Slide 1

COMPUTER INTEGRATED METHODSAssignment #1

DATE: February 22,2010

Institution: Bethlehem Moravian CollegeClass: 1SBC

Lecturer: Ms. Maye

Group members

Shanakay Pinnock

Marissa Williams

Kerone Lodge

Shericka Mckay

Andrew Ackbersingh

INDIVIDUALIZED INSTRUCTION An individualized instruction is not a one-to-one student/teacher ratio, as the word individual means. Neither is it a one-to-one tutoring. (HYMAN, RONALD T. 1973. "Individualization: The Hidden Agenda." Elementary School Journal 73:412423).

Individualize instruction is an instruction of a student based on his or her unique learning style. It can also be defined as one of the key features of special education. The specific instruction and types of services provided to the student is tailored to fit the student and wholly depends on the educational needs of the student. Individualized instructions are curriculum content and instructional materials, media, and activities designed for individual learning.

The pace, interests, and abilities of the learner determine the curriculum. This is a method of managing the instructional process without requiring live lectures from teachers. Because lectures consume approximately 80% of an average teacher's in-class time, to say nothing of the time needed to prepare lessons. Freeing that time allows teachers the luxury of more time to work privately with individual students as needed.

Advantages of individualized instructionOpportunity for students to learn at their own pace, in their own way, and be successful.It gives each learner the opportunity to ask or to respond to as many questions as are necessary to facilitates the learning objectives.CONTPerson is active participant throughout learning process. Effective in cognitive domain. Person gets immediate feedback, help on individual basis. Allows easy application of variety of instructional media.

DISADVANTAGES OF INDIVIDUALIZED INSTRUCTIONIt is expensive to provide individualize instruction to each student in an academic, corporate, government, military, or any other education environment that seeks to teach large group of learners.

CONTUnit structure de-emphasizes interrelatedness of subject matter unless extreme care is taken in signing materials. Large groups (200+) are a managerial challenge.CONTDont routinize peer interaction; therefore probably less effective for attitude change.

TRADITIONAL INSTRUCTION While traditional instruction is more of a lectured based, that is the students are engaged in lectured centered learning, the students are more dependent on the lecturer for learning. . In the traditional instruction poor learner will not cope while the good learners will cope, this is because the lecturer wont be able to give the students in individual attention. Teaching is based on intuition and experience and is more content based, greater emphasis is placed on memorization,

so it less challenging for the students and the lecturer and teaching the lesson is less time consuming. So traditional instruction is more about passive learning and more of a subject based approach. (Beck 2009)ADVANTAGES OF TRADITIONAL INSTRUCTIONHigh comfort level for instructors and many students.Availability of classroom visual materials.Lower learning curve for many instructors.

CONTAbility to meet face-to-face with students and provide personalized assistance.Opportunity for hands-on activities and discussion.Motivation from instructorAbility to ask questions

DISADVANTAGES OF TRADITIONALIZE INSTRUCTIONStudents can become bored or frustrated. It is virtually difficult for a single teacher to accommodate all methods of learning when he or she is responsible for teaching a large number of children.Requires expensive buildings and equipment.

CONTSet times for classes can cause problems with student and faculty scheduling.It is difficult to give each student the one-on-one attention that may be required.

Parts of a successful individualized system of instructionSome of the persons who are involved in the individualized system of instruction are:The StudentThe LecturerAdministration

Active learning refers to the techniques than students do more than just listening to a teacher. Students try to learn more about a particular subject through something called discovering, processing, and applying information. Active learning as stated by Meyers and Jones, (1993) is basically be drawn from two major assumptions which include: learning is by nature an active endeavor and that different people learn in different ways". It is important to remember, however, that the lecture has its place and that you should not do active learning without content or objectives.

There are certain elements that should be present when doing active learning. Some of these include: talking, listening, writing, reading, and reflecting. Students are involved in more than listening, less emphasis is placed on transmitting information and more on developing students' skills, students are involved in higher-order thinking, therefore greater emphasis is place however on the childs exploration of ones own values and attitudes. Active learning can be used with all levels of students. Teaching a mass class does not prohibit the use of active learning

techniques; in fact, the teacher may find it especially important to promote interest and learning in a normal class room setting. The teacher can also implement strategies such as student-led review sessions, analysis or reactions to videos, mini-research proposals or projects, a class research symposium, concept mapping, and think-pair-share. The constructive approach as implied by Jonassen (1991) notes that many educators and cognitive have applied constructivism to the development of learning environments. There are certain designs that are implemented to isolate a number of design principles.Some of these are:Create real-world environments that employ the context in which learning is relevant.

Focus on realistic approaches to solving real-world problems.Learning should be internally controlled and mediated by the learner.

Wilson and Cole (1991) provide a description of cognitive teaching models which "embody" constructivist concepts. From these descriptions, we can isolate some concepts central to constructivist design, teaching and learning: Embed learning in a rich authentic problem-solving environment, Provide for authentic versus academic contexts for learning, provide for learner control, and use errors as a mechanism to provide feedback on learners' understanding. An important learning concept also is scaffolding which is a process of guiding the learner from what is presently known to what is to be known. Appropriate teacher support can allow students to function at the cutting edge of their individual development however scaffolding is therefore an important characteristic of constructivist learning and teaching.

There are other strategies that can be used when educating whether it be a student, teacher or administration. In an organization now one can reflect on where they were and the traditional way that they are doing things now. One major aspect of this major development is through the use of computers. It is used by administration to keep updates on important files that are important to a particular organization. It is also used to make the work load better manageable among staff members and also the head of the organization. If the computers are linked together the members of staff can also communicate with each other via email or instant messages. This however is time consuming. Computer-based education positively affects student achievement when compared to traditional classroom instruction although it should only be used to supplement traditional instruction and not replace it. This means of learning also provides alternative ways for learners to reach their goals independently in self-directed and self-paced learning experience. Behavioral theories of learning influenced early computer-based education but as computer technology became more sophisticated, software changed from focusing on behavioral theories to cognitive theory.

There are also softwares that are available that can help students through the use of a tutor to learn specific objectives. Some of these are word processing, database and spreadsheet programs. As referred to Marshall and Hillman, (2000) you can also implement the tutorial / drill-and-practice software. Increased accountability has put more pressure on teachers to meet curriculum outcomes and to ensure student performance. Drill-and-practice softwares reinforces basic skills for example spelling words, development of reading vocabulary. Enhancing students letter knowledge and phonological awareness skills is a priority goal for kindergarten students and is a key to success in learning to read.

REFERENCE LIST Beck, R. H. (2009). The Three R's Plus: What Today's Schools are Trying to Do and Why. U of Minnesota Press. pp.3-6.

Calne, R.N., Caine, .G. (1991). Making Connection. Teaching and the human brain Alexandrei, VA: Association for supervision and curriculum development.

Garrison, D.R, Vaughn, N.D,(2008). Blended learning in higher education, framework, principles,& guideline. Jossey Bassy.HYMAN, R. T. 1973. "Individualization: The Hidden Agenda." Elementary School Journal 73:412423).Kruse,K.& Keil, J. (2000). Technology based training: The art and science of design, development, and delivery. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass/ Pfeiffer.