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It says that children can learn with internet without any intervention from outside -like a teacher. When the topic is not defined, children can learn what they want. But for some specific topics, they at least need the very first idea -a question, sometimes even a pre-designed system of information and instruction. Are we too much interfering to students' learning process?

Such educational frameworks support the trend of shift from teacher-centeredness to student-centeredness. In the past, when we need to ask something, we asked to our elders- in school, to teachers. Now, we have an additional elder, the internet. It can answer almost anything. In that sense, the impact of the technology can not be ignored. The idea of providing internet access to places that is scarce in terms of teachers is reasonable - which also supports the idea of distance education. Besides, bringing technology is easier and cheaper than bringing a teacher with resources. However, we still need teachers as -cliche but vital term- "facilitators" and regulators in self-learning process. It is necessary for constructivism as well as child-driven education or for any other self-learning methods. Someone is needed for wrapping-up the knowledge gained, for assessing the results, for remedying circumstances that obstruct the learning process, for deciding goals or organizing goals to be attained, and for secure and heuristic browsing on the internet. In that sense, I support the idea of "self organized learning environments" as Mitra offers, but also I contend that there should be teachers around these environments for facilitating. In short, we should not quit important elements of education while trying to make it better.

I believe although computers and instructional softwares are amazing to enhance the effectiveness of instruction, they are not enough. They are always limited. It is impossible to load them all possible questions of students and their responses. Moreover, none of the computers or softwares would be able to fulfill students' emotional and motivational needs. There is also the uniqueness of the students; not all of the students would enjoy a computer-based education. Lastly, as a science educator when I think for my area; it is never the same to make an experiment on computer and in a laboratory. Students learn better when they are actively engaged in an experiment and seethe results with their eyes.

According to Thorndike, learning occurs via the association between the sensations and the impulse (action). As for checking his theory, he created puzzle boxes for the animals that he used for his experiments. He put the animals into the boxes and measured the time they spent for learning to open the door. He discovered that animals do not have enough ability to figure out the results of their actions. They find the solution with trial and error process and mostly by chance. After finding the solution (that is the solution that leads to the correct impulse, namely escaping the door), the time for operating the correct response to a specific situation decreases. However, when the reinforcement is removed (in this experiment, escaping the door is prevented), then the corresponding sensation (attempt to pull down the lever) disappears (This event can remind us the term "extinction" used by Pavlov in his classical conditioning theory). After introducing the reinforcement again, sensation reoccurs but the animal needs time to make the escaping operation more quickly again as he learnt before removing the stimuli.

Erdem, thanks for sharing. I will use this in my ed psych course as well.

Thanks for that video. It has been a great experience for me to see what I learned before theoretically. Now, I feel that I understand the experiment better. Such videos are very effective in enhancing learning.

I did such an experiment to my 2,5 year old cousin. I asked for his mother to bring 2 tea glasses with full of water and 2 water glasses one of which was wide and short and one of which was narrow and tall. Next, I asked my cousin if the water amount is the same in both tea glasses. She said "Yes". Then I said "now watch carefully" and slowly poured one of the tea glasses into the wide&short glass and poured the other one into the narrow&tall one. In narrow&tall glass, the level of water seems above from the wide&short one despite the fact that the amount of water is the same in both glasses. Then I asked if water amount of the glasses is the same. And she answered "No, there is much more water in the narrow&tall water (She was pointing to level of water in narrow&tall glass with her finger while telling it)" Then I asked for 6 biscuits from her mother and separated them into 2 groups each of which contain 3 biscuits. Then asked if they are the same and she said "Yes". After that, I took one of the group which contains 3 biscuits and divided each biscuits so that numerically they looks like there are 6 biscuits with half length. Now I had 2 groups one of which had 3 standard biscuits and the other one contained 6 biscuits pieces with half length of standard biscuits. Afterwards I asked her again if the amount of the biscuits are the same in each group and she says "No". When I ask "why" she said, " This one is much because it has more biscuits(by pointing out the group containing 6 biscuits pieces)" It was nice to see such an experiment. It means that children at a specific developmental stage process their observations in line with their own perceptions, not the ones adults have and as such it supports the idea that children build their own knowledge by making interpretations on what they see, on what they interact with the world.

My best choice of educational metaphor among the slides: http://goo.gl/clcMR (Just click) Not just because of the "bike" :) But because of 1- Advice for instructor to control his/her power: Use your knowledge power in favor of the student not just for your ego! 2- Let him do it! By the way i like bikes also :D

I like the one which teachers cultivate the feeds of knowledge, they plant within their students. Teaching is the long process and requires more effort from both teacher and student. And also suitable land is te essential one in order to constitute knowledge.

The tenth slight is interesting for me. "Teaching is like crossing borders..." I think that we can associate the border with instruction or kinds of instructional methods or theories because on one side there is the individual who learns and on the other side there is the individual who teachs. Therefore the "border" can refer to the instruction as an instrument between the teaching and learning processes.

