Planning à la mode

Match your technology mix to students' learning patterns

By Lon M. Stettler

Lon M. Stettler is director of standards, assessment, and information management for the Hamilton City (Ohio) School District.

The next time you conduct planning for the instructional technology of your school or district, approach the task like a master cabinetmaker joining together a fine armoire. Take extra care that the design of your computer networks and the configuration of your workstations match the different modes of student learning like mortise and tenon.

In the Hamilton City schools (K-12; enrollment 11,360), we group student learning styles into four basic categories or modes: acquirer of information, retriever of information, constructor of information, and presenter of information. Most educators draw upon all four learning modes, to one degree or another, in instruction. But the emphasis will vary among schools and among individual teachers. Some also will choose different strategies for each mode and devote a different proportion of instructional time to each one.

That's why planning for technology should start by considering the preferences for the various modes at the school and classroom level. The next step is to determine the right mix of hardware, software, and other media to heighten learning in each mode and in each subject area. Planning also should consider the various types of instructional spaces -- computer laboratories, media centers, commons areas, project areas, and regular classrooms. Technology can contribute to learning in each type of space as well as to activities conducted by large groups, small groups, and individual learners.

Four modes of learning

Let's take a look at the four student learning modes, the features each learning mode can provide, and how good technology planning can enhance student learning and achievement.

Acquirer: As an acquirer of information, the student takes the role of information consumer rather than producer. A student's time using technology is devoted to absorbing core knowledge and skills in subjects such as reading, mathematics, geography, and science. Technologies appropriate to this mode deliver the curriculum in a linear, sequential fashion -- typically in tutorial, simulation, and drill-and-practice formats. Learning is primarily directed by teachers, not by the students themselves.

One example of an acquirer of information is a student using a tutorial mathematics program to reinforce and master the concepts of place value or measurement. Other examples include a science simulation in which a student might observe various cycles of nature or a daily practice session using an integrated learning system to accelerate students' grasp of reading concepts and skills. Finally, as an acquirer of information, a student might take an advanced course from another school or university over a two-way distance-learning network.

Retriever: In the mode of retriever, the student is an information searcher, or "surfer." Technology can allow a student to learn in a nonlinear or mosaic fashion, investigating topics of interest by meandering through texts, still images, and full-motion pictures from a variety of media. The student, rather than the teacher, primarily directs learning.

To support this mode of learning, you could subscribe to commercial on-line services, such as America Online or Prodigy, and give students access to electronic bulletin boards, the Internet (including the World Wide Web), and the resources available on CD-ROM (such as electronic encyclopedias) and laser disc (such as film archives).

Constructor: In the role of constructor, the student is an information producer rather than a consumer. At times a student learns in a linear, structured fashion; at other times in a nonlinear, exploratory fashion. This role allows students to follow their preferred learning style. Learning typically shifts, over time, from being directed by a teacher to being directed by the student, or it settles into a balanced partnership between the two.

Technology for this mode should challenge the student to use higher levels of thinking to construct, create, or produce information. As the term implies, the constructor mode draws from the constructivist view of learning, which regards the student as an active creator and producer of knowledge. In practice, a student's learning often culminates in creating a product that can be communicated in text, sound, still image, and full-motion video. The product that the student has constructed could be on any of several media formats, including data files on floppy disks, hypermedia stacks, or CD-ROM programming.

In mathematics, for example, a student could use a geometry program to produce and test a geometric design. For an art course, a student with a desktop publishing program could design a brochure combining text and images. An English student could use a hypermedia program to create stacks for a project on British literature. A music student could produce and play an original composition using a music-generation program. Or a health student could employ a presentation graphics program to create a slide show on tropical diseases. Finally, with a computer-aided design program, a student could design a wiring schematic for drafting class.

Presenter: As an information presenter, the student conveys to an audience the information the student has constructed, created, or produced. Technology permits the student to communicate via text, still images, sound, and full-motion video. The student can structure the presentation to suit the material and the purpose of the lesson -- either in linear fashion or in hypertext style. Depending on the student's capabilities, the task of preparing and making the presentation might be entirely student-directed or be a partnership between the teacher and student.

As an information presenter, a student might create a hypermedia stack of an interdisciplinary project in social studies and literature. A student could elucidate a science experiment with slides and full-motion video presented on a multimedia computer augmented (for a classroom-size audience) by an LCD projection panel, overhead projectors, and screen. A student might record his best pieces of writing or artwork for the school year on CD-ROM. Or the student could simply display a mathematics project on a computer screen.

The right mix, best fit

Planners need to ask the teachers in each school to estimate how much time they want students to spend in each of these four learning modes. Those determinations, along with the choices of the specific technologies to purchase and use, depend in turn on the educational needs of students and the instructional priorities of the school.

For example, if the majority of students are proficient in the core curricula, students probably will spend less time as mere acquirers of information. That would indicate the classroom's current methods are working well. In that case, the technology mix can be focused more heavily towards the retriever, constructor, and presenter modes of learning. The best mix of time for such a group of students might be as follows: acquirer, 20 percent; retriever, 25 percent; constructor, 40 percent; and presenter, 15 percent. Students would be more self-directed in learning with the largest portion of time in the retriever, constructor, and presenter modes.

Conversely, if the majority of students are not proficient in the core curricula, the technology mix should be more heavily focused toward the acquirer mode of learning and less focused on the other three modes. Here's the best mix of time using technology with a group of this sort: acquirer, 60 percent; retriever, 15 percent; constructor, 15 percent; and presenter, 10 percent. In this case, technology planners should think seriously about acquiring an integrated learning system (ILS). An ILS consists of networked computers and courseware under the control of a sophisticated management system that attempts to individualize instruction and assessment. In that configuration, student learning is largely directed by teachers (and the ILS), with the most time spent in the mode of information acquirer.

Technology planners should consider all four learning modes when planning for both the acquisition and use of technology. By doing so, your technology plan might provide both the right mix and the best fit of technology to meet your students' educational needs.