Digital Native: Justin
In terms of digital background, how similar is Justin to a typical Singaporean student? When was the first time i had my first computer? I believed it was in my JC days. Though that is the case, we were exposed to computer usage as early as primary school. But it was deemed to be a non-necessity then.
Students are now exposed to the use of computer as early as the age of 6 to 7. They cannot do without their computer, laptop, i-pod and others. Digital Natives spent more time using their digital gadgets for numerous different activities compared to doing 'old-school' studying and reading.
Just to state a few characteristics of a digital natives, they are more expressive and extremely social. They want active involvement in every issues and needs constant engagement. They have the fearlessness to engage in task, with failure the least of their concern.
But when there is pros, there are bound to have cons. One ever present problem was their inability to communicate face to face with people. As they are used to communicating in the virtual world, they will feel a sense of unease when doing face-to-face communication.
As for how digital immigrants like us can do to engage the digital natives, I think that a more interactive lesson could be a good start in engaging the natives. As for the infusion of the teaching pedagogies, our main aim is to equip students with the necessary 21st century skills, where formative assessment play a more important role than before. Asking questions and having pauses in between lessons allow discussions to be done and making the lesson a bi-directonal interaction.
I am still skeptical about introducing games into lessons but not the concepts hidden within GBL. Exploration comes before teaching is a good approach where students will be able to have a sense of ownership in what they learn.
Thus I think that being a digital immigrant, i think it will be cool also that I allow myself to be a learner in the meanwhile to learn from my students as afterall, they are still the natives.
Wednesday, September 30
E-learning2 Part B (sheng zhi)
Wow... it looks like anything that has a flat surface can become a video screen. If I have sunglasses that doubles as a video screen, I will have to train my left eye to look at the screen and my right eye to look at where I am going, then I should be talking simultaneously, that's too much work!
I think as the video shows, there will be gadgets everywhere to feed us with infomation in the future. There will also be people who will be exhausted from all this information handed to them but they have nowhere to hide because even the toiletbowl lid can become a video screen. That's a scary thought.
In the future, learning for students will be about learning itself and not spewing out facts because the tablet pc will do that for them. There could be no paper exams or even no exams at all. Or maybe the exam is a case problem and the students are given one month to solve it by themselves.
I think NIE is preparing us to be teachers that learn how people learn, know how people know and think how people think. I am tempted to impart what I have learnt in NIE to my students about ed psych, ICT, Chem-learning, Maths-learning on top of their knowledge content. Maybe even make that the major part of my teaching and they can learn the knowledge content themselves. I will teach them to be teachers then they can teach themselves. Sounds confusing? I think so too but these are my thoughts so far, probably I will have a clearer picture of how I want to teach when the future is nearer. Hopefully I don't get crushed by restrictions and the cirriculum before the time comes.
I think as the video shows, there will be gadgets everywhere to feed us with infomation in the future. There will also be people who will be exhausted from all this information handed to them but they have nowhere to hide because even the toiletbowl lid can become a video screen. That's a scary thought.
In the future, learning for students will be about learning itself and not spewing out facts because the tablet pc will do that for them. There could be no paper exams or even no exams at all. Or maybe the exam is a case problem and the students are given one month to solve it by themselves.
I think NIE is preparing us to be teachers that learn how people learn, know how people know and think how people think. I am tempted to impart what I have learnt in NIE to my students about ed psych, ICT, Chem-learning, Maths-learning on top of their knowledge content. Maybe even make that the major part of my teaching and they can learn the knowledge content themselves. I will teach them to be teachers then they can teach themselves. Sounds confusing? I think so too but these are my thoughts so far, probably I will have a clearer picture of how I want to teach when the future is nearer. Hopefully I don't get crushed by restrictions and the cirriculum before the time comes.
E-learning2 Part A (sheng zhi)
Digital natives think differently from us digital immigrants. While our time we play one dimensional games like tetris, street fighter, mario brothers and other 72-in-1 games; they play Resident Evil 5, Halo and Dead Space. These games are played three-dimensionally, require one to enage multiple enemies at a time and make in-game strategies that are more sophisticated than our games 20 years ago.
They are adapted to visualising spaces that are hidden from view, able to divide their attention towards several items at the same time and come up with competent strategies to solve problems.
However in this age where there is information overload, when one game is completed, it is replaced by the next immediately. They do not think what skills they have learnt from the previous game they played. So these skills are unlikely to be applied in other areas as they have not been processed cognitively.
The digital native I chose is Dylan. He uses internet chats and online tools to communicate with people that lives far away from him, with some even from different continents. Dylan is similar to many singaporean students in the way that he communicates and collaborate online. Nowadays most students have at least one of the following: friendster, blog, MSN, facebook, Myspace. Although they use them for mainly leisure purposes, they are now not restricted to solely face-to-face meeting and are free to talk anytime anywhere as long as they have a computer connected to the internet.
I think teachers today have to break their lessons into small sessions of about 15 min, start and stop many times to ask questions or get feedbacks so that the students' mind are not lulled into sleep that easily. Focus less on memorising and put more effort in teaching skills like observation, communication, interaction, problem solving and parallel thinking.
They are adapted to visualising spaces that are hidden from view, able to divide their attention towards several items at the same time and come up with competent strategies to solve problems.
However in this age where there is information overload, when one game is completed, it is replaced by the next immediately. They do not think what skills they have learnt from the previous game they played. So these skills are unlikely to be applied in other areas as they have not been processed cognitively.
The digital native I chose is Dylan. He uses internet chats and online tools to communicate with people that lives far away from him, with some even from different continents. Dylan is similar to many singaporean students in the way that he communicates and collaborate online. Nowadays most students have at least one of the following: friendster, blog, MSN, facebook, Myspace. Although they use them for mainly leisure purposes, they are now not restricted to solely face-to-face meeting and are free to talk anytime anywhere as long as they have a computer connected to the internet.
I think teachers today have to break their lessons into small sessions of about 15 min, start and stop many times to ask questions or get feedbacks so that the students' mind are not lulled into sleep that easily. Focus less on memorising and put more effort in teaching skills like observation, communication, interaction, problem solving and parallel thinking.
Monday, September 28
GBL Reflections (Siyun)
After attending the past few sessions on GBL, I do understand the few positive impacts of what games can do to learners. GBL stimulates creativity and perseverance (as they are more willing to keep trying given the "no harm trying consequences"). It can also conduct assessments "unknowingly" when students learn.
Well, after knowing all these benefits of game-based learning, so how is it applicable in our lesson and teaching schools?
I have just read Verinder's blog. Hmm...Well, true enough, I feel that it is the Gee's principles which we may incorporate into our lessons. The discovery principle, Bottom-Up Basic Skills principle, transfer principle, and the Explicit Information On-Demand and Just-In-Time Principle and etc are things we may take into consideration when planning and conducting our lessons.
However, is playing games feasible and fits into our current educational system? It is not that I doubt the benefit's of playing. I am admit that playing games really do help in developing one's mind and perhaps even help in moulding one's character.
What we really need to think of is how we could incorporate GBL into our lessons. I believe allowing students to spend time at home doing GBL may help in stimulating their mind and create a inquiry-based learning. It can also serve as a tool to consolidate learning. However, I am still quite sceptical of how it can be used to conduct and deliver an entire lesson. Or maybe I should ask "Can GBL be used to deliver a whole topic, Metals (Chemistry)?" Or the GBL is used as an additional tool in aiding the lesson just that the ICT tools which we have been working on for the past few weeks.
It will be a great idea if GBL can be used full-scale to teach a particular topic. But I seriously have yet to see the possibilities. Let's face the fact. Teachers are competing with time in school, rushing syllabuses and trying their best to cover the necessities for exam. True enough, some people will say that if we have incorporated effective and meaningful learning into lessons, students would have understood and these cut down on the revision required to prepare them for examinations. However, seriously speaking, there is seriously not much time!
We can't possibly give students ample time in school to play games and let them explore by themselves. However, I think that perhaps asking them to play relevant games before the start of the topic will help students in understanding the lesson better. After learning the concepts, playing games will again help to consolidate their thoughts and reinforce what they have learnt.
I really like the idea of using GBL to deliver our lessons. However, I believe that in order for GBL to really take place in Singapore, there will be some changes to our current system. These include the amount of content to need to cover for each level and the amount of content need to cover to prepare students for the major exam ('O' Level). Given greater flexibility of time and contents, teachers will then have greater opportunity to incorporate GBL into lessons.
All these are what I think till the present stage. Let's see whether the E-learning will help in shaping my thoughts about GBL.
Well, after knowing all these benefits of game-based learning, so how is it applicable in our lesson and teaching schools?
I have just read Verinder's blog. Hmm...Well, true enough, I feel that it is the Gee's principles which we may incorporate into our lessons. The discovery principle, Bottom-Up Basic Skills principle, transfer principle, and the Explicit Information On-Demand and Just-In-Time Principle and etc are things we may take into consideration when planning and conducting our lessons.
However, is playing games feasible and fits into our current educational system? It is not that I doubt the benefit's of playing. I am admit that playing games really do help in developing one's mind and perhaps even help in moulding one's character.
What we really need to think of is how we could incorporate GBL into our lessons. I believe allowing students to spend time at home doing GBL may help in stimulating their mind and create a inquiry-based learning. It can also serve as a tool to consolidate learning. However, I am still quite sceptical of how it can be used to conduct and deliver an entire lesson. Or maybe I should ask "Can GBL be used to deliver a whole topic, Metals (Chemistry)?" Or the GBL is used as an additional tool in aiding the lesson just that the ICT tools which we have been working on for the past few weeks.
It will be a great idea if GBL can be used full-scale to teach a particular topic. But I seriously have yet to see the possibilities. Let's face the fact. Teachers are competing with time in school, rushing syllabuses and trying their best to cover the necessities for exam. True enough, some people will say that if we have incorporated effective and meaningful learning into lessons, students would have understood and these cut down on the revision required to prepare them for examinations. However, seriously speaking, there is seriously not much time!
We can't possibly give students ample time in school to play games and let them explore by themselves. However, I think that perhaps asking them to play relevant games before the start of the topic will help students in understanding the lesson better. After learning the concepts, playing games will again help to consolidate their thoughts and reinforce what they have learnt.
I really like the idea of using GBL to deliver our lessons. However, I believe that in order for GBL to really take place in Singapore, there will be some changes to our current system. These include the amount of content to need to cover for each level and the amount of content need to cover to prepare students for the major exam ('O' Level). Given greater flexibility of time and contents, teachers will then have greater opportunity to incorporate GBL into lessons.
All these are what I think till the present stage. Let's see whether the E-learning will help in shaping my thoughts about GBL.
Sunday, September 27
Reflection for GBL and TEL demo
After all the fun and excitment for the past 3 weeks, it seems that it is time to seriously think about all the activities that had happened for the 3 weeks. Amongst all the fun, I seriously doubt anyone would have stop for 1 second to think about what is the objective of the game.
