Other Instructional Practices and the New Technologies

In this Chapter a number of apparently disparate instructional practices are discussed. At a general level they are bound by the fact that how they function is very much a matter of the objectives their instructors wish them to achieve. All of them can be adapted for use with the new technologies. The Chapter begins with a discussion of practice and problems with case studies, debates, and mock trials. It is argued that each of them can contribute to the development of intellectual skills that are unlikely to be developed in traditional lecture based courses. They each require changes in the traditional roles associated with teachers and students. The latter have to become actively engaged in learning while the former have to ensure that that engagement takes place. The students are placed in a position where they have to begin to responsibility for their own learning. In addition to the development of intellectual skills these methods have the goal of better relating theory to practice. A variety of approaches are available for teachers who want to use case studies. Nowhere are students expected to exercise self-discipline more than in systems of individualized instruction that allow students to work at their own pace. The Keller and Bloom approaches to mastery learning are compared, and variations in the Keller plan including semi-paced mastery are discussed. It is clear that computer assisted PSI courses are able to accommodate quite sophisticated approaches to the development of higher order cognitive skills. The issue of mastery grading is discussed, and a case is made for the training of proctors. It is concluded that PSI may take a step in the direction of helping students gain more control of the learning process and through that control a commitment to educational self-direction. A discussion of laboratory work leads to consider ation of the value of simulation, and also the meaning of ?>hands-on ?> and ?>real ?> in the simulated context. The section begins with some comments on the objectives of laboratory education, and it notes an urgent need to consider laboratory objectives within the context of distance education. During the forty-year period covered by this review there has been a move away from teacher-controlled to student-centered laboratory learning. Inquiry (discovery)-based learning is found to experience the same problems that have been experienced in school education. Like all of the strategies discussed in this chapter it needs to be carefully planned. Its great asset is the motivation that it causes among students. Integrated laboratories and integrated laboratory work have the potential to reflect industrial practice as well as to show the relationship between the disciplines that constitute engineering. The hands-on versus simulation debate is considered. Simulations are here to stay, but some kind of hands-on work seems to be necessary. Hands-on experiments should be carefully chosen so as to challenge student perceptions of the engineering problems involved. They should not, therefore, be a simplified version designed to demonstrate scientific principles. A simulator, like a laboratory experiment should be regarded as a challenging textbook in action. Discussion of laboratory work in distance learning leads into a more general discussion of the new technologies and learning. When compared with conventional learning, it is concluded that the principles of learning that apply in conventional instructional methodology apply equally to the design of instruction for use with new technologies. Poorly designed ins...