ICT for Meaningful Learning

Personally, I thought what Mrs. Xing has planned for her students to do is rather broad and not specific enough. Having students to cover on a new topic and having them to research on every areas of energy, I felt that it was too much for them to handle within the 1 week break. Furthermore, covering on every individual’s concept maps can be rather taxing and Mrs. Xing herself would only be able to look at them when school reopens the following week.

As for myself, I would alter the lesson in a way students not only learn through Self-Directed Learning (SDL) but also works collaboratively. Before the e-learning week, I would

• assign students to different topic discussions on energy.
  
  I would get groups to discuss on the different forms of energy, the principles of conservation energy, energy conversions, etc. This way, students can also do research on their own before working collaboratively. This gives me the benefits of
  
  1) looking at the students’ ongoing process of discussion (if I logged in together with them during their discussion) which also accounts for the weightage on their individual participation
  2) saving time by looking on group’s work instead of individual concept maps without having to worry on which particular mindmap to choose for the follow up face-to-face lessons in school
  3) having a well-constructed and hopefully a well-collaborated mindmap to build up upon

Other than that, I would engage in

• the use of MindMeister instead of Freemind.
  
  I would prepare them before hand and ask them to register and I would add in their names to the list of editors of the particular topic of discussion. Through MindMeister, students are able to engage in a real-time collaboration where they can edit the same mindmap at their own homes and at the same time. It is more engaging and exciting this way.
  
  But the above only works when students of the same group exchange their email addresses for IM activities like MSN and Skype. (preferably, skype would be a better option because it engages students to do a live conferencing while editing their mindmaps through MindMeister.
  
  Apart from that, as the teacher, I would get to see the students’ work before school reopens.

Moreover, through this scenario, I felt that Mrs. Xing was not doing anything much during her students’ participation on e-learning. I would suggest that she provide her students

• a list of designated timings when she is free for consultation through Skype (or any other mediums of conferencing online) on a first-come-first-serve basis.
  
  Through this way, students are able to seek help or report of any incidents like the ones when they failed to open up their PowerPoint file. And if this option was not available be it students are too shy to talk or students do not have microphone, Mrs. Xing could give them her email as a second form of communication.
  
  
• ongoing discussion with students through their forum discussions.
  
  With this, teachers are able to check the students’ progress and students are able to know if they are moving on the right track.

Following up to the matters above, here are some of the other preparations I would do to tackle the different problems Mrs. Xing had faced during her attempt at e-learning during the school’s e-learning week:

1) Problem of pornography or any other unacceptable website

• Issue a notice form for parents on e-learning week.
  
  This way, parents are aware of the content that their children should be looking into. Not only that, it helps create parent-support on their children’s Internet use for teaching and learning purposes.
  
  
• Parents to set up appropriate content filters.
  
  This helps establish parental control and the protection of their children where these filters provide a reliable barrier, blocking access to unacceptable content which can be morally damaging to their children’s development.
  
  
• Educate students to practice own responsibility.
  
  The teacher can advice students not to venture out to these sites and to emphasize responsibility for their own learning. (E.g. Making time for learning and surfing the net. Do not lie to their parents that they are doing their work but end up surfing the net instead.)
  

2) Unable to open the PowerPoint file

• Typing out the instructions, recommended websites and guiding questions manually on the LMS page.
  
  I don’t find it necessary for Mrs. Xing to contain this information through PowerPoint presentation.
  
  
• Uploading PowerPoint file on the web
  
  Scribd, SlideShare, Splashcast, SlideAware and Zoho Show are some of the hosting services for uploading these files on the web. Through this, students are able to watch these slideshows online without having to worry of not being able to open their PowerPoint file through LMS. All the teacher has to do is to provide the link on the LMS.
  

3) Cutting and Pasting information from website (Plagiarism)

• Educate students on Plagiarism and its consequences.
  
  Before the commence of e-learning week, students ought to be aware that cutting and pasting information from website without giving credibility to the author is an act of plagiarism, an act of dishonesty. It simply shows an ignorance of completing their assignments properly. In addition, inform students the loss of marks they will get when they plagiarize.
  
  
• Get students to declare assignment as their original work.
  
