Sa'adah's Reflection

Yay!!! That is how happy I am while writing this reflection….
So far this module has been a hurdle to high for me to jump over successfully as a felt that I cannot cope and feel lost at times. Moreover I cannot keep up with the pace all these is going…That is why I’m so far behind in my wiki page update…I felt really lost and kind of STUPID, too during lessons… so when I read about the e-learning activity I was very worried…
But to my surprise, this e-learning exercise has been I great learning experience for me. I have learnt so much about ICT and realized that these information can be found with just few ‘clicks’ of a mouse and reading from books related on the topic. SDL and CL are strategies that prove to be effective here. With more practise and experience I am sure I can improve further… I am so motivated to learning more about ICT…
I had the opportunity to view how others problem solve the activity they chose and while reading it make me think and research further beyond my scope of assignment. I realized that I have yet to learn how to post comment effectively, though b’coz I worry how my comments are being perceived by the post owner. I am sure when I become a teacher in the future, I have to be wary of this tooo…Right?

For now I just want to say "Thank You,Dr Tan!" for facilitating this experience...

Notice any changes...?

Hello ppl...

I've added labels to our blog... so now we can categories post entries neatly as suggested by Khairul...

Now lets look into the blog esthetically... I wonder how we can change its skin... Read up about the it online but it's full of "chimiology"...
Anybody knows how to do it...?

E-learning summary & reflection

1. Summary
I feel that all in all, Mrs Xing needs to sit down and think about her lesson objectives for her students. In her class, it seems like one of the objectives is for HER to complete marking essays, which is strange as when she is doing that IN the classroom, her students would be waiting, thus, not learning anything. If she had kept her LOs simple, maybe by the end of the lesson, her students should be able to write out a composition based on the topic and maybe get feedback from one peer and if there is time, students could revise some parts of their compos before handing them in.
Another major problem with her lesson is that her instructions are not clear right from the start of the lesson. If she had stated clearly her expectations of the standard of compositions they had to hand in at the end of the lesson, she would not get students who would do the work just for the sake of finishing it. She should sit them down in the front of the lab before they get to work on their PCs. She could also use a software which allows her to project her instructions on every PC being used by her students. This will get their attention and she can revise her instructions according to the class progress or lack of. From the video in the resource page on the wiki, one other technique she could use is to appoint some students who are stronger in using the PCs to be her helpers or guides. Thus, when there are some students who have problems, she could instruct these guides to help while she focuses on the very weak students or on monitoring the rest of the class.

References:
http://155.69.84.21/wbaml/Resource/L0217/page3.htm
Video clip on managing a full-lab enviromment

2. Reflection
I feel that through this e-learning week, it takes a lot of self-motivation to get it "right". I mean, with hardly any monitoring from the teacher/tutor, I find that it was hard for me to be really on-task and that the thing that "scares" me reli, is that my participation is graded. hee...
So I'm left wondering at the end of this e-learning week, whether my students will be as motivated to do the job. There will definitely be those who do not care about grades or punishment. They will either ignore it, or put the least effort into it. How am I going to encourage them to appreciate the ICT tools and convince them these will benefit their learning? If they don't get it, they just won't buy it. My only concern is, will using ICT really have a lot of value-add on students' learning? Or is it just a fancy way of teaching something but not as effective as lessons without too much usage of ICT?

E- Learning Summary & Conclusion

Summary
Time to post what I have learnt!

To summarize everything, before Mrs Xing starts planning for her ICT lesson, she needs to know her students ability in using computers. Once she analyse and know their computer ability, she could her group students and appointing a leader for each group. This will help her ease the trouble of going to each students if they have any problems. Also, she needs to ensure that all resources and equipment are sufficient and working.

Coming up with a detailed lesson plan is important to ensure that all loopholes are being looked into. Stating the objectives and giving detailed instructions before the start of lessons or a day before will help to keep the class focused on what needs to be done. During briefing, she could include the rules of the lesson to maintain discipline and the structure of narrative.

To ease her from having to check all 40 scripts, she could pair the students up to counter-check their work. She could also advise her students to use the "F7" to correct their spelling and grammar. This will help to lighten her burden of correcting their spelling and grammar.

