Lesson 10 The Computer as a Tutor

Lesson 10

The Computer as a Tutor

          Educators saw much use of the personal computer. It has become affordable to small business, industries and homes. They saw its potential for individualization of learning and they devised strategies to use the computer to break the barriers to individualized instruction.

          One of these strategies is the Computer-Assisted Instruction(CAI) in which the computer can be a tutor in effect relieving the teacher of many activities in his/her role as classroom tutor.

          Even with the available computer and CAI software, the teacher must:

·       insure that students have the needed knowledge and skills for any computer activity.

·       decide the appropriate learning objectives.

·       plan the sequential and structured activities to achieve objectives.

·       evaluate the students’ achievement by ways of testing the specific outcome.

          On the other hand, the students in CAI play their own roles as they:

·       receive information

·       understand computer instructions for the activity

·       retain/keep in mind the information and rules for the computer activity

·       apply the knowledge and rules during the process of computer learning

          During the computer activity proper in CAI the computer, too, plays its roles as it:

·       acts as a sort of tutor (the role traditionally played by the teacher)

·       provides a learning environment

·       delivers learning instruction

·       reinforces learning through drill-and-practice

·       provides feedback

          I experienced Computer-Assisted Instruction way back in my freshmen years in high school. But this experience is more prominent in college in which students really need PC’s in order to cope up with some classroom discussions and subject requirements not just for us taking a degree in education but also to students from other field of specialization.

          Computer can indeed function as a tutor through CAI. I am really glad of this innovation specially that we are already in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) generation. Even if there are a lot of students in the classroom, the teacher can facilitate the learning effectively through the help of computers.

          I will apply CAI when I will be teaching soon. It is because CAI will allow the individual students to learn at their own pace, motivate learning through a challenging virtual learning environment, assists students through information needed during the learning process, evaluate students responses through immediate feedback during the learning process, and also give the total score to evaluate the students’ total performance. Furthermore, the computer cannot totally replace the me as the teacher because as a teacher I shall continue to play the major roles of information deliverer and learning environment controller.