  Provide an assignment cover sheet when school reopens for students to declare that the assignment was their original work and they have understood the consequences of plagiarism should they fail to comply.

As a beginning teacher, Mrs Xing should have made a lesson plan since she does not have good knowledge with ICT. By having a lesson plan, it means that she has already completed and researched the subject and carefully reviewed on which method she will use as men tioned that only one-third of the class who were familiar with computers had logged on.
She should ensure the conducting of composition writing will be good start before she instructed her class.

• Mrs Xing should also have at least set a couple of ground rules and its consequences before the students entered the computer laboratory so that they will behave in a more orderly manner.
  For example,
• Mrs Xing could have asked them to sit according to their register numbers so as it is easier for her to monitor them.
• She could have also affirmed that computers are costly therefore they should observe the computer laboratory’s rules.
• She could have gave them the specific timeline of the initial lesson such as

1. The students are given five minutes to do mind-mapping
2. Followed by fifteen minutes to complete their essay and should complete the task fifteen minutes before the class ends.
3. At the end of the lesson, she would be able to do some conclusion or maybe at least to finish her first round of editing.

This is to ensure that the lesson will be conducted smoothly and to hinder from students to make unnecessary noises.

Class management problem is a serious issue that will definitely hinder the learning progress. In this instance, I’m referring to managing the student’s emotional and behavioral problems.

There are quite a number of examples illustrating classroom management problems in scenario 1 which I will focus on in this blog entry as I was unsure of how to ensure that every student is contributing to the learning task when we are encouraging Collaborative learning previously.

Class management problems
I agree to Eikha’s first point ‘Failing to plan and anticipate’. Mrs Xing failed to anticipate the reaction and behavior of her students in the presence of technical devices like computers.

Problem 1: At the start of Mrs Xing’s class, some students were surfing the net while others were confused about usage of the computers.

Solution: Clear instructions should be given before student even enters the computer lab. They will be instructed to sit in front of the computers and wait for further instructions before proceeding. Give step-by-step, concise instructions after entering the computer lab; make sure everybody is doing the exact actions. Stop any time to discipline the class if any student is distracted. The progress will be slow but ultimately Mrs Xing will be able to establish control.
Like what Claire had mentioned, I’m in favor of the ‘providing blue and red cups (taken from the Secondary School Video Clip)’ idea. It is one way for the students to ask for assistance while not disrupting the class.
Another solution will be to engage a computer lab management software which allows screen sharing, Blank student’s screen, Transfer files to student’s computers and Remote control.
There are a variety of these management software to choose from – LanSchool, NetOp School, Apple Remote Desktop etc. (http://www.wtvi.com/teks/02_03_articles/labmanagementsoftware.html)


Problem 2: Mrs Xing could not see the students as they were blocked by the computers.

Solution: Constantly walk around the students to provide help or discipline any student who is distracted. After this particular lesson, Mrs Xing may want to suggest installing mirrors in positions to reflect every student’s faces.
In this fashion, she will be able to monitor student’s computer screen using the computer lab management software while monitoring their attention using the mirrors.


Problem 3: Students who finished their assignment faster than others were making noise. When Mrs Xing was editing their script, they became restless and made more noise.

Solution: As mentioned earlier, Mrs Xing needs to foresee the possible interference to her lesson. She could have prepared a short quiz or a video to occupy the students who have completed their work.
Furthermore, as they were all holding tablet PC, it will be even more convenient for Mrs Xing to edit an individual student’s script and share it with the class while walking around with it and commenting. Students will focus their attention to her while students who are unsure of the way to improve their writings are able to learn from others. Hence, Mrs Xing will be utilizing the facilities to a larger potential.

I feel that Mrs Xing had an unreasonable expectation of the students considering it’s the first time that she is introducing ICT into her lesson. She may also want to take note of her lesson content as she seems to have neglected the interest of her students in her effort to integrate technology to the class. When students take no interest in her subject, they may not be willing to get involve or take the effort to understand the topic.
Lastly, I’d suggest giving more time for students to familiarize themselves with using technology to their learning benefits. Introduction to the various uses of technology should be accomplished before any commencement of lesson with ICT.

