Bl0gging for pupils

Blogging for pupils..What's your opinion about it?

Well, as for me, I feel that blogging has more pros than cons. Blogging could draw out a young writer and open the doors to their future. Employing blogs help to develop good spelling habits, grammar skills, and develop a love for writing at a young age. It is an innovative concept that has potential benefits.

Blogging helps to increase communication with friends, teachers and even parents. Since blogging will be presented to an audience, pupils will learn to take pride in their work and will want to present their ‘best’ work. Thus, it develops pupils' confidence and get a real sense of fulfilment from publishing their work. The automated spell-checking function helps pupils to be aware of their spelling errors when they occur. Also, pupils getting acquainted with keyboards at a young age could help them to become familiar with their layout and function.

However,there are cons of blogging for pupils. Since blogging involves the Internet, teachers should educate pupils about the dangers of the Internet. The Internet is global in its reach and developing safe Internet habits at a young age is important.

My FutUrE cLaSSR0oM

This week's class allowed us to dream and be farsighted about future classroom. Well, as for me, I was longing for a classroom which was equipped by basic technology appliances such as computer, LCD and SMARTBOARD. With these technology facilities in the classroom, I was able to apply the skills and knowledge that I gained in UM especially in integrating technology in teaching and learning activities.

Using technology in teaching and learning activities is beneficial as it brings new method of teaching that is more interactive, fun, easy and meaningful. With just a click, a teacher can expose the pupils with technology that is crucial in today's modern era. Indirectly, it develops pupils' computer literacy skills while they are learning in the classroom.

However, there are some risks that may occur while carrying out activities using technology. For example, electricity problem, computer malfunction and so on. So, to overcome this, teachers should be flexible and initiative enough to design Plan B as the backup plan. Thus, still, the traditional way of teaching such as using 'chalk-and-talk' is still relevant in future classroom when teachers encounter problems in using technology.

To conclude, I strongly believe that both traditional and modern method of teaching is equally important and relevant to be applied in future classroom. Where there is problem while integrating technology in teaching and learning activities in the classroom, there is always traditional way of teaching.

In addition, I believe that teachers themselves have to play their crucial role in conducting suitable teaching and learning activities and approach that can ensure the objectives to be achieved successfully and effectively. That is the most important thing of all. Even though the classroom is not well-equipped with the latest technology appliances, teachers can still teach and conduct activities if the activities reflect their learning objectives. Well, everything depends on how the teacher designs, conducts and the approach that she uses to carry out the teaching and learning activities.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA

To Prof Raja Maznah,

Mr Hafiz

and fellow friends,

SELAMAT

HARI

RAYA

&

MAAF

ZAHIR

BATIN

FISH Philosohy

I love this week’s class. It was electrifying and stimulating. I was quite shocked when Prof Maznah threw some fish toys to us at the beginning of the lecture and we threw them to each other. That was really fun and I bet all of us were having fun too..haha..then,I started wondering the significance of throwing the ‘fishes’ to us at the beginning of the lecture.. Does it have anything to do with our lecture today?

I finally got the answer when Prof introduced ‘FISH Philosophy’ to us. Honestly, I love the way she introduced the philosophy by playing some kind like ‘game’ when we threw the ‘fishes’ to each other earlier. That was brilliant! Maybe I can apply this technique to my pupils in future.

FISH Philosophy is a skill that provides the process, tools and language to generate the skills necessary to design a workplace full of inspiration, creativity and innovation.

It emphasizes on four simple practices – Be There, Play, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude. Basically, it was all about inspiring us to have fun at work, school and home. It also inspires us to develop new attitude about how we show up in our community both at home and in the workplace.

In my opinion, as teachers, we should apply FISH philosophy as we need to understand our pupils’ feelings and background so that we are ‘connected’ to them and have good rapport. This is crucial in order to motivate pupils for learning and have fun simultaneously. I’m sure pupils will love you if you apply this wonderful philosophy in your teaching style =)GAMBATE!!