She could stop the lesson halfway to check on the students progress. She could use the "lock software" where she can control the students'computers. Once she knows of the students' progress, she could gauge how many would have finished and helped her with the checking of scripts. Else, she could asked those who have finished to do some worksheets, known as fillers, to occupy their time.


References:

Managing a full-computer lab learning environment.
http://155.69.84.21/wbaml/Resource/L0217/page3.htm

Implementing ICT Lessons
http://www3.moe.edu.sg/edumall/tl/it_integration/engaging_it_practices/lessondesign(i).htm

Wong, F.L.A., Divaharan, S. & Choy D. (2010). Planning for effective learning. In C.S. Chai, & Q. Wang, ICT: For self-directed and collaborative learning (pp.81-106).Singapore: Pearson.

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Reflection
1) Have I achieved my learning goals? How did I make that happen? Were my learning strategies effective and efficient? How might they be improved?

I believed that I have achieved my learning goals through reading and watching various websites and ICT book. I find that my learning strategies were not effective as I tend to need 'get-the-right-mood' before I start to do my E-learning. This result in me procastinating to get things to done; last minute work. Hence, I realised that if I want to get things done, I need to push myself and not 'get-the-right-mood' to start my work. Afterall, it's all in your mind. =)

2)Did the group processes support my group's learning? Why and why not? How can I/we improve?
With the group members commenting on my views, it helps to think crucially on the points that I have listed. Some may not agree on the point listed. Therefore, I may need to explain further to get my point noted to them.

I need to be more involved in the discussion to help my group member in their post.

Sa'adah's Summary

To summaries, Mrs Xing should strategies properly after identifying the objectives she wants to achieve. She then must analyse her learners as mentioned by Wong, Divaharan & Choy (2010), information about your students is of utmost importance (as cited in Chai & Wang, 2010, p.83). Such information will be useful when planning for lesson.Since she will be bringing them to the computer lab, it is important for her to keep in mind the seating arrangement and laboratory rules which the students should conform to (Wong, Divaharan & Wettasinghe, 2010, p.145). Preparations such as brainstorming and using Concept-Mapping Tool to organize student’s thoughts (“Engaging ICT Practices for Teachers: Classroom 3”, 2009) will reduce poorly written scripts. She must also decide whether to use MSWord or create writing portals for her children to edit their essays. Teachers must be ready with additional activities for those who finish faster (Wong et al., 2010, p.146). Students will learn how to edit and critique each others work constructively using a set of rubrics (“Engaging ICT Practices for Teachers: Classroom 3”, 2009) to minimize the number of scripts she has to edit. In the lab, she will monitor their work via a management software and students are to be kept informed so they are wary of their actions as mentioned by Wong et al., (2010, p.153). This peer-editing process may spread over a few days and finally she will check only the final draft. Most importantly, she must take-up IT courses before embarking and updates her IT knowledge.

Reference:

Wong, F.L.A., Divaharan, S. & Choy D. (2010). Planning for effective learning. In C.S. Chai, & Q. Wang, ICT: For self-directed and collaborative learning (pp.81-106).Singapore: Pearson.

Wong, P., Divaharan, S. & Wettasinghe, M. (2010). Managing ICT-mediated learning environment. In C.S. Chai, & Q. Wang, ICT: For self-directed and collaborative learning (pp.81-106).Singapore: Pearson.

Engaging ICT Practices for Teachers: Classroom 3. Retrieved from http://www3.moe.edu.sg/edumall/tl/it_integration/engaging_it_practices/3changes.htm

Engaging ICT Practices for Teachers: Classroom 3. Retrieved from http://www3.moe.edu.sg/edumall/tl/it_integration/engaging_it_practices/3peers.htm

Conclusion for E-Learning Week!

This week i truly went through a total SD & CL. I did my own research and I input my own ideas. However I still think that there are more that I can do. I could have done more in terms of reading up on the different tools I can use in a school computer lab environment.
The group processes certainly work. I believe all of us have learnt a lesson or two. From this we did CL as we all shared what we have learnt with each other and from this the rest of the group could post their comments and we can do all learnt from this. But I think this has been a very eye-opening and method of ICT I could use for my own students.