1. Mrs Xing brought her students to the computer lab but only one-third of the class were familiar with the computers.

• Mrs Xing should have briefed the students beforehand in class on what they are required to do in the computer lab before actually bringing them there. She could have asked the class to find out who the more it-proficient students are and make them the row or group leaders. These row/ group leaders will be in charged of assisting their less it-proficient classmates should they meet with any problems.

2. The students who had managed to log onto the computer started surfing the internet, leaving their classmates desperately trying to get help from Mrs Xing.

• Mrs Xing could have locked the computer screens of the students who had managed to log onto the computer. This will prevent them from distracting the other students and "force" them into helping their other classmates log on on their own accord so as to kick start the lesson proper quickly.

3. Mrs Xing could not see the faces of some of her students as they were blocked by the compouter monitors.

• Mrs Xing could have also provided blue and red cups (taken from the Secondary School Video Clip) for the students. As these cups will be placed on top of the monitors, there will be visible to Mrs Xing and will be a form of alert to her should the students need any troubleshooting.

4. Two computers were not working and the affected students had to pair up with their classmates.

• Mrs Xing should have gone into the computer lab to check on all the computers beforehand to ensure that every student would have a chance to use the computer independently. She could have postponed her ict lesson if she had found out that the two computers were not working.

5. After the students were instruted to write the narratives, Mrs Xing noticed that some students finished earlier than the others and begain distracting the rest of their classmates.

• To decrease the chances of this happening, Mrs Xing could have acquired the timer stopwatch and allocate a certain amount of time for the particular work to be completed in. This would have pushed and "pressureize" the other students to finish their work in a shorter time.

6.Mrs Xing realised she had became the bottleneck by having the edit all of her students' scripts and this resulted in some students becoming restless and making more noise.

• Mrs Xing could have assigned some work to be done by the students while she was marking the scripts.
• She could also have locked all of ther students' computer screens and make them watch a movie or short video clip associated to her subject; English to keep them entertained. (Idea gotten from: Ministry of Eduacation (2008). Movies in Language Learning. Retrieved from http://www3.moe.edu.sg/edumall/tl/it_integration/engaging_it_practices/1movies.htm)

Claire

So as to be prepared for the lesson, I did a little reading up about SDL and CL before class last Friday. I thought I had a clear understanding of what SDL and CL is. Well, in theory, at least.

Then came Friday and I stepped into class. I learnt then that reading about something is one thing. Experiencing it is a totally different story. I paired up with Charmian for the THINK-PAIR-SHARE activities where we shared what we know about SDL and CL and tried to fill up the gaps in our knowledge.

Basically, Self-Directed Learning occurs when one decides what he wants to learn, how he wants to learn it, what are his learning goals and outcomes, what he needs to learn what he wants to learn and then evaluating his experiences. In other words, a self-directed learner takes ownership of his own learning.

In Collaborative Learning, a group of people with the same learning goals will come together to pool their knowledge and solve the problem.

For our group assignment, come this September 18, I teamed up with Serene, Charmian and Yani. We will then have to put SDL and CL into practice as we will decide on what we want to do and how to do it and we will share our knowledge and experiences to execute this assignment well.

SDL and CL seems to be a good teaching techniques for me to implement when I get posted out to schools later.

I believe that one will retain information and remember better the things that they experienced for themselves and I think that SDL and CL will be able to fulfil just that.

xoxo,
|.eikha.|

Classroom Management

Mrs. Xing also had problems managing her class. She should have implemented basic classroom management skills such as assigning seats. By assigning seats, she will be able to better monitor her class as students will not be able to stick to their own cliques and start talking among themselvers. Ultimately, what Mrs. Xing would want is for her students to give all their attention to her and to engage them in their learning .

As I watched the video posted on the ICT E-Learning page on managing a full-computer lab as a learning environment, one interesting point that I noted and felt that Mrs. Xing should have implemented was the using of colored cups to indicate if the student needs help and the appointment of an IT rep to help the class with simple troubleshooting. This will definitely help in maintaining order in the classroom and cutting down the noise level. It would also probably help to eliminate Mrs. Xing's problem of desperately trying to get her attention on what to do with the computer. She would also have better control of the class although she could not see their faces from behind their computer screens.

