These Are My General Personal Reflections
About This Course:
What is technology in the classroom?
Technology can be defined as any tool that can be used to help promote human
learning, including – but not limited to – calculators, tablets (such as an
iPad), Smart Boards, video cameras, digital cameras, MP3 players, Portable
Digital Assistants (PDAs), and, of course, the computer.
The adoption of
technology completely changes how I teach and how my students learn. As a
teacher I must learn and I am learning through the CCTI course how
to teach with emerging technologies (tablets, iPads, Smart Boards, digital
cameras, computers), while I need to
encourage my students to use advanced technology to shape how they learn. By
embracing and integrating technology in the classroom, I am are setting my
students up for a successful life outside of school.
Education
is no longer about memorizing facts on paper; it is about engaging with students
through technology; about intellectually challenging the students to acquire and refine their skills in analysis
and problem-solving as they work individually and in teams (collaboratively) to
find, process, and synthesize information they have found on line.
The use of
technology in the classroom must support four key components of learning:
active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback,
and connection to real-world experts.
The myriad
resources of the online world also provide each classroom with more
interesting, diverse and current learning materials. The Web connects students
to experts in the real world and provides numerous opportunities for expressing
understanding through images, sound, and text.
More Specifically,
Technology also
changes the way I teach, offering me effective ways to reach different types of
learners and assess student understanding through multiple means. It also
enhances the relationship between me and my students. When I effectively
integrate technology into my subject area (English Language /Literature in
English) I grow into roles of adviser, content expert, and coach. Technology
helps me make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun.
A DAY AT THE
OFFICE
I evaluated the
potential of Microsoft Office software as a technological tool in the
classroom. It is evident that Microsoft Office software in the
classroom builds the learners’ experiences in developing the kinds of rich, multimedia
products. Multiple media gives students choices about how best to convey a
given idea (e.g., through text, video, animation). In part, because they have
the capability to produce more professional-looking products and the tools to
manipulate the way information is presented, especially when
they use PowerPoint as a presentation tool. This tool allows Learners
to do more stylistic things in
terms of how the paper looks, and if there is something they want to emphasize,
they will change the font . . . they are
looking at the words- they are writing
in a different way. They are not just thinking about writing a sentence, they are
doing that, but they are also thinking about, "This is a really important
word" or "This is something I want to stand out." And they're
thinking in another completely different way about their audience. Here is a summary of some of the software
tools that my learners can engage in to perform various tasks in the classroom.
Microsoft Office
software
Office not only helps students stay organized
and get their work done today but at the same time develops skills that will be
required when they enter the work force. Microsoft Office provides
access to the latest, most up-to-date version of the world’s leading set of
productivity tools in order to give them a competitive advantage when entering
the workforce.
Advantages of PowerPoint
Potential
benefits of using presentation graphics include:
Engaging
multiple learning styles, increasing visual impact, improving audience focus, providing
anotations and highlights, analyzing and synthesizing complexities, enriching
curriculum with interdisciplinarity, Increasing spontaneity and interactivity
and increasing wonder.
Microsoft
Access is a database tool for
gathering and understanding information—such as phone numbers,
inventory and even guest lists—providing a convenient way to enter, navigate
and report your data
Microsoft
Word is a software application that allows users to perform word processing to
create documents such as letters, invitations, term papers, flyers, resumes,
novels and more.
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet
application, typically used to display and manipulate numerical data. Microsoft
Excel provides data organization and analysis tools that enables you to sort,
extract and generate charts from spreadsheet data.
One Note is a note-taking and personal information management
(PIM) application for collecting, organizing and sharing digital information.
Microsoft PowerPoint enables users to create dynamic, informational
slides through the use of text, graphics and animation. Slide presentations
created with the software are often displayed on projection screens for
business, training or educational presentations.
The Microsoft suite has everything in one bucket. It no
doubt is best suited for technology integration in the classroom, because of
its versatility!
