FOCUS...

Salam...

The lecture for today was started by the presentation by Ms Chin regarding the ICT and learning principles in primary classroom learning, which I find very useful for us since we are going to deal with ICT in our future teaching. The way the ICT is used in dealing with the principles of the primary curriculum is very useful in classroom practice, since there are massive advantages of integrating ICT in the classroom to support learning process. The use of internet, audio and video in learning may attract students’ attention and prolong their attention span, which will give a good impact towards their learning. Besides that, teacher can use ICT for problem solving, which will sharpen students’ level of creativity in thinking.

Then, the lecture was taken over by Prof Maznah, who is more focusing on our SMART BOARD assignment. The main reference used was a text on the use of interactive whiteboard in schools by Tolley. I realised that it is very important to understand and implement what is written in the text, since it is very much helpful in this assignment. For instance, it is a requirement for us to use and integrate some of the 12 teaching strategies in our presentation, for instance brainstorms, simulations, video shots and others. This will be a bit challenging for me since I am not quite familiar with some of the strategies, but I will take it positively and try to integrate it in my presentation. This is good in the sense that it trained us to be more practical in our presentation, since all these strategies were based on research and practice in the real classroom. Besides that, the text also stressed on the level of interactivity in the classroom, which is crucial especially in the primary classroom. Many of the teachers are just focusing on the finishing the syllabus in the classroom without paying much attention on the participation of students in the classroom activity. This is wrong in the sense that participation of students is one of the good proof that illustrate the understanding of the students in the classroom.

In addition, a lot of thinking was needed for this assignment since there is a need to adopt teaching and learning model such as ADDIE model and Dick Carey model in the presentation, besides learning theories such as behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism. This make me realised that this assignment is really like real classroom application for me, and some readings need to be made in order to get a clear view of how to integrate the learning theories in this SMARTBOARD presentation. Therefore, I need to be more creative and innovative in manipulating all the resources around me and make use of it in my presentation. The presentation must be clear, challenging, interactive, and the most challenging part I think is where we have to rationalize whatever we present in the assignment.

This assignment is really a challenge for me and I am now in the process of exploring this new technology in order to be implemented in the real classroom.

SMART BOARD ASSIGNMENT

Salam...

The lecture was started by the reflection of the previous assignment that we have submitted last week. I got to know that there were so many other software that can be used for the video-making assignment, for instance PENCIL 4.0, U-LEAD, POWER DIRECTOR, and others. So, what we can said is that technology is something that never stop; once you find a software that you think is the best among the best, there will still be another software that you have never heard of it, and that software may be better than yours. Hence, the important point here is that technology is for you to explore it, and once you are familiar with them, most of your work will be easy to be settled with just the click on your fingertips.

In addition, Prof Maznah also commented on the way we make the storyboard and the details on the video clip, and most of the discussion were focusing on the misunderstanding of some terms, for instance the word ‘narration’ and ‘the media’ used for the video clip. Some of us have different interpretation for both, and as the results, the answer given were not as expected by the lecturer. I learnt that in certain situation, we as undergraduate students need to be more alert and inquisitive with whatever information that we have doubt in it, especially if it is regarding the assignment. Asking straightforward using ADEC, or just having a small discussion with members from other groups will be very much useful in solving all this sort of misunderstanding.

Besides that, we also received our next assignment, which is closely related with the SMART BOARD short course that we have attended last week. We have been asked to create activities for primary ESL classroom, and since this is a group work, 5 of us will be focusing on 5 different topics. Although this assignment sounds easy, but when the application of SMART BOARD is involved here, there is a need to put more effort in exploring this new technology, so that it may be integrated fairly with the activities. After getting into respective groups, we discussed about the different topic for 5 of us, and some activities suitable for each topic. I realised that we have to widen our scope in searching for the activities suitable for students, so that a more creative, challenging and practical activity will be produced as the output for students. Furthermore, Ms. Chin also displayed the ‘work of art’ of our seniors, which I thought was very much useful for my reference in completing this assignment. I got a wider picture of this assignment by observing the kind of activities producing by my seniors, as lots of creativity and thinking has been put on them. Some of my friends even got the opportunities to complete the exercise, which make the class very much interactive for the day.

Moreover, the latest SMART BOARD software which has been updated with new features especially the animation will promise a very enjoyable journey for us along the process of completing this assignment. A good activity cannot be described with one word, but it can be seen clearly only after we applied it in the real classroom. However, a good teacher will try to put as much effort as they can along the process, as the process is sometimes same as the result. Hence, it is my hope that I can produce my best for this assignment.

SMART BOARD FOR SMART TEACHER

Salam...

Today’s lecture was quite different since we have been given a short course on smart board application in the classroom. This was like a golden opportunity for me since the use of smart board in Malaysia education context was not very well developed yet. In addition, this was not the first time we were exposed to this training, and this is like the refreshment of what I have been attended one year ago. In this short course, we have been exposed to the new version of notebook smart board software (version 10, if I’m not mistaken) which contains many new and improved features, for instance animation tools which is very interesting to be implemented in classroom context. Besides that, our facilitator for today’s training; Fenny was very good, funny and friendly, hence creating a very interactive and comfortable learning environment. Although the early session was quite ‘uninteractive’ since many of us slept quite late, and some didn’t sleep at all in completing the assignment yesterday (including me), the presentation part was very alive since a lot of creativity has been displayed in order to create a good, simple activity to be taught in the classroom. I was very amazed with one of the presentation, in which the presenter is trying to use the new feature in this smart board in order to create a meaningful, fun learning environment. (using spotlight to spot the transportation base on the pictures).

Throughout this training, I have gained a lot of input, especially in the basic function of using smart board. Learning can be made more interactive using smart board, since the participation of students in the activities presented by teacher can be observed clearly. Instead of paper pencil exercise, teacher may ask students to directly come in front and use the attractive, user friendly features in the smart board to solve the problem stated. This will give a very good impact in teaching and learning, since the participation of students are widened, and lessen the domination of teacher in the classroom. Besides that, many of interactive activities can be produced using smart board, for instance quiz and drawing.

Lastly, today’s training session was like an eye-opener for me, since I now realised that if the smart board is ‘well manipulated’ in the classroom, the teaching and learning process can be made more effective for both teacher and students. I cannot wait to explore this technology and the upcoming assignment will be the good place where the first step begins.