When it comes to teaching, every student and every classroom are different. There should be a variety of teaching strategies and learning styles that are used to help foster learning to all students. There are many different types of software that can help a teacher meet the different needs of students. They may also be used for different types of lessons or to support lessons.
Drill and practice software are products/activities that allow students to practice lower-level skills that need to be mastered before higher-order skills can be learned. These activities help information become automatic. The advantages of using drill and practice are that students can learn basic skills quickly and effectively, they receive immediate feedback, they are more motivated to participate, and it saves the teacher time instead of having to work with each student one-on-one. An example of a drill and practice game is the Solar System Shuffle. In this game, students have to match planet descriptions to the correct planet. When they are finished, they can check the answers and see how close they were to becoming a “Solar System Shuffle Super StarChild”.
Another software with a relative advantage is one that provides an entire instructional sequence on a learning concept. This is called a tutorial. Tutorials provide enough instruction that the student should be able to complete the lesson without any other supplemental help. Tutorial software is an advantage to the classroom by being interactive which motivates and engages students, being self-paced so the students can work at the rate that is comfortable for them, providing immediate feedback to students, providing instruction that can stand on its own, and saving the teacher time. An example of a tutorial about the solar system is this website activity: Our Solar System. Students can read about the solar system and answer the questions at the end of each section. They are able to work at their own pace and get immediate feedback.
Simulations are model of how something works. It can be a real or imagined system that will provide instruction on how the system works. They can teach about something or teach how to do something. Simulations give the students more freedom to choose tasks and in which order they wish to complete them. There are numerous advantages to using simulations. Simulations can motivate and engage students, slow down processes that happen too fast, speed up processes that take too long, allow students to experiment when the actual experiment would not be safe, be cost effective when the actual experiment would be expensive, provide the opportunity to try an experiment over and change variables, and make impossible situations come to life. An example of a simulation is Weather and the Sky. This simulation shows what happens to the stars when night turns into day. It speeds up the process to allow students to see night turning to day in a matter of seconds.
Technology-based games are software products that add fun and excitement to learning activities by adding game-like rules, competition or challenges, and entertaining formats. Students are often more motivated to use instructional games when they can score points and win. There are many benefits to using technology-based games in the classroom. Other than the games being exciting and motivating, they get students to spend more time on the curriculum and get them to try harder. Playing games can also develop abilities such as empathy, attention, and tenacity. An example of a technology-based game is: The Solar System. Here students can complete NASA missions while exploring the solar system. If students are unsuccessful with the mission, they are able to try again.
Software that is designed to help teach problem-solving skills is problem-solving software. This software can serve as practice in solving content-area problems or general problem-solving skills. Problem-solving includes recognizing a goal, the sequence or process, and the activity to solve it. Relative advantages of problem-solving software include visualization of abstract concepts with concrete representations, increases in motivation and interest while presenting a challenge, and it can make knowledge and skills more meaningful to the students. They are learning both the knowledge and the application of it. An example of a problem-solving activity is Exploring Our Solar System. This is a webquest where students have to use websites to explore different planets and answer questions about each planet. Then they have to find out how much they would weigh and how old they would be on each planet.
There are so many different activities that have a relative advantage to teaching astronomy in the classroom. Astronomy is a tough concept to teach without the use of technology. Each of the examples above have a time and place for this science unit and add benefits for the students and teacher. Each activity must be implemented in a way that it can add to student engagement and motivation. It all depends on how you use the activities to reap the benefits of them. (Roblyer, 2016)
References
Anderson, L. (n.d.). In Exploring our solar system. Retrieved from http://users.zoominternet.net/~eanderson/webquest/index.html
Enchanted Learning. (2015). In Our solar system. Retrieved from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/tutor/solarsystem/1/
Houghton Mifflin Company. (n.d.). In Weather and the sky. Retrieved from http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmsc/activities/simulations/gr1/unitd.html
NASA. (n.d.). In The solar system. Retrieved from http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/solar-system-explorer/en/#/review/solar-system-explorer/game.swf
Roblyer, M.D. (2016). Integrating educational technology into teaching. (7 ed). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
The StarChild Team. (n.d.). In Solar System Shuffle. Retrieved from http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/solar_system_level1/activity/solar_ system_shuffle.html
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