TPACK- SAMR-ASSURE
The TPACK framework emphasizes that as an effective
teacher I should not only possess mastery of my subject areas (content
knowledge) nor teaching strategies and techniques (pedagogical knowledge), but
also of appropriate technological tools and resources (technological
knowledge). These three aspects are integrated and work in synergy to create a
multi-faceted type of knowledge. It is as important that I contextualise TPACK;
that is, to understand its implications and applications in my immediate
environment. I need to cultivate this kind of layered understanding in myself
and in my learners as well.
I have also
understood that I can adopt, repurpose
and integrate digital technologies effectively into my TPACK to support
particular pedagogical approaches. For instance, in one of my lessons with the
Grade V teacher trainees, I encouraged collaboration using a web 2.0 interactive tool –the classroom blog –
using this tool to successfully support
collaborative, inquiry-based and problem-based learning,
The SAMR model is a useful complement
to the TPACK framework when considering the roles of digital technologies for
educational purposes. This model presents technologies on two levels as (1)
enhancements and (2) transformations of education. On the enhancement level, I
encouraged the use of technology in the substitution of activities that previously
did not require technology –Grade V teacher trainees substituted writing by hand
with using Microsoft Word to prepare their work.
Enhancement also includes
augmentation. Here, the trainees would make use of word processing tools. On
the transformation level I use technology to
lead into modification, in which tasks and
activities are reshaped; for example, I encouraged the learners to include
multimedia artefacts in the classroom web log. However, the most significant
transformation involves redefinition, in which technology affords the creation
of activities and tasks that were previously impossible .Here I encouraged the
use of online collaborative work through the classroom blog.).
The most important lesson for me here
as a teacher is that:
The more aware I am of the potential
uses of certain digital technologies, the better I can integrate them into my
courses to support and strengthen content delivery and pedagogy.
The TPACK model is a useful
framework for integrating technology into education, but because technologies
are constantly changing, my TK will have to continue to develop beyond formal
training. To satisfy this need for continuous learning, it is imperative that I
cultivate PLNs that include not only other teachers, but also learners, who
will become an increasingly important part of my lifelong learning on digital
technologies.
How I use technology is
important, as it should align with the outcomes and objectives of my lesson
The
TPACK and SAMR models blend into the ASSURE Model for lesson
planning which is attributed to Heinich, Molenda, Russell, and
Samldino (2001) and has six steps, represented by the acronym
in its title that describes a set of tasks central to the informed selection
and use of educational technology. The tasks are:
Analyse Learners
State Objectives
Select Media and
Materials
Utilize Media and
Materials
Require Learner
Participation
Evaluate and Revise
I used the six steps
to create my lesson on the identification and use of figurative language in
three selected poems.
The most
significant part of the ASSURE Model to me is the ABCD’s of writing
objectives:
Audience – learners for whom the objective
is written
Behaviour – the verb that describes what the
audience will be able to do (e.g., describe, explain, locate, synthesize,
argue, communicate)
Condition – the circumstances under which the
audience will perform the behaviour
Degree – acceptable performance of the
behaviour
To
be able to integrate technology successfully in my classroom, I needed to
understand the five different Instructional Software Functions:
Drill and Practice:
Software that
provides different exercises in which students can work through and receive
feedback on their correctness. For example Quiz lets and flash cards
Tutorials:
These are entire instructional
sequences on a topic, similar to a teacher’s classroom instruction This
type of software should allow the student to learnt the unit/concept without
supplementary instructions from other sources.
Simulation:
This is a
computerised model of a real or imagined system designed to educate the student
on how the system works and allows learners to create their own sequence for
using simulations.
Instructional Games
This is the process
of adding a game like functions to the software to aid learning.
Problem Solving
This Is a type of
content free or content based that place emphasis on critical
thinking,analysis, logic and reasoning via the presentation of a set data or
problematic event.
This software
focuses on three main areas.
Recognition of a goal
A process and
Mental activity
This type of software
focuses on fostering component skills, in or approaches to general
problem-solving ability, or provide opportunities to practice solving various
kind of content-area problems.
I followed the following criteria to evaluate software in order to arrive at the most
suitable one for my lesson:
Software
Selection: A General Guide
Determined the specific needs of the user populatio
Located software and software reviews through journals, indexes, educational
organizations
magazines, software house catalogs,
and the Internet.
