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testing testing.
yeah i can post! :p
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Sunday, 31 July 2011
How the masterplan may affect me as a teacher
Sad to say, I did not get to experience any ICT-enabled learning experience when I was in my schooldays. The masterplans also did not impact my teaching experiences as a teacher during my school attachment, for we focused more on our allocated projects rather than classroom teachings.
I must say I am indeed looking forward to learning more about ICT stuff, to learn and think about how it can help my classroom lessons in the future, how Chinese learning can be made more fun through its use. The use of ICT in teaching makes teaching a more lively process, where there will be lesser teaching by the teacher. The teacher functions more as a guide, to cultivate in students the love for life-long learning, to direct them to e-learning resources and the correct learning direction.
It seems that teaching will be less of a top-down approach, whereby the teacher lectures and feeds an overwhelming amount of information to the students. With ICT-enabled teaching experiences, students get to take charge of their pace and content of learning, but teachers will have to work more closely with the students' parents, to keep in view and be a guide to the child's learning. My view is that ICT would not only increase the students' interest in learning, helps visual learners in their studies, encourage and cultivate life-long learning, in the macro sense, ICT may change the whole traditional concept of the type of top-down lecturing form of education. It will make learning in schools, a more fun and even amiable process.
I must say I am indeed looking forward to learning more about ICT stuff, to learn and think about how it can help my classroom lessons in the future, how Chinese learning can be made more fun through its use. The use of ICT in teaching makes teaching a more lively process, where there will be lesser teaching by the teacher. The teacher functions more as a guide, to cultivate in students the love for life-long learning, to direct them to e-learning resources and the correct learning direction.
It seems that teaching will be less of a top-down approach, whereby the teacher lectures and feeds an overwhelming amount of information to the students. With ICT-enabled teaching experiences, students get to take charge of their pace and content of learning, but teachers will have to work more closely with the students' parents, to keep in view and be a guide to the child's learning. My view is that ICT would not only increase the students' interest in learning, helps visual learners in their studies, encourage and cultivate life-long learning, in the macro sense, ICT may change the whole traditional concept of the type of top-down lecturing form of education. It will make learning in schools, a more fun and even amiable process.
The importance of ICT in education
Living in this highly modernised and globalised era of time, changes happen at the blink of an eye and it comes so fast and rapid that it leaves man, who lacks adaptibility and a drive for life-long learning, outdated. According to MOE's <21st century comptencies and desired students' outcomes> plan, teachers have the responsibility to teach, mould and position our students to be a self-directed learner who is aware of himself and the outside world, has critical and inventive thinking, and is a concerned and active contributor in the society. ICT-enabled teaching experiences is actually in line with MOE's "21st century competencies and desired students' outcomes" plan --- as said in the video and articles, meaningful ICT-enabled experiences actually allows for collaborative knowledge construction, it takes learning beyond the classroom, it encourages students to cultivate self-discipline and take ownership of their learning, and it motivates thinking and independent learning.
Besides making teaching and learning a fun and interesting process, the usage of ICT in teaching actually helps students, who maybe visual learners, to be able to better understand some concepts through visualising pictorial images. I agree that the concept of instilling ICT into teaching is not to be considered the simple process of teaching IT skills to students. It is more a process, whereby teachers guide students, through the usage of IT products, to cultivate in them a spirit and love for independent life-long learning, to let student's take charge of their own learning progress, and to allow thinking and learning to go beyond the classrooms.
It is definitely true that in this globalised world and highly competitive era of human development stage, that adaptibility and the drive and passion for continuous learning and self-growth, is the only way that will allow an individual to retain his competitiveness in this society. Learning cannot, and should not, be constrained to schools and classrooms. Our students must be able to continue learning, even after they graduate, not just in knowledge content wise, but also to learn, to better understand themselves and the workings of the world, to see their place in the societies they live in, to understand their comparative advantages and how to survival in this hobbesian war, and most important of all, is to learn and grow, to be a happy and better man.
Besides making teaching and learning a fun and interesting process, the usage of ICT in teaching actually helps students, who maybe visual learners, to be able to better understand some concepts through visualising pictorial images. I agree that the concept of instilling ICT into teaching is not to be considered the simple process of teaching IT skills to students. It is more a process, whereby teachers guide students, through the usage of IT products, to cultivate in them a spirit and love for independent life-long learning, to let student's take charge of their own learning progress, and to allow thinking and learning to go beyond the classrooms.
