Today I learn, today I question (week 10)

Today’s presentation is about the flipped classroom which presented by Shakirah. This is the first time I heard about the flipped classroom, it is a completely new idea to me. In the flipped classroom, students are given some learning materials such like videos, handouts to learn at home before they come to the lesson, this is a very good idea especially to me in teaching a science subject. I am teaching form 4 chemistry, every year, I will encounter a problem on finishing the syllabus on time before the students have the year end examination, due to the long syllabus and lots of experiment I need to cover within the 4 periods time in a week, I have to teach very fast and most of the time the students were not understand about the content I taught.With the idea of flipped classroom, I think the students can understand better the lesson if they watch the videos before they come to class and if they do not understand about anything, they can repeat the video until they really get the idea presented by the video. This is good to the slow learner too, they can learn on their pace that is comfortable for them.

Every thing has pro and con, the con here is if the students are lazy to watch the videos at home before they come to class, their learning outcome would be worse than in the normal class, this is because the teacher would teach in a way that he/she assumed everyone has watched the video at home, so end up these students would be left out in the class. Another thing is the students would not really pay attention to the lesson because they think that what they have to learn has already given by the teacher and they can learn on themselves without teacher. Although flipped classroom is a good idea, but if we want to implement it in our class, we should plan our instruction carefully so that the students would not miss use the teacher’s purpose.

 

 

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Today I Learn, Today I Question (week 9)

19 Nov 2011

In this week, we had learned about the Pedagogical Strategies, Activities, Web Resources. There are a lot of web resources which is suitable for teaching and learning purposes. The website provided by madam Ng , web 2.0 resources, shows the top 20 web 2.0 must haves for every 21 st century classroom. Most of the web 2.0 I just got to know today, as a MIT student, I think I am very outdated about the information for online learning. I think I should have to expose more in the online world to update myself…

Today’s presentation’ title is ‘Teaching and learning with internet:Pedagogical strategies, activities,
Web resources 2.0’, by our classmate Dee, there are a few type of pedagogical strategies derived from the learning theories, behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism, social construtivism situated learning, and the latest one is connectivism (Siemens & Downes )2006. Constructivism is the most influential educational theory of our time (Bencze,2005). Actually, there is no single pedagogy that provides absolute success for all students. However,there are practices emerge to:Ensure meaningful learning, ensure the practical pedagogy applies.

In the presentation, Dee also introduced a completely new online learning platform to us, Schoolgy.I think Schoology designed mainly for T & L purpose, it is clean from distraction, it allow teacher to see the students’ performance, engagement to the course through the analysis and presented in a graph. I thick this website is very useful to all of us which intended to create an online learning platform.

Before the class end, every group take turn to show their website created for the assignment 3. We were ask to write a full report for our assignment 3 and hand in before the course end.

Today I learn, today I question (week 8)

 

                         

This week’s lesson is regarding instructional design model, ID model. There are a few popular ID models like Kemp's Instructional Design Models, Merrill first principal etc which are very useful in designing the web based teaching and learning platform. Today’s presenter is Jessica Lim, she shared an ID model which named ADDIE. In  this ADDIE model, 5 phases : analysis, design, develop, implement and evaluate.

Analysis

In this phase, we need to analyse the instructional problem, find out the instructional gaol and objectives. The learners’ prior knowledge and skills are identified.

Design

When designing and instruction model, we need to deal with learning objectives, assessment instruments, exercises, content, subject matter analysis, lesson planning and media selection. We have to be specify and careful when designing the instruction, to make sure the students are able to draw out the intended learning outcome. 

Development

In this phase, instructor create a lesson plan which included with the content that is going to deliver.If e-learning is involved, programmers work to develop and/or integrate technologies.

Implementation

During implementation, the plan is put into action and a procedure for training the learner and teacher is developed.  Materials are delivered or distributed to the student group. After delivery, the effectiveness of the training materials is evaluated..

Evaluation

This phase consists of (1) formative and (2) summative evaluation. Formative evaluation is present in each stage of the ADDIE process. Summative evaluation consists of tests designed for criterion-related referenced items and providing opportunities for feedback from the users.  Revisions are made as necessary.

After the presentation by Jessica, we form a small discussion group to design a road map which consist of what we had learned in these few weeks from beginning of the course. I find this activity is very useful to me because I can finally draw out my own perception on the things we had learned throughout these few weeks.The road map we produced is as below.

                                    

Today I learn, today I question (week 6)

This week’s lesson is about PLE (Personalised Learning ). PLE is a concept of learning where students are given choice for their study and learning, Students have the autonomy to decide what they want to learn and how to learn it. One example is creating blog and write the reflection every week after lesson as we do for this course, students are given the freedom on designing the blog, writing our own thinking after lesson, etc, without guidance from our instructor.

After Pearl’s presentation about PLE, I  have a more clear picture about it. Students will have more enjoyment in PLE because it is considering the individual pupil's interests, needs and abilities, and finding out the best style for each pupil (Good & Brophy, 1990) .With the aid of ICT, students also can learn beyond the class, students will find they are more understand for the lesson. Once they had master in one topic, then only they move to another topic. Unlike our education system now, the students have to follow the syllabus, some of the students are unable to follow the lesson because everyone’s learning pace is different, when they have problems for the basic, they will not be able to do the more advance topics, for example, if students can not perform calculation on division, students will not be able to solve problems in the chapter of linear equation.

