My Professional Portfolio

Looking at my peers beginning preparing for their teaching practice just gets me anxious regarding my own preparation. I had been thinking through what to teach for the past 2 weeks for the next 3 weeks. There and then I was reminded by both Jess and Vicky on the need to prepare a professional portfolio within the 3 weeks professional practice. 

Looking at the amount of workload that is in the next assignment 3 as well as the professional practice, I began to think how am I supposed to organize the teaching and preparation process, to start things early and to get everything into the portfolio on daily basis or probably weekly basis. I thank David for preparing sufficient materials for us on the study desk that we could prepare based on what he wants us to. 

Being with USQ and studying online, we are highly dependent on the study desk, and it was delightful that there is tons of information online that we can just extract at any time of the day. 

Now the big question, where do I find more information regarding ICT rich teaching and lessons. I was thinking of implementing some simple ICT and thinking of it over again, that would actually limit the children's learning and I am sure that they are more capable that the simple use of ICT. So for this weekend and next week, it's gotta be "thinking days"!

What board you use?

Image Source: Google Image

What is a blackboard? or perhaps whiteboard? Many students nowadays are too familiar with their Smart Board. Blackboards are out, not many schools are using blackboard nowadays. However, white boards are declining as well. Come to think of it, most of us are from the black and white board generation. We had fun with the chalks and the markers however there are definitely constraint towards teaching using those.

How many have actually benefited from the use of LCD projector and white board learning. No doubt that learning has been rather interesting with the use of projector and computer. Well that is at least what I think of. Student tend to pay attention for the use of projection teacher as compared to the dull old use of blackboards.

What about young learners? I am not quite sure they would benefited a lot if this is used alone without the use of anything that encourages their senses. But then again, the use of smart board seems to bridge the use of technology as well as blackboard/whiteboard. Indeed, the generation this day are lucky to have a board that can be touched. Indeed this is the progressive era as termed by Mike.

Assignments Over, Practical In Line.

With assignment 2 completed, it is the final part of the course. The first two assessment that we have been doing had actually prepared me in teaching using ICT. The first assessment had actually given me a better view of the benefits of using ICT in the classroom in enhancing the learning experiences for the children and the second assessment actually gave me a chance to plan a unit plan on any key learning area of my interest to teach. I was rather fascinated how much ICT I put into the unit plan. which was not entirely many. Indeed a manage to come out with a balance lesson that uses ICT to enhance their learning from the introduction to the revision and thinking further stage. 

The next 2 weeks would be purely drafting out what to be done during the practical days while hoping that most the lesson planned out would be implemented successfully without defeating the purpose of enhancing learning and allow children to learn better things rather than to learn more ICT.

Its time for Hooray Hooray with the kids!

What to plan and what to teach?

Pressures on, submission for assignment 2 will be in 2 days and then another week for professional practice. At this point in time, I am given Science for the 6 years old to teach. It would be on Body Parts while the 5 years old will be on seasons. Despite the presence of a smart board in the center, I was thinking to head down a week earlier to familiarize my self with the environment as well as get the hang of the smart board. Now then when time is so near and short, I am thinking how much the children can adapt and participate in the learning sequence that I have provided for them. 

The only worries that I have now is that the children is unable to participate or perhaps they are more intriguing with the technology rather than the lesson. Another one would be I focus too much on the use of ICT and forgetting the purpose of the lesson. 

What are your lesson sequences educators? Mind sharing some? 

Well it is quite assuring that I am not the only one to be worrying about practical!

I Dont Know What to Reflect

There are times that when we are writing an assignment or perhaps blog post or even freelance writing online and we just ran out of inspirations or things to write. As I read on Tan's post regarding her last post randomly writing, I come to think about how I used to meet dead end when doing assignments and works, then I will be cracking my head over and over again. However with internet, and other search engine I am able to gather some ideas. Imagine people back in those days of non-internet era. They would sit down alone in any place to get inspiration or perhaps talk to their  friends to get some ideas and the famous one is to read books and more books to get inspirations.

www.google.com 

www.yahoo.com

Wikipedia - The new encyclopedia 

Life is much easier this days with the help of the 3 big players in the internet world. Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia can provide whatever you want to know and almost everything you need from education to business. I remember clearly those days when we dont have the internet at home and when we want to know more about certain things in the middle of the night, we would call up our friends and look up for books or perhaps we have to wait for the next day to seek our teachers or library to look for information. 

