e-learning week

this week has been great! with the full timetable kicking in, the workload is piling up. almost as high as it could get now. it's been a while since i did my reflection over here. as much as i embrace ict and am a regular blogger before coming to nie, i find it hard to find time now to sit down and blog my thoughts with the amount of work coming my way. ict is good but it is only good when people know how to use it and have the time to use it? just something for me to think about as life goes on... :)

this week in e-learning, we read about issues that occur during the implementation of ict into curriculum. i found out that there are indeed many areas to consider when implementing ict into lessons. it's not just about choosing the form of ict to implement. in fact, it goes beyond that! there are issues like class room management, student motivation among others to consider. no foolproof plan for implementing ict into lessons but the key is to be well prepared before implementing ict into lessons. this week's lesson added another dimension to my understanding of implementing ict into lessons. in the past, i thought it's simply just using a suitable form of ict and try to use it in the lessons. there's actually so much more to it!

besides the implementation issues, we also had to think of strategies to tackle the implementation issues. there's not a single way or strategy of solving an implementation issue. so i hope to learn from others how they would tackle the same issue. this would widen up my scope and we would all benefit by learning from one another. so i'm going to go wiki-hopping this weekend to pick up the tips from the rest.

in the coming weeks, each group will be doing a demo and i hope to learn new things from the various demos. i think some of the things on demo are rather new to me. even if it's not totally new, i guess i could discover some new things that i didn't know previously. looking forward to the weeks ahead! in the meantime, have a blessed weekend! :D

week two

week 2 was great! for the second lesson of this module, we began by forming ourselves into groups of four and sharing with each other the most engaging activity we had in school. interestingly, many of the groups shared about what we had done in literature lessons. i concluded the lessons were engaging because it was pupil-centred rather then teacher-centred.

i knew the use of ict will enhance the learning environment in the classroom. however, there isn't a single form of ict that fits all lessons. the use of ict has to be carefully crafted into the lessons. using ict for the sake of doing it may defeat the very purpose of introducing ict into classrooms. there are times we come across teachers who used powerpoint slides for lessons and they merely read off the slides. perhaps that don't engage the students enough.

from lesson two, i learnt about the four dimensions of engaged learning. the four dimensions are already present in our classrooms in various forms but this lesson helped me to understand more about the four dimensions clearly. to me, all major stakeholders like students, teachers and ict have to come together for engaged learning to take place. a delicious cake needs a good chef to bake it, good ingredients to make the cake and also consumers who likes and knows how to appreciate the cake. in the same way, for engaged learning to take place, teachers must understand their roles in doing this, ict must be adequately and properly use and students must play an active role in the process of learning.

i hope that i can learn how to better incorporate ict into my lessons and also to continue to engage my students in learning. with the rolling out of the master plan three for ict, ict will continue to be the buzz word in the education environment. i also hope to understand more about the usage of ict in classrooms and how they can better enhance learning.

i shall share in the next post how one of my colleagues used ict in one of her history lessons. till then, take care! :D

first post

yes, this is my first post! had my first lesson for qed 522 and met up with new classmates in the lesson. that was our class pic!

prior to the start of this course, i've already my own blog. in fact, i "experiment" with new blog templates from time to time. besides blogging, i also create my own youtube videos and have accounts in friendster and facebook. so these things are not really new to me. during my school experience in school, i have also used youtube videos to teach lessons. i suppose IT would play a big role in the current curriculum.

there's always things i won't know, such as podcast and etc. for this course, i hope i'm exposed to many new IT tools and also how we could better integrate them into the curriculum. for things that i have already learnt how to use, such as blogs and youthtubes, i hope i can learn to better use them for teaching of lessons.

for this week's lesson, i've learnt about moe's master plan one and master plan two. i have never heard about these master plans till today's lesson.

so far i have no questions yet. but i guess they will come and i'll ask along the way.

looking forward to next week's lessons! :D