Promoting the use of computer lab...

Salam...

The use of computer lab has somehow being neglected by some of the school, especially in Malaysian context. The lab was just being left as it is or just being used to avoid students from walking around. The teacher sometimes prohibit the students from touching the computer because he/she afraid that the students may damage the computer. Although this phenomenon is not happening in all schools, is it still apparent in most of the schools in Malaysia. The vision of the Ministry of Education which is to promote the computer literacy among school children will not be achieved if this unhealthy situation continues to happen. Although some may say that the reason why the teacher does not use the computer lab is because he/she prefers to control the students on their own in the classroom, refusing to use the computer lab at all will not be a good way either, since today’s world of technology demands both teacher and students to at least master the basic skills of computer. Why? This is because the conventional ‘chalk and talk’ way may be ineffective since the demands for a more creative and innovative way of teaching is very high in today’s world of education. It will be such a shame if the students’ mastery of computer skill is higher than the teacher. Hence, there is an urgent need for teachers to equip themselves with enough knowledge regarding computer use in education so that a balance, lively learning environment will be created.

What are some of the activities that can help to promote the use of computer lab? As a teacher, it is essential to know some of the activities that are suitable to be conducted in the computer lab, for instance online discussion. Online discussion can be an interesting, motivating part of a lesson, since all the students are able to actively participate in the conference, voicing out their opinions, comments or even give useful criticism to their friends’ opinions. This is very effective especially for introvert students, who sometimes feel shy to voice out their opinions in face to face discussion. In addition, online discussion can be quite entertaining in the sense that we can insert emoticons, audible, and jokes while discussing about something. However, teacher needs to always be in control since the element of entertainment may keep dragging on until the discussion is not in its right track. The discussion need to always be focus, so that it may produce something beneficial for students’ learning. Examples of online discussion are Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger and many others. By doing online discussion in schools, students are indirectly being taught to stand on their own feet in sharing their own opinion with others, and this will indirectly train them to think critically and creatively while sharing opinions.

Besides that, online games are another interesting activities that can be one of the way of promoting the use of computer lab. Young learners are very familiar with games and by integrating it in the classroom, students are given the opportunity to learn in a controlled, but motivating learning environment. The teacher also needs to play their role in choosing the appropriate games to be played by students in order to match it with the learning objective. This is because not all games are appropriate for teaching purpose in the classroom. Online games such as Freddy Fish require students to think critically to solve problem by using the clues given, and this is a good example of how teacher can sharpen the thinking skills of students by using games in the classroom.

In short, there are many others activities that can be used by the teacher to promote the use of computer lab, for instance blogging, creating e-book, scavenger hunt, and others. However, teacher needs to always be aware with some of the limitations, for instance the problem of computer shortage, the problem of internet access, the unreadiness of the students to explore the technology and many more.

My future classroom

Salam…

My future classroom? The discussion on this issue may be unstoppable, since it is something that you want it to be in the future. You may add on something day by day in order to create your dreamed classroom, especially by integrating your classroom with high technology, powerful teaching aids that may sustain students’ interest throughout the lesson. Technology like Smartboard, Macbook, and Wii may be some of the elements that most of us really interested to integrate in their teaching, and I do admit that I may be part of those people. Since all these technologies have the ability to increase the effectiveness of the lesson taught in the classroom, it will be something worth for both the part of the teacher and the students to implement it in their classroom.

Although the word ‘my future classroom may be all about integration of technologies in teaching, we can widen this scope by speaking on the condition of our future classroom. In my opinion, my future classroom must be well-interactive. This means that the interaction is not just limited between students and teacher and students and students, but the scope of interaction can be increased between the learners and the teaching materials used. How can this happen? We can achieve this for instance by using Smartboard in teaching and learning process. Smartboard is one of the latest technologies that enable teacher to increase the participation of students in the classroom. For instance, the teacher may ask students to come in front and choose the correct answer on the spot using the Smartboard. In addition, Smartboard provide variety of interesting teaching and learning activity, for instance online games and quizzes that will create a safe, lively and non-threatening learning environment. Students may also get immediate feedback using the Smartboard, which will be very good in enhancing students’ motivation towards learning. Using conventional paper and pencil exercise, students may have to wait until one week in order to get the feedback from their teacher. At that point, the students may already forget about what they have learnt last week. As the result, students may feel less interested towards the lesson.

In addition, my future classroom should always be in a healthy condition. The atmosphere in the classroom must always be safe and non-threatening, as this has a big impact towards students’ acceptance of the lesson. This is in accordance with the theory proposed by Krashen which emphasizes that a threatening learning environment will increase the affective filter, and eventually result in the negative affects towards the emotions of the students.