But then again, with all these search engines, it has made us a little more lazier than we used to be. We do not want to open up books to search for information and rely fully on the internet. What if one day, the future generation can't even search for information in the book or perhaps when all the books are gone, and if the internet is gone what would happen?

Just a little gratitude and appreciation for USQ, that I can look for more info on their elibrary and forums during wee hours to do my assignment. =D

Unit Planning

How much of ICT is too much and how little is too little. As I am planning my learning experience for the unit plan, I kept negotiating with myself whether the ICT included are too much or too little. As teachers, we should not fully rely on ICT and turning the focus of the lesson into teaching technology instead. Vicky in her recent post talks about quality integration, on how to integrate ICT to provide high quality teaching and learning experience for both teachers and students. 

I have decided to do a little modification on the almost completed series of unit plan. I am using 45% ICT in teaching Science. I was reminded again the purpose of integrating ICT as Kym would put it, that is to learn better things and to learn things better. Modifying the whole unit plan over again is not an easy tasks especially when you thought you are done with. However, it reminded me as an educator, we should constantly modify and change what is needed to best accommodate the learning needs of our students. In that way, ICT will be a positive reinforcer to learning rather than a negative one.

The E-Reader

Libraries are less likely visited nowadays, rows and rows of books are starting to disappear and everyone is carrying an unknown device that contains more than hundred shelves of books. It is rather interesting to see how people used to carry books around and today one out of ten would still actually carries a book around to read. The introduction of virtual reader, or perhaps known as an e-book has taken over the world of books. 

Image Source: Google Image

The early introduction of ebooks on the computer allows people to read using Adobe Reader on the computer only but later on ebook readers are created to allow portability. The early ebook readers allow user to bring up to few hundreds of books depending on their size, however that has turned reading into a whole new dimension. The load of bringing books around has been eased and reading has been virtual since then. 

Image Source: Google Image

However, Apple brings reading to a whole new level when they created iBooks. iBooks is a reading platform that allows users to virtually flip the pages allowing for the real feel of reading the book and the capacity of the Ipad to store up to thousands of books made reading to a whole new level. That is when the term library no longer exist but now known as virtual library as Joe would state in his blog. What would reading be in the future? Perhaps a projector into the air to read in motion?

However, with the rapid development in reading technology, making it at ease to bring around the reading materials, does the number of people reading increase? Has this technology helped with increasing the habit of reading among students? What is your verdict on this issue in education? Would the future generation lose the feeling of flipping a real book when all the books are gone?

Interactive Drawing

While reading Kym's blogpost on drawing, I was fascinated to try out DrawAStickman. It was something interesting as compared to drawing with freehand and pencil. Being a person that loves figures more than art, I basically never actually passed art. 

Image Source: GoogleImage

Recalling back, when I had my magnetic drawing board, I was not able to draw properly as well, probably scribbling must of the time however, I can at least draw a stick-man. Drawing has evolved from using stones on wood to pencil on paper and to magnetic drawing and recently with the invention of tablets, drawing is now at a new level. It can be more fun than drawing on paper. In addition to that, paperless drawing is seen to save the environment in terms of conserving paper usage.

I am not showing any of my horrible drawing but nonetheless the epic drawing was awesome. It is rather interactive and what ever is drawn contributes to a story line. This type of drawing games are good in stimulating the brain to draw something as instructed and it is interactive as you need to draw things that are usable by the character and if it is not drawn the story would not continue on.

Facebook or Face the books

Come to think of it, Facebook is not that bad a thing when it helps in connecting to peers in BECH. Facebook is now the number 1 social networking side on the net and 9/10 people will have facebook. Perhaps 7 out the 9 are super active and 2 out of 9 are a little passive with the usage. 

Our Online students peer learning/ support group

Another general open group for discussion and help

Our SEGi-USQ BECH for ICT group

Our little practicum group

With all these groups formed on facebook, learning has been more interactive and more helpful. Sometimes when we are stucked and unable to continue with our assignments or perhaps thought of something interesting in the lectures, we could discuss on facebook and instantly get feedback even in the wee hours. Aside from that, networking with students all over the world gives me a broader view of learning and new knowledge too. 