Looking back at how GBL helps in teaching, it seems that it is the ideas and strategies that are hidden underneath the GBL package. It seems that one of the most fundamental of ideas that make games stand out is the ability to fail without any serious consequences. Students will be able to learn from their previous mistakes and build on their knowledge by trying to overcome the obstacle and carry on with the game. If there are puzzles or obstacles, the student will practise cognitive thinking and subsequently find out the answers through available clues from any sources they have.
This brings out their determination and perseverence for trying to overcome their 'failure'. With the 'failure' being not having a serious consequence, the students will initiate and explore into the unknown.
Students should be asked to experience the idea where they will be given the opportunity to explore the new concept even before the teacher introduce it to them. Teacher can then build on their knowledge that they have obtained from their exploration.
I think this is a teaching pedagogy that suits the 21st century education well. Mixing this into my teaching is a feasible teaching method. This method, if done properly, can even cut down on the overall time taken for the whole chapter to be taught. This also helps students to be more responsible and have a sense of ownership for their learning, enabling them to have a longer retention for their knowledge.
For TEL demo, I had reflected on Grp B (My group) on my first post. But as for Grp C, D, E and F, they bring out the criterias that are needed. Different pedagogies goes along with different tools. Looking at how different pedagogies are being utilised with ICT brought meaning to this course. But sometimes I still wonder whether it will take a longer time to conduct these lessons.
One thing I did learn from this whole package is to constantly remind myself that implementing ICT is not for show and they are just tools to help in learning. The main character of teaching is still the pedagogies. Do not fall into the cool-tool trap.
Looking back at how GBL helps in teaching, it seems that it is the ideas and strategies that are hidden underneath the GBL package. It seems that one of the most fundamental of ideas that make games stand out is the ability to fail without any serious consequences. Students will be able to learn from their previous mistakes and build on their knowledge by trying to overcome the obstacle and carry on with the game. If there are puzzles or obstacles, the student will practise cognitive thinking and subsequently find out the answers through available clues from any sources they have.
This brings out their determination and perseverence for trying to overcome their 'failure'. With the 'failure' being not having a serious consequence, the students will initiate and explore into the unknown.
Students should be asked to experience the idea where they will be given the opportunity to explore the new concept even before the teacher introduce it to them. Teacher can then build on their knowledge that they have obtained from their exploration.
I think this is a teaching pedagogy that suits the 21st century education well. Mixing this into my teaching is a feasible teaching method. This method, if done properly, can even cut down on the overall time taken for the whole chapter to be taught. This also helps students to be more responsible and have a sense of ownership for their learning, enabling them to have a longer retention for their knowledge.
For TEL demo, I had reflected on Grp B (My group) on my first post. But as for Grp C, D, E and F, they bring out the criterias that are needed. Different pedagogies goes along with different tools. Looking at how different pedagogies are being utilised with ICT brought meaning to this course. But sometimes I still wonder whether it will take a longer time to conduct these lessons.
One thing I did learn from this whole package is to constantly remind myself that implementing ICT is not for show and they are just tools to help in learning. The main character of teaching is still the pedagogies. Do not fall into the cool-tool trap.
Friday, September 25
Chester's e-Learning activity Part B
Cool! All those gadgets and "glass panel thingy", though i'm not so sure if it's safe to have information on your windscreen while driving. Wait a minute, maybe we don't even have to drive in the future!
I would certainly welcome technologies of the future. We've embraced the current technologies, so why not the future. However, we can have the greatest advances in technology and education can stay stagnant if we continue to use O' levels as a form of assessment.
I'm encouraged by the fact that Big Picture School exist in this world! Pardon my ignorance. From what i saw in the article, it's really a cool concept to adopt. I probably gotta research a little more to find out what exactly this school has to offer.
Teaching strategies probably wouldn't be my greatest fear in the future, but assessment is. I believe in order to change the way we learn, we got to change the form of assessment. I know it's easier said than done: Scrap the O' levels, then how?
Whatever's gonna happen in the future, i hope to be part of this history making and stand proud as an educator of the future.
I would certainly welcome technologies of the future. We've embraced the current technologies, so why not the future. However, we can have the greatest advances in technology and education can stay stagnant if we continue to use O' levels as a form of assessment.
I'm encouraged by the fact that Big Picture School exist in this world! Pardon my ignorance. From what i saw in the article, it's really a cool concept to adopt. I probably gotta research a little more to find out what exactly this school has to offer.
Teaching strategies probably wouldn't be my greatest fear in the future, but assessment is. I believe in order to change the way we learn, we got to change the form of assessment. I know it's easier said than done: Scrap the O' levels, then how?
Whatever's gonna happen in the future, i hope to be part of this history making and stand proud as an educator of the future.
Reflections for GBL
From playing games these few weeks, I thought of how games affected me when I was young. One game that I played alot in primary school was Nintendo Super Mario (one of the first versions) and the first few times I played I died over and over again. It was a painful and tedious experience as there were no save points (like now in PS or Xbox games) so when I died in the middle of the round, I had to start the round over again. But I kept going over and over again, learning tricks and traits along the way, where enemies pop out, how to get over narrow ridges, until I got over that round.
Thinking as a student teacher now, I guess that is where I got my determination from, and it applies to all faces of my life, in sports and in studies. Of course I also learnt to manipulate this determination and added in respect for others when I played sports, and added in resourcefulness when I was studying but my main drive was determination.
Viewing Appelman and Gee's video on gaming for education really consolidated my thoughts about how gaming affected me. Appelman suggests that since students are already playing games 30 hours a week, using gaming for education is really a logical thing to do. Students learn skills from games like formulating strategies, working hard, putting basic skills together and collaborating with one another. Failure in gaming is inevitable and does not stress the students as they can try again and again. These skills and attitude towards failure is very valuable in learning as well.
There are other aspects in gaming as pointed out by Gee that can be transferred to learning and teaching. In gaming, students explore the game before learning the technicalities of it. They learn better when they explore the games first. There is no clear distinction between learning and assessment. They apply what they learn immediately in the game. There is lots of feedback from the game whether they have learnt the skills well or they have done badly.
How does all these affect me as a student teacher or as a teacher in the future? It will change how I want to teach from frontal teaching to putting more games into my lessons. I will let them explore the topic first and tone down the concept of tests and assessment. I can try to bring video games to life by dividing my lesson into stages and of course a boss stage if possible. Rewards and penalties will be put in place to provide feedbacks.
I am not a technology-savvy person, so as Gee mentioned, I can learn along with the students when using technology. Of course there will be many restrictions when I become a teacher in the future, whether I can apply my ideal game-based lesson is still a question mark. But I will keep this idea as my basis of teaching just as I have kept determination as a basis for my life-learning.
Thinking as a student teacher now, I guess that is where I got my determination from, and it applies to all faces of my life, in sports and in studies. Of course I also learnt to manipulate this determination and added in respect for others when I played sports, and added in resourcefulness when I was studying but my main drive was determination.
Viewing Appelman and Gee's video on gaming for education really consolidated my thoughts about how gaming affected me. Appelman suggests that since students are already playing games 30 hours a week, using gaming for education is really a logical thing to do. Students learn skills from games like formulating strategies, working hard, putting basic skills together and collaborating with one another. Failure in gaming is inevitable and does not stress the students as they can try again and again. These skills and attitude towards failure is very valuable in learning as well.
There are other aspects in gaming as pointed out by Gee that can be transferred to learning and teaching. In gaming, students explore the game before learning the technicalities of it. They learn better when they explore the games first. There is no clear distinction between learning and assessment. They apply what they learn immediately in the game. There is lots of feedback from the game whether they have learnt the skills well or they have done badly.
How does all these affect me as a student teacher or as a teacher in the future? It will change how I want to teach from frontal teaching to putting more games into my lessons. I will let them explore the topic first and tone down the concept of tests and assessment. I can try to bring video games to life by dividing my lesson into stages and of course a boss stage if possible. Rewards and penalties will be put in place to provide feedbacks.
I am not a technology-savvy person, so as Gee mentioned, I can learn along with the students when using technology. Of course there will be many restrictions when I become a teacher in the future, whether I can apply my ideal game-based lesson is still a question mark. But I will keep this idea as my basis of teaching just as I have kept determination as a basis for my life-learning.
Chester's e-Learning activity Part A
Digital Native: Justin
Well, Justin is very much similar to a Singaporean student. IT savvy, can't live without computer, handphones, iPod, etc.
Digital Natives are risk takers and are not afraid to fail. They are actively invovled and demand constant engagement. They are also egocentric, strives to be independent and need a feel a sense of entitlement.
I'm a digital immigrant and soon to be a teacher of digital natives. Do we teachers need to change our teaching strategy to meet the needs of the digital natives? Yes, i think so. A BIG change? Perhaps not.
Student-centered learning will allow digital natives to be in charge of their learning process. I also talked about them wanting constant engagement. Is this entirely different from our digital immigrant generation? Perhaps not.
Some might say lectures are for the digital immigrant generation and game base learning is for the way to go for the digital natives. Are lectures no longer relevant? Do current outstanding teacher award holders not hold any lectures?
Don't get me wrong, i'm not against game base learning, in fact i think it's interesting. Game based learning is engaging, but we can get engagement too through lectures.
This physics teacher engaged her students through her interactive style of teaching. Perhaps both digital natives and immigrants don't speak an entirely different language. We just need to provide them with a platform for interactive learning. This will get them actively invovled, give them a sense of entitlement and allow them to take risk (in a form of discussions, not afraid of voicing their opinion). All of which are characteristics of digital natives i mentioned at the start of this post.
Well, Justin is very much similar to a Singaporean student. IT savvy, can't live without computer, handphones, iPod, etc.
Digital Natives are risk takers and are not afraid to fail. They are actively invovled and demand constant engagement. They are also egocentric, strives to be independent and need a feel a sense of entitlement.
I'm a digital immigrant and soon to be a teacher of digital natives. Do we teachers need to change our teaching strategy to meet the needs of the digital natives? Yes, i think so. A BIG change? Perhaps not.
Student-centered learning will allow digital natives to be in charge of their learning process. I also talked about them wanting constant engagement. Is this entirely different from our digital immigrant generation? Perhaps not.
Some might say lectures are for the digital immigrant generation and game base learning is for the way to go for the digital natives. Are lectures no longer relevant? Do current outstanding teacher award holders not hold any lectures?
Don't get me wrong, i'm not against game base learning, in fact i think it's interesting. Game based learning is engaging, but we can get engagement too through lectures.
This physics teacher engaged her students through her interactive style of teaching. Perhaps both digital natives and immigrants don't speak an entirely different language. We just need to provide them with a platform for interactive learning. This will get them actively invovled, give them a sense of entitlement and allow them to take risk (in a form of discussions, not afraid of voicing their opinion). All of which are characteristics of digital natives i mentioned at the start of this post.
Games played for GBL and TEL demo
For the first week, my group tried the flash-based games and Wii sports games. The flash-based games were simple and easy to play. The instructions involves moving the main character around the house such as in Energy Hog or just choosing the right options in another game that requires us to operate a patient's brain.
