LESSON 5 - THE CONE OF EXPERIENCE

LESSON 5 – The Cone Of Experience 

“The cone is a visual analogy, and like all analogies, it does not bear an exact an detailed relationship to the complex elements it represents.” – Edgar Dale

ABSTRACTION:

The cone of experience is a visual model, a pictorial device that presents bands of experience arranged according to degree of abstraction and not degree of difficulty. The farther you go from the bottom of the cone, the more abstract the experience becomes.

Dale (1969) asserts that:

the pattern of arrangement of the bands of experience is not difficulty but degree of abstraction – the amount of immediate sensory participation that is involved. A still photograph of a tree is not more difficult of understand than a dramatization of Hamlet. It is simply in itself a less concrete teaching material than the dramatization. (Dale, 1969)

Dale further explains that “the individual bands of the cone of Experience stand for experiences that are fluid, extensive, and continually interact.” (Dale, 1969) It should not be taken literally in its simplified form. The different kinds of sensory aid often overlap and sometimes blend into one another. Motion pictures can be silent or they can combine sight and sound. Students may merely view a demonstration or they may view it then participate in it.

Does the Cone of Experience mean that all teaching and learning must move systematically from base to pinnacle, from direct purposeful experiences to verbal symbols? Dale (1969) categorically says:

             …. No. We continually shuttle back and forth among various kinds of experiences. Every day each of us acquires new concrete experiences – through walking on the street, gardening, dramatics, and endless other means. Such learning by doing, such pleasurable return to the concrete is natural throughout our lives – and at every age level. On the other hand, both the older child and the young pupil make abstractions every day and may need help in doing this well.

                 In our teaching, then, we do not always begin with direct experience at the base of the Cone. Rather, we begin with the kind of experience that is most appropriate to the needs and abilities of particular learner in a particular learning situation. Then, of course, we vary this experience with many other types of learning activities. (Dale, 1969)

One kind of sensory experience is not necessarily more educationally useful than another. Sensory experiences are mixed and interrelated. When students listen to you as you give your lecturette, they do not just have an auditory experience. They also have visual experience in the sense that they are “reading” your facial expressions and bodily gestures.

We face some risk when we overemphasize the amount of direct experience to learn a concept. Too much reliance on concrete experience may actually obstruct the process of meaningful generalization. The best will be striking a balance between concrete and abstract, direct participation and symbolic expression for the learning that will continue throughout life.

Is it true that the older a person is, the more abstract his concepts are likely to be? This can be attributed to physical maturation, more vivid experiences and sometimes greater motivation for learning. But an older student does not live purely in his world of abstract ideas just a child does not live only in the world of sensory experience. Both old and young shuttle in a world of the concrete and the abstract.

What are these bands of experience in Dale’s Cone of Experience? It is best to look back at the cone itself.  But let us expound on each of them starting with the most direct.

Direct purposeful experiences- These are first hand experiences which serve as the foundation of our learning. We build up our reservoir of meaningful information and ideas though seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. In the context of the teaching-learning process, it is leaning by doing. If I want my student to learn how to focus a compound light microscope, I will let him focus one, after I showed him how.

Contrived Experiences – In here, we make use of a representative models or mock ups of reality for practical reasons and so that we can make the real-life accessible to the students’ perceptions and understanding. For instance a mock of Apollo, the capsule for the exploration of the moon, enabled the North America Co. to study the problem of lunar flight.

Remember how you were taught to tell time? Your teacher may have used a mock up, a clock, whose hands you could turn to set the time you were instructed to set.

Dramatized experience – By dramatization, we can participate in a reconstructed experience, even though the original event is far removed from us in time. We relive the outbreak of the Philippine revolution by acting out the role of characters in a drama.

Demonstrations – It is a visualized explanation of an important fact, idea or process by the use of photographs, drawings, films, displays, or guided motions. It is showing how things are done. A teacher in Physical Education shows the class how to dance tango.

Study trips – These are excursions and visits conducted to observe an event that is unavailable within the classroom.

