Prompt:

Reflect on the use of technology as learning tools for students. Use the materials above to discuss how word processors, databases, and spreadsheets have typically been used in schools (by teachers and students). How does thinking about these common applications as “mindtools” dramatically change the way teachers use them in the classroom? What are the general characteristics of tool activities that increase the probability of meaningful learning? Explain how Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy helps to put into practice what is meant by scaffolding?

Response:

I feel as though I had a fairly typical experience with computers during my time in the high school environment. The first article, Computers as Mindtools, described it well “media for delivering instruction.”  Traditionally in the classroom, these important venues for enhancing knowledge have only been utilized to convey/ deliver relevant information to the student body. In my experience, teachers presented the material using technology in a variety of uninspired ways: PowerPoint’s, Word documents, Excel sheets, etc. As Computers as Mindtools explains, “Interaction is often limited to pressing a key to continue the information presentation (…)”

We have clarified that these tools all have relevance in the classroom and easily enhance the learning environment when implemented successfully. Professor Kenton’s notes on this topic explain that mind tools “can increase students’ productivity or allow them to perform tasks that normally would be beyond their capabilities. They can also help students become more active learners and allow them to acquire knowledge and develop skills in unique ways.” Therefore, teachers need to amend how they are using these resources in the classroom. Computers as Mindtoolsexplains teachers should be using these software programs in a constructivist sense: allowing students to build their foundation of knowledge by using these programs. All of these programs are unintelligent; “they rely on the learner to provide the intelligence,” this is an important characteristic that promotes critical thinking and learning because the student must know what information to provide the machine with. Instead of using the technology and software as a method for transfer of information, teachers can use these tools to promote “ active processing of information” which “increases the likelihood of meaningful learning.”

These tools can be used in the classroom and are also all characterized by their ability to network and link knowledge translating it into higher order thinking skills such as those described in Bloom’s Taxonomy. By implementing these mind tools, we can progress in learning and move toward the “creating” stage of the taxonomy (the highest order thinking skill). For example, teachers can use a combination of the tools described in Computers as Mindtools, to progress from the recall stage to the evaluation stage. So, by using programs such as databases and semantic networking, students can learn to analyze and organize what they are learning and integrate that information into what they already know. Then the student can use another mind tool such as interpreting tool, or a collaboration tool to begin to process that information to make sense of the knowledge they have, essentially building framework to fill with knowledge about a subject. This method is called scaffolding and by the using both Bloom’s taxonomy and mind tools, students can build a scaffold with many tiers to their knowledge ranging from basic remembering, to creating and evaluating.

Mind tools are an interesting resource in the classroom. They have and incredible capacity to aide learning and critical thinking in a classroom. The problem that remains is that few teachers are implementing these practices into their classroom and failing to help completely build the scaffolding network.

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