Association for the
Advancement of Computing in Education
Celebrating 30+ Years of
Service to the IT in Education / E-Learning Community
Celebrating 30+ Years of
Service to the IT in Education / E-Learning Community
There are two ways that technology can be used in the classroom. In the first, technology is used mainly to optimally deliver facts and skills and makes use of assessments, testing facts and skills – a learning from technology approach. In the second, technology rather supports creative and active learning that is supported by a range of pedagogies, purposefully designed from complexity and collaboration – a learning with technology approach. This presentation explores, and makes use of, a framework to support a learning with technology approach and includes concepts related to collaboration, authentic tasks and tool-mediated knowledge construction. It is argued that while the use of collaboration and authentic tasks is important, a better understanding of tool-mediated knowledge constructions is required to foster deep learning.
Alan Amory is Professor and Director of the Centre for Academic Technologies at the University of Johannesburg. The main body of Alan’s research concentrates on developing frameworks to support the design, construction, evaluation and use of computer games in teaching and learning. In addition, he wrote a number of critiques of the use of ICTs in teaching and learning, challenging the notion of learning from technology, an instructivist position. The Vygotskian notion of tool-mediated knowledge construction, a core principle in learning while playing computer games, formed the basis for a development to include all educational artifacts into a coherent framework to support teaching and learning with technology. This CAT framework is based on three interrelated concepts: Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), authentic tasks (A) and technology-mediated knowledge construction (T).
