Thursday, July 27, 2006

A' DAY that was all about TRYING

In my confused mind...
Finally, for the first time, I was sitting at the first row of the class of MK2 (which was not easy as my gang and I had to come half an hour earlier to the class - I did not mind because the lovely LCD-screen computer was all for myself...hehehe~ shouldn't be so selfish ya'). However, the air condition broke down therefore sitting in front was not as cool as I thought.

What I've learnt today...
The very first thing the lecturer and her assistant (Mr. Sam :) ) asked us to do at the beginning of the class was to demonstrate how to orientate the cursor to the touch of our finger on the Smartboard. To grab every chance to try out the smartboard i went up and did it with my sweaty fingers and embarassing stumbles (oops...phew~).

The lecturer continued on to show us some samples of lesson plan that integrated the use of the Smartboard as the class watched with amazement. After looking at some examples, I started to feel that there really are endless, possible ways to use Smartboard in our teaching. One example that was on my mind at that moment was playing language games using the Smartboard with the pupils, such as word puzzles.

The lecturer showed us one example where the teacher developed two squares of different colours. As we dragged a group of letters or words from one side to the other, the words which were visible in one square could not be seen in the other. I tried bravely in attempt to get these effects on my computer's Smartboard and I did it! The trick is? Voila~ By changing colours of the font of the letters, in accordance to the background colours that a person placed the words in. You want it to be seen - just put a different colour to the font from the background and the reverse if you do not want the words to be seen. Simple as that! One only needs to learn the trick and master it.

It was not as hard as I think to use the Smartboard. As Professor Maznah have said, "It is not difficult to do it, once you get a hang of it." True, through trials and trials and even more trials, I believe I will master the art of using the Smartboard.

Digital Citizen vs. Digital Immigrants
One glance at this topic written by our lecturer on the Smartboard, immediately on my mind I was thinking of the Malaysians and Indonesians living in Malaysia. Malaysian will be the citizens or natives of the country Malaysia whereas the Indonesians in Malaysia will be seen as the immigrants. So, therefore my mind concluded, digital citizen will those born in the digital world and digital immigrants will be those who were not born in the digital world.

Not being too sure myself, I tried to check the meanings of these terms on the internet. According to Prensky (2001), digital citizen (or digital natives to be precise) and digital immigrants are used to describe the generation gap separating today's students (the digital natives) from their teachers (the digital immigrants). The digital natives and the digital immigrants live separate style of culture. The digital natives are used to high-speed information receiving whereas the digital immigrants are usually not born in the digital world and have "digital immigrant accent" which will reveal their non-native status (Prensky, 2001).

I was quite unhappy as being a future teacher I would be classified under a digital immigrant. I was raised in the digital world and used to be updated to the latest innovations on the internet such as using ICQ, IRC and MSN. However, perhaps there really are is a breach between my future pupils and me because there are so many new resources and softwares that one can find each day. Pupils maybe proficient in the use of the web. What I can help as a teacher is to teach pupils to recognise reliable resources on the net as there are a mass of knowledge or ideas which can be quite misleading. In addition, the introduction of the Smartboard is capable of getting more of their attention.

I do not believe students learn from computers or teachers - which has been a traditional assumption of most schooling. Rather, students learn from thinking in meaningful ways. Thinking is engaged by activities, which can be fostered by computers or teachers. (Jonassen, 2000)
In my opinion, what is significant in integrating technology in teaching will be to enhance pupils' thinking. Now, not only the teachers will be the scaffolding, but also the technology such as the Smartboard.

Undeniably, the internet will be the primary medium for the emerging culture of the digital natives as they will search any information on the internet because of its high-speed in information attaining. Thus, digital-immigrant teachers definitely will see the significance to incorporate technologies into their lessons in order to bridge the gap between these two cultures.

Today I've questioned...
We had some time to spare to try out other functions of the Smartboard during the day. I tried to upload a flash file on the Smartboard but till now I still could not get it done. I could upload only the hyperlink to the websites. Nevermind, I would not give up easily. I would never stop trying! Next week would forward my enquiries to the lecturer or to Mr. Sam.