Pre-Preparation

For an IT-based class that would need all the students to be able to use the commputers to do their assignment and submit it during class time, Mrs. Xing must ensure that all the computers are in working order. This is because having students to share computers in case of a computer breakdown would mean that the students sharing the computers will either have to rush through their work to allow their peer to be able to do their work or one of the students will not be able to finish their assignment. Hence, as pre-preparation to her lesson, Mrs. Xing should have liased with a lab assistant or IT personnel in the school to check and ensure that all the computers are in good working order before the lesson.

Mrs. Xing too should not have asked the students to write-up a piece of work on the spot in the lesson as it is time consuming. She should have gotten the students to write-up a piece of work in an earlier class and get them to type it out in the IT-Based lesson and then submit it to her via the shared folder for her to check. Students who are not used to typing compositions on the computer might take some time to get used to the keyboard and how the word processor works.

If Mrs. Xing had planned her lesson well, she will also have realised that it might not be possible for her to edit all forty scripts and return it to her students in one lesson. She should have planned for a follow-up IT based lesson for them her to return the students' edited scripts and re-type them.

***
|.eikha.|

Well,its the third week of school.
I was absent on the first week therefore I guess that's the ultimate reason why I feel so lost. Heh, I've tried to understand a little about the Self-directed and Cooperative learning..
So today,I'm slowly trying to figure out the best for the e-learning assignment :)

Based on Scenario 1, Mrs Xing could have taken several steps to enhance her classroom management, (controlling and giving instructions the students), but at the same time making the lesson much more meaningful.

IT REPS
Since 1/3 of the class is rather IT-savvy, Mrs Xing should have appointed them as her IT reps. The IT Reps could have come earlier for her lesson to check if all the computers are working and also help to set-up the Lab. She could have briefed them on their roles before the class starts and also get them to help their classmates who are in need of help.

SEATING ALLOCATION
Mrs Xing should have assigned the seats to the students instead of letting them to sit freely. They should also be required to log-in to the computer using their own passwords (which could be issued earlier) to give them a sense of responsibility to the system.

LAB RULES
She could have given a proper briefing on the objectives of the lesson prior to the lesson. Rules and regulations should be made known and enforced to the class.
If the students faced a problem, instead of them shouting for help, they are to hold up a ‘help’ signage that is placed on every work place. The IT rep will then proceed to help. Teachers are to assist only when the IT reps are not able to rectify the problem.

Online-timer could be used to help Mrs Xing keep the student to the allocated time for each activity in order to keep the students ‘in sync’. Mrs Xing could also use the environment, such as switching off and on the light to get the attention of the students. Alternatively, she could have used the remote desktop controller to freeze their desktop whenever necessary.

OTHERS
Instead of going around to correct the students work, Mrs Xing could have used ‘Wikispaces’ and create a class page and get the students to do the essays on their own personal page and correct it at the end of the class. She could then use 1-2 of the students work as an example and correct it together with the students in ‘real time’. As the essays are available online, students are able to complete their essays even after lesson time. Students are also able to edit their work and at the same time Mrs Xing will be notified and keep track of any changes made by them. On top of that, students are able to view their classmates’ essays and also view their corrected essays online.

Last Friday, we learnt the two types of learning using ICT which were the self-directed learning and collaborative learning or SDL and CL in short. Besides from knowing what they are, we also read about the different tasks the teachers and the learners have to do in promoting these self-directed and collaborative learning. As per usual, we did activities in class with our partners and our groups. Personally, I had a blast working with the MindMeister! It was very easy to use and I am very sure that I would be seeing myself using it often in the future.

K: What you already KNOW about this week’s topics

• The purpose of SDL and CL and its usefulness.
• The outcomes of SDL and CL (like how much students would actually benefit more from these types of learning).
• Able to identify works in secondary and NAFA as SDL and CL.

W: What you WANT to know more about

• The different types of SDL and CL and which ones are more effective.
• The way to measure each student’s understanding through SDL or CL.
• The rate of using SDL and CL during our teaching in the future.