Determined hardware compatibility
in terms of memory, speed, storage capacity, and equipment.
Determined program content such as objectives and age-appropriate activities.
I Considered instructional design
factors such as:
Learner
control
addresses who controls the program, the student or the computer.
Reinforcement addresses how students are
reinforced and rewarded for responses.
Sequencing addresses whether instruction
occurs in an effective order.
Flexibility addresses whether the program can be
adapted to small and large groups.
Program appearance addresses the appeal
of graphics, animation, and sound.
Ease
of use was considered in how easy the program is to learn and use, with
simple
commands and accessible help screens
Consumer
value or cost was considered, as some programs cost thousands of dollars
and may
be purchased as lab packs, networkable software, and site licenses
Support included technical support and comprehensible documentation.
Areas
that may cause problems in software quality include software and hardware which
may have,
and lack of been rushed to production, manufacturer greed, technical
incompetence in creating
products instructional design.
Is It Important to
Use Technology Tools for Learning?
Helps students
develop 21st century skills—such as communication, collaboration, creativity,
problem solving, critical thinking, and digital literacy—through rich,
interactive applications.
Empowers educators
with tools to manage the classroom and keep students on task.
I
found this web site very informative in providing technology tools for
teachers:
This leads me into
asking: How do I tell one website from another? How do I judge the authenticity
and worth of a website?
This leads me into asking: How do I
tell one website from another? How do I judge the authenticity and
worthwhileness of a website?
WEB SITE
EVALUATION
Evaluating web pages skill fully requires me to do two things at
once:
Train my eye and fingers to employ a series of techniques that
help me quickly find what I need to know about web pages; -Skim reading.
Train my mind to think critically, even suspiciously, by asking
a series of questions that will help me decide how much a web page is
to be trusted. – To cultivate the
habit of healthy scepticism, of questioning everything I find with critical
thinking.
To help me do this skilfully, I have come up with an acronym AAOCC (Authority, Accuracy, Objectivity, Currency,
and Coverage) coupled with the FIVE Ws which will help me remember
what to look out for while evaluating websites.
Why? –Authority
What?-Accuracy
Where?-Objectivity
When?-Currency
Why? –coverage
LESSON PEER REVIEW
I
reviewed Fiona Mwanje’s English lesson for primary 2 class. (Word
identification, pronounciation and syllabification).
It
was quite challenging. I provided her with detailed comments and guided her on
how to make her lesson plan more succinct.
For
me it was a learning experience. I had to do more research, analyse more model
lessons, make comparisons and finally pass a judgement. I discovered that I
still have to learn more ….I need to practice more…I need to build a repertoire
of resources from which I can tap information quickly.
From
Fiona, I learnt the importance of thinking out of the box – be creative and
find my own path of preparing my teaching while not disregarding the framework.
I
also reviewed Namatovu Rehema’s lesson on ICT (Creating a Word
document)
It
was quite intriguing on one hand because it was an area not directly related to
my area of speciality but on the other, it was in the area of my personal
interest. This experienced galvanised my confidence that with ASSURE, one can
evaluate any lesson in any field if one understood the basics of the model and
it undertones too.
It
was a learning experience too, sharpened my critical thinking skills and my
ability to make connections. It became quite clear to me that all the aspects
of the lesson plan MUST be linked if the lesson is to be a success.
The
media, methods and materials need to be carefully selected with one taking care
of the more modern technology. These also need to be utilized
appropriately in tandem with the methods and the nature of learner
participation.
These
reviews have sharpened my understanding of the ASSURE Instructional model.
Thanks to CCTI!
AND, FINALLY....QUOTABLE QUOTES
The
strength of digital technologies is in the benefits they might offer in terms
of flexibility and convenience of content delivery, rather than being a
substitute for face-to-face interaction.
Face-to-face
teaching will not be replaced by digital technologies, but it will exist in
tandem with digital technologies that can be used both inside and beyond the
classroom.
And
now……………….. To put it in pictures……….
The
ASSURE model puts the learner at the centre of learning: And, yes, times have
changed greatly…..
