(1) Specific Observations
School Name:
Da Qiao Primary School
Class:
4 Appreciation 2/Parallel Teaching
Profile of the class:
The profile of the class is mixed ability - some of the the students are higher ability while the rest are average abilities. There are 17 pupils in total - 9 boys and 8 girls.
Subject/Topic:
The Subject being taught is Maths - Introduction to the Properties of Squares and Rectangles
What ICT tools are used in the lesson?
A desktop computer and a visualiser was being used for the lesson.
Describe how ICT is used for teaching and learning in the lesson.
The teacher introduced the lesson by teaching them how to do origami using square papers. Following that he used a you tube video to show how to do the origami. The students found the youtube interesting as it had music and could be paused to allow students to do the origami while the demonstration was going on. The teacher proceeded to teach the properties via a powerpoint presentation. In between the powerpoint presentation, the teacher showed pictures of squares and rectangles with real life examples to help students relate better to the topic. Lastly the teacher gave some worksheets for the students as exercises. He went through the worksheet using the visualizer instead of the whiteboard as such the teacher could monitor the class situation as he teaches the class.
(II) General Observations
Qn: How do teachers feel about the use of ICT for teaching and learning?
The HOD/ICT felt that the teachers in the school are pretty comfortable to use ICT in their own classrooms - for example the use of powerpoints, visualizers and youtube videos. She also shared that the teachers like to use the computer labs as the students are able to engage in a more interactive way, and thus the computer labs in the school has been well utilized. She noted that one other importatn reason why teachers like to use the computer labs is because of the ICT mentors and the computer lab assistant who gives inputs and ideas for the lesson. However, she notes that there are some teachers who does not share the same feeling. The reasons why they don't like using ICT is because they find ICT lessons more time consuming than normal lessons and also because of the possibility of the computers breaking down. The HOD/ICT attribute the success of ICT in the school mainly to the good communication between the subject heads/HOD and her. The subject heads will tell her what is useful and what software to purchase and upon deliberation, she will make the purchase, thus contributing to the high use of the ICT tools in the school.
I like your bringing up of the challenges as brought up by the teachers in the school regarding the use of ICT for teaching & learning. It's important to address these perceived limitations so that teachers will view ICT as enabling tools for learning rather than as being just a concept on paper.
ReplyDeleteCedric Lim
I can empathise with the teachers who are not pro ICT. In particular, with the fear of possible break down of computer, thus making ICT lessons less efficient than it should be.
ReplyDeleteI like to share how my school handles it. Apart from PCs in the lab, we also have mobile UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC). As these are mobile in nature, they are sent to a classroom for usage upon booking, and thereafter, kept and serviced by technicians before the next use. Thus, the UMPC are always in ready, usable state and its mobility increases efficiency as students no not need to move to the labs and save time in settling down.
Leng Leng
Hi, I agree strongly about the time constraint in our curriculum making things inconvenient.
ReplyDelete(I was a subject teacher and had only 2 periods with each class per day most of the time)
Traveling to the computer lab/ logging in computers / saving work / shutting down computers / traveling back to class -- These essential tasks of a session in the computer lab will already take a significant bite out of the period.
I handled such problems by having mutual period-swaps to have at least 3 periods with a class in the lab.
That gave me greater time for presentation and conduct, as well as ensure that I did not eat into other classes.