Session 10

Individually, revisit the concept of engaged learning. Reflect in your course blog on what was meaningful to you.

After attending this module, I realised that without me knowing, I've already gained some new insights on the concept of engaged learning. Just like I've mentioned before, I always had the mentality that engaged learning means fun learning (But this misconception was cleared more than a month ago). Since then, I look at engaged learning from a different viewpoint and I'm glad to say that I gain a lot. Boring classroom discussions can be engaging as well, if it's challenging and requires a lot of thinking and analysing from the student's part. I would say that after my misconception on engaged learning was cleared, I gain more knowledge from those usual classroom stuff. Certain things that would make me feel bored in the past would now come to me as a new form of learning. I would not look at the activity as boring, but engaging. This way, I would then able to fully "engage" myself in it, and that is when I learn. It's true that we cannot learn when we keep letting that "boring" thought bothers us. We may be doing something that we think is boring, but we're only using our brains, and not our heart. However, if we look at it differently, we would using both our brains and our heart. That's a small difference, but it create BIG wonders. Well, at least, it's true for me. After I come to NIE, I realise that all my learning experiences are all very engaging and authentic. I think that very important as well, for learning to be "real". It furthers engage students in the learning process as they're exploring something that could happen in real-life. Students can also find more fun and become motivated to learn.

"Engaged learning allows students to participate in "real-life" activities through collaboration, exploration, and discovery with peers. Engaged learning projects do not focus on one subject, but the integration of many or all subjects. Assessment in engaged learning can be very diverse. Assessment should be real, continuing, and encouraging." (http://ozpk.tripod.com/000engaged)

That's so true.

How do you think your tutor has attempted to engage you in this course?
In my own opinion, I feel that my tutor has really done a pretty job in engaging all of us in this course. This is especially so when he incorporates and introduces new ICT tools and educational games to us when he teaches new concepts. Plain delivery of concepts could be boring, unclear or unengaging because most students would just listen and forget. But because of the ICT tools and games, it makes everything so interesting and easy to understand. That's because we have the hands-on experiences. It's our senses that are doing the magic. People will always learn better after they experience things themselves. This is a fact that will never change. I also think that the ICT tools make a very big difference to out learning process in this module. I guess it's because we're exposed to something new and fresh, that's why we're eager to try them out and hence the enthusiasm in learning and doing. To add on, during the earlier stages of the module, my tutor got us to do a lot of group discussions on engaged learning, pedagogical approaches etc, and provided us websites and videos links for better understanding. I thought that's so useful. Perhaps because I'm more of a visual learner (which I think most of us are), that's why I'm more able to learn more stuff when I'm exposed to all these stuff.

The ICT tools (introduced in this module, excluding those introduced during the demo sessions) that I like most:

1. Mindmeister
2. Prezi

I think Mindmeister is really good as it allows a lot of people to edit a mindmap at the same time. Although the functions are rather confusing initially, it gets alright after some exploring. It also allows users to see all the changes made in the past few days, and let us see who made which changes. It automatically arranges the newly-added points which makes the entire mindmap neat and tidy. It saves so much trouble for the users. Overall I think this tool is really nice and convenient. It's one of the better collaborative tools that's available online.

As for Prezi, it's definitely a more advanced presentation tool as compared to Microsoft Powerpoint. The zoom in and out functions really makes the whole presentation more visual, and is able to bring out important and interesting points more effectively.

For the educational games, I would say I enjoyed all of them, not forgetting how they could be so beneficial for learning and teaching as well.

Which of these strategies might you use in future and why?

As I would be teaching Chinese in future, I personally think that the ICT tools introduced in this module would help me make my lessons more interesting. I guess Mindmeister would help a lot if I get my students to make use of it when I give them mini projects or discussions. Of course, it's provided that my strategies are right before I can engage my students in those activities I plan for them. I would constantly work on this aspect. Frankly speaking, I've not thought about how games could be used for educational purposes. But now since I know, and have experienced them myself, I'm sure I would look for suitable games for my students. Language learning is not easy, especially so for the Chinese Language. Unless my lessons are engaging, interesting, fun and new, I'm sure my students would be more eager to learn.