Teachers should really encourage the use of facebook for learning. It can be rather helpful instead of just socializing on facebook. Students can share pictures and information of learning instantly with a click. With facebook, information can be shared all over the world within seconds in just a few clicks. 

Wonders of Technology

How fascinating when you see Hello kitty up in space! I am sill thinking of it since week 1. Recalling on the lectures on week one learning path as well as the post by Sam, I was thinking of the day that we are going to be able to commute to space as how we commute to shopping malls. The human mind is capable of creating something that is so futuristic.

This particular video we saw from week one shows how capable students can be with technology if adults give them the chance and resources to work things out under guidance. What is in the mind of the teacher is that there must be limits and all to be placed on the usage on ICT. Teachers should not impose any limits to the children's use of technology as they could be innovative. 

With the advent of many new technology, as early as the age of two, children are able to utilize them without the guidance of adults. The question is that are we to nurture the use of ICT since the very young age? Would things go wrong if they start too early of an age. Something to ponder upon today!

How much ICT in Education?

"Teachers will not be replaced by technology, but teachers who don't use technology will be replaced by those who do" (Sheryl Nussbaum Beach)

I have never plan a lesson for the school. Usually I would  be given the lesson and carry it out as it is. That wasn't that fun nor interactive. As I am developing the unit plan for the second assignment. I begin to ponder about how much ICT should be used and how am I going to use it? It would have been much easier if it is for the higher level students from year 6 onward but as for year 1, they are young.

It is true that we all know how much benefit ICT brings to the classroom learning environment. We are all aware that children will things better as well learn better things with the use of ICT such as computer and the internet. However, we do not want to trade off the real life experiences for the child, and so here are some suggestion to use sufficient ICT in the classroom without making a trade off.

Image Source: Spanish Classroom

We should recognize that children are having so much fun using ICT whether in the classroom or at home. They probably spent half the time at home stuck to their gaming console, Ipads and computer. and hence if the teacher telling a story to the children is seem to be boring, then what could be done would be the teacher records herself telling the story in video and audio format and play it for the child during story telling time. In that way, the purpose of telling a story is still there yet the use of ICT enriched their learning experiences.

In addition to that, another learning experience that would be using ICT to enrich learning would be English. When the children are about to learn how to write letter 'S' and 'N' for the week. Teachers can begin the lesson with sand paper allowing them to feel how to write the letter before asking the children to trace on the Ipad. Then the teacher would remove the Ipad and bring out the paper and pencil for the child to trace the letter. This is one example to use ICT sufficiently to enrich learning rather than taking over the lesson completely.

With that thought aside, let's get started with planning the third stage of unit planning. What will your learning experiences be like?

A day without Technology

We are the generation that touch, with one touch.

Image Source: MSF Technology Team

We are getting more and more dependent on technologies in our daily living. From telecommunications to entertainment, we are highly dependent on a range of technology. What about one day when all these are taken away from us, how are we going to function? Humans have the tendency to be able to move forward but not backward. 

Image Source: What if Technology was gone

I myself is quite dependent on technology. Somethings too much that I think I could die. My daily dose of technology would be as follow;

1. smartphone
2. internet banking
3. studydesk
4. laptop
5. internet connection
6. printer
7. car
8. watch
9. elevator & lift
10. ordering machine
11. automated gates

These are the basic necessity in my life that I would be needing greatly to get through each day. As I was reading this site, I realize that indeed without the internet many of us are as good as doomed. Young people under the age of 40 are highly dependent on the internet in all aspects of work and study. I would not be able to continue my BECH if the internet was cut off. 

Image Source: Don't feed the geek

However, I think technology is suppose to be there to help us in learning and living better and not destroying us. There are people who are trying to live without being too dependent on the use of technology as well. Have you thought what would happen to you one day when all these are taken away from you? I was experiencing this when I entered the jungle for 2 days. However, life is still good! So can you carry out lessons without the use of technology in the classroom still? 

