Final post

Summing up what I have learn for the whole course and practical and also my life in BECH!

For the past 5 semester it has been a big and huge learning experience for me. I have actually benefited a lot from the program. I came to understand children better day by day, a better view and understanding of how they learn and how they act. Each professional practice that I gone through, gives new experiences that are beyond expectation. The previous EDC3100 professional experience was rather a good exposure to use ICT in classroom, a preview of how futuristic education might be.

ICT and pedagogy has opened up my eyes to see the wonders technology can do in the classroom and yet not replacing the main role of the teacher. This little pieces of machines could evolve and be a better machine for better learning process. Children now and the future will benefit more from this. For example, 20 books cramped in an Ipad is such a convenience!

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"!

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

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?

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? 

Planning the Lesson

Now that it has been a month since we started EDC3100, and another month to go before we head out for Professional practices. I am beginning to think what should I be teaching? Sometimes there are so many limitation in the workplace that hinders you from carrying out lessons. Therefore before even starting my practical, I am gonna make a critical analysis and proper planning to avoid the unwanted and to be prepared to use ICT in teaching the children. 

Image from GoogleImage

I gotta start thinking how the class is gonna be. Should I allow ICT usage to be 100%, 70% or what. What pedagogical approach should I be underlying my practice to. How many children are there, how many are ICT users for the first time or perhaps not so keen or new to ICT. How well would the lesson go,would it bore the child if they are not able to use the ICT.

Image from GoogleImage

Then it comes to the second part of it, I just realize my school has a standardized curriculum and I am not able to cut through much but implementations can be done. Apparently there is good internet connection, a smart board in each classroom and nonetheless a computer lab. Awesome! that is all the basics I would need to carry out lessons. Now what should I do to make things more spiced up or perhaps better. 

Image source: google

Images source: google

Image source: google

Image source: google

Well well well, some of the equipment that I will be bringing to the school yet I myself am not quite sure what to teach just yet. Well I am gonna plan early and compare with my coursemates to seek feedback from one another. What do you guys think I should do for my lesson? Since it would centered around Science as well as language. I know I have rich ICT sources but are lessons gonna be ICT worthwhile and beneficial to the child's learning? or perhaps I might have rich ICT but I can't even use it well. What say you?