On the other hand, Wii sports is of a totally different nature. It has much more complex gameplay than flash-based games. We had to pretend we were really playing the sport and there can be many skills combined in one game such as in Wii tennis, we have to serve, return serve, volley, lob, or even not hitting when we judged the ball to be out. It was more fun for me than flash-based games and there was more interaction in the group as the spectators were very involved in the Wii games as well.
For the second week, we played the Macdonalds game. I didnt really realise it was a game of economics or business at the start. I only feel that 'ok, to get my store going, I have to rear cows; to rear cows I will have to grow more wheat. Just dont get me bankrupt'. Only after one attempt (and getting bankrupt), then I realise it was a simple overview of how a business should be run. There were so many things to focus on at the same time. There are many objectives and all the objectives do not have a direct link to one another. It was tiring but fun to avoid getting into the red.
For the editing of the wiki page, it was not a game so I dont think it is GBL. But wiki is one of the most useful web resource I have experienced in all my school life. I was very involved in rote learning most of my life and I am pretty tired of it (maybe thats why I am a teacher now), so most of the web resources I have encountered is work-based where I do quiz and stuff. I can't use these resources for my own sake or for my own work. Wiki is pretty neat and I can use them for my other projects that involves group work or collaboration. Information is disseminated faster and easier. I have already used wiki for one of my module project outside ICT. It proving rather useful as I can see other people's ideas which I could not have thought of. I will be using wiki much more in the future.
This week we played trauma center on Wii. I was the third pair in the group to try the game and the previous two groups proved to be very good teachers. The results of learning through observing other's experiences was very evident in this game. I suprised myself when we managed to complete the operation in a very short time and even managed to complete the second operation. This game teaches you to apply what you learn in game where we use operation tools (forceps, antibiotics, stitches) in different situations and also learn outside the game when you observe the people play.
It was an interesting 3 weeks all in all. For demo tel presentation, I feel most groups (except mine) managed to put in the four main criteria: introduce the tool, student-centered lesson, pedagogies and limitations. These four aspects were lacking in my group which I regretted not playing out everything that is needed for the demo during the rehearsal. I was probably not on my toes as it was my first presentation in NIE which again I regretted. But something I got out from this experience was I must really check through everything and think through everything for any presentation. My first real-life lesson learnt in NIE which I hope will serve me well in the future when we do the walkabout.
On the other hand, Wii sports is of a totally different nature. It has much more complex gameplay than flash-based games. We had to pretend we were really playing the sport and there can be many skills combined in one game such as in Wii tennis, we have to serve, return serve, volley, lob, or even not hitting when we judged the ball to be out. It was more fun for me than flash-based games and there was more interaction in the group as the spectators were very involved in the Wii games as well.
For the second week, we played the Macdonalds game. I didnt really realise it was a game of economics or business at the start. I only feel that 'ok, to get my store going, I have to rear cows; to rear cows I will have to grow more wheat. Just dont get me bankrupt'. Only after one attempt (and getting bankrupt), then I realise it was a simple overview of how a business should be run. There were so many things to focus on at the same time. There are many objectives and all the objectives do not have a direct link to one another. It was tiring but fun to avoid getting into the red.
For the editing of the wiki page, it was not a game so I dont think it is GBL. But wiki is one of the most useful web resource I have experienced in all my school life. I was very involved in rote learning most of my life and I am pretty tired of it (maybe thats why I am a teacher now), so most of the web resources I have encountered is work-based where I do quiz and stuff. I can't use these resources for my own sake or for my own work. Wiki is pretty neat and I can use them for my other projects that involves group work or collaboration. Information is disseminated faster and easier. I have already used wiki for one of my module project outside ICT. It proving rather useful as I can see other people's ideas which I could not have thought of. I will be using wiki much more in the future.
This week we played trauma center on Wii. I was the third pair in the group to try the game and the previous two groups proved to be very good teachers. The results of learning through observing other's experiences was very evident in this game. I suprised myself when we managed to complete the operation in a very short time and even managed to complete the second operation. This game teaches you to apply what you learn in game where we use operation tools (forceps, antibiotics, stitches) in different situations and also learn outside the game when you observe the people play.
It was an interesting 3 weeks all in all. For demo tel presentation, I feel most groups (except mine) managed to put in the four main criteria: introduce the tool, student-centered lesson, pedagogies and limitations. These four aspects were lacking in my group which I regretted not playing out everything that is needed for the demo during the rehearsal. I was probably not on my toes as it was my first presentation in NIE which again I regretted. But something I got out from this experience was I must really check through everything and think through everything for any presentation. My first real-life lesson learnt in NIE which I hope will serve me well in the future when we do the walkabout.
Chester's GBL reflection
I've got to admit i had no clue how games help learning when i was exposed to the games in cotf and mxl. After some readings and enlightenment by Gee and Dr Tan, i thought "Wow, that make sense!"
Gee talked about students being interested in production, not consumption. I think most of the things I've learnt in this ict course have been taught by myself and my classmates. Not to say Dr Tan did nothing, i believe that was his strategy, which work out pretty well. I found myself more intrinsically motivated than a module which i had a newscaster as my lecturer.
Gee also pointed out some obstacles such as teachers being de-professionalised. Yes, teachers have the power to change the way students learn. However, when the big fat monster "Curriculum" comes along, many returned to their old ways.
I'm happy that we're moving in a postive direction in terms of integrating ict and gbl into our lessons. Having said that, i think more needs to be done, such as taming the big fat monster, before we could reach our goal.
So how could i integrate gbl into my lessons as a trainee teacher? Frankly, i wouldn't dare to try anything too unorthodox because $60k is at stake, haha. I'm thinking of using powerpoint games in my lessons. There are ppt game templates such as Wheel of Fortune and Who wants to be a Millionaire readily availiable on the internet. I could play these games with the class as a trigger activity at the start of the lesson, during breaks, review at the end of the lesson, or even during the lesson, whenever it's appropriate i guess.
Gee talked about students being interested in production, not consumption. I think most of the things I've learnt in this ict course have been taught by myself and my classmates. Not to say Dr Tan did nothing, i believe that was his strategy, which work out pretty well. I found myself more intrinsically motivated than a module which i had a newscaster as my lecturer.
Gee also pointed out some obstacles such as teachers being de-professionalised. Yes, teachers have the power to change the way students learn. However, when the big fat monster "Curriculum" comes along, many returned to their old ways.
I'm happy that we're moving in a postive direction in terms of integrating ict and gbl into our lessons. Having said that, i think more needs to be done, such as taming the big fat monster, before we could reach our goal.
So how could i integrate gbl into my lessons as a trainee teacher? Frankly, i wouldn't dare to try anything too unorthodox because $60k is at stake, haha. I'm thinking of using powerpoint games in my lessons. There are ppt game templates such as Wheel of Fortune and Who wants to be a Millionaire readily availiable on the internet. I could play these games with the class as a trigger activity at the start of the lesson, during breaks, review at the end of the lesson, or even during the lesson, whenever it's appropriate i guess.
Wednesday, September 23
Reflections
These two weeks had been different. Very different and very exciting. These two weeks there’s game-based learning! It was very fun since I love to play games myself. There were 5 stations. Each station have different types of games. My favourite will have to be Wii sports because it is very physical. I can move about freely, it is very competitive and I love the feeling of victory. I guess that is partly why I joined teaching since teaching requires a lot of movement and each day will be a challenge and the joyous feeling of fulfillment when everything planned are achieved.
It is a very interesting class since we are allowed to explore the games first before going through the ‘drier’ part of explaining what game-based learning is. It will make more sense since we have experience it hands on.
How I can incorporate this in my teaching? Maybe I’ll take the idea of letting my students explore the topic first before going through the theoretical part of the topic as it will make more sense to them.
It is a very interesting class since we are allowed to explore the games first before going through the ‘drier’ part of explaining what game-based learning is. It will make more sense since we have experience it hands on.
How I can incorporate this in my teaching? Maybe I’ll take the idea of letting my students explore the topic first before going through the theoretical part of the topic as it will make more sense to them.
Monday, September 21
Game-based learning--- Week 6/7 Reflection
For the past 2 sessions, I have been exposed to some games. During first week, I was tasked to complete the Wii and the 5th station. Well, it was quite a boring session for me. Talking about the Wii, it seriously doesn't interest me. Swinging my arms for the tennis games appear boring to me. I prefer the excitement of playing the real-game.
Last week was totally different experience for me. My group was tasked to complete the Mac Donald and the "surgeon" station. In real life, how many people will have the chance to run the Mac Donald corporation or take up responsibility of saving lives and deaths? These games though not real enables us to experience the process. Through the process, I learnt that games enable us to keep trying. Lost once? No worries, you can always try again. You are allowed to try till you finally succeed. This can cultivate perseverance in the students.
To me, what kept me thinking was the essence of games. What is so fun about gaming such that many kids are addicted to it? What is the key about gaming which I can apply in my lesson?
If students are as actively involved in class as in gaming, wouldn't it too wonderful?
Anyway, for the past 2 weeks, 3 groups have presented their demo. I believe the emphasis of such demo is to help us in recognizing the appropriateness of ICT tool in our lesson. ICT tool should be easy to use. It should have students in learning and not make them spend time learning the tool itself. I believe all tools have their own advantages. However, it is up to us to implement appropriately into the lessons. Hence, checking out the affordance and limitations of tools help to check if the tool aids in meeting our objectives for the lessons.
Alright, next week is my group's turn for demo. Wish me luck. See you guys on Thursday!
Last week was totally different experience for me. My group was tasked to complete the Mac Donald and the "surgeon" station. In real life, how many people will have the chance to run the Mac Donald corporation or take up responsibility of saving lives and deaths? These games though not real enables us to experience the process. Through the process, I learnt that games enable us to keep trying. Lost once? No worries, you can always try again. You are allowed to try till you finally succeed. This can cultivate perseverance in the students.
To me, what kept me thinking was the essence of games. What is so fun about gaming such that many kids are addicted to it? What is the key about gaming which I can apply in my lesson?
If students are as actively involved in class as in gaming, wouldn't it too wonderful?
Anyway, for the past 2 weeks, 3 groups have presented their demo. I believe the emphasis of such demo is to help us in recognizing the appropriateness of ICT tool in our lesson. ICT tool should be easy to use. It should have students in learning and not make them spend time learning the tool itself. I believe all tools have their own advantages. However, it is up to us to implement appropriately into the lessons. Hence, checking out the affordance and limitations of tools help to check if the tool aids in meeting our objectives for the lessons.
Alright, next week is my group's turn for demo. Wish me luck. See you guys on Thursday!
Thursday, September 17
Reflections for Week 6 (Han Kiong)
As I am preparing for my ICT presentation on Thursday, I have this realization that ICT tools when ill prepared for it can really be a bane. It takes a great deal of effort to ensure that IT facilities do not pose any problems when having a lesson incorporating ICT tools. Yet when all problems have been anticipated and contingency actions planned out, lessons with the use of ICT tools may bring about authentic and meaningful learning.
