Highlights and Advantages of on line learning –A reflection on the CCTI course

The CCTI course has:

 Enhanced my intrinsic motivation- I am always eager to do and try out new  things. Today I made a presentation using Power Point to teachers in Kampala on Learner Centered Methods of teaching and it was such a huge success because I used INFORGRAPHICS to speak for me and with the ideas of constructivism still fresh in my mind- I found myself using terms like “Sage on the stage”, “Guide on the side” and “Meddler in the middle!” – transfer of learning  and practical application of what I had learnt. Teachers listened in rapt attention and were taking notes rapidly.

 Sharpened my research skills and ability to curate. I have a high sense of information seeking behavior. Given a topic to read and or listen to, I find myself reading and researching far beyond the allocated reading materials, book marking what I would refer to later and picking those ideas that would augment my argument. I have a store of knowledge regarding the theories of learning Behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism,the Socratic method and also how to deliver and integrate these in the classroom – I have a repository of quotable quotes for everything I need.

S  Strengthened my digital literacy and enhanced my technological skills. I have learnt and is still learning a lot about the functions of the internet. I have mastered typing on the key board. I have access to many apps –slide share, pinterest, Edutech, and many others. I have also joined the different communities on google+ , I can use You tube to connect with the world and especially to enhance the development of my new born baby – the classroom blog.

     Put me in a flexible mode. I am able  to self- direct- my- self –paced lesson since it could  allow me  to  access the course at  anytime, in  any place where  I  have access to the Internet even  from the comfort of my home.

     Brought Education Theory to Life. I am able to take full advantage of the interactivity and multimedia power of the Internet, engaging me with videotaped classroom scenes, interviews, and online demonstrations of concepts. This offered me a more valuable learning experience. - Salman Khan’s: Flipping the classroom, Seymour Papert’s TPACK model as a way of understanding the relationship between Content, Pedagogy and Technology. Larry Rosenstock’s: High Tech High and Erica McWilliam’s: The Meddler in the Middle are examples of a few. Very enriching  indeed.

 Made me discover that Information using the digital learning resources has a rhizomatic structure – branches that are intertwined with different possible reading paths. A rhizome has no beginning or end just like the Internet, and the phenomena of hypertexts contribute to the rhizomatic structure by facilitating links between texts, permitting me to enter into an entirely new relation with an infinite number of other information sources on the Internet, only by clicking on a small symbol. In this manner, I have a delved into extra reading that informed my knowledge beyond the expectations of the course.

Encourages the concept of evaluation by which I am encouraged to meta-reflect and discuss my own experiences, engagement and learning in the subject area – before, during and after the learning process, a process which I   encourages thinking and sharpens my writing skills.

What were the problems and pitfalls?

These were the problems I encountered:

1.    I am uncontrollably addicted to the computer and the internet to the extent that I sleep late, affecting my work generally.

2.    Too much Information provided resulting in information overload, leading to a high level of forgetting.

3.    Juggling work, family and the course. Therefore, stress!

4.    I had to put in more effort since the course requires more time and commitment.

5.    My budget for the internet bundles went up considerably; coupled with intermittent internet and on and off power supply.

 None the less, I am enjoying the course.

 

 

 

 

Transforming the teaching of Literature in English using the TPACK Model

2.6.4.WHEN WE WERE TRAINED...BUT OUR ADVICE...

	"When we were trained to be teachers, and started working in schools, we…	But our advice to you now is…
1	Encouraged students to learn by rote and memorization	Involve students in creative thinking and active participation in the activities in class
2	Delivered instruction  in a linear, unilateral, orthodox manner	Engage learners in innovative activities and knowledge acquisition. The curriculum is built in a spiral manner to encourage scaffolding of knowledge.
3	Sat students in rows and they  are passive recipients of information	Actively involve learners in the  learning process taking care of their multiple intelligences and also the accommodation of difference
4	Assumed that there is a fixed body of knowledge that the students must come to know	Allow learners to construct their own knowledge
5	Transfer knowledge , thoughts, meanings, to passive students leaving little room for student-initiated questions, independent thought or interaction between students	Let Learning  be  enhanced through social interaction Learning can only be meaningful  by encouraging  authentic tasks Encourage problem –solving. Learning  begins with a question, a case, a problem
6	Learning is dominated by the teacher “sage”	Teacher is a guide, facilitator, coach, mediator, prompter allowing students to construct their knowledge actively The teacher’s task is to ask good questions and present problems and allow students to find own answers Allow multiple interpretations and expressions of learning Encourage group work and the use of peers as resources (Collaborative learning) Prompt students to formulate their own questions (Inquiry)

Creativity, Constructivism,and Accommodation of Difference

A thin thread of inter-connectivity runs through creativity, Constructivism and the Accomodation of Difference  in a cyclic manner:

The three elements help  draw out  the best in the learners because they each encourage the learners to be themselves in a learning situation.