L: What you LEARNT about the topics

• Through the two videos, I gained a better understanding about what SDL and CL are. However, I would like to know how the teachers go about planning it (especially the video on the Collaborative Learning; Space Mission – Ice Moon). And also how did they come to a decision to select the appropriate software for students to use. Do they have to survey all the different software before coming into a final decision? Was it planned individually or with a group of teachers?
• I managed to discover more about the roles the teachers and the students play during both types of learning.
• SDL and CL being a part of meaningful learning and covering aspects of being authentic, intentional, active, constructive and collaborative.

Q: QUESTIONS you still have about the topics

• How long does it take for CL to carry out and reach the final product of this learning?
• How do you measure effectiveness of SDL and CL?
• How do you assess students who are working through CL?

That's about it!
Enjoy the long weekend everyone!
Don't forget the e-learning tomorrow.

Smile always. :D

Nur Atika

As what Razali has mentioned, in the process of contributing information into Mindmeister Cyberwellness map in class, we 'Goggled' the net for more ideas. I feel that this is one example under the influence of ICT where students are motivated to search and read up on a particular subject. Furthermore, students are able to assess independently if the information provided on the net is authentic and reliable. This tool fulfills both the SDL and CL aspect of learning progress.

1) Self-Directed Learning:
A learning process where the learner is motivated and able to formulate his or her own learning goals. He or she is capable of identifying the right human and material resources that helps in his or her learning. The learner understands and uses the appropriate strategies and finally, reflects on what he or she has learned at the end of the day and changes accordingly from his or her own mistakes.

2) Cooperative Learning
The learning task will be divided among the learners and different parts will be combined at the end of the project. Learners may or may not interact with their group member in the course of completing the project.
For example, a class project to survey the public's opinion based on the theme of 'National Education' will be fragmented and task will be delegated to the designated group members. There will be someone to conduct the survey, a person to compile the survey results, another person to write the report and someone to do research on 'National education'. These components of the project will then be re-assembled and finalized as a whole.

3) Collaborative Learning
Learners show considerable amount of interaction with each other throughout the whole learning process. During the time of interaction between group members, they exchange knowledge and information concerning the learning task. They also establish common learning goals and work towards them by constantly expressing their thoughts and opinions, observing how the others think and learn and teaching each other reciprocally. Collaborative learning also requires the learners to constantly assess each other's ideas with the appropriate evidence or supporting theories. Furthermore, they will be able to negotiate in a mature manner to resolve any conflicting views.

In my opinion, the size or number of the group is not one of the aspects to gauge the difference between cooperative learning and collaborative learning.

Cooperative learning and collaborative learning are vastly different in terms of their advantages/disadvantages and their working style. I feel that cooperative learning concentrates on the completion of the task while collaborative learning focus on the process of the task, which allows learners to achieve more. In another words, Cooperative learning is 'Self-directed learning in a group' whereas collaborative learning defines 'group learning together'.

Although it is apparently beneficial for teachers to aim for Self-directed learning and Collaborative learning in their lessons, I have some doubts about applying them in local secondary schools.
As I've mentioned earlier, Cooperative learning divides the task and workload is equally shared.

How do we ensure that every student of the group is contributing to the learning task when we are encouraging Collaborative learning?

Activity 1: Think-Pair-Share

1) Self Directed Learning:
* Learning from you own mistakes - Independent Learning
* DIY (Do it Yourself) - Individual Research/Ideas
* "Contained"/"Closed"/Limited Learning
(only knows to the best of his/her own knowledge)

2) Cooperative Learing
* Restricted to a small group (Sharing of Knowledge)
* Learning from each other (People with different levels of abilities/knowledge)

3) Collaborative Learning
* Made up of 2 or more small groups
* A bigger 'sharing pool of abilities and knowledge of people
* Able to correct/comments/improve each other thoughts

Activity 2 - Think, Pair, Share (Video)

SDL is clearly illustrated in Video 1, where students (group of 2 - 3) decides on a problem/task to solve. The conducted research independently or between themselves. Teachers were there only to facilitate their projects. However, in the later part of the video, CL can be observed when students takes on the 'Service Learning' project as a whole/class.