Traditional rule based teaching is no longer appropriate as students tend to lose interest easily and they will just deem the subject as boring and will find little incentive to do well in the subject. Lessons incorporating the use of ICT tools with a focus towards student centric learning will drive the students to take responsibility for their own learning as they now have more autonomy and more involvement.
There are many approaches to student centric learning and last week we were introduced to game based learning. There are a number of game stations that we have to go thereby exposing us to the many forms of games that include elements of learning. We played some flash games as well as Wii. I have more fun playing the Wii as it is more interactive and also because the flash games are a tad too childish and simplistic. I feel that students may generally have the same belief and consensus. If that is the case, the desired learning that we hope students will derive from the playing of these games may not be achievable. The flash games should be more challenging and that may then motivate them to attempt these games and learn along the way. As for Wii, the learning that can be derived is ambiguous and like Weiqiang I am hoping that the role of Wii in learning could be elucidated as we have more sessions of game based learning.
Traditional rule based teaching is no longer appropriate as students tend to lose interest easily and they will just deem the subject as boring and will find little incentive to do well in the subject. Lessons incorporating the use of ICT tools with a focus towards student centric learning will drive the students to take responsibility for their own learning as they now have more autonomy and more involvement.
There are many approaches to student centric learning and last week we were introduced to game based learning. There are a number of game stations that we have to go thereby exposing us to the many forms of games that include elements of learning. We played some flash games as well as Wii. I have more fun playing the Wii as it is more interactive and also because the flash games are a tad too childish and simplistic. I feel that students may generally have the same belief and consensus. If that is the case, the desired learning that we hope students will derive from the playing of these games may not be achievable. The flash games should be more challenging and that may then motivate them to attempt these games and learn along the way. As for Wii, the learning that can be derived is ambiguous and like Weiqiang I am hoping that the role of Wii in learning could be elucidated as we have more sessions of game based learning.
Wednesday, September 16
Reflection for Week 6
Critiqing my own presentation sounds so weird. But after my own presentation, I realized that IT stuff are really 'not reliable'. While I was awaiting for the Sheng Zhi to present, Mrs Xing came to my mind. E-learning assignment became real.
Other than the technical issue, where java is not found, I realized one important word that most presenters will tend to forget during presenting is the FOUR letter word.
TIME.
During presentation, presenters tend to overshoot their allocated time. Usually we lose track of time because either we are too engross in the presentation or we 'wasted' time due to nervousness. But how do we really keep track of time during group presentation and how do we as group members react after someone overshot their time? I hope i can see the answers from the other group.
Back to the Games my group played. We went to station 3 and 4. Station 3 is where the flash simulations game were. Some of the games do have some underlying meaning in it. Like the flash game involving a pig with a boat. They want to bring across the idea of being thrifty. But some of the games are like both slow and too 'lame'.
I feel this flash games are mostly suited for primary school kids. But Secondary school students may think that they are too slow-paced and to them, may lead them to become bored. Using these games to engage students may not be optimal. But these games may still able to serve the purpose of delivering simple basic concepts.
For Station 4, we played Wii sports. I am still in the midst of trying to figure out how Wii help in learning. I hope I will be able to clear this question as I attend more lessons. But I can say that GBL do create a more relaxed environment for learning. But where is the learning? That's for me or the rest of my groupmates to enlighten me.
More games to come. More time to understand GBL. :)
Other than the technical issue, where java is not found, I realized one important word that most presenters will tend to forget during presenting is the FOUR letter word.
TIME.
During presentation, presenters tend to overshoot their allocated time. Usually we lose track of time because either we are too engross in the presentation or we 'wasted' time due to nervousness. But how do we really keep track of time during group presentation and how do we as group members react after someone overshot their time? I hope i can see the answers from the other group.
Back to the Games my group played. We went to station 3 and 4. Station 3 is where the flash simulations game were. Some of the games do have some underlying meaning in it. Like the flash game involving a pig with a boat. They want to bring across the idea of being thrifty. But some of the games are like both slow and too 'lame'.
I feel this flash games are mostly suited for primary school kids. But Secondary school students may think that they are too slow-paced and to them, may lead them to become bored. Using these games to engage students may not be optimal. But these games may still able to serve the purpose of delivering simple basic concepts.
For Station 4, we played Wii sports. I am still in the midst of trying to figure out how Wii help in learning. I hope I will be able to clear this question as I attend more lessons. But I can say that GBL do create a more relaxed environment for learning. But where is the learning? That's for me or the rest of my groupmates to enlighten me.
More games to come. More time to understand GBL. :)
Wednesday, September 9
ICT reflections thus far...
i remembered during our very 1st ICT lesson, we were asked to list 5 things we may possibly learn from this course. mine were as follows:
- how to incorporate other forms of ICT into lessons besides powerpoint & videos
- how to conduct & manage an IT-based classroom lesson
- how to make science/math lessons more interactive with the help of ICT
- the importance of ICT in a student's learning
- more skills related to education technology
given the experiences i've been through the past 5 weeks, i can quite safely say that i've taken home lessons that cover the 1st 3 points addressed. this course has opened my eyes to many other forms of ICT tools and different pedagogical approaches that could be applied into classroom lessons. having the hands-on practice during the ICT lesson itself (e.g. jigsaw approach of learning, writing lesson plans & critiquing what others have written) was essential in retaining, building & refining the knowledge + skills acquired during the course. it definitely helped that dr tan applied the very things he taught the past few weeks into the sessions themselves, and varied the teaching methods. that gave me a taste of different pedagogical approaches that could possibly be incorporated into my future lessons.
the fact that we had to blog our reflections every week, though i must admit that i found a little taxing at first, was definitely something that helped me consolidate the knowledge gathered from the sessions. learning was made more meaningful in that doing these reflections allowed me to clarify some misconceptions i had and thus have a clearer idea about the use of ICT and other teaching pedagogies covered.
i'm definitely looking forward to the lessons ahead!:)
- how to incorporate other forms of ICT into lessons besides powerpoint & videos
- how to conduct & manage an IT-based classroom lesson
- how to make science/math lessons more interactive with the help of ICT
- the importance of ICT in a student's learning
- more skills related to education technology
given the experiences i've been through the past 5 weeks, i can quite safely say that i've taken home lessons that cover the 1st 3 points addressed. this course has opened my eyes to many other forms of ICT tools and different pedagogical approaches that could be applied into classroom lessons. having the hands-on practice during the ICT lesson itself (e.g. jigsaw approach of learning, writing lesson plans & critiquing what others have written) was essential in retaining, building & refining the knowledge + skills acquired during the course. it definitely helped that dr tan applied the very things he taught the past few weeks into the sessions themselves, and varied the teaching methods. that gave me a taste of different pedagogical approaches that could possibly be incorporated into my future lessons.
the fact that we had to blog our reflections every week, though i must admit that i found a little taxing at first, was definitely something that helped me consolidate the knowledge gathered from the sessions. learning was made more meaningful in that doing these reflections allowed me to clarify some misconceptions i had and thus have a clearer idea about the use of ICT and other teaching pedagogies covered.
i'm definitely looking forward to the lessons ahead!:)
Sakinah's summary
From our group discussion, I learn that many implementation issues can arise with poor lesson planning. As Weiqiang had said a more thorough and detailed lesson planning shoul be in place to conduct the lesson to prevent any hiccups. Peer editing is one way to conduct the activity as an alternative to Mrs Xing carrying out all the editing on her own. From all the comments that had been given to me, I realized that there are a few issues to it, especially regarding the weaker students. Weaker students may not be motivated to edit their ‘better’ friend’s essays as they may feel that their friends will always be correct. Therefore to solve this problem, like Siyun had suggested, the teacher can group them together. Better students should group with the weaker students. In this way, the better students can help the weaker students to point out the errors. This way the weaker students are able to benefit and hopefully improve on their essay writing. It is important to find out the computer literacy of the students to have a rough idea of how well the students can use the computer programme. It is also important to clearly state the instructions of the class. The teacher should also demonstrate first before continuing the class. Ground rules should be set at the beginning of every class.
Sakinah's Reflection
All in all I’ve gained many insights on what ICT is. It is not just merely using technology to impress students and hear all the ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ from our dear students. Incorporating ICT is more than that. ICT is about transferring knowledge and communicating it. It is about feedback and responses that stimulate students’ thoughts. Students are not empty vessels that we need to fill up with information. Students need to assess and deciphering the information and to further of the ‘why’s and not merely accepting it as it is. There are many types of ICT, I realized. There are even blog discussions.
I learnt many terms like self-directed and collaborative learning and experience many activities like think-pair-share and jigsaw. I also learn about the 5 meaningful learning framework. It is vital to include all the 5 factors to conduct a meaningful learning class.
Personally, I feel that I have benefited from this ICT class. It is very different from other classes. Firstly, there’s the blog reflection. No other modules have this. The classes are not teacher-centered; they are mostly student-centered. There’s not much listening to the teacher, a lot of the listening will be done among the team members, where we have to discuss, listen and feedback on other’s findings. It’s nice to have a change once in a while. I think that I would like to incorporate ICT into my classes into the future.
I learnt many terms like self-directed and collaborative learning and experience many activities like think-pair-share and jigsaw. I also learn about the 5 meaningful learning framework. It is vital to include all the 5 factors to conduct a meaningful learning class.
Personally, I feel that I have benefited from this ICT class. It is very different from other classes. Firstly, there’s the blog reflection. No other modules have this. The classes are not teacher-centered; they are mostly student-centered. There’s not much listening to the teacher, a lot of the listening will be done among the team members, where we have to discuss, listen and feedback on other’s findings. It’s nice to have a change once in a while. I think that I would like to incorporate ICT into my classes into the future.
Reflection (E-Learning)
In the beginning of the module, my initial worries came from how to incorporate ICT into lessons and what can ICT do to aid us in the delivering of our lesson. These queries are clearing up but yet, more worries followed suit. One major one will be how to use ICT to create meaningful lessons.
Though it is really taxing for us as there is a consistent level of work coming in everyweek, but we can safely say that learning is taking place. The idea of applying what we learn is a good and efficient way to make us learn and will be retained longer in our memory.
I think being consistent and interested in the learning of the subject topic, along with the help of CL allow us to focus more on the learning topic. If clearing up of queries and worries is a gauge, I think i have been quite effective and efficient. But the main thing that really make things work should be how the facilitator actually really deliver his lesson.
I think the only way to improve my learning will be to enforce what i learnt into practice. That, I feel, is the most feasible way of understanding a concept.
Reflecting and critiqing is a good and effective way to support and substantiate learning. Critiqing helps us to assess the level of knowledge we have and to be critiqued, we will be able to spot our mistakes and misconceptions. Also, it helps to broaden our knowledge for a certain topics.
To improve on this, we could have tried to set a dealine for comments and critique to come in. This will enable us to have timely reviews on our part.
Though it is really taxing for us as there is a consistent level of work coming in everyweek, but we can safely say that learning is taking place. The idea of applying what we learn is a good and efficient way to make us learn and will be retained longer in our memory.