The last point that I want to mention is that I learnt a lot from the demo presentations and the lesson idea assignment. It makes me think, analyze and evaluate how an ICT tool could be used in teaching and engaging students. That's going to help me for sure.

COTF

The resources and technology in the COTF is amazing. Imagine that in the future, I guess we're not far from it.

Learning is so convenient and fast, so interesting even. Everything is so technology-based that even marking attendances can be made so hassle free. The public places are not left out too! I think this is really good. It allows people to engage in informal learning outside school, or practically everywhere. Informal learning is an important aspect of learning, so, if these things are really going to develop which I think is highly possible, the students would really benefit from this. One thing I thought about is students' assessment. Would tests, examinations, assignments or projects become technology-based?

Another thing that I think is beneficial is that video and voice conferencing can become so convenient, and sharing of files is made so much easier. This could provide an excellent platform to learn. The efficiency is worth commenting on. However, does it mean that in the near future, everyone, or at least majority of the people needs to be eqquiped with such high-end technology?

The COTF is rather different from what I saw from the iN2015 video, but I think both of them complement each other well. Learning outside the classroom would become so easy and time-saving, and students would most probably not get frightened away just from the word "learning". This I think, is different from educational gaming. This is so real and all the situations are so authentic, which allows students to learn and understadn things better. It would be geat too if technologies I saw at the COTF could be seen at theatres, hospitals, museums, or any public places.

It's going to be so high-tech in future!

Session 9 (10/3) E-learning

You watched the video on iN2015, read the resources on Second Life and experienced it, and visited the COTF*. What sort of impressions, fears, or possibilities crossed your mind?

I am totally amazed by what I see on the video. Is that really going to happen? I mean, can technology expand so fast that by 2015, everything is so automatic and free-and-easy? The high technology and superb efficiency in almost every aspects of life come as a shock to me. Everything can be accomplished in just a few seconds' time, and things like health care, studies and work are made so much easier and reachable. The new inventions are going to make things so fast-paced and reachable, that I supposed the value of time and space in the next 5 years is going to shoot very high.

In this already-fast-paced-society, a lot of people are already not able to keep up with all the technologies. There are still a lot of people around who do not have the technical knowledge on how to use IT gadgets like computers and handphones. This is particularly true for the elderly (Of course not all, but the number is still high enough.) Should things progress that much within the next few years, what exactly is going to happen to those who are technology-illiterate? How are they going to handle the massive technology when they are not even showing signs of adapting to the existing technologies in the current society. Another concern is, where technology is, is where convenience and efficiency is. This is good of cours, but only to a certain extent. When it is more convenient to chat with friends, send season greetings, or even to care for someone online, then what's going to happen to everyone's "REAL" social life? Time may be saved, but what about values and relationships? I see that these two aspects are already suffering in this current situation and state of technology. Is it going to mean that things are going to be so much worse off as compared to now? Of course I can't deny that these future technologies are going to bring in so much convenience, efficiency, wealth and prosperity (for the country.. hmm?), but in Singapore's context, can we really handle this major change in our lives? Well, perhaps yes, there are more than 5 years for things to expand, our people can slowly adat to it. But what happens if this is no? What will happen then?

Oh well anyway, putting aside what I mention above, these technologies sure bring in the possibility of better education for students in the future, in terms of pedagogy, resources and environment. Oh, are kids going to start using tablet pcs in nursery? Or are tablet pcs already disqualified. Accompanying this rise in technology, I'm sure the Ministry of Education would set up more ICT-based schools (or turn all schools to ICT-based teaching and learning). Learning and teaching can also be anywhere and everywhere. Students can clear their doubts with their tutors anytime, and isn't that great? Furthurmore, from the video, learning is made so much interesting and less taxing as it seems. Students in future are definitely going to love learning, it's just like exploring different stages of a game. However, competition in education or any other stuff is also going to get more tense than now, I suppose. Another possibility is that people no longer need 999 and 995 in future. Everything can be done in a click or a touch on a digital handheld platform. Criminals need to be tech-savvy as well should they want to escape the law (?)(!)