In short, a future classroom may be equipped with all the technological stuff but it depends on the readiness of both the teacher and the students to apply and interact with the technology. Hence, it is essential for me as a ‘teacher to be’ to equipped myself with the knowledge in technology so that my vision of having a future classroom that suit with my demands will be achieved.

Fish philosophy

Salam...

My first impression after hearing the word Fish philosophy was totally different than its real concept. I thought that Fish philosophy is a condition when we are not easily influenced with our surrounding. We are what we are not matter what happens. Why? I am referring this to the special characteristics of a fish itself, a fish never become salty even though it lives in the sea. However, it is good to acknowledge that this new Fish philosophy that I am introduced to got something to do with the education field. FISH! is a skill that provides the process, tools and language to generate the skills necessary to design a workplace full of inspiration, creativity and innovation. This is the point when teachers may apply this philosophy in their classroom. Using its four simple practices which are Be There, Play, Make Their Day, and Choose Your Attitude, a teacher may make a big impact in their classroom teaching. How can we integrate the fish philosophy into our lessons? In my opinion, teacher should always be there with students and guide them in and out throughout their learning process. This doesn’t mean that we are spoon feeding them and train them to become a dependent learner. What I mean is that a teacher should always attend his/her students when they are needed and facilitate them throughout the lesson. Make the student feel that they are appreciated. This will give a very good impact towards teaching and learning, since it has the ‘power’ to increase students’ motivation and desire to learn.

Besides that, a teacher should sometimes include the element of games in the lesson, and this is what we called ‘Play’. Why? We cannot deny the fact that students especially young children like to play, as this is like an escapism to them from the dull world of learning. Students also like the spirit of cooperation in solving the games, the same as the like the feeling of competition. Hence, it is important for teachers to wisely select the appropriate games to be inserted into the lesson, besides create a health competition among students. This will increase engagement of students with the learning process.

Furthermore, teacher needs to treat each student as an individual. Each of them has their own strength and weaknesses, and none of them are the same even though they are twins. Do not judge them based on their mistakes or mischievousness, but try to investigate their family background and daily life activities. Maybe the students just need attention from you. Make their day. Make them feel appreciated by praising them and give positive rewards, and not just punishing them without any solid evidence.

Last but not least, the teacher himself/herself needs to be a good role model to students. Choose your attitude. Be a professional teacher whether in your dressings or behaviour. Whether we believe or not, students are observing every inch of what we are doing starting from the brand of our shoes to our relationship with other colleagues. Therefore, being a good teacher in and out is very important since it actually affect the way our students treat us and our lesson.

One point that I want to add here is how the technology will help in the implementation of fish philosophy. We cannot deny the role that technology played in increasing the effectiveness of classroom teaching. But how is it related to fish philosophy? Of course yes. Using technology, we can also imply the four practices in this philosophy. A teacher can attend their students by using email, or having an academic discussion online with them. Besides that, the teacher may insert games using SMARTBOARD application in classroom, which will create a good, interactive environment in the classroom. Moreover, the teacher may give immediate feedback using the technology, for instance by replying an email to students regarding their homework compare to the conventional way of teaching. This will make students feel appreciated and motivate them to learn.

In short, fish philosophy is one among the other philosophies that is very useful to be implemented in the world of education. It depends on us as a teacher to make use of it for the benefit of our students.

Think again...

Salam...

The presentation for SMARTBOARD was being continued and I was a bit worried since Prof Maznah will just randomly choose anyone from us to present in front. Although I felt grateful not to be chosen for the day, the presentations from my other friends have knocked my mind to think over of my presentation. Some critical issues have been raised by Prof and other tutors which make me a bit doubt about my finished product. Am I putting enough thoughts in my presentation? Am I being critical enough in devising activities for the students? Are there enough elements of creativity being integrated in my presentation? How is my learning outcomes and learning objectives suit with my activities? All of these ‘crucial’ questions keep buzzing in my head and need a clear clarification before I submit my assignment next week.

I noticed that creativity is one of the main subject matter being discussed in the class. The most thing that I remembered from creativity is what being said by my friend, ‘Creativity no need to be expressed using astounding, mesmerizing presentation but it may be something simple, but looks creative”. Forgive me if this is not what being said by my friend, but this saying makes me rethink about the content of my presentation. A simple presentation that demands students to think creatively may be better than a presentation that replicates flabbergasting, fascinating pictures that may confuse students at the end of the lesson. Creativity is something that is very abstract. In my opinion, creativity is something ‘invisible’. You cannot say that something is creative just by observing the surface of the presentation. The surface may look very interesting and attracting, but when you try it, you may feel that it is just like any other ordinary presentation. In contrast, a simple presentation may be somehow very creative after you experience it. That’s how I define creativity, and it may sound a bit weird to others, but for me, creativity is something that is very abstract to observe with naked eyes.