250 word summary on Scenario 2, Activity C

During her E-learning session, Mrs Xing encountered some integration problems. First of all, one of her students surfed pornographic websites and was caught red-handed by his/her parents. Worse, the student simply used Mrs Xing’s E-learning lesson as an excuse. This problem arises because Mrs Xing might have overlooked the way she conducted her E-learning session. Her students might have become too familiarised with the software used for her ICT lessons. In addition, she used the same ICT concept for her E-learning session. Her students could have felt that the E-learning session was no different from the countless ICT lessons that she conducted. Hence meaningful learning has not been achieved. They students already know what is to be done. They are able to finish the work too soon and this leaves for a lot of free time for her students. Not knowing what else to do, this students of hers surfed the inappropriate websites. It could have been done either intentionally or unintentionally.

Secondly, Mrs Xing failed to pre-empt what could have gone wrong during the E-learning session. This problem could have been avoided if she had been wise enough to consider any possible mishaps or unwanted situation and be prepared with other feasible plans to fall on.

Thirdly, the Learning Management System is a little flawed because there are no guidelines on plagiarism. Mrs Xing failed to address the issue prior to the E-learning session. Therefore, they freely copied the content they found on the websites given to them.

Lastly, parents could give integration problems as well. The students may face more problems at home if their parents are not able to help them during their E-learning session if they need to. They might not be able to complete their assignment at home and this defeats the purpose of having the E-learning session.

Reflection

The goal of this E-learning session is to incorporate SDL and CL so at the end of the session, I may identify and articulate problems that hinder teaching and learning. I felt that somehow I have achieved my learning goals. Through this E-learning session, I had to be aware of what is SDL and CL. Not only that, I need to incorporate both styles of learning during my ‘exploration stage’ to gather the relevant information so that I can produce a summary of the activity that I’m working on.

In order to achieve that, I need to read up on SDL and CL. I also need to remember what I’ve learned in the previous session and apply it to my E-learning. SDL happens when I had to choose the activity I’m interested, understand what is required of me for that activity and searched for information related to the topic. Hence, I’m responsible for everything.

To a certain extent, I felt that my learning strategy is effective. I gathered my own information first, post in on the blog and waited for the rest to comment on it. However, I failed to capitalise on other sources of information to substantiate some of the points made in my summary.

The group process in a way, did support my group’s learning. We posted our findings on the blog and made comments on our group members’ postings. Everyone is able to see all the comments made and some of the ideas there are actually build-ups from the previous ones. It enables my group members to ‘explore’ other ideas that are not there and critique each other’s work positively. However, I noticed that the comments made are active for some blog postings only, not all. This is something we could have worked on.

E-Learning Scenario 1 Activity B

I will list down the problems Mrs Xing faced while conducting her first ICT-based lesson and add on the solutions/intervention measures that could make her lesson more successful. :)

Problem
1 - Mrs Xing was new to ICT and unsure how to integrate it into her lesson
Solution: If I was a BT and I am completely new to ICT, I will not choose to embark on a lesson which almost totally depends on ICT in order to make the lesson successful. Since I am new, I could try to infuse ICT just a little into the lesson and once I get more comfortable with using it, I can be more ambitious with the added confidence. Mrs Xing could sit in one of the more experienced teachers' ICT-based lesson and look at the way the class is managed, which is very different from a normal classroom. She could also note down some of the mistakes the teacher makes in the lessons and orientate herself to blindspots in the labs where students are hidden from the teacher's view.

2 - Mrs Xing failed to get to know her class well enough in terms of their ability in the use of computer technology
Solution: She should have given the class a survey on their ability to use the PCs. If she can figure out the stronger and weaker students, she could always insist that a stronger student be paired up with a weaker one so that they can help one another in the lab. She could also appeal to these stronger students that they would have to help her and instil in them a sense of responsibility and pride in their knowledge on PCs. With this, most students would be more than willing to help the teacher. With regards to students surfing the net, she could get the help of the IT technician in school to see if the internet connection could be disabled for this lesson since she is not using the Internet at all. If this is not possible, she could brief them on the dos and donts of the lab (rules) before she brings them there. Most of the labs in schools are equipped with a software which allows the teacher to monitor the students activites via her own monitor. She could easily track the students who are flouting her rules and thus, punish them accordingly. Once students realise they cannot play around, they will be focused on the task at hand.

