Week 7 & 8: Exploring IWB

IWB sure seems a very useful tool to be used in the classroom. Initially, what I understood of using IWB was that it is just like a PowerPoint presentation, only the IWB has more interactive features. However, the more I explore it, the more I learn new things of it. The variety of activities that it has opens up so many options to be exploited.
For starters, children would just love the response they get when they participate in the activity. It would be 'magical' indeed for them. This feature can be a motivating factor for them. Since, the Board responds to their moves, the children would easily find it to be fun. When learning is fun, they naturally pay more attention.
This is indeed very important to a teacher. This is because young learners have a very short attention span. They can be easily distracted by endless factors in their environment. Therefore, the teacher definitely needs to come up with something that can get the pupils interested and get them engaged in the activity.
I believe the way is to get them curious. When their sense of curiosity is aroused, they would want to explore the activity and for that, they will pay attention to the activity.

Week 6: A Reflection and An Introduction

I was late for class this week (blame my poor health). But, the good thing was that I did not miss out anything important as the class was just beginning. Sigh! Prof started off with a reflection of our Assignment 2, which was the video project. Through the discussion she introduceed the seven softskills that we would be assessed upon. I must say this discussion gave us space to rethinnk of what we came up with. The video clip was produced under great amounts of stress and tension as we are still learning the lot regarding technology. As such, we did not stop much to reflect upon our actions. I realised the lacking in my 'Suggested Activities' for my video clip when Prof pointed out that some did not provide elaborate explanations. Well... I'm sure to bear that mind during the future assignments.
Then, we were given some explanation of our next assignment. Then, we downloaded the smartboard software. This marks the kick-off of our next assignment!!! Working in the same groups, we firsrtly decided on the topics that we are going to be working on in order to avoid confusions and clashing fo topics within the same group. Next, we drew a rough timeline of our project, to line out what is to be done when. This we hope would help us work systematically towards producing a quality-work.
Hence, we are exploring the smartboard technology bit by bit, as we did not have much experience in utilizing it to the max.

Week 5: Intelligence in Boards

A class 40 students. 1 teacher. What the teacher needs here? Cane? No. Microphone? No. Another teacher? Not exactly. What she needs is creativity to run the class. As the co-founder of Sony Productions, Akio Morita said we all have creativity, but very few know how to use it. Yes, we teachers just have to locate the creative part of our selves to make the best for our students. And creativity is not very hard to be found anymore as we are aided with so many technological gadgets, the latest Smartboard technology.

A board. A board that is smart. Intelligence embedded in a board. What more can we ask for?

A board tha t can remember (record) for you. A board that can do everything to make your class interactive. This is definitely a good bargain for a teacher who wishes for an assisstant. This board strikes as an assintant to me. An electrical assisstant. (glad it doesn't look like robots, I hate them).

But, the most important thing is for we as teachers to know how to make it smart. I mean its like a pair of scissors that own. Its great someone invented scissors (its still technology ok) but we have to be creative in using them; in cutting creative shapes using the scissors. Otherwise, its just a pair scissors. So, the board is going to be smart only as we make it to be.

So, this new assignment sounds absolutely demanding in we as teachers making use of this board smartly. And no canes involved (You can't beat up the board and tell it to be creative, can you?). Hmm...

The first activity that we produceed was not very creative, I should admit. As we haven't learn tp play with this technology yet. With some time I'm sure we will be smart teachers making use of Smartboards in interactive classroom activities.

Week 4: The Progression

This week my group has been busier than bees (for sure as bees never met technology right?) putting together our ideas into videos. It has been a difficult task especially because we had never really explored this side of technology that much. Though some us had some video editing experience, it was merely for fun. When it comes as an assignment, it sounds much more complicated.
I made a mistake by using the most basic programme available; The Windows Movie Maker. I realized it does not only lacks choices but also functions. However, I came to know of this only as I was almost finishing my video project in the latter. As I consulted Miss Ng and Mr Fairuz my friends I realized that I would do us much good if we changed the programme we used. They suggested Ulead and Power Director.
Thus, we started haunting Digital Mall and upon finding Power Director, I seeked th guidance of those who are pro in using this software. Its a shame we had to start over but at least we now know of the difference between those two softwares. It did take some time for me to explore and learn how to use this software for my project but in the end I manage to redo my entire project and sigh with relief as it is definitely better than the previous one. Moral of the story: Consult the professional before starting a project!

