Constructivism offers a new paradigm for this new age of information brought about by the technologies of the last few decades. Most recently, with the advent of the WWW, it is now not only possible for students to access tons of information almost instantly, but it is also possible for them to be in control of the direction of their own learning.
Though some would claim that the practice of constructivism has it roots as far back as Socrates, the term itself is relatively new, and it is the Swiss epistemologist Jean Piaget who deserves credit for giving the impetus to the constructivist movement which has taken place during this century. Piaget devoted much of his life to the study of child development in the learning process. One of the basic premises, upon which much of his work in the theory of constructivism was built, is that for learning to take place, the child's view of the world must come into conflict with his actual experience of that world. It is when the child puts forth effort to reconcile the two, his expectations and his experiences, that he is able to learn.
In a presentation given at SIGGRAPH 95 in Los Angeles, Robert Edger (1995) put together a series of quotes from Piaget, Vygotsky and others for a talk which he called, "PC is to Piaget as WWW is to Vygotsky." Though his title might not say it all, it does say much about how the theories of both these thinkers can relate to computers in education. Edgar (1995) says, "For Piaget, construction of knowledge occurs primarily in the child's interaction with physical objects. For Vygotsky, knowledge is not so much constructed as co-constructed; learning always involves more than one human."
Through computer mediated communication (CMC) students have the opportunity to extend their learning experience from the individual to the social as they "create communities of learners and practicioners." (Jonassen, Davidson, Collins, Campbell and Haag 1995) Furthermore, they have greater freedom to explore their own ideas, to participate in "discovery learning." In "Constructivism and Computer-mediated Communication," Jonassen et al.(1995) insist "constructivism can help us reconceptualize distance education by using the new technologies..."(p. 8).
Making use of these new technologies, educators are becoming increasingly aware of the role of the computer as a cognitive tool. Jonassen et al. (1995)refer to cognitive tools or Mindtools as being computer applications used by students in their construction of meaning and understanding. Martyn Wild (1995)at Edith Cowan University proposes that
Though educators and scholars may always disagree about difinitions of terms, most will concede that technology is revolutionizing the way we both teach and learn. At the forefront of this revolution, the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV)created a character named Jasper, whose adventures challenge students to find solutions by using math. Through the Jasper Series, the CTGV has found an imaginative way to make mathematical challenges not only concrete, but also practical to real-life situations. In an introduction to the series, they say "The teacher and student often do not share a common context for instruction. ....The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury materials are designed to bridge the gap between natural learning environments and school learning environments" (CTGV)
Closely related to this idea of contexualization in education is cognitive flexibility as set forth by Spiro, Rand, Feltovich, Jacobson, and Coulson(1995). They suggest that "emphasis must be shifted from the retrieval of intact knowledge structures to support the construction of new understandings, to the novel and situation-specific assembly of prior knowledge drawn from diverse organizational loci in preexisting mental representations." Additionally, they recognize the computer as an important tool in allowing this shift, this flexibility. Hypertext, for example, is nonlinear and provides the learner the opportunity to explore and construct her own meaning through interaction not only with information, but also with other thinkers who are trying to come to their own levels of understanding about a common question.
Cognitive flexibility. Cognitive tools. Conextualized learning. Situated learning. Anchored learning. Constructivism. All these seem to lead us in the same direction and that is one in which the learner is more in control of generating her own meaning of the world around her. Just as surely as technology continues to evolve, so will the paradigm for educators continues to shift.
Brooks, Jacqueline Grennon & Rooks, Martin G. (1993). The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Cognitive Technology Group at Vanderbilt.()The Jasper Project. Online Available:WWWhttp://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/projects/funded/jasper/intro/Jasperintro.html)
Edgar, Robert. (1995). PC is to Piaget as WWW is to Vygotsky. Delivered at SIGGRAPH 95, Los Angeles. [On-line] Available: WWW URL http://www.iconceptual.com/Siggraph.html.
Jonassen, David, Davidson, Mark, Collins, Mauri, Campbell, John and Haag, Brenda Bannan.(1995. Constructivism and computer-mediated communication. American journal of distance education Vol 9, NO. 2 pp 7-25.
Spiro, Rand J., Feltovich, Paul J., Jacobson, Michael J., & Coulson, Richard L. (1995) "Cognitive flexibility, constructivism, and hypertext: random access instruction for advanced knowledge acquisition in ill-structured domains." In Constructivism in Education. Ed. Steffe, Leslie P. & Gale, Jerry. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Also Online. Available: WWW http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/ilt/papers/Spiro.html
Wild, Martyn. (1995). Empowering learners: Using computers as cognitive tools. Online. Available: WWW http://www.oltc.edu.au:80/oltpd/docs/inv08.html