"impact of technology" part made me think that using technology in education is not valuable without how to use it. The project FATİH is generally taken a big step of using technology in state schools. "What is the cost?" "Are they necessary?" "Will our teachers use it?" are most asked questions. However, "How to use it?" is rare. Here with the word "use" I don't refer to running the devices. I mean the way technology be used in accordance to the educational objectives. As Chomsky says, without knowing what to do, using educational technology effectively is difficult.

There were several points that got my attention in this video. The first one was Chomsky's sentence saying that education had a value in itself. The purpose of it was to create "better" human beings, not bigger human capital for money. At this point, he opposed to idea that all generations should be given enough knowledge about math and science in order to increase people with scientific knowledge that will lead to more money income. Rather, education should foster the ideas of being independent in thoughts, being creative, having the ability and willingness to pursue one's own interest, and learning to learn on one's own. The second one was the analogy that Chomsky used. He made an analogy between technology and a hammer. He said that with a hammer you can either construct a building or smash a school down. This is about how you use the hammer, and it is the same with technology. Thus, it is more important that for what purpose we will use the technology than simply how to use technology. The last one was about achievement tests. Chomsky said that tests do not have so much value. You can pass a test after studying hard for about 3 weeks. Nevertheless, it does not mean that you will remember even the names of the topics that was covered in the exam after 3 weeks of the exam. That's why exploration, self learning, project-based learning and formative assessment is much more important and promising compared to achievement tests.

I also saw the rankings. However, I am not sure if the results are reliable. I did not feel anything about our progress :),

Thomson Reuters Scale was being used to determine the results.

On another list run by METU itself, URAP, METU comes 489th in 2012 listing, not URAP but for THE having so much impact on worldwide scale I'm not sure how free it is from political influence.

You are invited to the conference held in TEDU next Thursday (11.04.2013). I will be happy if you inform me before coming so that I can meet you at the very beginning. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/ekonomi/22593138.asp

Sinem, I wasn't able to attend to this conference but I am curious to hear about your insights. Anything interesting?

I wanted to see all group members in this conference. It was a second episode of our visit for " Seven Schools in Finland" exhibition in Cermodern. There was a model school design with its learning hubs conducted by Canon design and Koç University. It is very unique in Turkey will be finished in 2014. All the learning environments were designed according to the students' learning. Most of the learning hubs, not classrooms, are not square or rectangle they are curvic. Outside of the school were built with the glasses in order to take advantage of the sunlight properly. School is in the area of 7000 m2 in Beykoz, İstanbul. Teachers who will be work in the school have been trained within the framework of nature of the model school, student-centered approach. As you remembered, in Cermodern I could not find the answer to the learning environment of Finland schools. This conference let me go one step further to imagine what constructivist learning environment is. The emphasis on importance of "Educational Architecture" is another issue I was enlightened. Maybe, we can attend the openning of the Model School. Thank you for your concern.

This is the biggest problem of universities and It should be solved as soon as possible. what is wrong with these faculty, are students worng with chosing them or are lecturer wrong whilw working for them or other else???

I think we have really problem about the role of arts&scince faculty. they are supposed to prepare students to be scientists or instructors but not teachers. however, when we look at capacity of these faculties make us think that Turkey has most crowded scientist population in the world! I think for arts&science faculty we need increase in quality but decrease in numbers of capacity.

The mission and vision of the arts and science faculties should be presented clearly to high school students or to people who are about to make a decision about a department. Unfortunately, being a university graduate is perceived like a rare feature so most of the high school graduates try to enter a university avoiding the profession and department. Also, the students who hold a BS degree of a department of arts and science faculty should have given more opportunities, like scholarships or job opportunities, so that they will be able to continue their graduate education in a arts and science faculty.

The link to the pool that has been prepared for technology based educational materials for FATİH project. In this pool, teachers and students can send several educational materials that they created or they were using in classroom environment. They aim to extend the content with contributions of people who are actively in education in Turkey. However, it is obvious that the project needs professional e-content materials. Videos, pdf's are ok but multimedia based tools are needed.

Erdem, I wonder if there is any section on the website that include resources/guidelines for teachers. E.g. how to integrate those simulations in the classrooms.

Canan, I hope it will help, thank you, Hocam, there are just materials in the pool. I downloaded 10th grade math teacher guidelines released by Ministry of Education and started to read some sections. I saw that they offer recommendations like "using a dynamic math software, students do...". However, I don't know if they will handle the learning and usage of such software in in-service trainings. I wish I could bring more information about the system but they have not answered my CV and my sample work yet,

Here is my constructivist environment example. In the past, I installed the second life software considering that it was a game. I roamed and roamed in worlds that already were created, chatted with people in another countries with my avatar. Then I thought that it was boring. It was just like sitting on Sunshine and talking with friends. Why I had to do this via my computer? This video shows us how Second Life Worlds can be used to create constructivist learning environments. In the video, a Second Life World that was prepared by a group of people called TELLS TEAM is presented. In this world, you can attend lectures, have group meetings for discussion, work on simulations and role plays whereever you are. All participants including the teacher has an avatar and walking, sitting, chatting as if they were in the same room. In this project, learners are active participants. They roam, talk, immediately can fly to role playing sessions and etc. Teacher is only responsible to present initial knowledge. I could not find how they evaluate the learners. However, it is up to you. This environment is just a tool. You can arrange your role plays, your simulations, and also your assesment. Also they have some guides to use the environment effectively on this web site: https://sites.google.com/site/secondlifeuwnshss/Home