Week 3: Structuring Creativity

Creativity is a very subjective matter. Sometimes it can just happen. But what makes it successful is proper structuring. Take for instance J.K.Rowling. She claims that the idea for Harry Potter occured to her in her train journey from Manchester to London and by the time she reached King's Cross, many of the characters had taken shape. Yet, a careful organisation of her ideas for the next five years produced the world's best selling series. I do not know how Rowling organised her ideas but, for us, I have learnt this week that there are Instructional Design Models to help; the ADDIE model which serves as a base for all others, the ASSURE model which is among the latest and the Dick and Carey model which is based on the behaviorist view.

Now, I undestand how as a teacher I can minimize the flaws that most probably would occur in the instructions that I design. ADDIE appears to be the simplest of the three models with five steps; analyze, design, develop. implement and evaluate. Understanding ADDIE does help in understanding the other models.






The ASSURE model which anchored in Gagne's Events of Instruction and highlights contructivism has six stages. What sets it apart from the ADDIE model is the significant fifth stage in which learner participation is required. I can see that this model gives more importance to the process learning rather teaching, thus, the learner needs are considered in every stage.

Finally, the Dick and Carey Model. It sounds much more complicated than th eprevious two though its base is the simple behaviourist theory. The tens stages involved would suggest its complexity easily. In this model, though importance is given to the leaner, what I see is mostly about teaching. The responsibility and choice are laid on the teacher. The teacher seems to act as the ultimate decisin-maker.

I must say here that I do prefer the ASSURE model as it gives more significance to the learner. As a teacher, I would give the choice in te hands of the students and design the instruction based on their needs and interest.

Week 2:Leaping into The Next Yard of Creativity

We work hard to obtain something that we like or need. And upon achieveing it we dwelve in it and get cosy to its nature, thus often choose not to move on or discover others.

"When allowed to do what we want to do, we are most likely to revert to
whatever we previously found enjoyable and/or successful. This amounts to
what I call, “another one of those” artworks. Sad as that is, the worst
part is that the creative process is not being learned." (Marvin Bartel in his blog entitled Teaching Creativity: http://www.goshen.edu/%7Emarvinpb/arted/tc.html )

I find myself being accustomed to the traditional teaching aids that I often use. This is because I not only know how to develpo and use them successfuly but also because they often have received positive response from students. Thus, I never really attempted towards creating something like a video clip. Those vidoe clips I have used before were downloaded from websites, music video or movies clips.

This exposure to create my own video clip is something definitely new for me. Though I have previously used Windows Movie Maker to create vidoe clips, they were hardly educational. Using this entertainmnt tool for educational purpose is very interesting.


Working in groups we planned our project and came up with combining all of our single production into one whole, creating a continuous chain of events that are interrelated. This sounds easy but the difficult part is to develop a story and a continuous event. So, that is exactly what we are doing right now!

How you as a teacher will be learning?

Effective teachers need to learn to as much as they teach. Every lesson is not a lesson for the students only but for the teacher as well. A teacher who keeps herself up-to-date with latest issues, problems, ideas, invention and progress in the field of education in order to improve herself as well as to convey his/ her best to the students.

Technology enables teachers to get to know about the latest happenings in a flash of a second. The fast connection to world of ‘everything’ provided by internet allows today’s teachers to do so without much hustle. With this teachers can learn of and apply the latest and effective techniques immediately.

A teacher also gets to easily connect to other teacher through the existence of technology. This makes it possible for a teacher to share with and learn from others of the profession regarding any issue at hand. Moreover, developing these social networks allows a teacher to an insight of a classroom that he/she may not be able to visit like one in another region.