mike,
Yes, technology can help facilitate and/or mediate the process, however, students still benefit from helpful intervention from an instructor.
Dr. Ruth Reynard
David,
Great ideas! Yes, providing connection points for students is a wonderful technique - helping students develop more thorough frameworks of understanding.
Dr. Ruth Reynard
By the use of technology and hands on, greater depth of knolage and learning skills is acheived.
At the beginning of each class, I have started a new approach: I will go around the room and ask individual students questions pertaining to the prior day's discussion. This not only gives me an idea of retention, but also brings the class into active learning. I don't make this a pass/fail situation, but rather open up incomplete or incorrect answers to the class so that they can all help out with understanding.
Fred,
Great! Yes, no one can explain anything he/she does not understand. The second step is to have the student demonstrate in some real context so that the understanding can be observed.
Dr. Ruth Reynard
One way to determine what a student understands is to just talk to them, either in class or lab. Have them explain why they perform a particular procedure, or how something works. Unfortunately, this doesn't necessarily mean better grades for a student, but it does tell who needs additional help.
Gregory,
I like the flow of your ideaa: breakimg things down and then rebuilding - a great way to learn!
Dr. Ruth Reynard
In the classroom we do group projects and demonstrations. We sometimes take difficult topic material and divide it up into parts and let the class research and correctly identify the individual parts, their correlation and function to the whole component. In lab we administer time based lab practical tests with outcome based results.
bob,
Yes, I would imagine in your field it is essential to check for understanding at every level or proceedural stage. All teachers should regularly check for understanding but in a hands-on environment, understanding is critical for every aspect.
Dr. Ruth Reynard
Understanding shows that the student is able to mentally assemble a set of procedues that would not be included in info recall.An example might be an engine's fuel curve on a carburetor car compared to the curve on a computer controlled car. The end result we are looking for is basically the same except it is done using two completely different methods.As long as the student was taught both methods, he should be able to accomplish both tasks. I review class material most of the time without referencing the parts of the text where the info came from.I also tend to present this as a casual discussion format usually at the end of class. Most students do not realize that we are reviewing course material!
John,
Simple explanations and demonstrations of use clearly show the level of understanding - no one can explain something he/she doesn't understand. Our focus as instructors must be to check for understanding throughout the learning process. Good discussion...
Dr. Ruth Reynard
When a student understands: to me that would mean that the information and the how-to’s will be retained for a long time. Information recall would mean a student can give you the information but can’t give do all of the how-to’s.
have discusions through out lecture and i ask specfic questions through out the lecture and after and have more discussions and let the use the internet too see certian things too better understand
brandon,
So how can those eperiences be enhanced by "blending" with various media and technological inputs and supports?
Dr. Ruth Reynard
mike,
How does this relate specifically to the use of new technology in a blended course design?
Dr. Ruth Reynard
Class and lab play a key part in bringing knowledge(verbal) to life. After students see visual tools it can trigger memory from past classroom lecture.
by explaining the information on the topic and showing how to do it ,when in lab they can retain how to compleet the task and thus increasing knollage and test scores
Bob,
Without replacing the hands on in the lab, how can new technology provide interactive opportunities that will also enhance the experiential learning for the students?
Dr. Ruth Reynard
steve,
Is there an alternative to the written exam...or coupling that with some other sort of assessment?
Dr. Ruth Reynard
when we are in class , if there is any thing in lab that pretaines to class materal we go to lab for hands on. By doing this test scores are higher on average.