How is NIE preparing you for such environments? How might you prepare yourself as a teacher?

I would say that currently NIE is already doing its part in trying to get us to be familiar to the different technologies that could be influential in the present as well as the future. There are modules dedicated to show us how different technologies can be applied and used effectively for teaching. We are also exposed to things that we haven't seen before. I think it gives us a rough idea on what to expect in future when it comes to teaching. Also, the Media eXperential Studio (MXL) and the Classroom of the future (COTF) is set up for this purpose as well. I have not been to the COTF yet, I guess it'll be an eye-opener when I visit it next Monday.(?) As a teacher, I would check out the internet for new softwares, programs or technologies that are coming up, and get more information about them. It's because I think, in this current situation, most programs can already (and definitely) be used as a tool for teaching and scaffolding purposes (if palnned properly of course.) In future, ICT is sure to be a major focus of more schools, and by equipping and updating myself of latest technologies, I can then keep up with all the changes, and slowly understand and apply them in my teaching.

Session 8 - Second Life (2/3)

We were introduced Second Life (SL) for this session. I know about its existence but I did not use and experience it before. Previously, the only close-to-similar platform that offers such an experience that I played was The Sims. Anyway, I came to know a lot of on Second Life. Dr Tan said something about SL that hit me. He said that it's a misconception that SL is not a game. Personally I always had the impression that SL is a game on the virtual world. I believe that many others had the same misconception as me. I've read in papers and on the internet on how SL brings certain impacts on people's life and such. I have no idea how that could be possible since it's fake. But after experiencing it myself, I came to understand why. SL provides a very real, interative and "non-realistic" (like flying and teleporting. I do hope that I can do that, but I can't!) experience, and it gives us to chance to go through what we can't in real life. Dr Tan mentioned how a handicapped person found a new light to life (her/him?) on Second Life. In real life, she doesn't have the ability to do a lot of things because of her condition. But on SL, she is a totally normal person who can do all the things she couldnn't do. Who wouldn't be touched by that? No wonder it's called Second Life.

However, putting that aside, SL sure has it's negative impact. I've heard of people getting too immerse in it that they couldn't differentiate between a "virtual" life and "real" life. Just to think of it, is this due to people's mindset and behaviors, or does this has something to do with SL itself? This is definitely a question worth pondering over. Will virtual worlds like SL take over and control our lives one day? How impractical and scary it is, just to think of it. Isn't our "real" life more valuable than what's not real?

Anyway, I found two journal articles online which presents different impacts and aspects of SL, which I think is both useful and interesting for our own knowledge and reference.

• "Measuring" the impact of Second Life for educational purposes
• Putting a Second Life "metaverse" skin on learning management systems

BUT, so far, my experiences on SL at the MXL was generally great and fun. We can change our appearances, we can fly, teleport, can genders, can buy clothes and learn new things just like in the real life. It's very interactive, and chat functions are available at the same time. Voice chats are possible too. It's really very "real" despite it being "virtual". The high-technology experiences make the whole thing attractive I guess. Although we only played for 20 minutes, I was already having fun. (well not FUN!!!!!, but it wasn't bad experience). I do hope we get more of such experiences in future. But as I was playing, I was thinking about this: How is this related to education in anyway? I mean, all these are about virtual worlds, avatars and such, so in what way can it be applied to teaching? Anyway, although I enjoyed myself, I don't think I'll download it. Maybe in the near future, but definitely not now. I have not fully explored all the games for PSP and Nintendo DS!

Anyway, I found this video on youtube, talking about how SL can be used for education purposes. The educational benefits.