Meanwhile in video 2, SDL and CL could be seen in progress. Students were broken into groups where each group were given different tasks to solve(SDL). Once each group had managed to solve the problem, the collaboratively put up all their findings to save the astronauts.(CL)

Activity 3 - SDL & CL in Action

In my opinion, both method, SDL and CL plays an important part in the students or the teachers development. Students needs to be able to learn independently and yet able to share and received comments/feedback and learn to realise what they had left out or missed or other useful pointers that the might have left out or never think of. Meanwhile, I feel that when students works collaboratively, students who are not interested or lost might not be contributing and just seat thought the process. However, this might still generate interest in them as they might be interested with all the commotions that is going on around them.

Activity 4 - Think, Pair and Share

When doing the mind map, using the "Mindmiester", we were able edit/contribute our thoughts and ideas as well as change the contribution by other groups which we think is out of point in 'real-time' and also look at what other groups had contributed. Thus this is one good example of CL as we all contributed to get a bigger picture. However, in order for us to input our thoughts into the mind-map, we need to know what is required, therefore some of us 'google' for some ideas. Thus, I feel that SDL also plays apart in this exercise as well.

Class was really interesting last Friday and very out of the norm for me. I seriously can’t remember the last time I even stepped into a class educating me on IT so during the whole lesson, I was really engaged.

K: What I already know about IT definitely isn’t at a level enough to surpass say, a Sec 1 boy with very proficient IT skills. He could jolly well know 200% more than I do.. In many years to come, who knows what might happen in schools? Maybe all students will be bringing their own laptops to school to study by that time. However, I’m glad that I at least know how to use some basic applications such as Microsoft PowerPoint as well as interactive websites on the internet.

W: What I would like to learn definitely includes more interesting and captivating applications which can be used during teaching. Besides that, to ensure that these things are used to the maximum success, it would be important to learn how these mediums can be utilized in the most effective manner.

L: This week I learnt that ICT can be very important in order to keep engaging students. From my personal point of view, lessons will be very interesting if the teacher can come up with something new each week instead of the old and common “talk-talk-talk” classes in consecutive weeks. All students love surprises.

Q: How can students incorporate ICT into the learning of Home Economics?

CLAIRE

Seriously, when I saw that "wiki" thing before the first class, my eyes welled up. I swear. I felt lost. And I felt a little stupid. Now if there's one thing that I hate , it'll be feeling stupid. 5 months of break after graduation from Temasek Polytechnic and one dramatic first pregnancy kind of made my brain a little rusty and I felt lost and helpless with that "wiki" thing.

Then came the first lesson with Dr, Tan. I entered class totally clueless. ICT? What ICT? And the "wiki" thing was still haunting me. After 2 hours, I learned the importance of ICT in the delivery of classroom lessons to today's generation. This "ipod-psp-xbox-whathaveyou" generation clearly would not want a teacher standing in front of the class and yakking away 45 minutes of subject content. They want to touch, hear, feel the lesson. They want to participate. They want to communicate. And that is where ICT comes in. ICT tools such as blogging and uploading videos on YouTube gives the students a more hands-on experience, making their learning journey more colourful and meaningful.

Oh, and by the end of the lesson, I and that "wiki" thing became buddies. Really.

xoxo
eikha

I came across this website while searching for some info. This site contains a lot of resources on integrating ICT into the classroom/lessons. Eventhough most of the lesson plans or ideas are based on schools in the US, however the technologies are available in Singapore and could be adapted into the Singapore school context.

Just click the link to view the site!

Teacher's Helpers

Enjoy!

Hello everyone. We have not yet gotten the chance to formally introduce ourselves but we shall do it during next lesson okay? I'm Atika, by the way. Let's make this blog come to live, shall we? We can start off by snapping a photo of all who are in this group and including it in our next entry. It is just a suggestion. :)

Anyway, before I proceed on with the reflections for the last lesson, I would like to share with all of you my school experience using iMac. During my attachment at St. Hilda’s Secondary, I have got the opportunity to teach students on how to do Music Sequencing using the GarageBand software in iMac. The students there are very fortunate because they have 4 computer laboratories but only one iMac laboratory where it is equipped with a total of 20 stations where each station comprises of 1 iMac, 1 keyboard, 1 piano keyboard, 1 mouse and 2 headsets with 1 connecting spliter for headset. Here are some pictures of the laboratory.