3 - Mrs Xing failed to provide sufficient instructions or modelling to her students, especially in the writing up of the task
Solution: Before she gives them the freedom to work on her task, she did not give sufficient instructions as she was afraid she would run out of time. This shows me that she values the ICT aspect of the lesson more than the actual learning objectives for the students. The important thing should not be for them to use the PCs well but that they should recall how to organise and write out a composition. She should tap on this knowledge of theirs first before they start writing. Students need to be reminded, some more than others. Therefore, before she allows them to log onto the PCs, she could get them all to be seated near the front of her screen and she could take some time to brief them on the task at hand. She could also include instructions on how to log onto the PCs for the benefit of those who do not know how. She could also introduce the composition title and get students to brainstorm as a class what possible details this compo can include. This would be a good chance for her to remind the class of the way a narrative is organised and remind them that they need to show that in their compositions.

4 - Mrs Xing failed to consider that some students would finish faster than others and thus, did not anticipate that these students would be bored and create classroom management issues for her.
Solution: Some students are naturally faster than others when doing work. Mrs Xing should anticipate this and prepare some other work for them to do. For instance, she could get those who have finished to swap places and edit one another's work and give one another feedback on their writing. She could also provide some sample essays for them to read and compare to their own while waiting for the rest of the class to finish.

5 - Mrs Xing did not anticipate that there would be a bottleneck problem when she had to read and mark all 40 compositions at once.
Solution: It is quite silly for Mrs Xing to think that she would have the time to mark all 40 compositions at once and still have time to monitor the progress of the class. Instead of her marking all the compos herself, she could get the students to provide the first round of feedback. Maybe register no. 2 could be in charge of editing the compo of student with register no. 3 and so on. This way, there is accountability and students would be kept busy. If Mrs Xing is afraid of what the students would comment on, she could give them just a few things to look out for. For instance, grammar mistakes, or organisational mistakes. With specific things to look out for, students will be focused and on task. She could always take time after the class to go through the compositions. This would make the feedback from her much more effective.

6 - She faces quite a number of classroom managenemt issues esp with students who are done with the work and are bored.
Solution: In a lab, the teacher has such an important role in monitoring what the students are doing. She needs to continuously walk around to make sure her presence is felt by all students. Once the students feel that the teacher is not watching them, it's normal for them to start to misbehave. This is why it is a bad idea for her to be sitting down at her PC editing the essays as they are placed into her shared folder.


Feel free to comment people. . .

Let's to change to Edublog..

U know guys...

I attended the EduBlog elearn workshop earlier today... learnt so much so I tot mayb we can switch to using edublog instead since it is so much easier to use and ther's so much u can do wif it... then we can categorise our posts... that answers to ur question khairul...

give me ur comments.....

E-Learning

Alright, I have chosen Scenario 1 Activity B for this E-Learning.

Mrs. Xing is having trouble controlling all her students in the computer lab and checking all the scripts given to her. I am going to propose pre-emptive/intervention strategies that can help Mrs. Xing solve her classroom management issues. Feel free to post your comments on proposed way that I have came up with!

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Firstly, Mrs. Xing could group her students first and appoint 1 resposible leader in each group before coming to the lab. She could brief her students on their work before they enter the lab or she coud ask the students to sit at the front of the lab to give detailed instructions. Also, she could brief the group leaders beforehand on what is to be done so that group leaders are able to help the members instead of Mrs. Xing having to help. I personally feel that giving detailed insructions to students is important to ensure that they understand of what needs to be done.

Once instructions were given, students are to proceed to the computer to start on their work. Instead of having Mrs. Xing correcting the drafts, she could pair the students up for them to check on each other's work. This is to ensure that students are abel to learn from each other and that she would not have many scripts to mark.