After watching this video, my question above on how SL can be applied into teaching is more or less answered. Frankly speaking, I did not know that SL offers so much. For example the quizzes, slides and such. I totally did not expect that. I think this video is rather useful in highlighting the educational benefits of SL as it covers a lot of aspects and pedagogical approaches in teaching. Things like co-creation, cooperation and collaboration in the real life definitely is not as fun as this. Students are sure to enjoy and learn from this. Another thing is that students can visit places that they may not get to visit in real life and learn from there, for example historical places etc. It is also very interesting to see that literature can be learnt. As voice chat is available, it promotes interaction between the avatars, which make the entire experience "real". However, of course under such medium, netiquette is one issue that could affect learning and bring negative impacts on the students. Hence I believe that although SL has its benefits, teachers should not neglect or forget about the few negative impacts that could arise. Overall, I'm quite convinced of using Second Life as a medium for learning. If used appropriately, students will get to benefit a lot from it, and look forward to learning. Isn't learning more attractive when it isn't forced?

Session 8 (2/3)

This week, the last 2 Demo groups presented their ideas. We were introduced to edublogs and classtools.net.

I've heard about edublogs before the presentation and I know it's catered mainly for students and teachers, but I have never gone into the exploration part. The group's demonstration gave me a clearer idea on what we can do on edublogs. I would have to admit that this is a good blogging platform as compared to other blog service providers as it provides a lot more "services". I especially like the catergorizing of posts part as I think that it will make the blog easier for both students for teachers. It is also a very good communication tool (which can be tracked by the teacher) and it provides a platform for ideas sharing. As it also comes with 100MB free upoading space, it makes it very convenient for students and teachers to upload files onto it and does not have to constantly worry about lake of memory space. This saves the trouble for the teacher to look for another medium or program for students to upload and share their files. Also, I went "wow" when the group introduced that edublog users can import and export posts from other blog service providers (pardon me for not knowing that), it is all so convenient for students' learning. The main advantage of using this tool is that the students can find everything that want (related to their lesson) in just one platform. It makes it so convenient and reduce the possible grumblings from students that they have to go to so many places to look for what they want. Just like all of us who has to blog after each lessons and reflect about what we learnt and such, I believe that this is a good tool to promote engaged learning in students. I say it is useful as in mty own experience, it is. It got me thinking about certain issues after lessons, after blogging, and even while playing the DS or PSP. Game-based learning that is...

Anyway, the other ICT tool is classtools.net. Again, I've not heard of this tool before. But after the Demo, I came to realise that this is such an interactive tool! It's definitely going to get students' attention for all the games, games creation, creative templates of mindmaps, and even all the bright colours. (Won't students feel dull and unmotivated seeing everything in black and white?) I think there are some aspects of both lesson plans proposed which I like/caught my attention. For lesson plan 1, it's stated that 2 groups will share the same passage to facilitate comparing and contrasting. I think it's good because if each group is assigned to different passages and teacher gives feedback to each, the students only get a very vague idea on this idea or that, and there isn't really any impact. However if the students are able to compare ideas with other groups, they might "see" different ideas presented out and not just hear it from the teacher. In this case, students would learn better and have a deeper impression and greater impact on their learning.Also, students also have the chance of learning from each other, and this is very important for students' learning as well. As for lesson plan 2, students get to create their own games and have to play all the games created by others. I think this is such an "open" and interactive way of learning. It's also hands on and provides first hand experience for students in creating games. Students are sure to be motivated in the playing and hence learn something academic at the same time as a result of that. I mean, how many times do you actually get to create and play games for your lessons? (not including the gaming in MXL) The gallery walk is also a great idea where students get to display their works for everyone to see. This is sure to induce thinking and learning!

That marks the end of all the demo group presentations, and I would say that I learnt a lot from this, and is definitely going to provide some aid for my future teaching! This is all going to be useful because of all the focus of ICT in schools, especially in future. Now I have better and wider ideas on how such interactive tools can be used for teaching and learning.

Session 7 (17/2)

This week, Demo groups E and F presented their ICT tools to us. So far, I think the ony group that left a deep impression on me was Demo Group F. Firstly because they looked rather well prepared to me, and the whole presentation made me feel rather comfortable. Secondly, I think the ICT tool they introduced was really good and interesting. It's Dabbleboard. I'm guilty to say that that was the first time I know about this online tool. I tried using it myself and it's really user friendly and suitable for students to build concept maps. Nice!