Thank you, Ma'am and tUt0rs

We continued with our presentation on smartboard activities in this week's class..but this time, we had it from group 1 followed by the next group. My group, WHITEBOARD, was the fifth group to present on that day. As before, every group had to choose the best SMARTBOARD activities among the group members and my activity had been chosen for this week's class. I was quite nervous and worried if Prof and tutors would comment on my activities badly..huhu..However, with the support from my group members, Kumi, Dila, Hafiz, Kak Hidayah and Kak Niza, I gained my confidence and ready to present it to the class. This is what I like about working in this group..helping each other..supporting each other..just love it=)

Unluckily, I could not present my activities to class because most of us would like to continue editing their SMARTBOARD activities. So, Prof allowed to do our own work and edit it nicely. Thank you , Prof and tutors for being very undertstanding. I really appreciate it a lot=)

I should be grateful to have such an understanding lecturer and tutors for this course. That means a lot to me..They even allowed us to decide on the date of submission for the SMARTBOARD assignment (that's what I like about this course..hehe..). However, my group had discussed and decided to submit the assignment next week, which was on 24th September 2008 instead of submitting it after Raya. We believed that there will be more assignments to be submitted after Raya so, that's why we decided to submit our assignment before going back for Raya holiday=)

The last 30 minutes of this week's class was having discussion with lecturer and tutors about our SMARTBOARD assignment. Luckily, I managed to show my activities to Prof and she suggested me some ideas to improve one of the activities. Overall, the activities are fine. Thank you, Prof Maznah for the ideas and advice. I will edit it for my final product. All the best!!

All the best!

Luckily, I had finished my SMARTBOARD assignment. Two of my group members, Dila, Kumi and myself had shown each others’ work on Tuesday, the day before our technology class. We commented on each others’ work and suggested some ideas to improve our product. Honestly, I love this kind of ‘working together concept’ where we cooperate and help each other that makes us work as a team. Indirectly, we had developed soft skill such as collaboration, communication, mutual respect and leadership while working together as a group. Thank you Kumi, Dila, Hafiz, Kak Niza and Kak Hidayah.

In this week’s class, we were required to sit in our group and decide on which product to be chosen and presented in front of the classroom. At first, Dila and I had suggested to choose Kumi’s product to be presented in front of the classroom because we thought that her product was the best among us. She had some videos in her SMARTBOARD activities which was something extra compared to the others..but then, the other group members decided to choose my product to be presented in front of the classroom because they thought mine was attractive. I was quite surprised because I believed that my SMARTBOARD activities were not that great and the activities were simple that involves dragging, matching and writing on the SMARTBOARD. However, I agreed to present the activities to class as my group members told me so.

Nonetheless, after I heard Ma’am mentioned that we need to choose the best among the best, I was wondering again. I whole heartedly believe that my activities were not the best among the best because I think Kumi’s activities deserved to be chosen for the presentation since her activities were more creative and apply more SMARTBOARD application like spotting things using magic pen on the SMARTBOARD. So, finally, we decided to choose Kumi’s activities to be presented in front of the classroom.

While watching other groups presenting, certain groups had been assigned to look into certain aspects such as the positive points, negative points and ways to improve it. After watching the presentations by a few groups, I think that Kumi’s activities were the best among the others which was presented today. Congratulation, Kumi!
Personally, I think the presentation session of SMARTBOARD activities was very helpful in giving us ideas about the criteria to be focused on in designing the activities such as content, creativity (originality and types of activities), justification (theories) and presentation (layout, audio, video, font, font size, colour and pictures). After watching the presentations and discussing comments about it, I realized that I need to add some ‘spices’ on my SMARTBOARD activities to make it more attractive. So, to all my group members and me myself, I wish you all the best!

Time is running out!!

Luckily, we were given the chance to do our own work for designing our smartboard activities for this week's class.
That means I can continue searching and working with my SMARTBOARD assignment. Actually, I'm searching for animated gifs or pictures to be included in my SMARTBOARD assignment later. I believe it can attract pupils' interest and make the lesson more entertaining.
However, the most important thing is that I need to finish it as soon as I can because time is running out!

