ICT for Meaningful Learning

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.

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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 :)