Our group visited station 5, and due to some technical problems on the class wiki page, we could not edit the stuff in it. So we just stayed at the station to read some stuff. After that, Dr Tan introduced mindMeister to us. It is another tool for collaborative concept mapping. Each group was assigned one of the games we played throughout these few weeks to expand on. Our group was assigned the Mcvideogame. I should say that we were rather familiar with the game as a few of us went home and played the game, so we progressed quite fast. As for the tool itself, we had some problems initially, but after some trial and errors, we got it. It was rather user friendly as well. However in my own opinion, I feel that kids will prefer dabbleboard to mindmeister as it is more visual. But anyway, I have not really fully explore both tools, so I'm not really in the position to comment too much on this.

After all these group stuff, we were shown a video on James Paul Gee.

Educational Gaming:

• solving problems
• an assesment; to move on to harder stages
• game over implies the "inability" to solve problems
• fun way to solve problems compared to school work
• allows people to do and explore things that are too expensive in the real world, so that people can still learn from it
• kids want to produce, and not just to consume
• fan fiction sites allow kids to showcase their creativity, to be exposed to different genres of stories, and build up on grammar and vocabulary at the same time (people learn english from there)
• we don't learn a lot from something, we learn a lot more by learning with someone else. This can be done in class when digital or technological tools as incorporated in lessons. Teacher and students learn together.

these are only some of the points mentioned. I believe I'll be able to experience more of these in future..

Session 6 (10/2)

We (Demp group 7C) had our presentation that day. I should say that everything went rather smoothly, which was good.

Anyway, for the games, our group went on to station 3 (the flash games) and station 4 (Wii sports).

On the whole, the flash games in station 3 were rather boring to us. We switched games a couple of times, and didn't play long for each. I guess the reason is because these games emphasize more on the education aspect instead of the fun factor. We expected everything to be fun. However, personally, I would say that there was this particular game that caught my attention. It is the Free rice game. The game states that for each answer we get right, we donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. On the whole, the game looks just like any games I find on the internet, but the difference here is the meaning behind playing this game. I think it's very meaningful, and it gives people motivation to keep on playing and earn more correct answers. I've tried playing it at home, and so far I've donated 4020 grains of rice.

The other games in station 3 like the one on the weather, or the other racing game that requires basic math knowledge are rather suitable for little children. In the course of playing these games, thay are learning at the same time. So while it seems a bit boring for us 20 yr olds, it should be able to attract the kids' attention.

As for station 4, Wii Sports, I could say that our group totally enjoyed ourselves. That was my personal favorite. The games really tested on our reflexes and patience and all. But there was one thing that was insufficient: time.

Anyway, I came to this website on How to choose and use appropriate computer games in the classroom. There was this table which compiles the different genres of games with examples and descriptions. This to me seems to be rather useful. It helps teachers (to a certain extent) who wish to incorporate games in class to choose the right games that benefit students the greatest.

Also, under the section "Issues for Classroom Use", it brings across some possible problems that could occur during the course of playing, or issues on the different features of the games.

Game-based learning is really not as easy and straightforward as it seems...

Session 5 (3/2)

This week's lesson is absolutely fun! We had our lesson at MXL, and that was my first time there. In fact, I've not heard of that place before.

Anyway, the first part of the lesson was a presentation by Demo Group 7B, consisting of Xuan Hui, Bernice and Li Ting. They introduced the Hot Potatoes to us. I've tried using it before, but I did not explore all of the functions, I don't even know how to export the quizzes and all. After the presentation, I got to know a lot more about, so that's quite useful. Xuan Hui was late as she was caught in a traffic jam (I think), and she was still panting away while presenting. Despite that, she was still able to present her part relatively well. That was commendable~


Next week is my group's turn to present. We'ew doing on Youtube. Hope that everything will go right.

The second part of the lesson was tremendously fun and interesting!! We got into groups and went to different stations to play games. There's Jia Le, Jessie, Shi Ling, Kelvin and I in the group. We went to station 1 and 2. The first game was a McDonalds game, funny game, especially the corruption part.