SMARTBOARD..Does it really SMART?

Yes,it is definitely SMART. Why? Because it allows interactive teaching and learning among the pupils. Thus, it indirectly creates a positive environment in the classroom as it managed to attract pupils' attention and encourage pupils' participation in the learning process. SMARTBOARD is really smart because teachers can save, print notes, collaborate on electronic documents, share information and run multimedia materials. In fact, there is a lot more teachers can do with SMARTBOARD to conduct creative and meaningful lessons to pupils.

Personally, in my opinion, SMARTBOARD is a wonderful tool for modern teaching and learning in future classrooms. It integrates with the use of technology. Thus, it exposes pupils with technology and it indirectly develops pupils' ICT skills which is good for the globalization in future.

Here is the link for readings:

http://www.ilstu.edu/~cmkahl/presentations/scil/01oh_elmo.ppt#270,14,Common Problems

Ways forward with ICT

This week's lecture was basically discussing about effective pedagogy using ICT in literacy and numeracy in primary school. Referring to the article entitled "Ways forward with ICT: Effective pedagogy using informations and technology in literacy and numeracy in primary school", it is clear that approprite use of ICT in classroom benifits both teachers and pupils. It assists pupils' literacy and numeracy development. In terms of numeracy development, teacher can teach number concept easily to pupils. Through the activities, it helps pupils to focus on the specific aspects of number being taught. For example, understanding two different types of decimal times. On the other hand, in terms of literacy, ICT can enhance pupils' reading and writing skills by presenting words and text visually and aurally.



However, the most important issue here is that the teacher should make the right decision on when, when not and how to use ICT effectively in their teaching and learning activities. Teachers should take into consideration of many factors in designing activities using technology. They must ensure that the activities and learning outcomes are alligned with the pedagogy. They also need to understand how the ICT will be used to meet specific objectives within subjects of curriculum to improve pupils' achievement. Besides that, teachers need to prepare themselves to overcome any circumstances of using ICT in their teaching and learning.


In addition, teachers need to equip themselves with the skills and knowledge of using ICT; for example, using computer and SmartBoard. They need to build their confidence of using the technology in classrooms as they should act as the model and function as 'the fountain of knowledge' to pupils. Teachers ought to help and support each other in using the technology to carry out their teaching and learning activities. Cooperation among teachers to learn and use the ICT in classroom is important so that the application of technology in teaching and learning will be effective and meaningful. Simultaneously,it exposes pupils with the use of ICT in the modern era.
So, as future teachers, we need to equip ourselves with the skills and knowledge of using ICT in classroom in order to ensure efficient and successful learning process among the pupils.

Thinking about thinking..

Last week was holiday..not a holiday, I supposed. I was still thinking about the topic that I wanted to choose for our SMARTBOARD assignment. Actually, my group had divided the fields of Science, Maths and English subject among ourselves and I'm doing the Maths with Kak Niza, one of my group members. Since I had no brothers or sisters studying in primary schools, I decided to borrow the Maths textbook from my neighbour in my hometown.
I was just trying to get some ideas of the activities or exercises that can be designed for certain topics.

Finally, I decided to choose Year 1 with the topic of 'WHOLE NUMBERS'and the Learning Area is 'Addition with the highest total of 10'.

The learning objective that I am planning to focus on is - understand addition as combining two groups of objects.

Whereas, the learning outcomes are -

i) find the total of two numbers.

ii)write number sentence for addition.

iii)state all possible pairs of numbers that total up to a given number.

DeSigNiNg AcTiViTiEs using SMARTBOARD

This is my new assignment in this course..'DESIGNING ACTIVITIES USING SMARTBOARD'. Luckily, Miss Chin showed us some examples of our senior's assignments about designing activities using SMARTBOARD. It gave us some ideas about the kind of activities that we can create using the interactive board. For example,matching, dragging and writing.Thank you Miss Chin.