To counter the student's work either not on- topic or lacked coherency and also badly organised composition, she could explained to the students again of what is required of a narrative at the start of the lesson.


Alright, so far this is what I have in mind.
Comments please! =)

E-Learning (Activity A)

Hey guys!
I'll be doing Activity A of Scenario 1, the same as Sa'adah. Hopefully all of you could give me comments on this post. Thanks!

Even though Mrs Xing thought that the Word software would be a useful idea, she should have tried the software beforehand and try to find out ways her students may have problems with the software. She should also find out from her colleagues who are more IT-savvy on what are the basic ‘need-to-knows’ like how to lock computers and fix simple IT problems. But she must also continuously upgrade her IT skills.
For the logging on problems, Mrs Xing should have expected that most of her students are not very familiar with the computers and she should have logged the computers and shown on each of her students’ screen on how to log onto the computer so that she need not waste a lot of time just explaining herself over and over again.
A day before the lesson, Mrs Xing should have gone to the computer room to have a dry run of her lesson and she should have talked to the school’s IT department to find out if all the computers and IT systems are working.
Mrs Xing should have anticipated that there were going to have students who are going to finish faster than the others. She could prepare a second assignment like she could have prepared an essay which have errors on it and made the students use the Word software to correct the essay. She could also use this opportunity to edit the students’ work.

E-Learning

Hey guys, I’ll be doing on Scenario 2 Activity C. I’m supposed to identify and explain possible integration problems Mrs Xing encountered. I have gathered the following from my own understanding of the scenario given. You are free to add on /evaluate my points. To see whether Im on the right track =)

1. Surfing of pornographic websites: Content –related safety issues
Mrs Xing’s students might be too familiarised with the software she used for her ICT lessons. The many ICT lessons were conducted for English and Science. In addition she had chosen a Science topic for the E-learning session. This became a problem because her students had become too accustomed to her ICT lesson. They could have felt that the E-learning session was no different from the countless ICT lessons that she conducted. This undermined the concept of meaningful learning. They already know what to do. They are able to finish the work too soon and this could have explained why one of her students even surfed inappropriate websites.

2. Students not able to open the PPT file.
Mrs Xing failed to pre-empt what could have happened or what could go wrong during the E-learning session. This is evident by how she felt when she found out about the truth.

3. Copy and Paste: Content-related safety issues
The School’s Learning Management System is a little flawed because there are no guidelines on plagiarism. Even Mrs Xing failed to address the issue prior to the E-learning session. Thus, students freely copied the content found in the websites given to them.

Peace out,
Shikin T

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. Post your thoughts on your group blog. Invite other members to respond to your postings and reciprocate accordingly. Your postings should reflect your thoughtfulness and your responses must be critical and reflective. You are encouraged to substantiate your viewpoints by citing papers and articles you have read.

Scenario 1 Nanyang Walk School

During the staff meeting before the start of the school year, Principal Mr Singh announced that in order to encourage meaningful learning using ICT, the school had upgraded all computer laboratories with new and fast-performing PCs for students' use. In addition, the school acquired forty new tablet PCs to encourage learning beyond classrooms. Teachers were to integrate ICT into their teaching for at least one subject for one semester and the school would conduct a review to evaluate the use of ICT and its effectiveness in terms of student-learning.Mrs Xing, a beginning teacher, left the meeting feeling worried. As she had little experience with ICT, she was unsure how to integrate ICT into teaching and learning. She asked around and found out that there were lesson ideas at the Edumall (an MOE website) contributed by other teachers who tried using technologies for teaching and learning. She decided to adapt one of the lesson ideas.

1) Mrs Xing's initial attempt at using ICT in a face-to-face lesson.
Mrs Xing searched the Edumall website and found using Word track changes function for essay edits (process writing) to be a useful lesson idea for composition writing. She decided to give it a try with her class.