 Accomodation of difference highlights the importance of giving appropriate weight to a child's opinion which in turn is borne out of a child's ability to actively construct knowledge through inquiry ; this blends with the child's natural creative ability that enables them to develop ideas that are unique and worthy of further elaboration (inquiry) and (scaffolding) and the process revolves around itself.

LESS SELF-ESTEEM - MORE CREATIVITY OR LESS OF IT?

Erica  brings out a new twist in the role of the teacher in the classroom with purposeful reasoning.

I agree with Erica's point of view  perhaps because I am a perfectionist who believes in children having to get in touch with the  realities of this world if they are to grow (physically, Emotionally, Spiritually, Psychologically) in it.

Erica states that:

• Learning should move from being learning in the  classroom to life long learning in the cafe where people gather around a table sharing coffee and not minding about the coffee spilling on the linen - Learners need to cooperate- work together as a group in this way they develop the skills of problem solving -building creativity. 
•  Learning in the classroom is individualistic, instant success, perfect and now, where the teacher plays the role of a therapist, patronising the children, shielding the children with praise thus protecting them from thinking and doing things in a new way,-creativity.
• Instead, the teacher needs to model being knowledgeable and usefully ignorant- to support and direct- to challenge learning and thinking, to design better questions by building open-ended questions that provoke/promote /give more challenge. 
• The teacher should direct the learner  to learn  practically and  pragmatically, and encourage the learners 'to stay in the grey-not yet'- this will force the learners to want to THINK DIVERGENTLY - to want o do more , to want to learn/ practice more- galvanising them to meet the challenges of the world.

Erica  mentions: a little less therapy , a little more challenge.- she does not entirely discourage building a learners' self esteem in totality, Instead, the she encourages the teacher to have a paradigm shift to giving  the learners more challenge and to develop  the learners' ability to  constant surmount one  challenge after another. This   (Creative Problem Solving skills) will in itself act as a self -built- self -esteem (Nellie's coinage )  that will make them able to meet the challenges of this world. - Promoting creativity.

My Take Home Lesson:

The teacher's capacity needs to shift from "Sage on the Stage" and "Guide on the Side" to "Meddler in the Middle"

HIGH TECH HIGH

I like the name of the school. Very intriguing, eye catching, curious and unique!

My focus is going to be just on this! What makes this school 

"HIGH?" 

It is not like the conventional schools where students are compartmentalised. This school does not draw any lines any where between the school and the community neither  among the students that are there in -whether one has attained a college education or not nor categorise them according to their social class -Learners and their teachers share the same bathrooms. It is an integrated school where children disadvantaged in one way are put together with other children so they learn from one another. - The primary goal of constructivism is to help students learn how to learn

THE WHOLE ESSENCE IS THAT EVERYBODY BELONGS, IN HIS /HER OWN RIGHT. EVERYBODY HAS SOMETHING TO OFFER WHICH THE OTHERS CAN LEARN FROM (previous knowledge) IN THIS HUGE OPEN SPACE THAT IS A CLASSROOM WHERE THE SPIRIT OF COLLABORATION IS EMPHASISED  AND WHERE STUDENTS CURATE THEIR WORK:

• Children can see what is going on with each other
• They get to look at each other's work
• See what is going on in class

Through all this the learners make evaluative judgments and improve themselves. -The constructivist classroom is an active one, which encourages the evolving of knowledge and where  students learn from their peers. -This  school is  HIGH indeed!

This school is HIGH!

 Rosenstock summarises his intent as : " School is a place where children find out who they are.Rosenstock found out his talent in carpentry which he uses to study the world - It is for this reason that he encourages the students to study with purpose- in order to feed the un- met needs of the communities  they live in -In studying, the students do what the adults do. They do not just study about a subject- the behave  by being like it. For example, a journalist, a carpenter, a film -maker. - Inquiry based learning - the main activity in a constructivist classroom is problem solving.

