The very nature of CMC technologies allows some of the basic tenets of constructivism to be met in distance courses. Constructivists believe that learners must experience concepts and negotiate their meaning in complex learning environments. (Jaramillo, 1996) By designing class curricula so that students interact with each other in order to solve complex problems, instructors of distance education courses facilitate the knowledge construction for their students. Jonassen (p. 16) describes several technologies that facilitate this kind of interaction such as computer conferencing and electronic mail applications.
In addition to the tools of CMC, Jonassen (p. 20) also discusses the use of cognitive tools. Cognitive tools are “both mental and computational devices that support, guide, and extend the thinking processes of their users.” (Jonassen, p. 20) Tools such as databases, word processors and spreadsheets fall under this category. The benefit of students using these tools in the educational process is that they must process the information being fed into them. Students must do something with the numbers, information, or data before it will be of use to them. This forces them to think at a deep cognitive level about the information. This leads them to construct some sort of meaning in order that the data entry will have meaning not just to them, but also to outsiders viewing the output. Cognitive tools act as a filter for information. Students acquire information from these tools (such as online databases), process it and ascribe meaning to it, and then use a different tool (such as a word processor) to explain that meaning to the world.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University are applying constructivist ideology to the development of special partnerships with the surrounding K-12 schools. Students engage in real world problem solving, and knowledge construction, by collaboratively solving problems in science, math, social studies, and literature. Students participating in this research are given problems to solve in a collaborative manner. These problems relate to their community or are organized in such as way as to have real world applications built into them. By establishing a community of learners these students illustrate that constructivist ideas do work in the classroom. More importantly, the researchers at Vanderbilt have found that performance is dramatically better than when more traditional methods are employed. Students not only construct knowledge for themselves, they contribute to their learning communities by making additions to communal databases.
One of the most significant aspects of designing distance curricula according to constructivist theories is that education and learning is then brought out of a single arena and into the integrated arena of life that most students must negotiate. It shows them that students, teachers and parents all use problem solving strategies, and get information from a variety of sources. It also shows that those individuals who are good at learning get their information from more than one place. Single sources of information are no longer as important as the synthesis of information from a variety of sources. (Dede, 1997) The ever changing nature of society mandates that students and citizens be adept at negotiating meaning with each other and in accessing information. These same people must also be able to take information from a variety of sources and create a new product that is greater than the sum of its parts.
When educators adhere to the principles of sound constructivist instructional design they are allowing their students to experience the real world tasks of negotiation, information access, and knowledge construction within the safe confines of a classroom situation; whether it is face to face or at a distance. However, without using sound constructivist practices educators relegate distance education to being just another way to see, read, or hear a lecture. The instructor ceases to be the facilitator and guide and becomes again a sage, intent in filling the heads of her students.
Terri Crotty (Accessed, March 14, 1998) reproduces Lebow’s (1993) recommendations to educators wishing to adhere to constructivist principles when designing instruction. The five principles that educators should strive to uphold are as follows.
Principle 1. Maintain a buffer between the learner and the potentially damaging effects of instructional practices.
Principle 3. Embed the reasons for learning into the learning activity itself.
Principle 4. Support self-regulated learning by promoting skills and attitudes that enable the learner to assume increasing responsibility for the developmental restructuring process.
Principle 5. Strengthen the learner's tendency to engage in intentional learning processes, especially by encouraging the strategic exploration of errors (Lebow 1993, 5-6).
By incorporating these five principles educators can help their students become more independent learners. They also demonstrate the importance of fostering a community of learners during the educational process. Students engaged in educational situations structured around constructivist principles assume ownership of their learning and therefore retain more of the content experienced through these means. Ultimately the power of knowledge and learning rests in the hands of the learner. Traditional methods of instruction removed this power from the students and assigned it to the teachers. As the global community becomes increasingly small it is important to foster personal ownership in all learning experiences.
Teaching distance courses via constructivist theories is the best way
to do this.