Mrs Xing is still a 'green horn' in this ICT matter therefore she should attend courses to enhance her knowledge before embarking in this. An example of such course is included in the link below:

http://www.ntuclearninghub.com/ess/basic-ict-operations.asp

2) She brought her students to the computer lab for the IT-based lesson but found her in a fix. About one-third of the class who were familiar with computers had logged on, launched Internet Explorer and started surfing the Internet while another group of students was desperately trying to get her attention on what to do with the computers.

She should conduct "pre-instructional activities. Some of the activities included briefing students, giving instructions, reviewing concepts, and demonstrating what the students had to do during the computer time," before bring them into the computer lab (Wong, Divaharan & Wettasinghe, 2010, p. 141). She may also want to conduct a survey of who are computer-savvy and who are not. This information may be useful for her when allocating their sitting arrangement in the lab.

3) In addition, Mrs Xing could not see the faces of some of the students as the computer monitors blocked them. Two computers were not working and students affected had to pair up with others.

Mrs Xing should go to the computer lab before bringing her students there. She could then anticipate possible management difficulties she might face within that environment.

4) When Mrs Xing finally got most of her students to launch Word, she started giving them instructions. Since the lesson had limited time and the students had written narratives before, Mrs Xing wanted the instructions to be as short as possible. She told them to write a half-page narrative on a topic "A memorable outing" and submit their draft work to her shared folder. She would then retrieve the drafts from the shared folder and provide feedback by using the Track Changes function. Students could then improve their writing and submit a second draft. She hoped to be able to go through two rounds of editing by the end of the lesson.

Firstly, short instructions can be miss intrepreted and since this is the first time she is conducting therefore probably more time will be needed to ensure everyone understood what must be done. She may want to allow them to complete their essay in class and save in the shared folder. They can return to lab to complete their second and third draft on other day. Meanwhile, she may want to discuss their experience and highlight on how she editted their work.

5) She noticed some students finished faster than the others. That resulted in some unnecessary noise, which in turn, disturbed those who were still working. In addition, when Mrs Xing moved around to edit the students' work, she realised she became the bottleneck by having to edit all forty scripts. As a result, some students became restless and made more noise. She also realised many of the scripts she had marked were either not on- topic or lacked coherency. Many were also badly organised.

She may want to prepare extra activities for students who first early. If she just wanted them to complete their essay then she should not be bottleneck during lesson instead she may retrieve the files to edit them later. Instead she may just ensure that they are on topic and orgarnised by taking examples from those who have completed theirs so those who are on the right track can help those who aren't.

6) Finally the bell rang and Mrs Xing called it a day. She did not manage to complete the first round of editing and had to continue after school. She was determined to find ways to improve the lesson.

Introducing a new activity to children may take time, therefore teachers must be ready to provide for this time and space for children to make learning meaningful...

These comments are mostly based on my personal opinion and ideas I get from readings and videos that I watch... There's plenty more to learn especially when you are actually doing the real thing...it's easier to comment...right?

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Reference

Textbook: chapter 9

how do we organize our thoughts here?..

hell o peeps. I am new to this blogging thingy and thus I am learning the ropes still. I find that the blog is not neat. I belief everyone has been given administrative rights to the blog right? So if any of you people know how to tidy things up, do so. And Hidayah... if you haven't already noticed, i edited your post which is with regards to Session 1 and included my take. I just thought that it'll be neater. All of us writing our take on one post for every activity instead of many posts for the same activity. I'm open to comments... I need them!.. ahakz...


Khairul Riduan

E Learning day

Scenario 1

Activity B

In this activity, you are to read Scenario 1 carefully and then propose pre-emptive/intervention strategies that can help Mrs. Xing solve her classroom management issues. Post this your group blog and invite others to respond. In addition, critique the strategies posted by your peers and suggest other refinements if necessary. You are encouraged to substantiate your viewpoints by citing papers and articles you have read.

Here is what i have to say.