I think being consistent and interested in the learning of the subject topic, along with the help of CL allow us to focus more on the learning topic. If clearing up of queries and worries is a gauge, I think i have been quite effective and efficient. But the main thing that really make things work should be how the facilitator actually really deliver his lesson.
I think the only way to improve my learning will be to enforce what i learnt into practice. That, I feel, is the most feasible way of understanding a concept.
Reflecting and critiqing is a good and effective way to support and substantiate learning. Critiqing helps us to assess the level of knowledge we have and to be critiqued, we will be able to spot our mistakes and misconceptions. Also, it helps to broaden our knowledge for a certain topics.
To improve on this, we could have tried to set a dealine for comments and critique to come in. This will enable us to have timely reviews on our part.
Chester's e-Learning Reflection
One of my initial queries was “How can I apply ICT to my teaching?” As I progress in this course this question of mine became “How can I make use of ICT for meaningful learning?” In almost every lesson, we had components of SDL and CL. I would say this way of learning is effective because my interest level during the lesson is kept constantly high, and definitely prevents me from dozing off (which happens pretty often in other lessons).
On a side note, I think we (as adult learners) are able to judge the reliability of information from the internet (e.g. Wikipedia is not a foolproof). My nephews are secondary school students and they believe all the information they generate out from Wikipedia and Google. Hence, I think the concept of Cyberwellness needs to be cultivated before such learning can take place.
Group activities have been fruitful as ideas are raised and discussed. The opinions of other group members are often valuable as different people think with a different perspective. Personally, when it comes to a platform for discussion, I prefer the use of discussion boards or forums as compared to wikis and blogs. There are probably no big differences but I feel discussion boards and forums provides a better presentation when it comes to a group discussion.
On a whole, this course has been an enriching experience for me so far and I look forward to the showcase of ICT tools in the coming weeks.
On a side note, I think we (as adult learners) are able to judge the reliability of information from the internet (e.g. Wikipedia is not a foolproof). My nephews are secondary school students and they believe all the information they generate out from Wikipedia and Google. Hence, I think the concept of Cyberwellness needs to be cultivated before such learning can take place.
Group activities have been fruitful as ideas are raised and discussed. The opinions of other group members are often valuable as different people think with a different perspective. Personally, when it comes to a platform for discussion, I prefer the use of discussion boards or forums as compared to wikis and blogs. There are probably no big differences but I feel discussion boards and forums provides a better presentation when it comes to a group discussion.
On a whole, this course has been an enriching experience for me so far and I look forward to the showcase of ICT tools in the coming weeks.
Chester's e-Learning Summary
I started with activity B and eventually saw a few of my friends doing the same activity too. Despite coming from the same class and going through the same e-learning resources, we had some varying responses. It was interesting because I initially thought all the strategies would be similar.
There were fruitful discussions on the various strategies suggested. Some strategies were idealistic and required “reality checks”. Some were creative ideas which we would like to try, but not too sure if it is going to work. Through the discussions, we also talk about the mindset and behaviour of students, which is useful information, even for other courses.
Among all suggestions, I think preparation is the most important. Be it an ICT lesson or not, it starts with preparation and without it, nothing flows. I guess that is why we are “drilled” on lesson plans in almost every module.
We are already in the third Masterplan for ICT, but new teachers like us were taught through “old school teaching” methods. Therefore, it takes “great courage” to step out of the comfort zone. Nonetheless, I think most of us are receptive to ICT and probably use it to facilitate our teaching in the near future.
"Before the lesson, Mrs Xing should approach the lab technician for help in ensuring that all the computers are in working condition. Since she is a beginning teacher, she should request the lab technician to be around during the lesson, or at least for the first period. An instruction guide for simple troubleshooting (if any) will also come in handy.
From the start of the lesson, disciplinary rules and activity procedures should be communicated clearly and enforced. Students should also be assigned seats (Chai & Wang, 2009). The class can be split into groups and group leaders help to maintain discipline and do simple troubleshooting. Mrs Xing should have a “Master Control Programme” such as LabCommander, to maintain full control of students' operations. Some even includes functions such as electronic hand-raising and private chat. If such software is not available, Mrs Xing would have to adopt other strategies such as the colour cup alert, dimming of lights, turning over of mouse, etc.
A more thorough lesson plan is required to ensure the flow of the lessons. Scaffolding tools in the form of worksheets and checklist should be used to guide the students to complete their task (Pek, 2003). Students should also be reminded of the time allocation for each activity with an electronic countdown timer. The first draft should be peer edited to expose students to different styles of writing and common mistakes. It saves time too."
There were fruitful discussions on the various strategies suggested. Some strategies were idealistic and required “reality checks”. Some were creative ideas which we would like to try, but not too sure if it is going to work. Through the discussions, we also talk about the mindset and behaviour of students, which is useful information, even for other courses.
Among all suggestions, I think preparation is the most important. Be it an ICT lesson or not, it starts with preparation and without it, nothing flows. I guess that is why we are “drilled” on lesson plans in almost every module.
We are already in the third Masterplan for ICT, but new teachers like us were taught through “old school teaching” methods. Therefore, it takes “great courage” to step out of the comfort zone. Nonetheless, I think most of us are receptive to ICT and probably use it to facilitate our teaching in the near future.
"Before the lesson, Mrs Xing should approach the lab technician for help in ensuring that all the computers are in working condition. Since she is a beginning teacher, she should request the lab technician to be around during the lesson, or at least for the first period. An instruction guide for simple troubleshooting (if any) will also come in handy.
From the start of the lesson, disciplinary rules and activity procedures should be communicated clearly and enforced. Students should also be assigned seats (Chai & Wang, 2009). The class can be split into groups and group leaders help to maintain discipline and do simple troubleshooting. Mrs Xing should have a “Master Control Programme” such as LabCommander, to maintain full control of students' operations. Some even includes functions such as electronic hand-raising and private chat. If such software is not available, Mrs Xing would have to adopt other strategies such as the colour cup alert, dimming of lights, turning over of mouse, etc.
A more thorough lesson plan is required to ensure the flow of the lessons. Scaffolding tools in the form of worksheets and checklist should be used to guide the students to complete their task (Pek, 2003). Students should also be reminded of the time allocation for each activity with an electronic countdown timer. The first draft should be peer edited to expose students to different styles of writing and common mistakes. It saves time too."
E-learning Reflections (Han Kiong)
I agree with Soo Hoon that the ICT course has been rather intense and there is quite a bit to do for the course. Besides that, I realised that our group's blog entries have been rather lengthy and detailed compared to the rest of the groups and this meant added pressure to match up in terms of the length and contents. Nevertheless, I feel it is a good form of motivation in driving one to spend time and effort in writing the blog entries.
The e-learning that we did on Mrs. Xing using ICT in her lesson has allowed me to reflect on my inadequancies as a new teacher in incorporating ICT in lessons. We have to realise that mere usage of ICT does not provide justification of a meaningful lesson. We have to ensure that appropriate integration of ICT with other teaching strategies provide leverage for students to do self-directed and collaborative learning. We will then need to equip ourselves with the knowledge and skills needed to handle ICT with ease.
Even after acquiring the knowlege and skills to handle ICT, we will still need to put in added efforts to prepare a lesson incorporating ICT as we are threading on unfamiliar grounds. To effectively prepare a lesson, anticipate problems that might arise and devise solutions on how to handle such problems. While it may be easy to identify implementation issues, finding the solutions may not be as clear cut.
Lastly, I would like to conclude that to keep pace with our students who are exposed to and are required to use ICT in subsequent stages of life, venture into the incorporation of ICT in our lessons is nevertheless a necessary and inevitable step to take.
Tuesday, September 8
Reflection of E-learning Week (sheng zhi)
This week we have e-learning and we learn about implementations issues in a computer lab-based lesson. We also discussed how we can solve or prevent these issues.
Although we have discussed and come up with many solutions for the various issues, the list is not exhaustive. As technology advances, new problems might surface when it is eventually our turn to carry out such lessons in our schools in the future. For example, ten years ago, there wasn’t such a big commotion about social networking websites until they are popularised in recent years by FaceBook, MySpace, etc. Therefore we as teachers-to-be must continue to learn and upgrade ourselves on new and emerging technologies so that we can effectively combat the problems that come along with them.
Another point I feel is that we should get the students to appreciate the advantages of making use of the particular software so that it makes sense to them and the lesson is meaningful. Otherwise the lesson would be just another lesson except that it is held in the computer lab. Letting them realise that technology is essential for learning will be helpful for their studies, especially for those that are less computer literate. Technology is the key to solving many of their problems such as researching, document processing or understanding concepts. Once they master these skills and can use them on their own, then they can really learn and not be spoon-fed anymore.
Although we have discussed and come up with many solutions for the various issues, the list is not exhaustive. As technology advances, new problems might surface when it is eventually our turn to carry out such lessons in our schools in the future. For example, ten years ago, there wasn’t such a big commotion about social networking websites until they are popularised in recent years by FaceBook, MySpace, etc. Therefore we as teachers-to-be must continue to learn and upgrade ourselves on new and emerging technologies so that we can effectively combat the problems that come along with them.
Another point I feel is that we should get the students to appreciate the advantages of making use of the particular software so that it makes sense to them and the lesson is meaningful. Otherwise the lesson would be just another lesson except that it is held in the computer lab. Letting them realise that technology is essential for learning will be helpful for their studies, especially for those that are less computer literate. Technology is the key to solving many of their problems such as researching, document processing or understanding concepts. Once they master these skills and can use them on their own, then they can really learn and not be spoon-fed anymore.
Summary of E-learning Week (sheng zhi)
I have learnt that to implement a computer lab-based lesson would first and foremost require a deep think through of implementation issues that might arise during the lesson and the solutions or preventive methods to these issues.
The problems of Mrs Xing are quite common in secondary schools, especially in neighbourhood schools where there could be a large discrepancy in computer literacy among the students. Some students may not even have a computer at home as they are in the lower economic bracket.
Few general points that we should always note are 1) we should study the environment of the computer lab beforehand. 2) Take note of the students’ computer literacy level. 3) Plan the lesson so that it flows without much interruption.
One issue I have learnt from my peers through their comments is time-management in the classroom. To ensure that the lesson is completed on time, it is essential to set time limits for the students to complete their work either through electronic timers or bells to signify time is up. The second issue is that peer editing should be used with caution or with specific instructions on what to look out for, otherwise students might reject the idea or get confused about it.
The problems of Mrs Xing are quite common in secondary schools, especially in neighbourhood schools where there could be a large discrepancy in computer literacy among the students. Some students may not even have a computer at home as they are in the lower economic bracket.
Few general points that we should always note are 1) we should study the environment of the computer lab beforehand. 2) Take note of the students’ computer literacy level. 3) Plan the lesson so that it flows without much interruption.
One issue I have learnt from my peers through their comments is time-management in the classroom. To ensure that the lesson is completed on time, it is essential to set time limits for the students to complete their work either through electronic timers or bells to signify time is up. The second issue is that peer editing should be used with caution or with specific instructions on what to look out for, otherwise students might reject the idea or get confused about it.