For those who are not familiar of GarageBand, it is a user-friendly software where we can do recording, mixing, and making song arrangement for video clips. For my lesson plan, I taught students how to add, delete, and edit their music loops so that it structurally blends with the video.

Sounds fun isn’t it? Well, here’s the catch. I faced a lot of technical difficulties during the conducting of the lesson.

• Unavailability of Projector
  
  There was no Adapter cable for me to connect the projector to the teacher’s iMac. It made teaching difficult in a way because students preferred if they could imitate what we are doing and copy them. The show must go on though. A verbal communication of lesson was conducted and it was a little difficult to convey instructions to students especially when they are talking among themselves.
  
  
• Students’ iMacs were not linked to the teacher’s iMac
  
  This made it very troublesome for my CT and I to access their works and monitor whatever they are doing. What I did was to collect all their works individually from each monitor and the first time I did was with 1 thumbdrive and at the end of the day, my thumbdrive crashed! The next lesson, I took 5 thumbdrives from the IT department and mass collected it instead.
  
  
• Unorganized works / Fear students losing their works
  
  Students ended up saving their works on different folders like the desktop and the students’ folder. It was hard to keep track of their works. Also, I always feared that mischievous students from other class would purposely or accidentally delete other students’ work and we would have no record of who did it unlike our ever so advanced wiki. Therefore, alternatively, students are advised to bring their own thumbdrives so that they can save up their own work.
  
  
• Technical Errors
  
  These errors are bound to happen every now and then during lesson where the piano keyboard is not connected, the computer suddenly talks on its own, the computer hangs, etc. It is good if there was someone to standby and help to attend to all these technical damages while we concentrate on teaching. It is like owning a car. Yes, we learn how to drive it, but, it does not mean I have to learn how to repair the car right?
  
  
• Missing computer parts
  
  Students are bound to have itchy fingers and during one of my lesson, one of the students actually took out all the keyboard buttons one by one. (That’s how cheeky they can be) But sometimes, headphones, the iMacs then to get faulty and there was no immediate replacement after that. I think it is important for us as teachers in the future to get this replacement and work out on the budget for this computer-based learning.
  
  
• Missing headphones and splitter connector for headphone
  
  Students do not have headphones to put on while doing their work. I find this extremely disturbing especially when you are conducting “music” lesson. You will get all kinds of different sounds around you and you would not be able to listen to your own work. Furthermore, during the activity on recording, it was more difficult for students to record as they do not have microphones and rely on the microphone that was built in the iMac. Sounds from their classmates’ iMac can be picked up in their own work.
  
  
• The need for mirrors
  
  Observing behind class, I noticed that students can do anything with their iMac especially if it is facing them and not the teacher. We teachers who are teaching in front might not notice what the students are doing. Therefore, it is essential for mirrors so that teachers can glance at them once in a while to observe what the students are doing.

Furthermore, I learnt that when handling lessons in the computer room, we have to always be vigilant and alert at all times in case students steal computer parts. Ensure that the students leave their bags on the shelves or in front of the class and take out the necessary materials needed.

On the other side, time was not a factor because the lesson stretched up till 1½ hours making ample time for lesson to take place. The students in the end achieved something meaningful that they can use in their future and as a souvenir, an end product of their work, which is their beautifully “composed” music along with their video clips. Students will tend to appreciate this lesson more rather than the typical music lessons in the music studios.

That's about it! I do enjoy teaching there but I would have enjoyed it more if these technical errors would not appear and if they invested in a much more advanced laboratory.

____________________________________________________________

Here is my reflections using the KLWQ framework.

K: What I already KNOW

• ICT is aimed to elevate teaching into a higher platform with all thanks to the latest technology that is readily available for most of the students in Singapore whether it is at home or at school.
  
• ICT is a form of technology used to allow others to interact with one another.
  

W: What I WANT TO LEARN

• I want to learn how to use the different mediums of ICT and learn how to decide which medium is more effective in a way they gain information as much as how much fun they are having.
  
• Besides that, I want to be aware of the general background on how much the Singapore schools have achieved to this level of learning for their students through the use of ICT.
  