Among a list of inhibitors hindering teachers from using ICT effectively are teaching experiences with ICT and onsite support for teachers and students. Taken from Goliath Business News - http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-5392563/Managing-teachers-barriers-to-ICT.html

The general assumption is that once hardware and software are readily available in schools, ICT integration will automatically follow. Miss Xing has no professional experience in ICT. She has problems managing her students as some of them are computer literate and some are not. She should thoroughly plan her lessons before conducting them. Yes, she did some self-directed learning by getting the help of others about ICT and browsing samples of what others did, but it was not enough. Ms Xing should have observed an ICT class to get a feel of the lesson proper. Reflecting on how the observation went would have boosted her confidence on how to conduct her own ICT lessons. Ms Xing should also brief her class before the session about computer etiquette, class cooperation and the lesson flow to allow them to know what is expected.

Ms Xing should also get the help of a qualified ICT instructor to help her in the lesson. For the fast learners, the instructor would be able to guide them along while Ms Xing would tend to the slower ones. With this cooperative effort, the lesson would be able to go on smoothly.

Finally, as a beginning teacher, Ms Xing should be open to feedback, be it negative or positive as these would only serve to help her in future. She should use level meetings to collaborate with other more senior teachers to come up with ideas on how to improve ICT lessons.

A teacher's vision of the use of technology to improve his/her existing classroom practices will eventually determine the extent and effectiveness of ICT integration in the classroom. Roblyer (1993)

Thanks for reading what I have to say. Suggestions? Comments?

Conclusion

Learning through blogs is a good way of incorporating ICT into the curriculum. Blogs are interactive and if there is something to be added a simple click of the mouse will do it. With the internet so vast, it’s easy to be lost at sea while surfing for the information that we need. But I am learning by sieving – important points are saved or bookmarked for further readings.

As for point 2, I will have to read everyone’s entry to be able to answer it.

Everyone has comments which are geared towards the goal of using technology to help students understand better. Planning is always easier than doing it. The majority of students will want to use ICT and learn from it but as always, a few will always be there to abuse the freedom given to them. But it is a head start. When China cars were first introduced to the Singaporean Market, everyone thought they were leaky tin cans, including me. The number of people turning to China cars is slowly increasing now. It will take time, but surely as the sun will set and the night will come, ICT will slowly find its way into the everyday lives of educators and learners alike.

KWLQ (Session 1 + 2)

Hey people I'll be sharing my thoughts and views for the past two sessions. (Mainly what I've Learnt. LOL)

Session 1
K (What I already KNOW): Prior to the first ICT session, I knew ICT would involve learning and technology. I had Powerpoint, search engines and email in my mind. Afterall, practically all my ex-teachers used Powerpoint and call it technology-based lesson .
W (What I WANT to know): What is ICT exactly?
L (What i LEARNT): ICT is vey much about communication rather than technology alone. Thus Powerpoint is NOT ICT as it is very teacher centered. ICT should allow meaningful learning and and there are several kinds of meaningful learning.
Q (QUESTIONS I have): How then can ICT be integrated to each of the meaningful learning framework: Authentic, Intentional,Active, Constructive, Collaborative and ensure that it can be applied to all levels? (esp the lower primary where learning can be so interactive and fun)


Session 2
K (What I already KNOW): Self-directed learning and Collaborative Learning are two different types of learning.
W (What I WANT to know): How useful is ICT in these types of learning and how can one integrate ICT into learning. Since there so many types of ICT, which one is suitable for which type of learning?
L (What i LEARNT): SDL- individual learning takes place, using his/her own effort (personal gain)
CL- Unlike SDL, CL involves interaction amongst people. This is when they come together to share/critique or add on the information they require as a group. Basically everyone gains from CL. Also, there are certain aspects where SDL and CL overlaps. The activities that we had done in Session 2 incorporated SDL and CL. (From reading the PPT slides alone to the discussion done with our group members). It is an authentic form of meaningful learning as we experienced what we have learned (SDL-reading PPT slides/CL- discussion with group members). It is also a meaningful session as several aspects of the meaningful learning framework had been covered. (Authentic, collaborative etc)
Q (QUESTIONS I have): None at the moment =)

Peace out,
Shikin T.

ICT...KWLQ?

