Digital Technology and Learning

Comic about the technology-enhanced, constructivist classroom (PDHPE KLA)

Explanation about comic

This comic vividly portrays a constructivist PDHPE classroom where students are active learning mechanisms, using technology to delve into the complexities of nutrition. Harasim (2017) asserts that constructivist learning is all about active knowledge construction through collaboration and interaction. In this comic, students are not passive recipients of information but are the ones driving the learning process. They work in groups to research and create a digital health plan using online tools, clearly reflecting Bower's (2017) principles of technology-enhanced learning. The teacher's role is not to dictate but to guide and facilitate student-driven exploration and discussion, a crucial element of constructivist pedagogy (Smith & MacGregor, 1992).

Technology integration in this classroom is a tool and a motivation for collaboration. Platforms like Google Docs for collaborative writing and Google Slides for presentations enable real-time collaboration and feedback, promoting a sense of connection among students. This deepens their engagement with the content (Harasim, 2017) and displays the nature of learning in a constructivist classroom. Students are shown providing peer feedback and refining their work, a process made seamless and efficient by technology. This approach helps students develop critical thinking and digital literacy skills and aligns with the constructivist theory that learning is an active, social process (Bower, 2017). The comic vividly demonstrates how technology can effectively facilitate collaborative, student-centred learning in a PDHPE setting.

References

• Bower, M. (2017). Pedagogy and Technology-Enhanced Learning. Chapter 3. Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning. Emerald Publishing.

• Harasim, L. (2017). Learning theory and online technologies. Chapter 5. Constructivist learning theory. Routledge.

• Smith, B. L., & MacGregor, J. T. (1992). What is collaborative learning? In A. S. Goodsell, M. R. Maher, & V. Tinto (Eds.), Collaborative learning: A sourcebook for higher education (pp. 10–30). National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, Syracuse University.