After lesson, I went home and played that game, and I was hooked. Ha. The next day I went back to school, I learnt that a couple of my friends went back and play as well. =)










3 corrupted officials. Ha, but I don't do this in real life.
http://www.mcvideogame.com/


The second game was Darfur's is dying. This game doesn't seem that fun compared to the McDonalds game, but I think it indirectly makes us understand that kind of real life situation that's happening in the game, and it's created by students, if I'm not wrong.
http://www.darfurisdying.com/


The last game we played was Nintendo Wii (Trauma Center). We were supposed to perform an operation on a patient. We played for a couple of times (I played twice), but we did not manage to save the patient even once. That was fun too!! A pity I don't have it, but there's PSP and Nintendo DS at home, so it's not that bad. But Wii's really fun.

I'm looking forward to next week's lesson! (The games, not the presentation. ha)

Session 4 E-learning (27/1)

Name: Tan Lay Jun (Group: TG07)
______________________________________________________

Section 1: Implementation issues and strategies in a face-to-face environment

Types of physical settings

• One-computer classrooms
• Half-computer labs
• Full-computer labs

Issues

Students’ ICT literacy and motivation

Students who are not very good in using computers could be overwhelmed by the ICT-related activity and would probably lose their interests.

Strategies

• Before starting the activity, the teacher should demonstrate the necessary new skills to the students, and ensure that all their doubts are clarified before starting the activity.
• Amidst the activity, the teacher should also guide the students along or better still, provide step-by-step guided instructions on what to do.
• The teacher should also set a common pace in the classroom so that everyone could catch up, and get students who are ICT literate to assist those who are not.

Types of physical settings

• One-computer classrooms
• Half-computer labs
• Full-computer labs

Issues

Classroom management

Students lose focus and are easily distracted by new features in an ICT-mediated environment.

Strategies

• Brief students on the rules before each ICT-related session.
• Assign students to predetermined seats and appoint row leaders to help the teacher check that students in their rows are seated at the right place.
• Get students to move their seats away from the computer for eye contact and to get them to listen more attentively.
• Go to each student to check that they understand what they are doing and ensure that they are engaged on task.

Types of physical settings

• One-computer classrooms
• Half-computer labs
• Full-computer labs

Issues

Teacher monitoring

• Misbehavior from students
• Desktop monitors block the block students from the teacher’s view.

Stategies

• Lock all computer stations when giving instructions or presentations.
• Make use of Junglebyte Teach or Virtual Classroom to monitor the progress on every computer.
• Block the unused features in the computer and restrict internet access.
• Place mischievous students near the teacher, and post simulating questions to different students at different corners of the room to keep all of them attentive.
• Walk around the room to check that all students are attentive before starting lesson proper.

Types of physical Settings

• One-computer classrooms
• Half-computer labs
• Full-computer labs

Issues

Time management

• Students cannot keep to the time assigned for activities which causes disruption to other activities.
• Unexpected technical issues hinder smooth transition in a lesson.
• Routine tasks (distributing and collecting of materials) slow down the pace of the lesson.

Strategies

• Provide constant reminders of the time at various points to keep students task-oriented.
• Plan realistically; avoid planning too many activities for a limited amount of time.
• Arrange for a technical assistant to be around during lessons to make sure that the IT gadgets are working, free teachers from attending to technical problems which could disrupt the momentum of the lesson.
• Check the software, hardware and internet resources for any faults before conducting the lesson to avoid spending time dealing with unnecessary problems.
• Assign student helpers to assist in routine tasks so that the teacher can focus on preparing other things to cut down on time wastage.

Section 2: Implementation issues and strategies in an online environment. Focus SPECIFICALLY on issues of Netiquette and Handling Inappropriate Content.

Issues

Netiquette

Students may disregard the rules of internet courtesy (knowingly and unknowingly) by:

• Using crude language to communicate and insult others, (inappropriate content).
• Violating other people’s privacy (Spreading of friends’ information online, reading files and emails that do not belong to one.
• “Crashing” into discussion groups or forums when doing discussions online.Sending/Posting the same notes and emails many times to irritate others.