The syllabus is  always covered because the areas of learning are drawn from the unmet needs in their community.

High Tech?

The school uses technology as tools because: "knowing how to use them makes you able to demonstrate things to people"( Rosenstock.). At the school the children are engaged in  using technology to make things, to calculate to craft, to explain, to discover, to research - in this manner the students are always thinking- " appreciating the pleasure of the rigour of thinking in learning". In this manner they are "Stupid". beacuse they are HIGH TECH! 

High Tech High!

The most captivating part of this are the teachers!

They are a special lot who connect what they love to do with what they love to teach making the teaching- learning experience a memorable one.

Rosenstock puts it this way: "Being in the company of a passionate adult who is rigorously pursuing inquiry in the area of their subject matter and is inviting students as peers in that adult discourse." He calls this " RIGOUR"- The product of this is sophistication in the work of the children which in turn is the mark of a good teacher.

This teacher makes the children feel that what they are learning is worth doing, is of value to them and memorable. The learners are treated with respect like it would be in the adult world. Rosenstock enacts this in his passion for carpentry which he has developed into the HIGH TECH HIGH school!

This last bit of the teacher integrating  passion into his/her teaching is the new energy that needs to be injected into our teacher training institutions- especially today where teachers are frowned upon by society and we teachers have a low self esteem because society despises our profession as being a lowly one.Very few teachers are in there as a matter of choice- they are in there as a matter of a last resort. 

THE NELLIE INFOGRAPHIC

As I muse on my recent up hill task of creating an  infographic, I should mention that it was both a grueling and pleasurable experience.When I completed the exercise I could not believe that I had done it!

 What processes did I follow?

•      I studied the three main tasks and I planned:

1. What message?      the points I wanted to make
2. What content?-       the data that supported the message
3. what audience?-      the people who are to read the infographic
4. what goals?-           What I want the audience to do after reading the infographic

•      I prepared the design

Did I add value to my design?

 I highlighted subject matter that focused attention of the reader.                                                             

 How did I present this design?        

  I presented the meaty interesting data in a clear visually attractive way                                                 

 Did I make it readable?                     

The first slide is a bait to entice and attract the reader

Is it shareable?                                 

  Yes. I created a link to the original 

Size?                                                  

 Not too long as to bore, not too short as to leave the reader unsatisfied                                                 

 Anything  unique?                             

  I customized my infographic with my picture to make it  sell                                                              

• My biggest challenge was in the actual crafting the infographic (I chose the power point) slides. God in His wisdom decided to send me a helper - a fellow participant -Geoffrey Kateregga - so unexpectedly. He is an ICT expert. I could not but admire the power of collaboration as we worked together - him providing the technical know how and helping me navigate, I providing the content and guidance on what shape I wanted my infographic to take
• It was at this point that I started feeling pleasurable-I learnt a lot and I would still want to practice more and more to help me perfect my skill.

LOOKING BACK

My weaknesses:

1. My infographic lacked a a main title which should have stood out right at the start of the first slide.
2. I needed to have written my name just below the title and the date when I created the infographic
3. I needed to have cited some references as an indication that the content is accurate, and also to make my infographic credible.

Below is the link to the infographic.

 https://magic.piktochart.com/output/4971337-something-old-something-new

 https://magic.piktochart.com/output/4971337-something-old-something-new

TEACHING: THE SOCRATIC WAY

This reflection  is not classroom based, but one that took place in my office. I hope it is as near a classroom experience as possible.

This a very short form of the whole experience. 

I used this the Socratic method yesterday when a student came to my office crying because she would not be admitted to a university because she had not filled the forms necessary for this while still at high school.

I requested her to take a seat and compose herself. when she came round, we sat facing each other and I toned down my voice, developed an empathetic disposition and she immediately felt at home.

I started  by asking  clarifying questions to get her tell me more;

 Nellie: Are you crying because you did not fill the form?

Student: Yes

Nellie: why did you not fill the form?

Student: I did not have money

Nellie: You did not have money? what about your parents?

Student: I have been struggling to pay my own fees. (sobs)

Nellie: (offers a serviette). what about your parents?

Student:  (sobs louder) My mother is battling breast cancer! and my sister who used to pay my fees was diagnosed with breast cancer too!