The Age of Multidimensional World

Image Source: Google Image

The world is no longer limited to a single dimension, or perhaps the 2D. Coming across 3D for the first time in the cinemas was rather fascinating for me. As fascinated as I am, I purchased my first 3D glass to watch some videos on youtube after they launch their 3D mode.

My coursemate Joe recently wrote about 3D printing, a futuristic concept in that we never thought would exist 20 years ago. I wonder how many more years to go before we are able to get that in the Malaysian market but then again, another interesting thing would be the 3Doodler, drawing in air. That seems rather possible to get it out to the market soon. I would definitely buy them for the use of drawing in classroom.

How awesome is that? I wouldn't mind this in my classroom. I think that kids will actually enjoy the use of this device. However the combination between drawing on paper and using the 3Doodler has to be balanced. A typical art lesson would be presenting their concept or drawing on a paper (2D) then proceed on using the 3Doodler to make their 3D model drawing. What is your verdict on this? can or cannot? or both also can larr....

Professional Practice School

Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance

As we prepare for the assignment of the course of planning unit plan as well as preparing ourselves for professional practice. Many things come to mind. How do I teach? what do I teach?Why do I use ICT? How much of ICT to use? and so on. As I recall the video from module 5, it reminds me that I should be planning lesson that doesn't bore child, lessons that are useful for the and to prepare them for the future. As teachers of the 21st century, our task is no longer to construct their knowledge only, but to prepare them for the world and jobs that doesn't exist just yet. This thoughts were playing in my head over and over again as I tour around the school this morning.

Image source: TSC

The 10 of us from BECH had been called in for a briefing and to check on the ICT facilities that the school has. I think that was indeed a good move of the principal in getting us prepared earlier in order for us to prepare our lessons based on the facilities they have or perhaps what we can add on to that. Let's take a look at the equipment well prepared for our use in this coming practicum.

Image Source: Google Image

Smart-board is definitely used. It was my first personal encounter with it. Well being quite amazed by the works can be done with the smart-board, I am at the point of thinking how lessons can be carried out using this amazing tool. 

Image Source: Google Image

I am pretty amaze with their audio system. Pictures are not allowed of anything that is associated with the kindergarten due to copyright. However, with 10 output to one source, the children can share and listen to the same thing. Furthermore this could be used in class to encourage harmonious learning that the children will not feel biased out discriminate teachers for being not fair. 

Image Source: Google Image & Skype

Wifi is available for the teaching and learning use. Now now, I was thinking of organizing Skype call at the end of each week so that the students can discuss with the other school what they had learn. Since it's part of their language development too. 

Image Source: Google Image

Or perhaps when the internet line is down, the alternative for communication is there. Well it is one of the ICT device, did you not know?

LeapPad - IPad's Cousin

With all the buzz going on with learning through Ipads and all, I came across an interesting gadget as I was strolling along Toys R Us yesterday. This device by LeapFrog called LeapPad2 an improvised version of LeapPad is one of the hot selling gadget for children. Apparently this device is a very academic one as compared to Ipads. This is in contrast a response post to Vicki's post on How young is too young for an ipad.

This is how it looks like. pretty awesome device for young learners. Lets take a look at what the device special features are.

• Learning games - not just any angry bird games but lots of games for learning (numeracy, language etc)
• Download apps - the special part of this device is that you can download lots of other learning apps
• Digital reading and Ebooks - this device serves as an ebook reader too, promoting paperless
• Flash cards
• Videos - for watching vausla youtube videos online or learning videos
• Music players - relaxation is equally important too isn't it
• Front and back camera recorder - one feature for the child to make it feels like an ipad.
• Online play

Will you provide one of this for your child? I say yes to that. This device has 325 and more learning games and apps that provide an educational and interactive experience for each child. It has an automatically progress detector and changes accordingly making the level harder for the child. This device seem to be a working device to the child like an Ipad rather than a toy.

The device cost RM500-RM799, depending on their features and specification. What is your verdict on replacing the use of Ipads with this one? and only teachers to use Ipad. Sounds like a good idea isn't it? As compared to Ipad, this will suit the children more, probably as a start up device for the child to be responsible with before using the ipad. Nonetheless, it is still cost a bomb to some parents too. There you go, every technology seems to have a pro and con towards that.