Strategies

• Schools should conduct workshops to educate students on netiquette to raise students’ awareness on internet courtesy.
• Parents should closely monitor what their children are doing on the computer. Parents and school should also cooperate to bring out the children’s best behavior when they are online.
• Teachers should brief students on the possible consequences of disregarding internet courtesy before assigning online assignments.
• Teachers should educate students on using “emoticons” to better express themselves online. Lack of such expressions may send out wrong messages to other people online.
• Students should think twice before posting hurtful contents online, as it may lead to undesirable outcomes.
• Students should think twice before posting hurtful contents online, as it may lead to undesirable outcomes.
• Lessons on how to deal with insults should be given to students so that they will not use insulting expressions or crude languages back at those who started the insult. This will prevent a flame wall from happening.

Issues

Handling inappropriate content

While doing online assignments or visiting websites provided by teachers for their assignments, or even while checking emails, students may come across certain content that they feel uncomfortable with, or receive mysterious messages from strangers.

Students may come across such materials:

• Violence
• Encourages participation in dangerous or illegal activities
• Meant for people of higher age groups (such as pornography)
• Encourages bringing harm to self and (or) others

Strategies

• Schools should install software that can identify and filter out undesirable websites. (In school)
• Schools must educate students on how to handle inappropriate content and to identify whether the content is suitable for them.
• Schools should also encourage pupils to pay attention to how they feel whenever they access content online.
• Introduce pupils to three key actions – stop, record, report.
• Teachers should advice students that if they encounter any inappropriate content, they should stop what they are reading, take down the URL of the website and report the matter to their parents or teachers.
• Parents should closely monitor what their children are doing on the computer.
• Teachers, before giving students websites for references, should check the websites beforehand to ensure they are clear of, and are not linked to any sites with inappropriate content.

References
- Choy, D. et al. (2008). Effective teaching and learning in ICT-integrated classrooms. In C.L. Quek, A. F. L. Wong & M. Y. Tay (Eds.), Engaging and managing learners: Practitioners’ perspectives (pp.117-134). Pearson Education South Asia Pte. Ltd.
- Cyberwellness Starter Kit for Primary and Secondary Schools: [Online] Available: http://www3.moe.edu.sg/edumall/tl/cyberwellness.htm. Last Retrieved: 30 January 2009.
- Cher, P. L. et al. (2005) Classroom management issues in Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-mediated learning environments: Back to basics. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 14(4), 391-414.
- Boston Public Library. Netiquette for Kids, Kids' Page [Online] Available: http://www.bpl.org/kids/Netiquette.htm. Last Retrieved: 30 January 2009
- Safe Surfing With Doug [Online] Available: http://www.disney.co.uk/DisneyOnline/Safesurfing/. Last retrieved: 30 January 2009

Session 3 (20/1)

For this session, we're supposed to work on pedagogical approaches to promote engaged learning and to outline a draft lesson plan that makes use of those approaches while integrating one or more forms of ICT to promote engaged learning.

Have you come across any of the pedagogical approaches as a student? What was your experience like?

Personally as a student, I have come across several pedagogical approaches before. Particularly

• Project-Based Learning
• Problem-Based Learning
• Knowledge Building
• Case-Based Learning

from Engaging ICT practices for teachers.

I'll talk about Project-Based learning, since that's one pedagogical approach which have more influence on me compared to the others as I first start to experience it in Secondary School. In terms of the overall project objective, it's relatively the same for all the projects that I've done, which is to engage and enhance students in terms of research, critical thinking, analysing skills etc, to gain something from the project as well as to produce a final product that can benefit the society for example. From what I know, the projects are often based on real-world situations as they are realistic, practical and can allow students to tap on their prior knowledge. Indeed, it was rather engaging for me, though not always fun depending on how the teacher facilitated and organised certain activities and also my personal interests/preferences. Deep thinking is definitely required as we were supposed to think of solutions for a global problem for instance. There is also a lot of research to do. Most of the time, I will do research online as it was more convenient. It is only after I've joined NIE that I read books rather than go online for information as online information lose out in credibility compared to books. Very often, since it's project-based and we're all working in groups, there are many different views from other group members. There's always a need to analyse and think through all the ideas presented to decide which ideas are most suitable. Besides the important skills, I also learnt that communication is a vital tool in every project. In my opninion, project-based learning is a very effective pedagogical approach (provided that the teacher has planned well in everything) although it takes up quite some time till completion. At the end, students will not only have a more rounded idea of their research topic and would have gained a lot of insights from it. Besides, by tapping on their prior knowledge (if applicable), they will build up on what they already know, relate more to the project topic, and will gain more than what the others do.