It is definitely true that in this globalised world and highly competitive era of human development stage, that adaptibility and the drive and passion for continuous learning and self-growth, is the only way that will allow an individual to retain his competitiveness in this society. Learning cannot, and should not, be constrained to schools and classrooms. Our students must be able to continue learning, even after they graduate, not just in knowledge content wise, but also to learn, to better understand themselves and the workings of the world, to see their place in the societies they live in, to understand their comparative advantages and how to survival in this hobbesian war, and most important of all, is to learn and grow, to be a happy and better man.
Reflections on ICT used by former teachers
To be honest, back in my school days, I've never met a teacher who used ICT for any of the lessons I have attended. My first observation of usage of ICT in classroom teaching was during my school attachment at First Toa Payoh Secondary School in 2008.
I attended a classroom observation of a chinese teacher, Mdm Tan's class, where she was teaching a chinese text from a secondary three higher chinese textbook called 《八十怀古》by季羡林. The students who took higher chinese were mainly students from China, who have a relatively strong foundation in Chinese language.
To make chinese teaching more interesting and alive, Mdm Tan showed videos introducing the author 季羡林 to the class. Mdm Tan was able to get the students interest in knowing the author's life and background, and it enhanced and spurs the student's interest in knowing the text. Though it's a simple gesture and video, it makes teaching and learning alive, and it ignites the interest in students to want to learn more about the author after class, for students may want to read other texts and books written by the author to know more about him.
I've only have had been to a few classroom observations, and thus it would be inappropriate for me to comment on how ICT is being used effectively in classroom teaching currently. I can only thus talk about a few ideas that I have of how ICT can be used in more ways in the teaching of the Chinese Language. For example, it would be great if ICT is used in the teaching of Chinese words, where students will get to be shown and they will get to understand the evolution of the Chinese words through the centuries. Chinese characters are sinographs that evolutes from the traditional oracle bone scripts. Thus, knowing how the original oracle bone script is drawn of a certain word, students can get to better grasp the semantics of the Chinese characters. This will provide them with a deeper impression of how the Chinese character is written.
It would also be great if ICT can be used in the teaching of literature. As we do know, when we present a text to a student, we need to talk about the author's background, the time period when the text is written, and the location or country of stay of the author. A programme can be drawn out, which provides students with a visual understanding of time and space. With a better understanding of the text's author background, the time era when it was written, the historical events happening then, and the geographical location and societal culture and customs of the place where it was written, students may get to better appreciate the text and it increases their interest to learn more. Using ICT in teaching may actually spurs interest, encourage self-learning, and is in line with the 'teach less, learn more' policy.
I attended a classroom observation of a chinese teacher, Mdm Tan's class, where she was teaching a chinese text from a secondary three higher chinese textbook called 《八十怀古》by季羡林. The students who took higher chinese were mainly students from China, who have a relatively strong foundation in Chinese language.
To make chinese teaching more interesting and alive, Mdm Tan showed videos introducing the author 季羡林 to the class. Mdm Tan was able to get the students interest in knowing the author's life and background, and it enhanced and spurs the student's interest in knowing the text. Though it's a simple gesture and video, it makes teaching and learning alive, and it ignites the interest in students to want to learn more about the author after class, for students may want to read other texts and books written by the author to know more about him.
I've only have had been to a few classroom observations, and thus it would be inappropriate for me to comment on how ICT is being used effectively in classroom teaching currently. I can only thus talk about a few ideas that I have of how ICT can be used in more ways in the teaching of the Chinese Language. For example, it would be great if ICT is used in the teaching of Chinese words, where students will get to be shown and they will get to understand the evolution of the Chinese words through the centuries. Chinese characters are sinographs that evolutes from the traditional oracle bone scripts. Thus, knowing how the original oracle bone script is drawn of a certain word, students can get to better grasp the semantics of the Chinese characters. This will provide them with a deeper impression of how the Chinese character is written.
It would also be great if ICT can be used in the teaching of literature. As we do know, when we present a text to a student, we need to talk about the author's background, the time period when the text is written, and the location or country of stay of the author. A programme can be drawn out, which provides students with a visual understanding of time and space. With a better understanding of the text's author background, the time era when it was written, the historical events happening then, and the geographical location and societal culture and customs of the place where it was written, students may get to better appreciate the text and it increases their interest to learn more. Using ICT in teaching may actually spurs interest, encourage self-learning, and is in line with the 'teach less, learn more' policy.
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