Once objectives have been clearly established and prioritized by the instructor, technology can be used in a number of ways that can be helpful in most of the above tasks. The communication phase is important in motivating students. Students need to clearly understand what is required of them and what constitutes an acceptable performance level. Only then can they even hope to succeed. To communicate the objective s , the course syllabus can be placed on the internet and a chat line set up so that students can work directly with the instructor to clarify any misconceptions they may have.
Technology can enable and encourage students in a number of ways.
From developments in cognitive psychology we know that learning is really a process of organizing, integrating, and reorganizing knowledge. We also know that many people acquire visually presented knowledge more easily than that presented in other ways. By using computer graphics to illustrate their conception of the subject matter organization, instructors can indicate the major and minor elements of course material and the relationships between them. This kind of presentation is likely to help students learn. A variant of this approach would be to ask students to develop their own schema of the material and to discuss the various possibilities.