What do you think is the relationship of these approaches?

I think should a teacher apply all these approaches in class, the students would have a very all-rounded and engaging education. (However, this is not really necessary since each approach is already quite enough for each student.) There are common factors in all the approaches. For instance, a make-real situation or simulated learning environment would be created for students to anaslyse, generate ideas etc. Students have to extract key ideas from the learning issues, think of solutions, engage in critical thinking and discussions with friends to build up knowledge and to share their views. Scaffolding from teachers' part would very often not be left out so as to guide the students and give them necessary aid should there be a need. These approaches also focuses on building up students' analysing, evaluation, investigation, synthesizing, comparision, communicating skills and critical thinking to name a few.

What roles do the various ICT tools/interactive resources play in these approaches?

The ICT tools used most of the time are Microsoft Powerpoint (provided it's applicable in this case), tools like MixedInk or any online discussion forums, and youtube videos.

These tools provide the platform for students to discuss, share and present their ideas to the rest of the class. As students critique their friends' ideas for example, they are also taking in knowledge from another view, nevermind if they accept it or not. MixedInk is a suitable tool for group writing since it's a collaborative writing tool. Students can make use of it to maybe do up their project reflection. Youtube videos can be used to either gather information or to add colours and supporting evidence for their projects. Another way Youtube can play a part is that teachers can get students to record an ending video on their end result and post it on youtube to share with everybody on top of doing a presentation in front of the class.

Generally, this session provides quite a number of ideas for my teaching in future.

Session 2 (13/1)

Last week we had the introductory lesson and some exploration of the class wiki, and this week we learnt and read more about engaged learning, the definition, indicators and the dimensions of engaged learning, and the use of ICT in engaged learning.

We were broken up into groups for a short "discussion": What learning activities were most engaging in your primary or secondary school? There were 4 people in the groups and eventually we decided the share the role play idea with the class. During the sharing session within the group, I realised that my lessons in rimary and Secondary School were not exactly "engaged". A lot of times, it was more of a teacher-centred setting and basically the students just sit and listen to the teacher. There were group discussions that enable thinking and students' engagement but not a lot.

We had to visit a website on the indicators of engaged learning. We had to answer a questionairre sort of thing to find out how engaging our groups's learning activities are.

Aour group work, we had to work individually. We are supposed to visit a website with case studies of engaged learning in the classrooms. I chose Using Moodle to Create Virtual Classroom for Mother Tongue. Reason why I chose this is because I'm going to be a Chinese teacher in future, so I believe this will help me in future. Anyway, this activity helped me to identify the different factors of the dimensions of engaged learning, and what roles the teachers, students and ICT can play. Useful!

I also understand that engaged learning need not be fun, as long as it gets the students to think, and participate and contribute, it is engaging as well. I think many people tend to link fun to engaged learning. So this is not true at all.

Lastly, I now have a demo group.
Group members: Shi Ling, Jessie and I...

Session 1 (6/1)

Before our first ICT lesson, I imagined this module to be another boring and standard IT class. But I realised I was wrong, it actually seems to be quite fun, well, considering that we get to experience things like second life in class.

I know how boring and sometimes inefficient when it comes to teacher-centred classrooms, hence I know the importance of learner-centred classrooms where all the limelight is shifted onto the students. Unfortunately, I grew up learning in teacher-centred classrooms and IT in class is not very common except for maybe the use of powerpoint? ... Well, I believe that this module will be able to help me to incorporate IT in class effectively and get all my students to enjoy my class! I'm going to teach Chinese Language in future and I guess that by then, the language is already very uncommonly used in Singapore. I hope that IT in class, and a learner-centred classroom can be a bridge for future learners to continue to like Chinese as they like other subjects.