E-learning Reflection
Frankly speaking, ICT has been giving me greatest workload compared to other modules since the start of my NIE days. It is very tiring. However, I must admit that ICT lessons are more fulfilling than some other modules which I am having at the moment. Dr Tan managed to conduct meaningful lessons which helps me to internalize the concepts taught in class.
My aim for this module is really to learn how and what to do to make the lesson meaningful to enhance learning for students. Well, I think I am perhaps half-way there? I believe after the demo sessions, I will have a better picture of how to implement ICT into lessons.
Though it is seriously taxing to blog every week, I feel that blogging help to reflect and recap all the things I have learnt so far. I can refer back to my previous postings to gauge my own progresses. I can also view other people's posting to learn from them.
As for this E-learning session, I think the assignments are a form of authentic learning as we will be working on the individual assignments based on the knowledge which we obtain from E-learning assignments. However, I believe my group and myself could have done more to critique on one another postings. This will encourage more learning to take place. We could have set a dateline for everyone to post the 1st posting so that ample of time could be allocated for commenting. Hence, I would say we could improve on our communication and collaborate more efficiently.
Nevertheless, it is great to read my group members' postings and some have great views and insights! That's the wonder of blog!
My aim for this module is really to learn how and what to do to make the lesson meaningful to enhance learning for students. Well, I think I am perhaps half-way there? I believe after the demo sessions, I will have a better picture of how to implement ICT into lessons.
Though it is seriously taxing to blog every week, I feel that blogging help to reflect and recap all the things I have learnt so far. I can refer back to my previous postings to gauge my own progresses. I can also view other people's posting to learn from them.
As for this E-learning session, I think the assignments are a form of authentic learning as we will be working on the individual assignments based on the knowledge which we obtain from E-learning assignments. However, I believe my group and myself could have done more to critique on one another postings. This will encourage more learning to take place. We could have set a dateline for everyone to post the 1st posting so that ample of time could be allocated for commenting. Hence, I would say we could improve on our communication and collaborate more efficiently.
Nevertheless, it is great to read my group members' postings and some have great views and insights! That's the wonder of blog!
Summary for E-learning (Siyun)
To carry out E-learning, teachers need have a very detailed plan to ensure the effectiveness of the programme.
Teachers should foresee the potential problem which may arise during the E-learning week. One issue is on regards to cyberwellness (plagiarisms, pornography and etc). In my plan, I merely educate the students on the dangers of they might encounter during the E-learning. What Sheng Zhi said was right. By merely informing does not prevent curious students from committing the crime, plagiarisms or exploring the dangers, pornography websites. Hence, it is always good to impose severe punishments for offenders. It similar to the case of a drug addict. There is no point telling them how harmful the drugs will do to them, it is more effective to put the law in place.
Next is what Weiqiang mentioned by the way to prevent students from accessing pornography. Well, it is definitely easier to check for plagiarisms (through some programme). What about pornography? In order to safeguard the well-being of students, we should enlist the help of parents. Perhaps, the school can print out a form to inform parents that there will be E-learning week and theirs' help in checking the students behaviour at home will be greatly appreciated.
Though I must admit that most parents will not be at home, but at least they should be informed of the problems which may arise during the E-learning. To enhance cyberwellness education, teachers may bring in real-life examples to illustrate the consequences(rape, suicide and etc) of the misuse of Internet.
Teachers should foresee the potential problem which may arise during the E-learning week. One issue is on regards to cyberwellness (plagiarisms, pornography and etc). In my plan, I merely educate the students on the dangers of they might encounter during the E-learning. What Sheng Zhi said was right. By merely informing does not prevent curious students from committing the crime, plagiarisms or exploring the dangers, pornography websites. Hence, it is always good to impose severe punishments for offenders. It similar to the case of a drug addict. There is no point telling them how harmful the drugs will do to them, it is more effective to put the law in place.
Next is what Weiqiang mentioned by the way to prevent students from accessing pornography. Well, it is definitely easier to check for plagiarisms (through some programme). What about pornography? In order to safeguard the well-being of students, we should enlist the help of parents. Perhaps, the school can print out a form to inform parents that there will be E-learning week and theirs' help in checking the students behaviour at home will be greatly appreciated.
Though I must admit that most parents will not be at home, but at least they should be informed of the problems which may arise during the E-learning. To enhance cyberwellness education, teachers may bring in real-life examples to illustrate the consequences(rape, suicide and etc) of the misuse of Internet.
Monday, September 7
Summary for E-Learning
This week's e-learning activity highlighted to me 3 main issues. Firstly, preparatory work is an important aspect to the smooth implementation of a lesson. As a teacher, you should also foresee the problems that are coming. That is where all the interventions come in to serve its purpose.
I realized that we are to be practical in the amount of work that we give for a lesson, be it a normal or an ICT lesson.
One issue that has been highlighted is the importance of giving out precise and concise instructions. With a clear objective to the lesson, students will be performing a task with purpose, instead of taking it as just another meaningless assignment.
Instructional worksheets and simple guiding worksheets can be prepared to help guide students to do the assignment in an orderly manner, especially when it comes to technical issues for the ICT tool.
Learning from the scenarios, it seems that when it comes to technical issues, pre-emptive measures such as seeking the help of a technical assistant and/or a more senior teacher is always a good measure to be taken to ensure that the lesson can continue even if there are technical issues.
Lastly, when using an ICT tool, you must at least know the functions needed for that assignment. It will always be better that you have mastered the tool so that you will show confidence in delivering the lesson. Knowing the tool also helps and enables us to troubleshoot simple technical problems.
I realized that we are to be practical in the amount of work that we give for a lesson, be it a normal or an ICT lesson.
One issue that has been highlighted is the importance of giving out precise and concise instructions. With a clear objective to the lesson, students will be performing a task with purpose, instead of taking it as just another meaningless assignment.
Instructional worksheets and simple guiding worksheets can be prepared to help guide students to do the assignment in an orderly manner, especially when it comes to technical issues for the ICT tool.
Learning from the scenarios, it seems that when it comes to technical issues, pre-emptive measures such as seeking the help of a technical assistant and/or a more senior teacher is always a good measure to be taken to ensure that the lesson can continue even if there are technical issues.
Lastly, when using an ICT tool, you must at least know the functions needed for that assignment. It will always be better that you have mastered the tool so that you will show confidence in delivering the lesson. Knowing the tool also helps and enables us to troubleshoot simple technical problems.
E-learning: Scenario 1 Activity A (Han Kiong)
Scenario 1 details the problems faced by Mrs Xing when integrating ICT in her lesson on composition writing. I chose to work on Activity A of Scenario 1 because I feel these will be the problems most if not all of us will face when we try to implement ICT in class after being posted to schools. Knowledge and realization of these implementation issues will be beneficial for us as we try to steer clear or prevent such implementation issues
Moreover, I feel that foolhardily rushing into implementation of ICT just because schools demand it will not do justice to the students as it may not bring about meaningful learning on the part of them. Proper planning should have been done on the part of the teacher to avert the implementation issues thereby condition her when he/she decides to incorporate ICT in lessons.
Although Weiqiang has done a comprehensive identification of the implementation issues Mrs. Xing faced in her lesson, I shall give a take on what I feel are the implementation issues in the lesson. I realized that the implementation issues boil down to one main reason which is Mrs. Xing’s lack of preparation for her lesson.
Main reason for implementation issues: Lack of pre-preparation for her lesson on composition writing
- Implementation Issue 1: Failure to survey the learning environment computer lab’s facilities and proper functioning of the computers that are of utmost importance to the feasibility of the lesson.
- Implementation Issue 2: Failure to anticipate problems that might arise during such lessons and planning for contingency remedies in the case of problems.
Problem 1: Students are surfing the internet after logging on to the computers. Mrs. Xing is unable to observe what the students are doing with the computer due to blocked views caused by the computer monitors. The students could well be accessing websites that are undesirable.
Problem 2: Students were not able to use malfunctioned computers and had to share computers.
Problem 3: Bottleneck resulted from Mrs. Xing having to edit forty scripts and students became restless from waiting for the completion of the process.
Problem 4: Students rushed through the composition writing and submitted work that were not on topic or lacked coherency or badly organized.
- Implementation Issue 3: Failure to estimate, allocate and manage time for each of the activities during the lesson.
Recommendation: Mrs Xing should have surveyed the computer lab and simulated the lesson at least one week before the date of the lesson. She ought to work on each and every computer in the lab to ensure no malfunction. This will help her to foresee problems that could arise and thus have contingency plans.
Saturday, September 5
Scenario 2 (Activity D) Soo Hoon/Siyun
Scenario 2 (Activity D)
In this activity, you are to read Scenario 2 carefully and then describe what you would do differently from Mrs. Xing in order to prepare for the e-learning week (you may change the topic if you wish). Post this in your group blog and invite others to respond.
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E-learning can be a useful tool to adopt but at the same time, if it is not planned and monitored properly, it may result in many issues (in Mrs.Xing lesson, they were plagiarisms and pornography). I feel that Mrs. Xing has great ideas for what is to be done during the E-learning week just that the instructions should be in more details to lead the students and optimize the effectiveness of the E-learning week. Furthermore, Mrs.Xings did not include cyberwellness education into the preparation . The followings are what I will do instead.
Preparation before E-learning week
In this activity, you are to read Scenario 2 carefully and then describe what you would do differently from Mrs. Xing in order to prepare for the e-learning week (you may change the topic if you wish). Post this in your group blog and invite others to respond.
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E-learning can be a useful tool to adopt but at the same time, if it is not planned and monitored properly, it may result in many issues (in Mrs.Xing lesson, they were plagiarisms and pornography). I feel that Mrs. Xing has great ideas for what is to be done during the E-learning week just that the instructions should be in more details to lead the students and optimize the effectiveness of the E-learning week. Furthermore, Mrs.Xings did not include cyberwellness education into the preparation . The followings are what I will do instead.
Preparation before E-learning week
- Conduct cyberwellness lesson (at least for the components on plagiarisms and pornography) in class to educate them about the dangers which they may encounter during the E-learning week.
- Bring students to the computer lab (Scenario 1) and perhaps for them to use the Freemind to construct mind map on cyberwellness. (This helps to the students to internalise the things they have learnt about cyberwellness in class)
- Ask the students to post at least 1 item on the discussion forum on cyberwellness.
- Group blogs are to be created during the lab session. (Blogger)
- All the above help to equip the students with the necessities for the E-learning week.
- Check that all students have Internet access and suitable Microsoft PowerPoint at home.
- Teacher is to remind the students that after the E-learning week, she/he will build his/her lesson from the mindmap they have constructed. This is indirectly informs students that this assignment does not serve merely for the E-learning week. They are suppose to complete their assignment conscientiously.
- A brief outline of what students are supposed to do during the E-learning week without revealing the topic. (A sheet of instructions can be printed and be given to the students)
Assignment for E-learning week
- A PowerPoint file (2003-2007) will be uploaded into the school's Learning Management System (LMS). The file contained instructions for the task, Web sites students could visit, and some questions to guide and stimulate students' thinking.
