maps messy or unorganized or confusing. I think that the technological concept maps are also prone to becoming messy and confusing but students can play around with them and make them work for themselves. I think this a great example of how students can begin to teach the computer rather than having the computer teach them.