 I started asking probing questions - to reason her out

Nellie: Can you tell me the reason why you are crying?

Student: I have no future!

Nellie:Do you think tears will solve the problem?

Student: No

I gave her three view points:

Nellie: What if we looked at your future in this way?

             !. Admission to a tertiary institution

             2. Loosing one year and re applying to university

             3. linking up with a friend in one of the private universities to engage you in a

                 programme for brilliant but poor students

Student: (Smiles hopefully) I will take the last option

I fixed an appointment for her and off she went to see the Dean of this university.

By approaching the problem using the Socratic method I found myself:

1.   Challenging  the girl's accuracy and completeness of thinking in a way that helped her move towards her ultimate goal- education. She came to my office in tears but left with a smile.
2. Challenging her to make her own decision not by authoritarian means, but through questioning  ( the three options)
3. Challenging the girl through a constant progression of knowledge until she answered the original question: 'why are you crying?'

THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPERIENCE IN MY OWN TEACHING AND LEARNING

I feel cheated since I do not have any ' on- going experience' but I am bound to share!

Well, I will tell a story  about my recent visit to my little girl's primary school and what I experienced there. Here goes:

On Saturday 28th of February, the parents and guardians of pupils of Primary four (my daughter is in a stream Flamingoes - beautiful name conjuring beautiful images of stately birds by a lake ) and Primary five. Purpose for this meeting? CHECKING  ACADEMIC PROGRESS OF daughters.

School: St. Theresa Girls Boarding Primary School, Namagunga.

The Head Teacher's report focused on the primary seven results of 2014 in relation to  NUMBERS and SCORES and GRADES and DIVISION 1 or 2 and RANKING. 

The chairperson School Management Committee went on and on reminding us about our parental roles in the up bringing of our children in order to help them ATTAIN GOOD GRADES! 

The resource person made it clear to all parents that we should take care of our children,s emotional, physical, psychological,and spiritual needs if we expected them to SCORE HIGH IN EXAMINATIONS!  She also spoke of the challenges of parenting in the 21st Century and mentioned TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS as one of the biggest hurdles parents should contend with.

The Q& A session - most interesting of all- A parent was concerned about the STREAMING of pupils in terms of FAST LEARNERS, MIDDLE LEARNERS , SLOW LEARNERS- the chairperson School Management Committee  retorted- 'THAT IS NOT YOUR BUSINESS LEAVE THE SCHOOL TO DO WHAT IT THINKS IS RIGHT!'

After the meeting, the actual checking of progress begun. Parents poured into the classes each to see a teacher  and all six teachers for all the subjects for a comment regarding their daughters.Pinned at the entrance the class were SCORES , GRADES and POSITIONS of three sets of examinations that the children had been subjected to and we had to look through their exercise books and make comments- we were warned- not to the teacher EVEN IF THE TEACHER WERE WRONG.

I picked my daughter and her books and file. I was shocked at the extreme neatness of my daughter's handwriting and to learn that she is transiting from the use of the pencil to a ball pen. I quipped to her that she was too neat for my liking.The teacher's role? TASK MASTER ! I could imagine what the children went through to have such neat handwriting-THEIR KNUCKLES must have suffered the endless lashes of the cane, all in the name of ATTAINMENT!

I came across the teacher's spelling error looking misplaced in this school where a simple error like missing a full stop, or not crossing your ts and dotting your is' earns you a big cross even if the answer is correct! the teacher had spelt  QUAVER as QUAVAR (a beat in music). I took him on and  in revenge!I told him to mark the spelling of that word and also to realise how hard it is to force down facts into the young children;s heads! How could they drive the children to perfectionism at such a tender age? Were they breeding ROBOTS?

Despite all this I smiled widely when my daughter presented me with a card she had drawn for me decorated with a multiple of colours with words written in a font style different from the standard font of the school- in which she expressed that she loved her family and she also made suggestions as to what I should cook for her when I visit her on the visitation day. -A clear sign that a human being  cannot be harnessed however much one tries.

What is it that is so disturbing about the nature of learning at my daughter's school?

1. Focus on  rigorous teaching, testing, and  regurgitation of facts
2. Method of work- strict time tables, strict schedules, measured way of doing work and structured writing  of responses 
3. Stiffing of  the learners' ingenuity, creativity etc- in an effort to make them all the same- the children all have similar handwriting!
4. Parental involvement is geared at pushing the competitive spirit forward. Any dissenting idea is not tolerated.
5. The children are made to feel guilty if they do not attain very high grades and are pushed beyond their limits !

