Computers can help today?s students find answers for themselves

A computer shouldn?t be a teacher that feeds students facts and formulas. It should be a learning collaborator that helps them explore, create and design knowledge. So said speakers at the session 'Learner-centered psychological principles?technology as a tool for learning,' at APA?s 1998 Annual Convention in San Francisco.

'We need to be sure we?re using technology in a way that the learner is the producer and owner, not the consumer, of knowledge,' said David Jonassen, EdD, a professor of instructional systems at Pennsylvania State University.

Schools have begun adopting the learner-centered notion that students direct their own learning and teachers guide it, thus replacing the traditional idea that teachers control the learning of passive students. And Jonassen and speaker Barbara McCombs, PhD, of the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory, advised educators to apply that same thinking to technology.

But unfortunately, schools don?t always extend the learner focus to computers, said McCombs, who was among the educational researchers who helped APA develop a set of learner-centered principles for use in schools. Sometimes schools allow computers to assume the role of drill-and-grill tutor when they could instead be tapping computers? multimedia, Internet and electronic conferencing functions to spark interest in learning, according to McCombs and other speakers at the session.

'If teachers use computers to teach students the traditional, hierarchical way, the current generation of students will find that a real turn-off,' said McCombs. 'Today?s students will feel motivated to learn only if the technology allows them to pursue their interests at a pace and level that suits them.'

Indeed, said McCombs, today?s teen-agers are known to be computer savvy, independent and skeptical?traits that have earned them the moniker Generation WHY. These students don?t accept?they question?and computers can help them find answers for themselves, said McCombs. 'Many of them feel disconnected from society because they feel they?ve raised themselves,' said McCombs. 'We need to be sure that we gear technology to their needs?that we use it in a way that reconnects them to learning, life and school.'

To engage Generation WHY, McCombs and Jonassen suggested that teachers challenge students with computer tasks such as designing a physics experiment, interviewing researchers in Antarctica or creating a class World Wide Web page on rainforests.

According to McCombs, these tasks motivate children to learn by satisfying their four key learning needs (as revealed by psychologists? research):

? Success?their need for mastery.

? Curiosity?their need for understanding.

? Originality?their need for creativity.

? Relationships?their need for involvement with others.

Another speaker at the session, math teacher Dmitri Cooper of Alan B. Shepard High School in Pelos Heights, Ill., emphasized the need to gear computer tasks to each student?s unique learning level, speed and strengths. And Jackie Lamb, director of technology and information services for the California Department of Education, noted the importance of providing enough technology training to teachers that they feel comfortable using computers as a learning tool, rather than a substitute teacher, in their classes.

Ideally, technology will 'hand over intellectual ownership of learning to the student,' said Jonassen. 'The computer is a critical thinking tool, an intellectual partner that can help kids construct their own knowledge,' he said.

?B. Murray

For copies of APA's Learner-Centered Psychological Principles, contact Courtney Leyendecker in APA's Center for Psychology in Schools and Education at (202) 336-6129. For more information on the principles, contact Barbara McCombs at (303) 743-5537.