- Teacher will be on Skype during allocated slot to answer students questions and provide help if they face technical problem.
- The students are to research on the topic energy and draw a concept map using Freemind to organise the information they found.
- Students are to take part in discussion forum in the LMS based on the concept maps they created. Each of them are to post at least 2 items.
- After the active participation in the discussion, they are to write a reflection on their group blog (at least 100 or 150 words) of What they have learn, what they want to know and etc.
Friday, September 4
E-Learning Activity B (sheng zhi)
In general, Mrs Xing suffered from the following problems:
1) Some students were operating the computers without permission early on in the class
2) Some students were not clear of the instructions
3) Computers not working
4) Mrs Xing could not catch the attention of the students because of the computer screens
5) Mrs Xing was the bottleneck of the session
6) Students who finish earlier disturb those that have not
7) Many students gave slipshod work
Intervention strategies to help solve or prevent these problems:
1) Recce the computer lab at least two days before the session, find out the arrangment of computers in the lab and take note of any particular seating arrangements for the students. Meet the lab tech to enquire about any faulty computers, lighting, chairs, tables and request that he be present for the first 15 minutes of the session.
2) In the period before the computer lab session, list down the Dos and Donts in class, make sure that the students are clear of the rules in the computer lab, such as do not operate the computer without the teachers permission, do not run about and disturb others, etc..
3) Give out worksheets that has instructions on how to operate the computer and how to locate and how to operate the software also in the lesson beforehand. Prepare more copies in case students forget to bring on that day.
4) If the seating arrangement allows, form them into groups and select one from the group who is conpetent in computer to be the leader. He will be in charge of maintaining discipline of the group and troubleshooting
5) At the start of the session, highlight the rules again on the screen and take note that the students are in their assigned seats (Chai & Wang, 2009).
6) If possible download softwares that gives the teacher master control of all the students' screen. If that is not possible, instruct them to turn over their mouse with the flat side facing upwards to hinder anyone from surfing the internet without permission. (Secondary Video)
7) Go through the topic to be written carefully, provide scaffolding and give guiding questions. (When did the memorable outing happen? Who was there with you? What happended? How did it happen? Why was it memorable?) This is to prevent students from going off-topic.
8) The teacher instructs the class to switch on the computers and report any faulty ones to the lab tech immediately. Assign them to free computers or take out a piece of paper to write their draft.
9) Prepare visual aids for them to catch the attention of the teacher such as coloured cups. The teacher can also signify certain actions that the class should look up and pay attention, such has dimming the lights. (Secondary Video)
10) Encourage peer editing. Let students learn from their classmates mistakes. Students can learn to rectify simple vocab and grammatic errors.
11) Teacher can then check for coherency and the flow of the essay, shortens the time for editing each draft.
12) Prepare worksheets, quizzes or crosswords for those that finish early to keep them occupied.
13) Remind students along the session to check for coherency and keep to the topic "A memorable outing"
References
E.D.T. Secondary Video
Chai C.S. & Wang Q.Y. (2009). ICT: For Self-Directed And Collaborative Learning. Pearson.
1) Some students were operating the computers without permission early on in the class
2) Some students were not clear of the instructions
3) Computers not working
4) Mrs Xing could not catch the attention of the students because of the computer screens
5) Mrs Xing was the bottleneck of the session
6) Students who finish earlier disturb those that have not
7) Many students gave slipshod work
Intervention strategies to help solve or prevent these problems:
1) Recce the computer lab at least two days before the session, find out the arrangment of computers in the lab and take note of any particular seating arrangements for the students. Meet the lab tech to enquire about any faulty computers, lighting, chairs, tables and request that he be present for the first 15 minutes of the session.
2) In the period before the computer lab session, list down the Dos and Donts in class, make sure that the students are clear of the rules in the computer lab, such as do not operate the computer without the teachers permission, do not run about and disturb others, etc..
3) Give out worksheets that has instructions on how to operate the computer and how to locate and how to operate the software also in the lesson beforehand. Prepare more copies in case students forget to bring on that day.
4) If the seating arrangement allows, form them into groups and select one from the group who is conpetent in computer to be the leader. He will be in charge of maintaining discipline of the group and troubleshooting
5) At the start of the session, highlight the rules again on the screen and take note that the students are in their assigned seats (Chai & Wang, 2009).
6) If possible download softwares that gives the teacher master control of all the students' screen. If that is not possible, instruct them to turn over their mouse with the flat side facing upwards to hinder anyone from surfing the internet without permission. (Secondary Video)
7) Go through the topic to be written carefully, provide scaffolding and give guiding questions. (When did the memorable outing happen? Who was there with you? What happended? How did it happen? Why was it memorable?) This is to prevent students from going off-topic.
8) The teacher instructs the class to switch on the computers and report any faulty ones to the lab tech immediately. Assign them to free computers or take out a piece of paper to write their draft.
9) Prepare visual aids for them to catch the attention of the teacher such as coloured cups. The teacher can also signify certain actions that the class should look up and pay attention, such has dimming the lights. (Secondary Video)
10) Encourage peer editing. Let students learn from their classmates mistakes. Students can learn to rectify simple vocab and grammatic errors.
11) Teacher can then check for coherency and the flow of the essay, shortens the time for editing each draft.
12) Prepare worksheets, quizzes or crosswords for those that finish early to keep them occupied.
13) Remind students along the session to check for coherency and keep to the topic "A memorable outing"
References
E.D.T. Secondary Video
Chai C.S. & Wang Q.Y. (2009). ICT: For Self-Directed And Collaborative Learning. Pearson.
Elearning activity: Scenario 1 Activity B
Scenario 1 Activity B
The first foremost step she has to do is to do orientation with the computer lab. She has to familiarize herself with the computer lab layout and decide where to seat her students. She has to test whether the computers and other equipment are working. It is equally important to visualize in detail how the class are to be carried out. I think Mrs Xing did not plan her lesson well with poor SIOs with lower order thinking and poor lesson objectives. She should review her SIOs and ensure that it is in the ABCD model and to include higher order thinking skills. One way to do this is to instruct the students to do peer editing. In this case, the students are able to achieve higher order thinking skills. If Mrs Xing were to carry out the editing on her own, one-by-one, it will be very time consuming. The students would learn little and would achieve nothing. Mrs Xing should also survey her students’ computer literacy level to have a rough idea of how well her students can use the computers. It will also be beneficial to have a pre-e-learning activity before this to brief students on behavior and on cyberwellness. She could also demonstrate to the students on how to use the programme as students may not be familiar with it.
The first foremost step she has to do is to do orientation with the computer lab. She has to familiarize herself with the computer lab layout and decide where to seat her students. She has to test whether the computers and other equipment are working. It is equally important to visualize in detail how the class are to be carried out. I think Mrs Xing did not plan her lesson well with poor SIOs with lower order thinking and poor lesson objectives. She should review her SIOs and ensure that it is in the ABCD model and to include higher order thinking skills. One way to do this is to instruct the students to do peer editing. In this case, the students are able to achieve higher order thinking skills. If Mrs Xing were to carry out the editing on her own, one-by-one, it will be very time consuming. The students would learn little and would achieve nothing. Mrs Xing should also survey her students’ computer literacy level to have a rough idea of how well her students can use the computers. It will also be beneficial to have a pre-e-learning activity before this to brief students on behavior and on cyberwellness. She could also demonstrate to the students on how to use the programme as students may not be familiar with it.
E-Learning Activity A
In this activity, you are to read Scenario 1 carefully and then identify implementation issues Mrs. Xing faced in her lesson.
I believed the root of all problems came from Mrs Xing 'desperate' attempt to implement an ICT lesson. She had little experience in conducting ICT lessons. What she did was to pluck out an idea from Edumall without thinking the compatibilty of the tool to the calibre of the students.
Implementation issue 1
Mrs Xing forced herself into choosing an ICT tool that fits her area of teaching. It seems that she had a poor idea of how the tool works and may have the mentality of trying outm taking it maybe like an experiment. Prepartion work for this ICT lesson was minimal and at most superficial.
Implementation issue 2
Mrs Xing did not give proper instructions on the Dos and Donts in the computer lab. She could have implemented a few simple rules like:
1) Do not on the computer without the teacher's permission.
2) All students should go to the computer that corresponds to their Register Number.
3) Students will be punished if they start to surf internet without a valid reason.
This will enable basic order in the class. This brings me to issue 3.
Implementation issue 3
Mrs Xing should have checked for level of computer literacy of the students before bringing them to the computer lab. The more computer literate students can either be paired with a computer iliterate student to facilitate in the flow of the lesson or they can serve as the group leader of the whole group if the number do not allow pairing up. From the video we watched, Mrs Xing could have used different colour schemed symbols to symbolise whether student's need help. A red colour symbol can be used to represent help is needed and this will prompt the computer literate student to answer to the quiry. If this is beyond the student, he/she can then approach the teacher for help. This helps to maintain order and minimise unwanted noise.
Implementation issue 4
Mrs Xing should have done her own prepartory work by ensuring that all the computers in the lab are in working condition at least the day before lesson. As a beginning teacher and being new to ICT, Mrs Xing could have ask for help in the form of a teacher aide or a more IT savvy colleague. This could have solve the problem of too many students trying to seek help from her.
Implementation issue 5
Mrs Xing did not plan the lesson in a practical way. She had planned to do too much in one lesson. Another issue that ensued was the way she tried to make up her little lesson time by allocating little time in giving out instructions. This could have resulted in the students submitting incoherent and badly-organised works. To counter this issue, lesson objectives and proper guidances should be made known at the start of the lesson.
Implementation issue 6
Mrs Xing had created the bottleneck situation. Students can only go on with their 2nd draft after she had done her editting. The waiting time will cause students to become restless. The teacher are not practical with her expectation. A solution to this would be peer evaluation. Students can be paired in a way such that they can help each other to look through each other's essay. Not only this will help in clearing the bottleneck issue, Mrs Xing would have freed herself up from being tied down on assessing the assignments and be able to walk around to make sure the students are on task. This indirectly helps Mrs Xing to solce the problem of 'out-of-reach' students.
Implementation Issue 7
Poor time management from Mrs Xing was one contributing factor to the incompletion of task. Mrs Xing could have allocated a timeline for students to finish their first draft and a time limit for students to comment on each others essay.(That is if she implement the pair up system to edit each other's work.) From the video, the teacher signalled the end of an activity by dimming the light. Another way is to use a bell to signal the end of an activity, similar to Dr Tan's method.
Feel free to comment on the implementation issue that I have brought up!
I believed the root of all problems came from Mrs Xing 'desperate' attempt to implement an ICT lesson. She had little experience in conducting ICT lessons. What she did was to pluck out an idea from Edumall without thinking the compatibilty of the tool to the calibre of the students.