Actually, our assignment requires us to work in group of fives or six and design activities for primary children using SMARTBOARD. Each group member has to choose one topic and design at least five screens/activities. The topic covers three main fields which are SCIENCE, MATHS and ENGLISH LANGUAGE. My group had discussed and we agreed to divide the field/subject that we would like to do. Kak Niza and I will design activities on Maths while Hafiz and Kumi will do Science whereas Dila and Kak Hidayah will do English Language.

Can't wait for the product!!To all my group members, GOOD LUCK!

Reflecting Video Assignment

Reflecting our experience that we gained while doing our video assignment, I realized that we actually developed our knowledge especially in using softwares such as movie maker, power director, total video converter. However, some of us managed to find other advanced softwares such as Xilsoft, Pencil 4.0, anime studio and Pinnache studio.

Besides that, we had developed new skills especially in photo editing, video editing and audio editing while doing this assignment which was something benificial for us as future teachers! =)

Plus, we also developed our soft skills such as communication, teamwork, creative and critical thinking skills (which I'm hoping I can develop more on this), leadership, responbility, norms and values, ethics, life long learning (since we are continuously learning using the softwares) and entrepreneurship.

All in all, this video assignment is not basically about doing the assignment, but it enhanced our skills and knowledge in using technology.

Links on SMARTBOARD

I came across some websites to get to know about SMARTBOARD and here are the links:

-->http://www.microagecs.com/av/smart/smart_software.asp

-->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartboard



Here are the links on the lesson activities using SMARTBOARD:
-->http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Lesson+activities/SMARTIdeasActivities/

-->http://www1.center.k12.mo.us/edtech/SB/templates.htm

SMARTBOARD…SMART TEACHERS

Smartboard. It is not something new for me. I had attended a course on SMARTBOARD last year but unfortunately, I forgot some of the application on how to use it. I had even used it in IPIK when my group was the first group that was given the opportunity to use SMARTBOARD to present out topic =) . Luckily, we had no problem to fix the SMARTBOARD..but we had problem while using it during our presentation especially while writing words on it. This is because we didn’t press the pen on the SMARTBOARD.

Today’s lecture was delivered by Fenny Setiawan, the cute lady who conducted a course on SMARTBOARD to us last year. The first part of the lecture was about the usage and functions of SMARTBOARD and I could see some of us were dosing off. They must be burning the midnight oil doing the video assignment which had to be submitted today!

The second part of the lecture was continued with group activity where we were required to design activity using SMARTBOARD and present it to class. Unluckily, due to nick of time, only few groups were given chance to present their activity. .My group, WHITEBOARD, designed an activity teaching preposition, namely, ‘behind’, ‘under’, ‘on’, ‘beside’ and ‘between’. We used infinite clone on an object so that the teacher can ask pupils to put the object as requested by the teacher. Our tutor on that day, Fenny, commented that our activity was simple and interactive. Among those groups who had presented today, I like Afiq’s group. His activity is teaching the topic of places such as post office, hospital, etc. It was fun, interesting and very interactive. His group used the template that is already available in the SMARTBOARD. It is a game-like activity to fill in missing letters and I bet children will love it!

Personally, I find that SMARTBOARD can be explored to design more interactive teaching and learning activities for children. It is relevant and practical for teachers to use it for teaching and learning activities.

Local Links on ICT

I was introduced with these four local links on ICT which are:



1) http://www.eduwebtv.com/index7.php



2) http://www.cikgu.net.my/



3) http://www.tutor.com.my/tutor/etems/



4) http://www.moe.edu.my:8080/web/guest/home



I found that these links are very useful and relevant for us as future teachers. Teachers are able to update themselves with current issues in education. They can even discuss and share information among themselves about the education field.



About the video assignment, I was very grateful that the submission date of the assignment had been postponed to 6th August 2008. I had discussed with one of my group member to give some comments and reviews on my video as advised by our lecturer, Prof. Dr. Raja Maznah. I find it very helpful in producing the best product of the video. My friend gave me a good suggestion of editing the video. Thanks to you Adila. You've been really helpful. So, to all my friends all the best!!

