For your third post, share about the following:
· Has any of the Masterplans impacted you as a student/teacher (if any)?
Both Masterplan 1 and 2 has impacted me as a student. I recalled teachers using multi-media resources to support learning and teaching subjects such as Science. There was a lot of improvement in the school’s infrastructure to support ICT. For examples, more computer laboratories were set up and teachers started to integrate ICT into the curriculum. One particular Mathematics lesson which utilized ICT struck me. As students, we were assigned a certain topic which we had to use computer software to teach our peers. The process was novel and interesting. It also fostered a sense of responsibility within me as I felt responsible to teach my friends and at the same time, learn from them.
As I reached Secondary school, the pervasiveness of ICT within the school learning culture was more evident. There was a greater level of teacher-student and student-student interactions. For instance, my teachers encouraged us to blog our reflections regarding the lesson and key take-away. This enabled me to consolidate my learning and the feedback provided by my teachers also allowed me to monitor my own learning progress and areas of weaknesses where I had to work on.
· How do you think the current Masterplan 3 may affect your role(s) as a beginning teacher?
I think that the current Masterplan 3 would change the teaching environment for teachers and the learning culture for students. ICT would definitely bring on its own challenges such as developing personal competencies in IT skills and other related knowledge. However, there are many benefits that come along with the incorporation of ICT within the teaching pedagogy and assessment. I feel that there would be a more varied pool of teaching resources and strategies to choice from in order to tailor teaching procedures to the learning needs and abilities of students. In addition, with ICT, I feel that teachers would be better able to actively involve and engage students as it is more interactive and attention-grabbing. Furthermore, the development of self-directed learning would increase students’ ownership of their own learning. Lastly, the sharing platforms for teachers to exchange ideas and resources would be helpful especially to a beginning teacher where we can tap upon the expertise of our colleagues and be inspired to come up with our own teaching strategies.
With the current MP3, there is certainly more work to do for us teachers - e.g. exploring and learning the various ICT tools, planning and crafting lesson plans that incorporate the meaningful application of the tools. It won't be easy, I have to say, but what is that extra bit of trouble and work compared to the fun and enjoyable learning our students get to experience?
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ReplyDeleteI hope you can engagage pupils in meaningful learning just like your Maths teacher did.
ReplyDeleteI guess there will be more options and more avenues open to us to explore and incorporate ICT in our teaching. Whoa! I've got the feeling that our pupils will definitely be engaged and actively involved in their school work. Well done, my fellow teachers.
ReplyDeleteYou described an example of the teacher using Powerpoint to engage learning in a Maths lesson. Given the range of tools you can access now, how might you have done the lesson differently to enhance SDL and/or CoL?
ReplyDeleteDear Dr Koh,
ReplyDeleteI was really impressed by the interactive whiteboard functions as I feel that it is very engaging and of course, as the name suggests, interactive.
The teacher is able to write on the board as she speaks and this would save a lot of time to prepare eg powerpoint slides and save paper as the words can be erased/ saved electronically.
To answer your comment on how to enhance Self-Directed Learning, I feel that www.mconline.sg is a tool that can be used to enhance meaningful learning. Using mconline, students can engage in e-learning, explore the rich multimedia interactive content and resources, as well as experience learning beyond the classroom.
Another tool to facilitate collaborative learning is http://en.linoit.com/. After experiencing the use of it first hand, I really enjoyed its function as it gives a very informal ‘feel’ and it can be used to guide group discussion or a summary of the lesson. For collaborative learning, each student responsible for a certain topic may create a page where he/she plays the role of a ‘teacher’ and answers any questions/ correct any misconceptions held by her fellow peers on the particular topic. The teacher may oversee the discussion and intervene/ comment when necessary.