Besides that, I noticed that we need to we need to put more effort since we are using SMARTBOARD as our instructional material. The activities produced need to be something that are different from ordinary paper and pencil exercise; or the use of SMARTBOARD will not achieve it supposed objectives. There is a need to exploit the SMARTBOARD and all its features in order to produce a quality instructional material. The level of interactivity between SMARTBOARD and the students needs to be enhanced, and we ‘teacher to be’ are like a promoter who will try to use this latest technology to enhance the effectiveness of the classroom teaching.

After hearing all the comments, I really felt that need to revise and think again of the suitability of my activity. More effort and critical thoughts, combined with creativity and art of teaching may probably be a good ingredient in producing a better SMARTBOARD presentation.

Presentations and feedback

Salam...

The class for the day was just focusing on the progression of the SMARTBOARD assignment, besides the presentation from the representative of the chosen group. Sincerely, I am very impressed with the guidance and tolerance replicated by the tutors and the lecturer itself when the class just started on the day. Ms. Chin, one of the tutors was busily moving around to solve our problem, besides facilitating us in producing a better presentation in the classroom. In my opinion, she is a very good tutor since she is very open, soft and willing to hear our problem, and we also feel comfortable consulting with her.

The presentation part was very effective for me since I managed to learn lots of things that I may have overlooked before. I now become aware that something that may look good at our eyes may become very irritating for children. Why? This is because the unique characteristics of children and their variability of seeing world is just not the same like us. For example, children are attracted to big, colourful, eye-catching pictures and we as ‘teacher to be’ need to consider this factor in our presentation. Based on the presentation, I noticed that there were many factors that sometimes being overlooked by us. For instance, too many wordings in a presentation for Year 1 pupils may be quite inappropriate for them. As we know, children have short attention span and they are more towards visual learners. Too many wordings will make them boring and confused, which will eventually affect the learning process for the day. Besides that, I noticed that the background that is being used in the presentation also have special effect towards our presentation. Hence, there is a need to be more careful in choosing the background for the presentation; a scenery background may not be quite suitable to teach mathematics for young children. Besides that, some comments were given to the animations used in the presentation. Although it is good to use animations to attract students’ attention, too many animations may distract the real teaching point of the day. Besides that, some comments were given to the fonts and the pictures used in some of the presentations.

From all the comments given, I learnt that producing a good SMARTBOARD presentation is not an easy task as it sounds. The positive feedbacks, the negative feedbacks and the suggestions for improvements from the lecturer, the tutors and my friends help me a lot towards the process of completing this assignment. More effort and critical thinking has to be put on. In addition, the voluntariness of some of my friends displaying their presentation (although it is not yet completed) was really beneficial since it provides rooms for others to improve their presentations.

In short, the class for that day was really useful as it acts like an opening-eye, lead us to be more sensitive with young learners’ needs along the process of completing our assignment.

Searching and editing

Salam...

The process of producing a good activity for my SMARTBOARD presentation was quite tough. I need to find suitable, realistic picture since I am doing the topic about plants. Although there were vast choices of images in the internet, I need to be really careful since some picture may confuse students; especially those who are imported from the other country. For instance, students may have a different view of how banana tree looks like, but the banana tree from the other country may look different at all. As a result, students’ background knowledge will be disturbed, hence giving a negative impact towards their learning. In addition, I also have to photo edit some of the picture, so that it can be viewed clearly by students. As we know, most of the students at this stage are visual learners; they are more attracted to learn if the teacher uses teaching aids that replicate beauty and creativity, besides familiarity with their environment. As a ‘teacher to be’, I need to be aware with this fact so that the teaching and learning process will be more effective and successful for both teacher and students.

Exploration time...

Salam...

SMARTBOARD... you need to explore the board since the board itself is smart. That’s what I think when I want to use the SMARTBOARD for the first time. The process of creating the activities required me to explore and get use with all the functions in the SMARTBOARD, so that I can exploit the board at its maximum level. Why? This is because the activity created must be interactive enough for children to explore it, and this is the main reason why we are actually using SMARTBOARD in learning. First of all, I just try out some of the icons in the SMARTBOARD, and roughly make a simple learning exercise. Although it’s quite difficult at the first time, but with the help of my friends, I managed to understand some basic functions in it. Besides that, I also surf the website officially created for SMARTBOARD, which is smarttech.com in order to obtain enough information regarding the application of SMARTBOARD. The simple tutorial in the web gives me a quite clearer view on how to use SMARTBOARD in teaching.