There are many activities we have done in class are consider PLE, such like essay writing, students’ power point presentation, students gave comments on the video they watched, debates, drawing, designing for the NIE magazine and so on.

To conclude, PLE is a potential approach for meeting future educational needs and may provide new alternatives that foster learning capacity among individual learner.(Bentley and Miller, 2004). As educators, we should facilitate our students so the can have the full autonomy on creating his/her own learning ground.

Today I Learn, Today I Question 2

18/10/2011

Last week was a very busy week because my husband admitted to hospital and has undergone an operation, this is why I absent for the last Saturday’s lesson and now only I have time to write my reflection.

During the lesson, we had discussed about the “Engaging the online faculty : Effective modelling strategies for success, by Conrad and Donaldson”, This article is mainly about the model of engagement. How successful is an online course is depending on the interaction between students and online instructor. It is very important to make sure the students engage to the online course, in this article, the author shared a model of engagement which has been proven to be effective process for moving students through level of engagement. In order to make sure the online course successful, the instructor must be able to create an effective learning community with the incorporation of appropriate activities. An important element in this model is the role of the instructor become more and more transparent throughout the course. The traditional role of instructor has changed greatly as learning has shifted from the traditional classroom to online delivery and virtual interaction.

The usage of Webnode shown by Sailor Te and WikiSpace  by Yee Hui have impressed me a lot, thanks for the sharing. I hope I will be able to develop a website like these in the future for my students Before I start on working on my website, I need to clarify “ is there any significant difference between the teacher who is using website and the teacher who is not using the website in their teaching?”

Today I Learn, Today I Question

                                           

     Today’s lesson was a bit different as usual because madam Ng is using a new device in our class; it is the smart board. This is the first time I saw someone operating the smart board, it is amazing! I think it is best if I can use it to teach in my school as well, haha…

     Madam Ng has introduced a few online and offline game websites to us which we can use as our teaching aids in class to attract students interest to learn. Besides that, she also showed us how to use the You Tube to teach in class, by signing in to the You Tube account, we can write a description for a video and students can learn from the description before they watch the video. We can also make our own video and upload to the You Tube as our teaching aid.

     In the discussion section, we discussed about the chapter 5 “ Technologies of online learning” using the chat room created in the moodle. I was the one who participate  least in the conversation, this is because I spent so much time on reading what my classmates had written, and when I was about to type in my own opinion, others had already inserted what they want to say and I have to read again, so, end up I don’t know what should I say since everyone has contributed a lot …Actually I am a slow thinker, this is why I always keep quiet in the class. However, the chat session is useful to me because I came to know some interactive webs which are very useful in teaching and learning, such like You Tube, Wikispaces, Webnode, Facebook etc. I found myself very lack in using all these available teaching tools in my class, I must learn from my classmates, so that I can apply in my teaching and learning in the future.

        The last session of this lesson was Ng’s presentation. He shared a lot of information about the history and development of internet with us, he has done a good job, to me, this is an eye-opened presentation because I found that there are a lot of  new things I only came to know after the presentation, I must admit I am an outdated person…

       Lastly, I have a question regarding the effectiveness in using the websites for T&L purpose. I always hear the parents complaint about their kids spent too much time on the internet, are they, the teenagers nowadays able to learn what they have to learn online without distraction or they are wasting they time chatting with someone online, looking at all those nonsence things, watching videos etc. How are we, as the educators control the students to make sure they are using the internet with learning purpose and not the entertaiment purpose ???

Benchmarks and best practices

Attitude is everything!
      When I was in secondary school, my principal always says that “change you attitude first then only you can success!  Attitude is the most important thing to ensure one’s success.” I do agree with what he told us, until today I still remember  how serious of his expression when he said this during the assembly.When I started teaching, I would say this to my students too.
      Currently I am teaching Mathematics for a form 2 class, most of the students in that class are weak students. One of the boy in this class impress me most. He is a quiet and obedient boy, when I am teaching in front of the class, he would listen attentively despite other are making noise beside him, he done all the assignments I gave and hand in the exercise book on time every time. Last year, he failed his mathematics during the year end exam, but this year he got an A for his mathematics during the half year exam, this surprising me. I did interview him once, he say last year he was sitting with someone who is very talkative and this person influence him a lot, this year he is sitting with a group of  hardworking and serious students, therefore he can concentrate during the lesson. In this case, I think the attitude is the most important part to guarantee his success!


Be sure all instructions are clear and concise. What might be obvious to you is not necessarily be clear to your students.
         Giving instructions is the routine work of teachers in the class, so teachers must always make themselves clear and make sure the students understand what they need them to do in the class. I remembered once in my class, it was a form 4 chemistry class. I asked the students to do an experiment with a type of acid but I did not tell them the concentration of the acid ,  I only mentioned “ diluted acid”, I thought the students would understand what I meant, but end up, quite disappointing me, they used the acid with high concentration. After this case, every time whenever I ask them to do experiment, I will always tell them the exact concentration of the solution, and I will also write on the board clearly for them to see.  