References:

Jonassen, D.H. (2000). Computers and mind tools for schools: Engaging critical thinking. Columbus: OH. Prentice-Hall.

Prensky, M. (2001a, September-October). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the horizon, 9(5), 1-6. Retrieved July 27, 2006, from http://marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf

Vanslyke, T. (2003, May-June). Commentary- Digital natives, digital immigrants: some thoughts from the generation gap. Retrieved July 27, 2006, from http://www.wisc.edu/depd/html/TSarticles/Digital%20Natives.htm

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

we aRe jusT a TOUCH awAy...

What's on my mind...
It is my second time in MK2 for class PKEY 3101 Technology in Primary Education. Upon entering the class, my eyes blurred by the many faces in the crowded class. For a second, I thought I was in the wrong class. To add that, the lecturer was a male and never had I seen him before. Then, I saw a hand waving to me. Finally my eyes could focus and it was Dashaini. I sat right beside her and although my eyes had cleared, my mind blurred. I thought I was going to be sick.

Anyways, the new lecturer's warm smile eased my headache. We were learning the basic operations of a Smartboard. Yes, the board which the lecturer had shown on the first day of lecturing as we stared at the board with awe.

What I've learnt today...
I had the chance to touch the Smartboard at last after the lecturer and the temporary consultant Mr. Sam had taught us in detail some of the possible functions of the Smartboard. It was an enlightening class as I felt that I had learned some of the most basic and safe way of handling the Smartboard without destroying it.

Firstly, my doubt about how the Smartboard works was cleared. How can a person write on a board without using any ink? Mualah! The Smartboard, the board itself consists of a front and rear. In between the front and the rear there are air gaps. So, if a person touches on the front of the board, a connection is created to the rear. Thus, a touch can be detected.

Secondly, I learned that Smartboard does not operate by itself. One will need to connect a computer or a lap top to the board using a USB port and to the projector using a VGA. Therefore, by knowing this, I would save myself from embarassment of forgetting to include the projector or laptop when doing presentations using the Smartboard in the near future.

Thirdly, the Smartboard is not just about a board with a touch screen and buttons. One can click, create a page of drawings and writings of his own, choose from the gallery and have vast choices on the background and pictures for the page creations, or even move, save and delete and erase his creations. It is a tool of many possible functions or usage depending on how a person wants to use it.

Therefore, why waste such a great electronic tool? Educators see a great practicality in integrating the Smartboard in teaching.

How would the Smartboard affect my work as a teacher?
In my opinion, my work as a teacher will not be as simple as one would perceive. Especially in the modern era of science and technology. Primary pupils maybe more skilful in using a computer if compared to a teacher. Therefore, integration of technology is seen as vital so that educators will not fall behind in the era of advancement in technologies.
The Smartboard is already being used in teaching in the Western countries. According to one of the survey being carried out in the West, there is a high degree of satisfaction from educational leaders ranging from early elementary to academic settings (Dr. Bell, M.A., 2002).

Children's attention span is getting shorter nowadays with many inventions far more modern than what we have 10 years ago. Computer online games, playstation2, PDAs, handphones, satellite tvs and many more are getting more of their attention. A teacher will need more than a chalk and a black board to attract them into his lesson. Thus, using a brand new Smartboard will be a breath of fresh air in the classroom. It is clean as it does not need any chalks (merit for that!) and it is very attractive even for older students. Moreover, a teacher will no longer need to buy and draw all by himself the characters of a story on a big piece of mahjong paper to prepare for story telling in a class. The Smartboard will be time, money and energy conserving. He can just find for pictures and background on the internet or softwares to suit his teaching and he can even add animations. Indirectly, pupils' different learning styles can be catered to. Pupils who are visual learners will acquire knowledge better if they can actually see the animations. This is especially good for teaching the Science subject on the topics which are more abstract and most pupils find difficult on; for example, the topic of The Earth and the Universe. The teacher can present a 3D-animation on how sun and moon eclipses are formed.

The Smartboard is a kid magnet (Dr.). Pupils are very drawn to it and inhibited pupils can be encouraged to join in to contribute ideas by tapping on the screen or writing. Therefore, they will have more sense of confidence in them which will then elevate their learning.

