Teaching support systems
Support systems help the teacher teach: traditional aids (chalkboard, charts), modern aids (projectors, radio, TV) and ICT-based tools (smart boards, LMS, e-content).
Three kinds of support
| Type | Examples | Strength | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional | Chalkboard, charts, maps, models, flannel board, printed text | Cheap, simple, no power needed | Static; hard to update or share |
| Modern (electronic) | Overhead and slide projectors, radio, TV, audio and video recordings | Adds sound and motion; reaches large groups | Needs equipment and power; mostly one-way |
| ICT-based | Smart board, LCD projector, LMS (e.g. Moodle), MOOCs, e-content, virtual labs, video conferencing | Interactive, easy to update, anytime and anywhere | Needs devices, internet and digital skills |
Aids by the sense they use
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Audio | Radio, podcast, audio recording, language lab |
| Visual | Chalkboard, chart, graph, map, silent slides, flash cards |
| Audio-visual | Television, film, video lecture, multimedia presentation |
| Activity | Field trip, dramatisation, experiment, models handled by learners |
Dale's Cone of Experience, base to tip
The cone ranks experiences by abstraction, not by value. Dale linked the bands to Bruner's enactive, iconic and symbolic modes. The popular '10% of what we read' percentages are not Dale's.
NET asks you to sort aids into traditional, modern and ICT-based (or audio, visual and audio-visual) and to order items on Dale's Cone from concrete to abstract.
Typical MCQ: “Which is the most abstract level of Dale's Cone of Experience?” Verbal symbols (words). Direct, purposeful experience forms the concrete base.
Typical MCQ: “Is a smart board a traditional, modern or ICT-based support system?” ICT-based: it is interactive, digital and connects to computers and the internet.
Dale's cone goes Do → See → Say: the base is doing, the middle is seeing, the tip is words.