After reading this week 6 learning material,

the students should be able to:

• Develop higher thinking skills through IT-

Based Projects.

A College freshman once thought pf taking a rest in a library after classes by casually taking reference

books off the shelf and browsing over their contents. Being a Liberal Arts student, he lifted a book of St. Thomas

Aquinas, the famous proponent of Scholastic Philosophy. The written words of the Doctor Of Philosophy didn’t

come easy in the understanding of the student, but he nonetheless mulled over each word and phrase, reflecting

over ideas leisurely. After a few minutes, the student felt awakened to the fact that he was engaged in a very

pleasant activity, such that he exclaimed to himself, “Wow, I’m thinking!”

The story didn’t end there because since that day, reflective study became the student’s pleasurable and

most profitable activity. Unwittingly, he made an opening for exercising higher thinking skills. As a reward, the

student carried himself through college with the highest honors and achievements.

In this Lesson, we shall discuss four types of IT-based projects which can effectively be used in order to

engage students in activities of a higher -plane of thinking. To be noted is the fact that these projects differ in the

specific process and skills employed, also in the ultimate activity or platform used to communicate completed

products to others.

It is to be understood that these projects do not address all of the thinking skills shown previously in the

Thinking Skills Framework. But these projects represent constructivist projects, containing the key elements of a

constructivist approach to instruction, namely:

(a) the teacher creating the learning environment

(b) the teacher giving students the tools and facilities, and
 (b) the teacher giving students the tools and facilities, and

(c) the teacher facilitating learning.

On the other hand, it is the students themselves who demonstrate higher thinking skills and creativity

through such activities searching for information, organizing and synthesizing ideas, creating presentations, and

the like.

In these projects, the teacher steps out of the traditional role of being a content expert and information

provider, and instead lets the students’ find their own facts and information. Only when necessary for the active

learning process does the teacher step in to supply data or information. The general flow of events in resource-

based projects are:

1. The teacher determines the topic for the examination of the class (e.g. the definition of “man”)

2. The teacher presents the problem to the class.

3. The students find information on the problem/questions.

4. Students organize their information in response. to the problem/questions.

Relating to finding information, the central principle is to make the students go beyond the textbook and

curriculum materials. Students are also encouraged to go to the library, particularly to the modern extension of

the modern library, the internet.

Furthermore, the inquiry-based or discovery approach is given importance in resource-based projects.

This requires that the students, individually or cooperatively with members of his group, relate gathered

information to the ‘real world.’

Finally, the process is given more importance than the project product. It doesn’t matter for example, if

each group comes up with a different answer to the problem (e.g. the definition of man). What matters are the

varied sources of information, the line of thinking and the ability to argue in defense of their answers.
 The Table below can provide the difference between the traditional and resource-based learning approach

to instruction.

Traditional learning model Resource-based learning model

Teacher is expert and information provider Teacher is a guide and facilitator
Textbook is a key source of information Sources are varied (print, video, Internet, etc.)
Focus on facts information is packaged in neat Focus on learning inquiry/quest/ discovery
parcels

The product is the be-all and end-all of learning Emphasis on process

Assessment is quantitative Assessment is quantitative and qualitative

FIGURE 5 – Traditional & Resource-Based Learning Models

Students can also be assigned to create their software materials to supplement the need for relevant and

effective materials. Of course, there are available software materials such as Creative Writer (by Microsoft) on

writing, KidWork Deluxe (by Davidson) on drawing and painting, and MediaWeave (by Humanities software) on

multimedia.

In developing software, creativity as an outcome should not be equated with ingenuity or high intelligence.

Creating is more consonant with planning, making, assembling, designing, or building. Creativity is said to

combine three kind of skills/abilities:

• ANALYZING - distinguishing similarities and differences/seeing the project as a problem to be

solved

• SYNTHESIZING - making spontaneous connections among ideas, thus generating interesting or

new ideas

• PROMOTING - selling of new ideas to allow the public to test the ideas themselves

To develop creativity, the following five key tasks may be recommended:

1. DEFINE THE TASK. Clarify the goal of the completed project to the student.

2. BRAINSTORM. The students themselves will be allowed to generate their own ideas on the

project. Rather than shoot down ideas, the teacher encourages idea exchange.

3. JUDGE THE IDEAS. The students themselves make an appraisal for or against any idea. Only

when students are completely off track should the teacher intervene.

4. ACT. The students do their work with the teacher a facilitator.

5. ADOPT FLEXIBILITY. The students should be allowed to shift gears and not follow an action path
 5. ADOPT FLEXIBILITY. The students should be allowed to shift gears and not follow an action path

rigidly.

The production of self-made multimedia projects can be approached in two different ways:

1. As an instructive tool, such as in the production by students of a power-point presentation of a selected

topic.

2. As a communication tool, such as when students do 8 multimedia Presentation (with text, graphs,

photos, audio narration, interviews, video Clips, etc. to simulate 8 television news show.

Students can be made to create and post webpages on a given topic. But creating webpages, even single

page webpages, may be too sophisticated and time consuming for the average student.

It should be said, however, that posting of webpages in the Internet allows the students (now the webpage

creator) a wider audience. They can also be linked with other related sites in the Internet.

Creativity projects as tools in the teaching-learning process can be achieved with the assistance of

advisers adept in the technical use of Internet resources.

❖ Corpuz, B.B., Lucido, P.I. (2012). Educational technology 1. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing Inc.

❖ Lucido, P. I. (2012). Educational technology 2. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing Inc.-on-education/

❖ http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/implementing-it/eval.htm

❖ https://www.britannica.com/technology/technology