L: What I LEARNED this week

• ICT is a powerful tool to help design lesson which incorporate 1 or more forms of technology to create learning activities which are meaningful for students.
  
• ICT is putting technology in the hand of students and engaging them.
  
• ICT is not about the tools or the technology but ICT is about the techniques, the certain behaviour about the tools and its values.
  
• I always thought TVs, PowerPoint are forms of ICT but they are not since they are only platforms to convey information however, it is not interactive like YouTube.
  
• I learnt about the importance of integrating ICT and how teachers have to stay up-to-date because the students’ future depends on it.
  
• I realised the importance of meaningful learning in every lesson and it is up to the teachers to measure the degree of importance of conveying their lesson in an effective and fruitful manner.
  

Q: What QUESTIONS I still have

• How effective is the use of ICT in schools nowadays?
  
• To what extent do we have to incorporate ICT in our lessons?
  [Because students will still have to sit for a “written” exam.]
  
• What are some of the successful forms of ICT used?
  
• What is our accessibility to make use of ICT in lesson?
  
• Is there a budget required to set up such forms of ICT?
  

See you all this friday!
Atika :)

Technology has made vast progress for the last decade. Just 10 years back then, I got my first phone Nokia model 3310. I'm quite sure most of you, my fellow classmates, have gone through this phase as well. I believe that was the time which the phenomenon of possessing cellphones started. Now everybody carries a phone in his or her hands, obsoleting the long forgotten beeping device that was once popular before - pager.
The human race is constantly searching for better and more efficient ways to communicate amongst each other. One of the reason might be that subconsciously, most of us do not want to be deem as 'obsoleted beings'.

I can't say I'm a techno-savvy person as I don't see myself using computers unless necessary. Therefore, I'm thankful that I'm able to attend this course which allows me to update and upgrade myself. So far, I find the first lesson very informative and even fascinating.
One aspect of 'fascination' comes from encountering new devices/gadgets - the smart board. Regardless of the fact that it erases extremely slowly, it is a convenient and effective tool in that particular classroom environment.

Lastly, I sincerely hope that I'll be able to bring my experience of meaningful learning through technology away from this class to my future classes. Furthermore, make the future generations see the advantages of using ICT to help them acquire knowledge.

No doubt, I think most of my classmates will agree with me that this ICT programme is going to be very helpful and beneficial for us .
What helped motivate me was that the first session had given me an impression that Dr Ashley Tan knew his stuff very well and we'd better be good students in the class.

Frankly speaking, I do not know alot about using technology other than having set up my own blog , using msn, messaging on facebook , post at youtube and so on. I got a "cultural shock" when I saw how Dr Tan could write on the "chalkboard" or the intelligent touch screen ( what do you call that ? ). I thought it must be the lastest thing that alot of us have not known but I was wrong when I heard from a 13 year old today that her teachers were already using it 5 years ago when she was still in primary school. I realised how "backward" I am, having to be contented with the usual emailing , msn messaging and not having to consider there are many other tools available.

Thus, what I want to learn from this ICT Programme was to know all the possible ways of using technology to engage with the young people and make art lessons more interesting for them . And I hope I will be more open when my brother introduce me to some ICT related websites such as bluewalk.com

What I took home with me after the first session was the reality of the need to stay relevant with the habits of young people who are often sitting infront of their computers or PSP and so on . In order to make lessons more engaging, I think I have no choice but to learn the different examples of ICT that I can apply effectively as I do not want to be left behind time.

Class was fun. It started slow at first as I didn't know what's 'in-store' for me. I thought ICT is just all about IT and for those who are 'CI'(Computer Idiots) but I was wrong.

We started out with 'wiki' and tried to create and edit my own page and try answering some questions that were given. I were briefed on the MOE 'IT Masterplans' and the purpose/importance of integrating IT/ICT into teaching. After the lecture, I finally understand what is ICT and what is not ICT. Now I understand the framework for Meaningful Learning.

I am looking forward for the next ICT class and I wish that I could learn more methods to integrate ICT into teaching.

I think this is a good example of "Meaningful Learning"...
hope this helps to 'destress'!!

... enjoy!