Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

6 – The Impact of Technology on Education
environments. For example, as learners complete a
project they can use wireless mobile technology to access
just in time information and the instructor as
needed.
• Simple interfaces prevent cognitive overload. For
example, graphic outlines can be used as interfaces
and as navigational tools for learners. The interface
should allow the learner to access learning materials
with minimal effort and navigate with ease. This is
critical for emerging technologies since some output
devices are small.
• Use active learning strategies that allow learners to
summarize what they learn and to develop critical
thinking skills. For example, learners can be asked to
generate a concept map to summarize what they
learned. A concept map or a network diagram can show
the important concepts in a lesson and the relationship
between them. Learner-generated concept maps
allow learners to process information at a high level.
High-level concept maps and networks can represent
information spatially, so learners can see the main
ideas and their relationships.
• Learning materials should be presented so that information
can be transferred from the senses to the
sensory store, and then to working memory. The
amount of information transferred to working memory
depends on the importance assigned to the incoming
information and whether existing cognitive
structures can make sense of the information. Strategies
that check whether learners have the appropriate
existing cognitive structures to process the information
should be used in emerging technologies delivery.
Pre-instructional strategies, such as advance
organizers and overviews, should be used if relevant
cognitive structures do not exist.
• There should be a variety of learning strategies to
accommodate individual differences. Different learners
will perceive, interact with, and respond to the
learning environment in different ways, based on
their learning styles (Kolb, 1984).
According to Kolb, there are four learning style types:
(1) Divergers are learners who have good people skills.
When working in groups, they try to cultivate harmony
to assure that everyone works together smoothly.
(2) Assimilators like to work with details, and are reflective
and relatively passive during the learning process.
(3) Convergers prefer to experiment with, and apply
new knowledge and skills, often by trial and error.
(4) Accommodators are risk-takers, who want to apply
immediately what they learn to real-life problems or
situations.
Examples of strategies to cater for individual learning
preferences include:
• Use visuals at the start of a lesson to present the big picture,
before going into the details of the information.
• For the active learners, strategies should provide the
opportunity to immediately apply the knowledge.
• To encourage creativity, there must be opportunities
to apply what was learned in real-life situations so
that learners can go beyond what was presented.
• The use of emerging technologies will make it easier
to cater to learners’ individual differences by determining
preferences, and using the appropriate
learning strategy based on those preferences.
• Provide learners the opportunity to use their metacognitive
skills during the learning process. Metacognition
is a learner’s ability to be aware of their
cognitive capabilities and to use these capabilities to
learn. This is critical in e-learning, since learners will
complete the learning materials individually. Exercises
with feedback throughout a lesson are good
strategies to allow learners to check their progress,
and to adjust their learning approach as necessary.
• Learners should be allowed to construct knowledge,
rather than passively receive knowledge through instruction.
Constructivists view learning as the result
of mental construction where learners learn by integrating
new information with what they already know.
• Learners should be given the opportunity to reflect
on what they are learning and to internalize the information.
There should be embedded questions
throughout the learning session to encourage learners
to reflect on, and process the information in a relevant
and meaningful manner. Learners can be asked
to generate a journal to encourage reflection and
processing. Interactive learning promotes higherlevel
learning and social presence, and personal
meaning (Heinich et al., 2002).
Intelligent agents should be embedded in the technology
to design instruction and deliver the instruction
based on individual learner needs. An intelligent agent
gathers information about learners and them respond
based on the what was learned about the student. For
example, if a learner consistently gets a question on a
concept wrong, the intelligent agent will prescribe other
learning strategies until the learner master the concept.
As the user interacts with the system, the agent learns
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