COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION

BRAINSTORMING/CONCEP

T-MAPPING TOOLS

ACADEMIC SOFTWARE IN TEACHING AND LEARNING

COMPUTER-ASSISTED INTRUCTION

Computer-assisted instruction (CAI), is a term originally applied to drill-and-practice software, has come to be more broadly used to describe any software that uses computer to tutor or review content and to provide platform for reasoning with reference to content.

A similar term, computer-managed instruction (CMI), refers to appropriately to software that manages instruction, that is, keeps track of study.

Student tend to like to use well-designed CAI/CMI software because it provides patient, tireless tutor that offers rewards and/or help in response to every answer.

It is important, however, for teachers to carefully evaluate the quality of CAI/CMI software and its appropriateness for the students who are to use it.

Not all CAI/CMI software is of sufficiently good quality to keep learners actively engaged.

Furthermore, the stated target age group might not be appropriate for learners in a given classroom with their individual needs and abilities.

Such software, like all computer tools, is best applied and most effective when a professional educator determines its use.

BRAINSTORMING/CONCEPT-MAPPING

TOOLS

Brainstorming tools provide a digital environment in which the learner can develop ideas and concepts and then create connections between them.

Some of these software packages are primarily text based, while others allow for the creation of visual concept maps.

Such concept-mapping software generates digital “maps” of concepts that represent a visual depiction of the brainstorming process and the interrelationship between ideas.

In the classroom, this tool can be used to capture a cooperative learning group’s diverse ideas and turn them into a cohesive whole; help individual learners to grasp large, complex ideas by enabling them to visualize the ideas on a computer screen or help the class as a whole to develop a joint overview of a new instructional topic that is about to explored.

Concept-mapping tools allow student to visually organize ideas and then think them to one another to show relationship.

Such maps give student an opportunity to visually represent prior knowledge and then extend that knowledge base by thinking it to new ideas.

This constructivist approach offers students a chance to build and then test the connections between the ideas they have already assimilated and those they are just learning.

This type software tool offers individual learners and cooperative learning groups an opportunity to visually plan writing projects, see relationship between concepts they have learned and brainstorm solutions in a highly visible and flexible format.

Concept-mapping software incorporates the principles of visual learning into a single, easy-to-use software package.

It offers opportunities for students to clarify thinking, understanding relationships and identify their own misconceptions.

With this unique software tool, students will be encouraged toward creative thinking and deeper understanding.

It can also be a powerful instructional tool for teachers wishing to visually present complex or multidimensional content their student.

ACADEMIC SOFTWARE IN TEACHING AND

LEARNING

As you consider the methods and media you choose to employ to achieve your instructional objectives and best address the needs of all learners, academic software can be a most valuable asset.

There is indeed a wide variety of types of academic software and within each, hundred of choices.

With so large a selection from which to choose, it is clear that the amount of effort necessary to review, evaluate and select academic software and integrate it into teaching and learning is indeed high. However, the benefits derived from that effort are even greater.

Whether there is only one computer in a classroom or many, carefully selected and integrated academic software can patiently and tirelessly reinforce concepts for learners who need review, offer opportunities for exploration and discovery for learners who need additional opportunity or provide creative experiences for cooperative learning groups working together to develop a multimedia report to share with.

The possibilities are as great as the number of academic software packages available to enrich the learning experience.

It is true that exploration of academic software appropriate for your classroom does the time and effort, but for computer-using teachers and their students, inclusion of these packages in the teaching and learning environment will increasingly and exciting part of teaching and learning in the twenty-first century.

THANK YOU!