📚 Student View — focus on activities and learning tasks

Required Resources & Technology

Tools, platforms, and materials needed to deliver this lesson successfully.

Technology Tools

🖥️ Moodle LMS

Purpose: Pre-reading access, assignment submission, and feedback delivery.

  1. Log in at your institution's Moodle URL with your student credentials.
  2. Navigate to My Courses and select Introduction to Learning Theories.
  3. Click the Week 3 section to expand it.
  4. Download the pre-reading PDF: Vygotsky – Social Constructivism Overview.
  5. Complete the embedded short-answer reflection before the live session.
moodle.org ↗

🗂️ Collaborative Whiteboard Visual Tool

Purpose: Digital collaborative whiteboard for group theory mapping.

Note: Google Jamboard was retired in December 2024. Use Miro or FigJam as free alternatives.
  1. Go to miro.com or figma.com/figjam and create a free account.
  2. Click New Board (Miro) or New FigJam (FigJam).
  3. Share the link with your group — set permission to Anyone with link can edit.
  4. Each member opens the link on their device and joins.
  5. Use sticky notes (shortcut S in Miro) to add theory concepts.
  6. Draw connector lines between related ideas to build your comparison map.
miro.com ↗ figma.com/figjam ↗

📊 Mentimeter Live Polling

Purpose: Live polling for the post-activity quiz. Students respond on their devices; results display in real time on the projector.

  1. Go to mentimeter.com and create a free account (free tier is sufficient).
  2. Click New Presentation.
  3. Add a Question slide and choose Multiple Choice.
  4. Type the question: "Which theory emphasises observable behaviour?" Add options: Behaviourism / Cognitivism / Constructivism / All three.
  5. Add four more questions covering the lesson topics.
  6. Click Present and share the 6-digit code with students.
  7. Students go to menti.com and enter the code.
  8. View live results on the projector and discuss surprising or split responses.
mentimeter.com ↗

🤖 ChatGPT / Claude AI Tool

Purpose: Student–AI interaction tasks — generating definitions, explanations, and analogies that students then evaluate critically.

  • ChatGPT: Create a free account at chat.openai.com. No credit card required.
  • Claude: Create a free account at claude.ai. Free tier includes Claude Haiku.
Explain Vygotsky's Social Constructivism in 200 words. Include the Zone of Proximal Development and scaffolding. Compare behaviourism and cognitivism. What are the key differences in how each theory views the learner? Give me an analogy to explain classical conditioning to a first-year student.
chat.openai.com ↗ claude.ai ↗

📝 Turnitin Draft Coach Institutional Access Required

Purpose: Initial AI feedback on the summative assignment draft — grammar, clarity, and similarity checking before instructor review.

  1. Access Draft Coach through the Moodle assignment submission page (your institution must have an active Turnitin licence).
  2. Upload your draft — Draft Coach generates feedback within a few minutes.
  3. Review the grammar and clarity suggestions. Note any you agree with and any you plan to override.
  4. Check the similarity report to ensure your citations are formatted correctly.
  5. Revise your draft, then await instructor feedback, which supplements the AI comments.
Access note: Draft Coach requires an institutional Turnitin account. If your institution does not have access, your instructor will advise on an alternative feedback method.
turnitin.com ↗

🖥️ Projector / Display Screen Physical

Purpose: Display the AI scenario prompt at the start of Part A, share Mentimeter poll results, and show group whiteboard maps during class discussion.

No special software setup required. Ensure:

  • HDMI or display cable is available and tested before class.
  • Browser is open on the instructor machine and zoomed to at least 125% for readability.
  • Mentimeter presentation is loaded in a separate tab, ready to launch.

AI Literacy Handout

Common AI Limitations for Educators

Distribute this list to students at the start of Part A to help them frame their critical evaluation of AI output.

  • Hallucination: AI can generate plausible-sounding but factually incorrect information, including invented citations.
  • Confirmation bias in training data: If certain perspectives are over-represented in training data, AI output may reflect those biases.
  • Lack of context: AI does not know your discipline, your students, or your pedagogical goals — it produces generic responses.
  • Training data cutoff: AI knowledge has a fixed date. Recent research, debates, or publications may be absent.
  • Overconfidence in output: AI rarely signals uncertainty — it presents incorrect information with the same tone as correct information.
  • Cultural and linguistic biases: AI tools trained predominantly on English-language Western sources may marginalise other theoretical traditions.

Printed Materials

📄 Jigsaw Partial Template

A structured worksheet for each expert group with sentence starters, guiding questions, and space for notes during the jigsaw design phase.

Teacher Preparation: Print one template per student before class. Colour-coding by theory (blue = Behaviourism, green = Cognitivism, purple = Social Constructivism) helps students quickly identify their group during the jigsaw transition.

📊 Comparison Chart Skeleton

A blank or partially completed table listing all three theories across key dimensions: view of the learner, role of the teacher, key processes, and main theorists.

Teacher Preparation: For struggling learners, pre-populate 2–3 cells per row. Leave the rest blank for groups to complete. Print enough for one per group plus a few spares.

Technical Requirements

Device & Browser Requirements

  • Browser: Chrome, Firefox, or Edge (latest version). Safari supported but may have minor display differences.
  • Student devices: Any smartphone, tablet, or laptop with a modern browser and internet access.
  • Internet: All students should have reliable internet access. Identify any students without access before class and arrange alternatives (e.g., institution devices).
  • AI tools: Require student accounts. Advise students to create accounts before the session or allow 5–10 minutes at the start for sign-up.

✅ Teacher Preparation Checklist Teacher Only