Session 4 E-learning (27/1)

Name: Tan Lay Jun (Group: TG07)
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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.