What learners do to enrich information, in the view of cognitive psychology, determines the level of understanding they ultimately achieve. It is appropriate that Bruning borrows from the computer world in his definition of cognitive psychology. As you will see in the educational applications surveyed in this chapter, multimedia computers provide a powerful environment for helping achieve the goals of the cognitive movement in education. It is difficult for a teacher to provide this kind of environment for each student in a traditional classroom. Since there is only one teacher for many students, it is physically impossible for the teacher to support each student's individual needs.
Multimedia computers help by providing students with a world of interconnected knowledge to explore.
The screen-capture and downloading tools you will learn in the tutorial section of this book enable students to collect what they discover and construct a framework for organizing and understanding. Thus, the student becomes an active processor of the information, and knowledge is the by-product. Since the learner is portrayed as an active processor who explores, discovers, reflects, and constructs knowledge, the trend to teach from this perspective is known as the constructivist movement in education. Several theorists have embellished this theme. At first, the teacher provides instructional scaffolding that helps the student construct knowledge.