I had been to a Year 3 class in which the teacher integrate computers in her teaching. Pupils were required to share the computers in pair as there were no enough computers in the laboratory. The pupils were very eager to use the computers. However, problems occur as the pupils' computers were not syncronized with the teacher's. It was hard too control the class because pupils kept wondering off from the page the teacher required the pupils to be. Then, some computers had problems starting and some could not run the software. With the Smartboard, pupils can participate as a group in class discussions. The teacher could control the class better as the attention is to the front of the class where the board will be.

The use of Smartboard in the classroom has required I, as a future teacher, to better equip myself in the knowledge of operating a Smartboard and the application of softwares useful in teaching, such as microsoft word or powerpoint. Every lesson is like a presentation of wonderful creations using the computer.

Hopefully I can learn even more of the Smartboard and the possibilities in teaching that it offers. Therefore during my future lessons, my class will run smoothly when using the Smartboard instead of hearing me shouting: "Hey, pressing this supposed to work (as I press and press even harder on the screen till it nearly creates a hole)!" or even "Oh, God. I should have listen when the lecturer taught me how to use this in UM. Now the Smartboard is really useful. To paste pupils' artwork at the back of the classroom!"

References:
Dr. Bell, M.A. (2002, January). Why Use An Interactive Whiteboard? A Baker's Dozen Reason. Retrieved July 19, 2006, from http://teachers.net/gazette/JAN02/mabell.html

Marilyn, Elias. (2004, May 4th). Short Attention Span Linked to Tv. Retrieved July 20, 2006, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-04-05-tv-bootomstrip_x.htm

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Reflection on 1st day's class pkey3101

Has Technology Really Changed The Way We Do Things?

First glance on the title of what our lecturer needs us to ponder on this week: I could not agree more. From personal communication with loved ones using the internet chatting to doing serious business like registering our courses for the new semester and bidding for softwares on lelong.com, technologies undoubtedly have changed the way we live life from how our ancestors did. Speed is gold nowadays..with the advancement of technologies..we do not need to spend long hours to queue up when paying bills. We are just a click away.

However on 2nd thoughts., for people like me that gets frustrated easily when using the computer, dealing with the computer can seem to be a difficult task. Sometimes for my presentation of my assignments I need extra time to seek help from my fellow coursemates in order to fix up my laptop and the LCD projector as the image suddenly could not be projected at the very last minute. This can be frustrated as technologies are supposed to be used to save time but instead my audience need to wait for almost half an hour for my presentation. Therefore, problems that occur when using technologies can be frustrating and sometimes i would rather stick to the old methods of presentation: the white board.

So, there are people out there who prefer to do certain things the old ways. In one primary school that i've been to to teach and observe experienced teachers teaching, most of them prefer the chalk and talk when teaching as they view that technologies such as integrating laptop or projectors in teaching tend to hav troubleshoots. Then, when they do troubleshoot they need to spend time fixing them in which most of them have not much background in. Pupils' engagement time in learning in the classroom is then shortened.

On the other hand, definitely new technologies still have lots to offer. If a teacher does not learn how to integrate technologies in her teaching, soon pupils will get bored as the teacher only used the orthodox method of teaching. If you are willing to upgrade yourself from knowing the basic such as typing to the complicated such as inserting photos in a word format, you will not be left behind in this modern and technology-emphasized world. Just keep an open mind.

Today I Learn...
To be patient with technologies and realizing that starting up a second blog is not that hard as I've expected...
Adn perhaps in the future i don't have to use the traditional chalk and board when teaching as there's a digital or interactive board available.

Today I Question...
How much IT literate will I get?I hope what I've learnt can be stored in my mind's harddisc so that I can apply them when I'm teaching in schools.
How much does d digital board cost?
I wonder whether the schools that I'm going to have one. Fingers crossed as i don't really like chalks :p.

veRy 1st post on LA PALACE..

hiaks 2 all...
announcing d birth of my 2nd blog!!
hope dis blog will not b abandoned like my 1st 1 on friendster.blog..hehe
anywayz u can always view my blog at my profile..
at this URL: http://kylin.blogs.friendster.com/kylins_blog/
add me ya
kylin11@hotmail.com
chaus...