M.O.D.E.L.S

Today’s lecture was conducted by our tutor. She introduced us with 3 models of teaching which are ASSURE model, ADDIE model and Dick and Carey model.
The ASSURE model is a model that provides framework for teachers in using technology in classroom:

A – analyze learners.
S - state objectives
S - select methods, media and materials
U – utilize media and materials
R – require learner participation
E – evaluate and revise

On the other hand, ADDIE model stands for:

A – analysis
D – design
D – development
I – implementation
E – evaluation

Both models have similarities in the framework or idea of teaching using technology in classroom. Basically, teachers need to analyze, design and finally evaluate their teaching and learning activities using the technology.

The other part of today’s class was continued with our own work of doing the video assignment. Actually, my video is on the topic of ‘CLOTHES’ which addressed for Year One pupils.
My objectives of the video are: after watching the video, pupils are able to :
1. identify at least 5 out of 7 types of clothes.
2. spell at least 5 out of 7 types of clothes correctly.

I am planning to record video of a girl who does not know what to wear to her friend’s birthday party. While choosing her clothes, it indirectly teaches the viewers different types of clothes. Then, I am planning to record video of ‘models’ in shirt, dress, trousers, socks, shoes, shorts and skirt to introduce the clothes to viewers. I will also take photos of clothes and edit them to put on the windows movie maker with the word or vocabulary on the selected clip. But, the most important thing of all is to get some people to be my ‘model’ for the video..can’t wait for that..haha.

Actually, I’m hoping for more creative ideas to pop out from my head to produce better video after I wrote this post..insyallah..amin.

So, wish me all the best for this video =)

3 minutes

Today, I had a clear view of what we are supposed to do for our second assignment, which was making a 3-minutes video clip for teaching children. It is an individual assignment but the marks of every group members will be calculated as a sum to get an average mark for the group. Finally, this will be the marks for the assignment. I realized that I need to produce a fine video since my marks will affect the marks of my group. I think this idea of giving marks is very good as it motivates us to produce the best video in order to get high marks.

To do this assignment, each group has to discuss and set the criteria or quality assurance that is taken into account to assess the video. My group had discussed and agreed that our criteria for judging the video are creativity (layout, colour and audio), content and language. As mentioned by our supportive lecturer, Prof. Dr. Maznah, each group member needs to check and assess each others’ video first before consulting the tutors.

As what I understood from the briefing about the assignment, firstly, we need to identify one or two objectives of the video project. Then, we have to create storyboarding that portrays our idea of what to be included in the video. For instance, animation, narration, cartoons, instruction, demonstration, 3D clay, comedy, storytelling and others. We need to describe what will appear in the screen (eg; pictures, clip, graphic or other kind of visual), what listeners will hear (eg; music, narrative, sounds), specifics of every piece of media that we need and narration as attached in this website:

>>http://adec.um.edu.my/code/course/view.php?id=389 website

>>http://www.freewebs.com/assignment3/

Thank you Prof. for giving us some guidance on using Microsoft movie maker. That means a lot to me. Storyboarding and doing video project is something new for me as I never done it before but I will take this as a challenge. Plus, it is beneficial for me as I will gain new knowledge of designing storyboarding. Honestly, I am so excited to do this assignment and can’t wait to see the final product. Wish me luck =)

How Technology Affects What Teachers will be Learning?

As technology is integrated and used in classroom, teachers have to equip themselves with the knowledge of technology. It is important so that they can teach their pupils using technology
effectively, as teachers should be the 'fountain of knowledge' and model for the pupils. Besides
that, teachers should update themselves with latest information on technology and know how
to integrate the technology in their instruction. This is to ensure that the pupils are exposed with the technology effectively and efficiently.