I believe that this lesson plan is a very good example of a constructivist lesson plan for a science lesson. It has many steps that involve the student actively. And as I read I felt that the student is not only hands on, but minds on also. What I mean is that it is clearly a process-oriented plan. Even if the student can't do well in some steps, there are other activities that he can accomplish and enjoy. Also the stress on group work is evident, student can learn from each other and take responsibility. Evaluation part is also very clear, explained to the students with a rubric and it relies on presentations and all the wprk students gather till that day. Making the family involved is another strong part of this plan to me. The things that may not work can be that it takes one month totally, so to keep the attention of the students on the same topic for such a time may be hard, maybe the project could last like two or three weeks. Also the organization of the peer groups is critical.

The topic is about charter schools in US. It is not easy to understand what is charter school but it is like a publicly founded school where the "educational experience is qualitatively different". They just try different style of learning. "Charters were originally a progressive movement (called the "small schools" movement) started by University of Massachusetts professor Ray Budde and American Federation of Teachers leader, Al Shanker to explore best practices for education without bureaucracy." (wikipedia: charter school) Quote from the original text "Students taught by teachers with at least five years' experience outperformed students with less experienced teachers, regardless of the type of school attended, but charter school students with inexperienced teachers did significantly worse than students in traditional public schools with less experienced teachers. (The impact of this finding is compounded by the fact that charter schools are twice as likely as traditional public schools to employ inexperienced teachers.)" This means that experienced teachers are better than in experienced ones (Not suprised?) but more importantly it shows us that if you try something new it is better to have an experienced teacher :)

As far as I understand, if you have a brilliant idea about the ways that the education can be implemented, you can ask for being a charter school. As a charter school, you are free from governmental regulations and obligations. However, your performance is monitored closely. In that schools, new innovative methods are tried out, and apparently inexperienced teachers are not successful at all comparing to traditional ones. This is because the experience. I remember my internship time. As an intern teacher, I had difficulty even implementing techniques that I had been taught throughout my undergraduate career. It was because concrete experiences are much more hard to accomplish that abstract ones. And self-evidently being "concretely experienced" needs time. After years and years in active teaching, teachers naturally can have the ability to integrate innovative methods in their teaching. If the innovation is surprising (like technology integration while experienced teachers might not have enough knowledge), they at least have the ability not to confuse with the new innovation, they can resist and hold on their traditional experiences. New teachers may become confused with undergraduate knowledge and innovations since both of them are still not deeply got used to.

Students work in pairs to research and present findings. This video shows interviews with students engaged in the learning process. Notice the high level of involvement and enthusiasm.

The video displays an activity that students are reinforced to produce in terms of constructivist approach. I know the teacher and his ways of integration of the methods. He is mostly effective in such cases, and does not lose the control in any circumstance. In the video, there seems a compexity among students in terms of noise and crowd. However, it was one of the disadvantages of taking the whole class to video. They should present what they have done so far. One of the best thing in the video is peer evaluation that we frequently use.

Ok, I have been trying to explain how I approach teaching in higher education. This explains it clearly. Indeed, I do have very high expectations from my students and I believe high expectations bring greater achievement.

Hi my group, This is our group table, I tried to complete it and wrote something on it and we should complete until this Monday(31th december). See you

Hocam, I tried to complete the table as you know there can be some defficiencies. So I beg your pardon. Thanks for your effort during the semester for us.. For me, this course is the unique one during my grad life and the most enjoyfull. Thanks for everthing.

Thanks Hatice. The table looks good now.

Why we need good teachers? Why "EDS-536 Research and Practice on Technology in Teacher Education" course is important? From the site: "Good teachers are essential and need respect: There is no substitute for good teachers. The impact of good teachers extends beyond positive educational outcomes and can be linked to positive societal factors, such as lower levels of teenage pregnancy and a greater tendency to save for retirement. Creating the best teachers is about more than paying a good salary. The best performing countries attract top talent, train teachers throughout their careers and allow them freedom too."

Dincer, thanks for making a connection to the course. A reform in teacher education is a must in our country. The research indicates the quality of preservice teacher education is one of the biggest predictors of the student success. This finding by itself seems to explain this urgent need for a reform!

This article describes instructional theory that supports post-industrial education and training systems - ones that are customized and learner-centered, in which student progress is based on learning rather than time. The article describes universal methods of instruction, situational methods, core ideas of the post-industrial paradigm of instruction, the importance of and problems with task-based instruction, a vision of an instructional theory for post-industrial education and training, and the roles that may be played by the teacher, the learner, and technology in the new paradigm. Keywords: Instructional theory, post-industrial paradigm, task-basd instruction

Is this Reigeluth's recent publication? I plan to include this in the reading list for next year. Thanks for sharing.

I saw the news on Kursat Hoca's FB profile. It is published in Magazine about Distance Education (Revista de Educación a Distancia). I like the idea of learning without time constraints. I don't know why :)