Implementation issue 1
Mrs Xing forced herself into choosing an ICT tool that fits her area of teaching. It seems that she had a poor idea of how the tool works and may have the mentality of trying outm taking it maybe like an experiment. Prepartion work for this ICT lesson was minimal and at most superficial.
Implementation issue 2
Mrs Xing did not give proper instructions on the Dos and Donts in the computer lab. She could have implemented a few simple rules like:
1) Do not on the computer without the teacher's permission.
2) All students should go to the computer that corresponds to their Register Number.
3) Students will be punished if they start to surf internet without a valid reason.
This will enable basic order in the class. This brings me to issue 3.
Implementation issue 3
Mrs Xing should have checked for level of computer literacy of the students before bringing them to the computer lab. The more computer literate students can either be paired with a computer iliterate student to facilitate in the flow of the lesson or they can serve as the group leader of the whole group if the number do not allow pairing up. From the video we watched, Mrs Xing could have used different colour schemed symbols to symbolise whether student's need help. A red colour symbol can be used to represent help is needed and this will prompt the computer literate student to answer to the quiry. If this is beyond the student, he/she can then approach the teacher for help. This helps to maintain order and minimise unwanted noise.
Implementation issue 4
Mrs Xing should have done her own prepartory work by ensuring that all the computers in the lab are in working condition at least the day before lesson. As a beginning teacher and being new to ICT, Mrs Xing could have ask for help in the form of a teacher aide or a more IT savvy colleague. This could have solve the problem of too many students trying to seek help from her.
Implementation issue 5
Mrs Xing did not plan the lesson in a practical way. She had planned to do too much in one lesson. Another issue that ensued was the way she tried to make up her little lesson time by allocating little time in giving out instructions. This could have resulted in the students submitting incoherent and badly-organised works. To counter this issue, lesson objectives and proper guidances should be made known at the start of the lesson.
Implementation issue 6
Mrs Xing had created the bottleneck situation. Students can only go on with their 2nd draft after she had done her editting. The waiting time will cause students to become restless. The teacher are not practical with her expectation. A solution to this would be peer evaluation. Students can be paired in a way such that they can help each other to look through each other's essay. Not only this will help in clearing the bottleneck issue, Mrs Xing would have freed herself up from being tied down on assessing the assignments and be able to walk around to make sure the students are on task. This indirectly helps Mrs Xing to solce the problem of 'out-of-reach' students.
Implementation Issue 7
Poor time management from Mrs Xing was one contributing factor to the incompletion of task. Mrs Xing could have allocated a timeline for students to finish their first draft and a time limit for students to comment on each others essay.(That is if she implement the pair up system to edit each other's work.) From the video, the teacher signalled the end of an activity by dimming the light. Another way is to use a bell to signal the end of an activity, similar to Dr Tan's method.
Feel free to comment on the implementation issue that I have brought up!
Thursday, September 3
e-learning scenario 1 activity B
in the scenario, the issues that surfaced are not uncommon in a lesson conducted in a full computer lab. however, there are measures & strategies that can minimize the occurrence of these problems; though not fully eradicate as there are variables (such as the working conditions of the computers) which are not controllable by mrs xing.
firstly, before mrs xing even conducts the lesson, there are preparatory measures she could have taken which would have been essential for the lesson. she should have made a recce visit to the computer laboratory that she had booked for the IT session to familiarize herself with the working conditions & affordances of the computers (both student & teacher) as well as other technological facilities by trying them on herself. she should try to rectify (with the help of the IT technician) or at least pre-empt any possible technical issues she may encounter during the lesson. most importantly, she needs to thoroughly know how the software she is using works before she can implement it during the lesson, and if time permits, to meet the class IT representative to briefly run through with him/her the basic technical know-hows of the software. on her part, she has to set certain rules and regulations for the class to adhere to so as to maximize the efficiency of the IT session. it would also be good for her to prepare materials such as 2 different coloured plastic cups or a set of 3 coloured cards for every student as standardized measures to get their attention or as signals either indicating their readiness to continue the lesson or that they may be needing technical assistance ('traffic light' concept - where red means attention, green means good to go, while orange means not ready).
during the lesson, instructions and rules/regulations should be made clearly and explicitly. students' attention could be captured by freezing all activity in the student workstations & screening the live demonstration of the procedures using the teacher's workstation onto the students' workstations (provided that there are such programmes installed). otherwise, another possible method would be to get the students to gather near the teacher's workstation with pen & paper to jot down instructions before they proceed to work at their computers. it would be excellent if the teacher's computer workstation contains software that allows mrs xing to monitor student activity on their individual computers. this would help regulate discipline within the IT lab and hopefully cause students to more focused on their task. another possible alternative would be for her to walk around the lab to check on the students' progress and position herself behind the lab. supposing she wants to have the students finish their 2nd edit by the end of the lesson, she could perhaps set a time limit for them to finish and submit their 1st essay draft. also, she should have either the IT technician or a more senior teacher (who's available) who is equally IT-savvy on standby during the lesson should there be any further technical hiccups encountered that are beyond her ability to handle.
firstly, before mrs xing even conducts the lesson, there are preparatory measures she could have taken which would have been essential for the lesson. she should have made a recce visit to the computer laboratory that she had booked for the IT session to familiarize herself with the working conditions & affordances of the computers (both student & teacher) as well as other technological facilities by trying them on herself. she should try to rectify (with the help of the IT technician) or at least pre-empt any possible technical issues she may encounter during the lesson. most importantly, she needs to thoroughly know how the software she is using works before she can implement it during the lesson, and if time permits, to meet the class IT representative to briefly run through with him/her the basic technical know-hows of the software. on her part, she has to set certain rules and regulations for the class to adhere to so as to maximize the efficiency of the IT session. it would also be good for her to prepare materials such as 2 different coloured plastic cups or a set of 3 coloured cards for every student as standardized measures to get their attention or as signals either indicating their readiness to continue the lesson or that they may be needing technical assistance ('traffic light' concept - where red means attention, green means good to go, while orange means not ready).
during the lesson, instructions and rules/regulations should be made clearly and explicitly. students' attention could be captured by freezing all activity in the student workstations & screening the live demonstration of the procedures using the teacher's workstation onto the students' workstations (provided that there are such programmes installed). otherwise, another possible method would be to get the students to gather near the teacher's workstation with pen & paper to jot down instructions before they proceed to work at their computers. it would be excellent if the teacher's computer workstation contains software that allows mrs xing to monitor student activity on their individual computers. this would help regulate discipline within the IT lab and hopefully cause students to more focused on their task. another possible alternative would be for her to walk around the lab to check on the students' progress and position herself behind the lab. supposing she wants to have the students finish their 2nd edit by the end of the lesson, she could perhaps set a time limit for them to finish and submit their 1st essay draft. also, she should have either the IT technician or a more senior teacher (who's available) who is equally IT-savvy on standby during the lesson should there be any further technical hiccups encountered that are beyond her ability to handle.
Wednesday, September 2
Chester's e-Learning Activity B
1) Disciplinary rules and activity procedures should be communicated clearly to the students and enforced from the start of the lesson.
2) If instructions are hard to “digest”, it could be done step by step.
3) Furthermore, instructions should be clear, not necessary short.
4) This will minimise the occurrence of misbehaviour and facilitate the flow of the lesson.
5) The students should gather at the front of the classroom as the rules and procedures are being communicated.
6) During the lesson, Mrs Xing should stand at the back of the classroom, so that she can see all the screens at a glance. –
7) This will ensure that students do not misuse the computers.
8) Being the first e-lesson, a technical assistant could be called upon to help Mrs Xing with technical support, while Mrs Xing focuses on the conduct and performance of the students.
9) The “red cup” strategy can be adopted, where students with technical or instructional problems use the “red cup” to provide signal to Mrs Xing or the technical assistant (if present).
10) Instruction guide for simple troubleshooting (if any) should be provided in the computer room.
11) This will minimise disruptions in the learning processes.
12) Scaffolding tools in the form of worksheets and checklist should be used to guide the students to complete their task.
2) If instructions are hard to “digest”, it could be done step by step.
3) Furthermore, instructions should be clear, not necessary short.
4) This will minimise the occurrence of misbehaviour and facilitate the flow of the lesson.
5) The students should gather at the front of the classroom as the rules and procedures are being communicated.
6) During the lesson, Mrs Xing should stand at the back of the classroom, so that she can see all the screens at a glance. –
7) This will ensure that students do not misuse the computers.
8) Being the first e-lesson, a technical assistant could be called upon to help Mrs Xing with technical support, while Mrs Xing focuses on the conduct and performance of the students.
9) The “red cup” strategy can be adopted, where students with technical or instructional problems use the “red cup” to provide signal to Mrs Xing or the technical assistant (if present).
10) Instruction guide for simple troubleshooting (if any) should be provided in the computer room.
11) This will minimise disruptions in the learning processes.
12) Scaffolding tools in the form of worksheets and checklist should be used to guide the students to complete their task.
session 4 reflections
the bulk of the last session was spent writing our lesson plans in our TEL demo groups and subsequently critiquing the SIOs that other groups came out with. well, this isn't my first time coming across SIOs in the ABCD format as this was briefly covered during the teachers' preparatory programme before we began our ESE attachment. nonetheless, it was still a challenge crafting out our lesson plans within the time limit we were given, in the specified format according to the template.
from the general feedback that came from our classmates, i learnt about the importance of being specific both in my lesson objectives as well as tailoring the lesson activities such that the objectives are met. what may work for high-ability students may not necessarily be the same for average-ability students & even those in the normal stream, thus it is good for every teacher to be flexible in their pedagogies such that they cater to different groups of students. the experience of writing SIOs for my group's lesson plan made me realize that incorporating all the elements of ABCD is not easy and it takes much practice to become more skillful in writing good SIOs and lesson plans.
i wonder though, for subjects like chemistry & mathematics where degree of accuracy is pretty clear cut given specific jargon the students have to know or calculations that have to be made, how then do we fit in the component of degree of accuracy in the SIOs of such subjects? it seems unreasonable to expect the students to be able to answer all the questions perfectly by the end of the lesson itself, yet at the same time putting in something like 70% accuracy in a SIO looks rather weird too. are there other ways of expressing this component?
from the general feedback that came from our classmates, i learnt about the importance of being specific both in my lesson objectives as well as tailoring the lesson activities such that the objectives are met. what may work for high-ability students may not necessarily be the same for average-ability students & even those in the normal stream, thus it is good for every teacher to be flexible in their pedagogies such that they cater to different groups of students. the experience of writing SIOs for my group's lesson plan made me realize that incorporating all the elements of ABCD is not easy and it takes much practice to become more skillful in writing good SIOs and lesson plans.
i wonder though, for subjects like chemistry & mathematics where degree of accuracy is pretty clear cut given specific jargon the students have to know or calculations that have to be made, how then do we fit in the component of degree of accuracy in the SIOs of such subjects? it seems unreasonable to expect the students to be able to answer all the questions perfectly by the end of the lesson itself, yet at the same time putting in something like 70% accuracy in a SIO looks rather weird too. are there other ways of expressing this component?
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