Here is a website that discusses about how technology affect pupils and teachers:

>>http://www.apple.com/education/k12/leadership/acot/pdf/10yr.pdf

How Technology is Going to Affect How Your Students Are Going to be Learning

In my opinion, using and integrating technology in classroom is a very good idea. It brings a 'fresh' and conducive atmosphere of teaching and learning process in the classroom. By using technology in teaching and learning activities, for example, learning through the internet, it provides opportunity among the pupils to learn and gain more knowledge 'outside' the classroom. Besides that, it promotes independent learning among the pupils as they will have to search and gain knowledge or information on their own. In my opinion, this inquiry-discovery learning method is a very good method of learning as it is more student-centered. Thus, it is clear that using technology in classroom enables teachers to practice P.L.E.a.S.E effectively as learning is more personalized and it promotes cooperation and collaboration among the pupils while they are learning.

Here is the website that explains the advantages of using technology in classroom:

>>http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/hcarter/techrationale.htm

What Do You Think about the Use of Technology in Classroom?

Well, in my opinion, using technology in classroom is very good as it exposes pupils with the

technology that is very important in this era. It provides a room of freedom among the pupils as

they are able to learn without boundary, practise inquiry-discovery learning and more student-

centered learning. This is what teachers should do as we are moving towards globalization in

education. Teachers need to change their 'traditional' teaching and learning style (chalk and

talk) to be more student-centered so that learning can be done not only from teacher-student

communication, but also student-teacher and student-student. So, as future teacher, let us

bring a new style of teaching which is more student-centered in classroom that will definitely

benifit the pupils, our next generation.=)

Here are some websites that explains about the advantages of using technology in classrooms:

>>http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/hcarter/techrationale.htm

However, there are also limitations of using technology in classroom, for example no resources of technology in classroom, as mentioned in this website:

>>http://myhome.spu.edu/drakec/html/integrating_technology.html

Issues on Technology

I was surfing the internet this morning and I came across some useful websites here related to the issues of the application of technology in schools:

>>http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te800.htm

>>http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/techconf99/confsum.pdf

>>http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te200.htm

P.L.E.a.S.E

Entering this class for PKEY 3101 course was interesting on the first day itself even though some of us had to 'migrate' from one computer lab to another :- I found that answering questionnaires which were attached to the learners' profile was very good as it made me realized how deep my knowledge in technology was. It opened up my mind to have some ideas about technology and energized my mind to think about the content that we might learn in this course. I love this very much as it kept me wondering and guessing about the content and the purpose of learning this
course.

I was impressed with the presentation and lecture conducted by our lecturer, Prof. Dr. Raja Maznah Raja Hussain. It was clear, simple and meaningful. Honestly, I love attending this kind of lecture. I love the way she introduced a brief idea about the course by flashing out the clear-cut concept of P.L.E.a.S.E to develop SMART teachers. From that concept, she managed to bring us into a broader world of teaching by introducing 12 C's of SMART teaching and learning. It really opened up my mind about being a SMART teacher as I only knew a bit about it. So, after listening to the lecture, I realized that there are many aspects need to be highlighted in order to establish SMART teaching and learning such as creativity, conversation, collaboration, etc.

As future teachers, we need to consider different aspects to practise P.L.E.a.S.E in classroom such as systemetic teaching and learning method, engaged-learning, skill-based and others.

I agree that teachers should personalize learning environment and engage students in learning by allowing them to make decisions about what they want to learn and how, as mentioned by Campbell;2007. I believe that technology brings a great impact on pupils' learning. This is because through technology (for example, doing assignments that require pupils to find information from the internet), can develop pupils to be independent learners since they will learn through inquiry-discovery method. It also encourages participation and cooperation among the pupils so as practising P.L.E.a.S.E in their learning as mentioned in this website; http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/hcarter/techrationale.htm. Plus, it indirectly exposes pupils with globalization in education that allows pupils to gain knowledge without boundary.

Thus, it will make learning more meaningful and fun. Besides, using technology in classroom can develop the teacher's professionalism in teaching as both pupils and teachers will share the knowledge and input through the tasks given by the teacher. This is a very conducive and motivating environment for learning among the pupils which is good to be practised in classroom.

From this very first class of PKEY 3101, I got inspired to develop myself to be a SMART teacher that practises P.L.E.a.S.E in my classroom in future. Thank you Prof. for providing me such an evocative lecture:-)