Co-constructive Tool

Co-constructive Tool

Co-constructive tool is an application that helps in constructing knowledge through a shared understanding, meaning, a group of people with the same idea comes together, they work together and come up with a collaborative result. This application is very helpful to both the teacher and the student as it brings together different individuals and some of these applications needs each and every individual to participate, which is an easy way for the teacher to keep track of who is working and who is not.

If I cite an example, I used Google docs to plan a lesson plan in groups of four. Here I learned how to create Google docs, how to use different feature of Google docs and I also invited our tutor to assess the work. After creating a Google doc, I first discus on how to go about in a comment section with my group members and then only started the work. It was an ongoing work where everybody added and subtracted the unwanted things.

                                 

Some of other examples are electronic whiteboard, blogs; here we can publish our work and we can get constructive feedback from the readers. The other one is the discussion forum on portals; it is a website or page that acts as an entrance to other websites of pages on the internet.

There are many benefits of co-constructive tool such as, it helps in co-editing the work, it also helps in communicating database, text and graphics. It also enhances collaborative learning environment, just like how Google doc helped us working collaboratively. As it’s a collaborative work, it provides high-level cognitive processing such as, explanation, problem finding and problem solving. Finally, it creates an active and intentional learning environment for both the teacher and the student. 

Example of co-constructive tool

                                                

Constructive Tool

Constructive Tool

Constructive tool is an ICT application which helps learner to learner, to modify information, to put our understanding into a visual form and finally help us construct our own knowledge.

Some of the examples of constructive tool are ‘concept map’, it is a program which helps users to brainstorm and visualize, ‘word, spread sheet and PowerPoint’ helps to organize, manipulate, record and present our work in different forms, and ‘desktop publishing’ is also a program which allows us to organize and present our work in an attractive format.

When we integrate ICT in our classroom, students can construct their own understanding with the help of the tools mentioned above. Learners are considered the maker of meaning and knowledge, it also says that integrating ICT can make learning more effective because learner are actively engaged in the use of ICT and when learner are actively engaged, they think critically and are able to create their own new ideas.

It not only helps students but also teachers in generating new ways of teaching through ICT. It constitutes a shift from teacher to learner centered pedagogy, which is a less work for teachers but a very good platform for students to use their own ideas. Use of ICT decreases learning through memorization and rote learning and focuses more on creative and hands on experience learning. Here learners can learn on their own through exploration and hands on practice even in absence of teacher and that’s called construction of knowledge which ICT can provide in various ways.

Example of simulation