Exhibits – These are displays to be seen by spectators. They may consist of working models arranged meaningfully or photographs with models, charts, and posters. Sometimes exhibits are “for your eyes only”. There are some exhibits, however, that include sensory experiences where spectators are allowed to touch or manipulate models displayed.

Television and motion pictures – Television and motion pictures can reconstruct the reality of the past so effectively that we are made to feel we are there. The unique value of the messages communicated by film and television lies in their feeling of realism, their emphasis on persons and personality, their organized presentation, and their ability to select, dramatize, highlight, and clarify.

Still pictures, Recordings, Radio – These are visual and auditory devices may be used by an individual or a group. Still pictures lack the sound and motion of a sound film. The radio broadcast of an actual event may often be likened to a televised broadcast minus its visual dimension.

Visual symbols – These are no longer realistic reproduction of physical things for these are highly abstract representations. Examples are charts, graphs, maps, and diagrams.

Verbal Symbols – They are not like the objects or ideas for which they stand. They usually do not contain visual clues to their meaning. Written words fall under this category. It may be a word for a concrete object (book), an idea (freedom of speech), a scientific principle (the principle of balance), a formula (e=mc2) 

LESSON 2 - BOON OR BANE

LESSON 2 - Technology: Boon or Bane

“Technology is in our hands. We can use it to build or destroy.”

After understanding what educational technology is all about, it may be good to reflect on whether this thing called technology is a boon or bane to education, a blessing or a curse to education.

TECHNOLOGY AS BOON:

TECHNOLOGY AS BANE:

    Technology is a blessing for man. With technology, there is a lot that we can do which we could not do then. With cellphones (smartphones), webcam, you will be closer to someone miles and miles away. So far yet close! That is your feeling when you talk through a cell phone to a beloved who is far away from home.  Just think of the many human lives saved because of speedy notifications via cellphones. Just think how your teaching and learning have become more novel, stimulating, exciting and engaging with the use of multimedia in the classroom. With your tv, you can watch events as they happen all over the globe. President Ramos had a lively interaction with his audience in Tacloban in his tele-address without disrupting his work schedule in Manila, etc, etc.

      However, when not used properly, technology becomes a detriment to learning and development. It can destroy relationships. Think of the husband who is glued to tv unmindful of his wife seeking his attention. This may eventually erode marital relationships. Think of the student who surfs pornographic scenes. He will have trouble with his development. The abuse and misuse of the Internet will have far reaching unfavorable effects on his moral life. The teacher who schedules class tv viewing for the whole hour free herself from one-hour teaching and so can engage in “tsismis”, likewise will not benefit from technology. Neither will her class truly benefit from the whole period of tv Viewing.

   In education, technology is bane when:

• the learner is made to accept as Gospel truth information they get from the internet
• the learner surfs the Internet for pornography
• the learner has an uncritical mind on images floating on televisions and computers that represent modernity and progress
• the tv makes the learner a mere spectator not an active participant in the drama of life
• the learner gets glued to his computer for computer-assisted instruction unmindful of the world and so fails to develop the ability to relate to others
• we make use of the Internet to do the character assassination of people whom we hardly like
• because of our cell phone, we spend most of our time in the classroom or in our workplace texting
• we use overuse and abuse tv or film viewing as a strategy to kill time

             Let’s go back to the question asked in the beginning of this lesson. Is technology boon or bane to education? It depends on how we use technology. If we use it to help our students and teachers become caring, relating, thinking, reflecting and analyzing and feeling beings, then it is a boon, a blessing. But if we abuse and misuse it and so contribute to our ruin and downfall and those of other persons, it becomes a bane or curse.

APPLICATIONS: 

A.    Come up with your own poster regarding technology on how it can be a blessing or a curse to mankind.

LESSON 4 – SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO TEACHING

LESSON 4 – Systematic Approach To Technology

“A plan emphasizes the parts may pay the cost of failing to consider the whole, and a plan that emphasizes the whole must pay the cost of failing to get down to the real depth with respect to the parts.” - C. West Churchman

                 The broad definition of educational technology encompasses systems or designs of instruction. In this lesson, let's discuss a system's or a systematic approach to instruction.

