Theorist

Approach to Learning and Objectives

Theory of Instruction and Learning

Appropriate Computer and Communications Technology

B.F. Skinner

Behavioral

Stimulus/Response; habit formation.

Central and active teacher-dominated method.

Exemplified by the Audiolingual Method for teaching foreign languages.

Drill and practice programs and software such as Super Solvers: Outnumbered!

Ideal for teaching of mathematical procedures and computations, reading decoding, and foreign language vocabulary.

John Dewey

Cognitive 

American Pragmatism school of philosophy

Inquiry learning and activity-based education. Advocate of progressive educational reform along democratic principles.

Use of word processing software, databases, and desk top publishing programs. Also, use of storyboard as a tool that enables writers to construct a shared understanding of their text.

Lev Vygotsky

Cognitive/Socio-cultural

Zone of Proximal Development (using language and metalanguage as tools to mediate learning).

Wired and Wireless Technologies using real time conferencing software (e.g., NetMeeting, Lotus SameTime, Chatspace). Shared practices of collaborative technology use builds communal understandings.

J. Lave & E. Wenger, 1989)

Cognitive

Concepts of Situated learning and Communities of Practice.

Learning is constituted through the sharing of purposeful, patterned activity.

Jerome Bruner

Cognitive

Discovery Learning: students interact with their environment by exploring and manipulating objects, questioning, and performing experiments.

The WWW can take students to virtual worlds. Virtual field trips to museums, archeological sites, and other places. Scholastic Software's Operation Frog.

Jean Piaget

Cognitive

Constructivist theory focus is on problem-solving skills – teacher as guide not sage.

Simulation models and toolkits: Earthquake simulation model.

Caleb Gattegno's The Silent Way (cuisenaire rods)

Alan Collins, John Seely Brown, and

Susan E. Newman

Cognitive

Cognitive Apprenticeship: focus of learning through guided experience is on cognitive and metacognitive skills.

Electronic Emissary Project at the University of Texas at Austin: Matching students with specific mentors.