What next? Is that all?

The whiff of fresh air is in the Lower Secondary Curriculum Reform, CURASSE)  which aims at shifting from an old tried and trusted model of Secondary Education to a broader and more inclusive curriculum that can satisfy needs of different abilities.The current curriculum is outdated in its strong emphasis on subject content at the expense of learner acquisition of marketable skills and competencies.

After carrying out the situational analysis and a market survey, the findings guided this curriculum reform which has the following aims:

• To promote effective learning and acquisition of skills
• To address the needs of all students and lay the foundation for improved pedagogy and assessment procedures which allow learners to more effectively realise their full potential and demonstrate their achievements
• To address the social and economic needs of the country by meeting the educational needs of learners who will take jobs in the world of work, become self-employed people or pursue academic studies beyond senior four.
• To allow flexibility to absorb emerging fields of knowledge in a rapidly-changing world
• To reduce content overload by specifying a realistic set of expected learning outcomes with a range of essential generic skills at the heart of the curriculum

One of the aims of reforming the curriculum was to reduce the load on the teaching and make it skills based to enable graduates of Ordinary Level education relevant to the learners in the society where they live. The subject menu has been reduced to eight learning areas:

Creative Arts-will embrace dance, drama, music and the visual arts.  These are all inter-related. Creative Arts will develop lifelong appreciation of and participation in expressive arts and cultural activities.

• Creative Arts will enable learners to:
• create and appreciate different art forms
• foster and enhance Uganda’s diverse culture
• explore and utilise the environment
• use art  and  culture to generate income and employment

Language-One's ability to use language lies at the centre of the development and expression of our emotions, our thinking, our learning and our sense of personal identity. Learners from S1 will be exposed to local, national and international languages.

Life Education -designed to address societal challengesLearning in Life Education will ensure that young people develop the knowledge, understanding, skills, and capabilities which they need for their psychological, physical and social wellbeing at school and later in adult life.

Life Education integrates Personal Social and Health Education and Physical Education.  This Learning Area is designed to address societal challenges such as:

• Obesity among young people
• Drug and alcohol abuse
• Early engagement in sexual activities
• Teenage pregnancies and high dropout rates
• High HIV prevalence among young adults
• The poor hygiene standards of young people
• Inadequate and inappropriate sources of information regarding sexuality

Religious Education-aims to develop spiritual and moral well-being in learners.It will ensure that young people acquire the knowledge, understanding, skills and values which contribute to spiritual wellbeing while at school and throughout life. Religious Education will enable young people to engage in a search for meaning, value and purpose in life. They will appreciate the beliefs and values that are fundamental to families and to the fabric of society.Learners will study either Christian Religious Education or Islamic Religious Education.

Science -Learners will use evidence to analyse and evaluate the way science is used in daily life.  They will engage in a wide range of collaborative and investigative tasks to develop functional science skills. Science will help them to become creative, inventive and enterprising adults.

 

Social Studies -will develop the knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes and values that learners need to participate actively in society. It will help them to be informed, confident and responsible citizens of the local, national, regional and global communities. 

Mathematics-will move to the applicable and functional mathematics that is required by all learners for full and effective participation in social and economic life 

Technology and enterprise-Learners will engage in creative, practical and work-related activities within a programme of study designed as a sequence of modules through each year. The learners will apply these skills on a range of projects. These projects will be selected according to ‘do-ability’, local area needs, learner preference and teacher competence. The projects will constitute responses to identified societal problems and challenges. The products of the skills developed in this Learning Area will be in form of designs, items, approaches, technical methods, experimental techniques, or prototype equipment.

Finally?

My story ends with a "Happily ever after"

1.  Teachers will be retooled to help them deliver the curriculum which is more skills based as opposed to the current one which is content loaded. 
2. The trainees in the CCTI course will have an upper hand in the delivery of CURASSE, because the course is enacting what the progressive learning  is and Nellie is finding it challenging but  beautifully engaging!
3. I am not a linear person, I resist structures and being put in to pigeon holes. I am a free spirit- the spirit of progressive learning and will make sure it takes root and holds! My blog to which  I intend  to engage all teachers of Literature in English will involve these ideas  (progressive learning) and novel ways to improve  learning of the subject.