Having students critique the design of the course to make sure everything is clear.
        Students are the clients of the teachers, and the course is the product the teachers sell to the students, so the design of the course must depend on the students’ need and be able to fulfil the students’ requirement in the class. To make sure the lesson is effective, teachers have to listen to the students’ comment to design their course.  Most of the teachers design the lessons based on their own way,  they never think whether the students learn or not with the designated lessons. 
       In my class,  some students did comment and say that using the power point to teach is boring, and they say doing experiments are more fun and make them have more interest to learn, so I try my best to let my students to do experiment frequently and I find some course related videos for them to see in the class. They are quite happy with these changing. 


Making sure you understand the technology you expect your students to use.  
   The students now are a generation so-called the millennial, they are very good  in handling the technology devices. Although they are good in handling the technology, for the educational purpose, the students still have a lo to learn. Teachers have to make sure they are understand and be able to use technology before they ask the students to use, so the teacher able to teach the students whenever they encounter problems.

The second class...

     On the last Saturday, my mood was very nervous and stressful when I was on the way to UM because haven’t finish my assignment of doing the learning contract and I also did not finish reading the article given by madam Ng last week. To me, the time really passes so fast, without completing all the work given, I have to attend for the second lesson. Luckily Madam Ng is very kind and she allow us to finish the learning contract in class and help us a lot while we were doing it. I couldn’t complete the learning contract in the given time,so I tried to complete it after the lesson in home. I took about 3 hours to do it and finally i had completed what I have to put inside the learning contract, but when I tried to edit it in the goggle docs, I was so frustrated because on the half way of doing it the window will appear a message and say that ‘trying to reach to goggle’. At first I thought It was due to the line problem but after a few trying, the same thing happened and happened, at the end  i was fed up and I post the word doc in the spectrum. After reading Monica’s blog, then only I knew the correct way of uploading the document.     For the article ‘Do generational differences matter in instructional design’ by professor Thomas C Reeves, I do agree with so of the points sharing by him. In his article, he mentioned that ‘Although it is clear that middle and upper class Millennials are more likely to possess and use the latest high tech gear such as iPods, video phones, and game boxes, there is also evidence that their information literacy, especially with respect to judging the quality of information obtained on the Internet through search engines such as Google, is unacceptably weak (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005).’ Actually I am also the one of the so-called millennial, I do feel the same as mentioned above. The youngster nowadays posses all the technology devices like iPhone, iPad, and etc, they are very good in playing with all these devices but when asking to judge the information obtained from the internet, they would think all the information are correct without any doubt. One of the example is when teacher ask the students to do research about something, the students will just copy some of the information giving in the internet, edit it and hand in as their assignment. They won’t really sit down and read one by one to find the best one because there are too much of the information given and they don’t know how to judge it.
      In the article, there is a highly respected literacy and applied linguistics professor from the University of Wisconsin, James Paul Gee (2003), has concluded that playing contemporary video games has positive outcomes with respect to many cognitive skills. To me, before I read this article, I think playing games is such a time wasting activity, I am not the one who likes to play games, but I do agree with the professor after I read this ‘Games force you to decide, to choose, to prioritize. All of the intellectual benefits of gaming derive from this fundamental virtue, because learning how to think is ultimately about learning how to make the right decision: weighing evidence, analyzing situations, consulting your long-terms goals, and then deciding. (p. 41)’. Since gaming has so many benefits, therefore I think we as the educators should design our instructional by inserting games in the lesson so that the students enjoy while learning.
    I appreciate a lot for the web sites given by madam Ng regarding the web tools we can use to design our lesson. I will use them to make my lessons more interesting. 
        

The first lesson....

This is the first time I have a blog and writting in a blog. I think if not because of this course, I would never create my own blog, this is a good try and a good start!
This is the first lesson after I had been rested for nine months. Last semester I applied holiday because I was pregnant. My life will be busy again with my job, my course and my baby, I tell myself I need to manage my time very well to make sure I can cope three papers in this sem!
When I first saw madam Ng I was shocked to know this young lady is my lecturer, after listening to the explanation about the course, I found madam Ng is a very systematic person and she always make herself clear.
I am currently using power point presentation and videos from youtube in my chemistry class, but I feel these are not enough because the students easily get bored after a few power point slide, when I am showing the video, the students are excited, but I couldn't get many suitable videos to show them due to the different syllabus in Malaysia and other countries. After this class, I knew there are many technology tools can make the interesting teaching aid on our own, making comic is the one, I think students would be more interesting in reading the comic than the boring power point slide...
Regarding the video of 'learning in digital age', I find what the professor saying is very true, the teaching method using now must be different from the teaching method used in the olden day as what our teacher did last time, students now are very smart in using the digital devices, and they love to use it too. By using the technology, the students can form collaborative group online, this is say to help the students learn better when they form study group online just like when they are playing war craft or other online game, they can discuss and learn together. Actually they are learning virtually among themselve.