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EdTech 2 Instructional Software

 Educational/Instructional software
was first used as a tutoring tool for
students in the 60s and 70s, but over
the past 30 years, it has evolved into
software that incorporates some or all
of the five functions for helping
students learn including drill and
practice, tutorial, simulation, games,
and problem solving.

 Universities, software companies, and
open source projects have all
developed software for educational
purposes that blends two or more of
these five categories of instructional
software.
 Today's instructional software also uses
both objectivist and constructivist
learning concepts in its design, which
benefits the learner since both concepts
are valuable to accomplishing
educational goals for students.

Objectivist View Constructivist View
Knowledge exists outside of Knowledge has personal
individuals and can be meaning. It is created by
transferred from teachers to
students.
individual students.
Students learn what they Learners construct their
hear and what they read. own knowledge by
If a teacher explains looking for meaning and
abstract concepts well, order; they interpret what
students will learn those
they hear, read, and see
concepts. based on their previous
learning and habits.
Learning is successful Learning is successful
when students can repeat when students can
what was taught. demonstrate conceptual
understanding.

 Educational software is valuable to
ALL ages of students for many reasons
including:
› making learning more fun,
› motivating students,
› helping with long-term memory of the
material, and
› providing a thorough educational
experience that incorporates many
proven learning concepts into the
curriculum.

 Educational software is best used
to increase classroom curriculums,
but in most cases, should not be
the only instructional method for
learning.
 Educational software no longer is
thought to be a replacement for
teachers, but a TOOL that helps
teachers do a better job of
teaching their students.

 Educational software that
incorporates the concepts of drills
and practice is similar to flash
cards, but with more features.
Software that uses drills to
enhance learning uses repetition
to help students learn the
material.

Drillsand practice are a
form of objectivist learning
and is excellent for students
to prepare for tests and/or
learn concepts that are
simple or even sometimes
complicated, but require
memorization of the
material.

 Some of the drills and practice
software are also insightful since it
might track the student's progress
and continue to display questions
until student's answer the
questions correctly a given
number of times before moving
on to the next type of question, or
a more difficult problem type. This
is called branching.

 Tutorials,like drills, often use branching
by allowing students to move to the
next topic after mastering a section,
or keep the student in the current
section if they have not mastered the
material.
 Tutorials are more objectivist than
constructivist learning since students
have little or no input into what is
taught.

 Tutorials are difficult and
expensive to develop, which
explain why developers choose
tutorials less than other types of
educational software to develop.
 Tutorials should use a
comprehensive approach to
instruction and simulate a real
classroom experience to teach
students the entire learning goals
of a subject.

 Simulations are educational
software tools that simulate the
"live" learning experience for
students.
 Students use simulations in place
of the live experience usually in
advance of the simulated
activity.

 The use of simulations saves money
and replaces activities that might be
not practical or may be even
dangerous until the student learns the
activity.
 Simulations usually allow many
different students the opportunity to
participate in the simulated (imitation)
activity an unlimited number of times
in order to master the activity before
participating with the actual activity
they are learning.

Examples of the types of
learning environments to be
simulated are:
› a chemistry experiment,
› operation of an automobile
or airplane, or
› biology or medical
procedures.

 Games are a form of educational
software designed to be fun,
competitive, and motivational for
students.
 It is best for teachers to integrate
games as part of an entire
learning curriculum, but not focus
on games as the only activity.

A good method of integrating
games into the curriculum is as
a reward or change of pace
to regular learning activities.
 Some educators frown upon
games because some games
have an element of violence
and discriminate against
students who do not excel in
games.

 Plus,the educational benefit for
games is sometimes difficult to
predict. Games incorporate drills
and practice, and simulation,
but differ because of the rules
and format.
 Games provide a stimulating
learning environment if used
effectively, and allow students to
learn while enjoying the activity.

 Educational
software that provides an
environment for:
› recalling information,
› sequencing,
› analyzing,
› organizing,
› predicting outcomes, and
› formulating ideas

P��ǲ�� solving software
helps students learn a
sequence of events that
leads to the solution, and
is often included in math
and science educational
software packages.

 Problem solving software is
motivational and improves
the interest of the subject for
students, but it is often difficult
to measure its effectiveness
and can sometimes frustrate
students who have difficulties
reaching the final solution.

P��ǲ�� solving software
can provide both an
objectivist or constructivist
environment depending on
the software's activities and
approach to learning.

 The teacher through his school
should decide on the best
computer-based instructional
(CBI) materials for the school
resource collection.
 But beware since CBIs need much
improvement, while web-based
educational resources are either
extremely good or what is
complete garbage.

 Be extremely careful.
 Don’t be caught up by the attractive
features forgetting their instructional
worth
 Evaluate the design and content
elements:
› Text legibility
› Effective use of color schemes
› Attractive layout and design
› Easy navigation from section-to-section

 Clarity in explanations and
illustrations of concepts and
principles
 Accuracy, coherence, logic
of information
 Relevance/effectiveness in
attaining learning objectives
 Absence of biased materials

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EdTech 2 Instructional Software

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