Thursday, August 10, 2006

NoT sO orDinary dAy iN MK2

Thoughts...
After a few weeks of preparing my teaching slides, finally, today was the day to show the rest my creations. I went in MK2 with the swarm of coursemates and successfully got a place at the end of the class. To my disappointment, it was a 'hanging' computer (meaning it hangs when I try to open my files in my pendrive). Nevermind, I will share the computer with my friends sitting in front.

The Prof. gave us an informative lecture and talked about her experience last week observing primary school teachers integrating technology in their teaching. These teachers had attended for technology courses before hand. However, the Prof. pointed out the mistakes or rather irony that happened in the classroom. Although there was the convenience of a lap top and projector for the teachers to use in their teaching, they still use the chalk and board to write their notes for the students. They could type in what they wanted to students to copy down in their exercise books or even prepare powerpoint presentations but perhaps they still could not kick off the habit of writing on the black board. Chalk and talk has been in our teaching culture for decades. It does need a little bit more time or effort to have technology as our main medium of teaching. Maybe a new batch of fresh graduate teachers like me can make a difference in schools? I will try to remember that I should never write with chalk if I have the lap top and have the projector projecting an empty slides as I draw happily on the black board. Never.

Then, it was time for presentations. No volunteers dared to go out first. All of us do not know what to expect from the Prof.

I voluntereed my group after the first group had presented. I had a mixture of feelings as I was quite worried that I would be bombarded with loads of questions (as the first group did) but on the other hand I was eager to know what the Prof. would say about my group's presentation. Me and my group member stand in front thinking bleakly, "Just shoot us!". To our relief, it was not so bad. Just few improvements needed to be made here and there. Phew~

Technology can support a vision but cannot be the vision
As the Prof. wrote these words on the Smartboard, my mind went blank. I got confused for a second. Technology can support a vision but cannot be the vision. Technology can support a vision but cannot be the vision. I repeated several times to get the sense out of it.

The phrase is definitely thought provoking. The development of our country in terms of science and technology has been a rapid one. We are on our way to achieve vision 2020 in which we will be a nation that develops fully economically, politically, socially, spiritually, phsycologically and culturally with the support from the advancement of science and technology. Therefore, in education, technology would support our vision to produce individuals who develop in terms of their physical, emotional, spiritual, social and intellectual. It should not be the vision as whether the technology help promote the overall development of individuals is still a question.

Where would the teachers stand if the technology is the vision in education? Would the teachers be superseded by technology? What happens to their future? Would they be out of job being thrown to the streets? In my opinion, technology in the classroom should be a tool for teaching, just like the text books, black boards, realias and so forth. We would need a professional to manipulate these tools so that information can be transmitted to the students. A professional who has background in learning theories and knows how to fit leaners' learning styles to the appropriate teaching methodology in order to maximize learning is in need. That professional will be a teacher.

Without a teacher, it would be like a very high-tech, brand new hammer without its master - the carpenter. It would be useless.

The future is here, and advances in technology provide unlimited access to learning opportunities never before imagined (Martin D.J., 2006). Teachers should use technology in the classroom to promote the richest education possible for the students and help achieving the vision in education - towards building wholesome Malaysians.

References:
Martin D. J. (2006). Elementary Science Methods: A Constructivist Approach. (4th Edition). Thomson Wadsworth. US.



1 Comments:

Blogger kylin said...

haha...thanks man..
A Special Thanks to...
to all who have read or have been reading my blog since the first publication, thanks folks!!
miss ya guys wherever you are and take a very good k or urself...
:P yours lovingly, prettyly n cleverly, KYLIN~

9:19 AM  

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