                 SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO TEACHING

                       As depicted in the chart, the focus of systematic instructional planning is the student. Instruction begins with the definition of instructional objectives that consider the student's needs, interest and readiness. On the basis of these objectives, the teacher selects appropriate teaching methods to be used and, in turn, based on the teaching method selected, the appropriate learning experiences and appropriate materials, equipment and facilities will also be selected.

                       The use of learning materials, equipment and facilities necessitates assigning the appropriate personnel to assist the teacher and defining the role of any personnel involved in the preparation, setting and returning of these learning resources. (In some school settings, there is a custodian/librarian who takes care of the learning resources and/or technician who operates the equipment while teacher facilitates.) The effective use of learning resources is dependent on the expertise of the teacher, the motivation level or responsiveness, and the involvement of the students in the learning process. With the instructional objective in the mind, the teacher implements planned instruction with the use of the the selected teaching method, ;earning activities, and learning materials with the help of other personnel whose role has been defined by the teacher.

                      Will the teacher use direct instruction or indirect instruction? Will he/she teach using the deductive of the inductive approach? It depends on his/her instructional objective, nature of the subject matter, readiness of the students and the expertise of the teacher himself or herself.

                      Example of learning activities that the teacher can choose from, depending on his/her instructional objective, nature of the lesson content, readiness of the students, are reading, writing, interviewing, reporting or doing presentation, discussing, thinking, reflecting, dramatizing, visualizing, creating judging and evaluating.

                     Some examples of learning resources for instructional use are textbooks, workbooks, programmed materials, computer, television programs, flat pictures, slides and transparencies, maps, charts, cartoons, posters, models, mock ups, flannel board materials, chalkboard, real objects and the like.

                     After instruction, teacher evaluates the outcome of instruction. From the evaluation results, teacher comes to know if the instructional was attained. If the the instructional objective was attained, teacher proceeds to the next lesson going through the same cycle once more. If instructional objective was attained, then teacher diagnosis what was not learned and finds out why it was not learned in order to introduce a remedial measure for improved students performance and attainment of instructional objective.

                     The systems approach views the entire educational program as a system of closely interrelated parts. It is an orchestrated learning pattern with all parts harmoniously integrated into the whole: the school, the teacher, the students, the objectives, the media, the materials, and assessment tools and procedures. Such an approach integrates the older, more familiar methods and tools of instruction with the new ones such as the computer.


                      The system's approach to instruction is simple in theory but far from being simplistic in practice. It is not just a matter of teacher formulating his/her lesson objective and then directly teaching the student. There are a lot of elements or factors that the teacher has to take into consideration- students' needs, interests, home background, prior experiences, developmental stage, nature and the like. The teacher, in the choice of the most appropriate teaching method, learning activities, and learning resources, considers the nature of her subject matter, availability of resources, her/his capability, the developmental stage of his students, and of course his/her lesson objective. Her/his choice of assessment method for learning is likewise dependent on the lesson objective. The action the teacher takes after getting assessment results based on the assessment results, acceptability of remedial measure to parents and students, like a tutorial class after class hours. Will an extra hour after class devoted to tutorial be acceptable to the students and parent concerned?

                  
                      The phases or elements are connected to one another. If one element or one phase of the instructional process fails, the outcome which is learning is adversely affected. The attainment of the learning objective is dependent on the synergy of all elements and of all actors involved in the process.


                       The purpose of a system instructional design is "to ensure orderly relationships and interaction of human, technical, and environmental resources to fulfill the goals which have been established for instruction." (Brown, 1969)

           POSTSCRIPT - the phase of  a systematic Approach to Instruction. If we reduce the phases of a systematic approach to instruction, the phases may boil down to three. The first of the three is formulation of instructional objectives. The second is the process of instruction itself. The third phase is assessment of learning which will once more lead to the formulation of instructional objectives.

LESSON 3 – THE ROLES OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY IN LEARNING

LESSON 3 – The Roles of Educational Technology in Learning

“Technology makes the world a new place.”

    After understanding the comprehensive meaning of educational technology, let us dwell on the roles of educational technology in the teaching-learning process.