Lesson 1
K: What I already KNOW
I knew that ICT stands for Information and Communications Technologies...
W: What I WANT TO LEARN
what I didn't know was software like Powerpoint, is not a form of ICT... coz does not allow two-way communication....Hmmm... so what is ICT?
L: What I LEARNED this week
Blogs, handphones, MSN, Facebook, notebook and similar technologies that allows two-way communication are examples of ICT
Q: What QUESTIONS I still have
What is the meaning of affordances....? I can't find it in the dictionary...

Lesson 2
K: What I already KNOW
SDL means Self-Directed Learning; students learn without any interference from teacher, in fact students made their own iniciative to learn about something...
Cooperative Learning means students work in groups bout each has different role/duty and once completed they put together and present it as their group work...
Collaborative Learning happens when students complete a group project where each member has own role/duty and start SDL and share their finding with the rest, who will in turn comment and changes are made accordingly then finally once completed they piece everything together collaboratively...
W: What I WANT TO LEARN
How do I plan/conduct an effective lesson so that students can learn through the various learning strategies...
L: What I LEARNED this week
Think-Pair-Share is useful...
Using MindMister to discuss/research on cyberwellness issues
Q: What QUESTIONS I still have
Wonder how all these can be applied to low primary classroom....hmmm?h

Lesson 4
K: What I already KNOW
Pedagogy is teaching style...
W: What I WANT TO LEARN
what are some of the teaching styles?
L: What I LEARNED this week
different types of learning namely case-based, inquiry-based, project-based, resourse-based and game-based learning...
Used the JIGSAW method to learn more about the the different types of learning as a group...CL in action...wooohooo...
Q: What QUESTIONS I still have
is JIGSAW method really feasible in the real classroom.... I wonder... especially primary school students...

Thanks for the invitation. the name of the blog is fine.

Learnt so far (my opinion)
ICT varies. Some things like youtube and metacafe do a good job of creating interaction but at the same time create distractions if viewed negatively. the positives outweigh the negatives because even if you are viewing something questionable, you still learn right? we just need strong values and will power so that we will not step into the dark side.

Collaborative learning is a term for many types of approaches in education that involve a joint intellectual effort by students or students and teachers.

Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy in which small groups, each with students of different levels of ability, use different learning activities to improve their comprehension of a subject.

Self directed learning means a person who is mostly self taught, as opposed to learning in a school setting or from a teacher/tutor.

KWLQ!

Firstly! Thank you Khairul for setting up this blog. I'm pretty much cool with the name of the blog. Easier to remb us with. Ahaha!

OKAYs! To get down to business.
K: What I already KNOW
Not really much. I really didn't know much about ICT and the only ICT i knew of was email.

W: What I WANT TO LEARN
I would like to know how do I plan my lessons and implementing it in my lessons without alot of effort and time. As I don't think I would have alot of time to do this. And I want to learn all the different ICTs I can use so that my lessons don't become monotonous even with the help of ICTs!

L: What I LEARNED this week
I learnt that ICT meant technology that is pretty much two-way. That is why powerpoint is NOT ICT. As it is just an instrument that is used to teach without any arguments/feedbacks/disagreements technologically?

Q: What QUESTIONS I still have
How do we know that a certain ICT is interesting enough for all other lessons? Do we have to vary the different ICTs all the time?

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K: What I already know
My thoughts about ICT I shall say all this while has been a major misconception. What I knew was basically what tools were available or involved in ICT. I didn't know what ICT was all about.

W: What I want to learn more
First and foremost I would like to clear my misconceptions on ICT. I would also like to know how to fully utilise this wonderful modern methodology called ICT so as to attract my students into becoming life-long learners and prepare themselves for life.

L: What I have learnt
I have learnt that it is not merely using technological advances in teaching to deem it as having used ICT. ICT is a broad platform that involves active interaction between people.

Q: What questions I still have
. . . I'll find out along the way. heez...

Khairul Riduan

Finally...

Thank You Khairul... U've done it..
Will try to update soon...

It's up!

Yes, our group blog is up!

Great Job, Khairul!
Will try to post some thoughts about our ICT Lesson soon! =)

The beginning. . .

Hell o people... Sorry it took me some time to set this up. The blog name is not cast in stone. Feel free to suggest any other names. Let's start blogging!..