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!
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On issue 1, yes I agree that she seems compelled to include the ICT into her lesson. But one thing I have to say that the track change in Words is a really good tool for editing so at least she has the right idea. It is just her implementation is flawed. Maybe it is not her preparation is not enough, she may have tried this track change function inside out, but just that she did not anticipate the problems that will happen in class which could happen to any of us. She just has a steeper learning curve but I feel it is good she has taken the first step and she is determined to find ways to improve the lesson as mentioned in the text(last sentence).
ReplyDeletei'm not sure about implementation 4, checking the computers the day before class.
ReplyDeletedo you mean literally switching on every computer to check? or you meant a simpler way to do it?
Realistically, I know it is a hassle to check that way. Maybe she can check with the IT people for any faulty machines?
ReplyDeleteAnother feasible idea may be to go in earlier as the teacher to switch on the computers first, to ensure the computers are working well.
Sacrifices that a teacher must make.
Yeah.. I agree to implementation 7. Teacher should allocate time limit for the 1st draft, 2nd draft and etc. To ensure the flow and effectiveness of the lesson,it is important for teacher to keep track of the time and make sure students are progressing well.
ReplyDeleteWell, Dr Tan always ring his bell and then took over the control of our computer!!! Though I dislike it as a student, I believe it is a very good way to control the time.
Perhaps, it is not neccessary for the student to finish everything for the draft? Peer-editing can still be performed with whatever the students have done within the given time-frame. However, the students will have to finish up the 2nd draft before the end of the lesson? Or even as homework?