Activity 6a&b reflections - Using Office software

In doing these activities, I have been taught to use functions that I saw but never understood such as the equation editor. I personally enjoyed working with this tool as it makes it easier to formulate test and activity items. It also makes the finished product looks professional. While using the drawing tools, which is something that I am accustomed using, it is important that students are given some form of graphics so that they can formulate a mental picture and make connections instead of using words and numbers only.

Module 5 Activity 5a Exploring Website resources

On evaluating the websites it was noticeable to me that the majority of the content was in alignment with the curriculum that I currently use.  I personally prefer the interactive site as they provide students with exciting activities as they learn and practice targeted skills. Other websites give support to teachers in terms of lesson planning and resources.
The checklist was quite instrumental in allowing me to see what to look for in a good website.
The four websites that I found quite instrumental in teaching Science concepts were as follows:

• Interactive Sites for Education   ( http://interactivesites.com/science.html)
• Science Learning Hub  ( http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/ )
• 10 cool Science sites   ( http://apps.exploratorium.edu/10cool/ )
• School Science  ( http://www.schoolscience.co.uk )

Module 5: Activity 2 - Experiencing Educational Software

There are numerous software that can be utilized to help me teach  and also help my students to learn important concepts and You Tube is one such software that I use almost on an everyday basis. It offers hundreds of suggestions for the topics being searched for and the teacher's or student's discretion is used to find the most suitable information. It shows a myriad of examples to any concept that is being taught. I would recommend this site as it acts as a live teaching aid to complement any lesson. After learning particular concepts, for example in Math, it is necessary for students to practice so that the skill that they are learning becomes natural. Two other software that can be used here are Math is Fun, which also has a tutorial on the given topic, and Super Teacher where there are numerous printable worksheets to work with.

Module 5 -Reflection on the value of social bookmarking

I have to admit that I taught myself bookmarking websites by accident using the google bookmarking tool. I must say that it made my task of locating useful websites very easy and manageable especially when I use these sites regularly. No longer do I have to create a new search for lost sites that I had visited before. It basically has the same concept of marking a page in a book that you are resting down for a while so that it is easy to find. It also makes sites more readily available to share with others in a group. Diigo is quite new to me and it took some time for me grasp it. The websites that I more than often bookmark are sites that contain worksheets, especially Math and Grammar,  information for the notes subjects, and videos and PDFs to act as visual aids for the various subject areas. I also use it for my personal benefits such as finding sites with the best recipe for making Italian meatballs or pineapple upside down cakes.

Module 1 - Activity 6 reflections

I enjoyed doing this activity as I was able to see the many fruitful ideas put forward by my colleagues. In our classes their are many learners who have a difficult time expressing themselves in the written form but may have a lot to say. These various activities provide our learners with the opportunity to have more verbal dialogue in the classroom. These activities are ideal especially for those students who are not good writers and those who are shy.

Developmental psychology

I truly do believe that parents play the utmost crucial role in the development of their children and it is my view that parents want to see their children succeed. My school community is a small-knitted community where the majority of persons are related in some way.  Most parents accompany their children to school so it is quite easy for the teachers to approach them, and vice versa, concerning their children's performance at school. We have Parent Teachers Meeting once every term. We have a student population of little over 53 and sad to say this number is not represented by the parents' presence. Parent conferencing day is held officially in the first week of the second term so that parents can get an idea of what their child has done in the previous school term and will make an intervention to help their child succeed if he/ she is having low grades. Teachers have private, one-on-one discussions where the child also has an input. My school is part of the Child Friendly School initiative where students undergo behavioral modification to help them to be successful is all areas. In this project, the teachers conducted three days of interactive parenting sessions to educate and inform the parents of measures to be taken when they interact with their children on a daily basis. These sessions saw the same small number of parents turning out. Parents are also called into the school deal with the ill-discipline of their children.
With all this being said at my school it can be seen that there is a low parent turn out for important events. Instead of wanting to see the parents for the ill-discipline of their children we should invite them to see the achievements that their children have made. This can be done when students showcase their Science projects or having their best work being displayed for all to see. 

Module 1 - Activity 2 reflections

The readings in this activity were quite familiar to me as I has studied the works of Jean Piajet at teachers' college. His theory on cognitive development involving assimilation and accommodation laid the groundwork educational institutions around the world.  How we learn depends on how well we are able to retain new information.  The information processing model depicts this perfectly.  It assumes that our brains have the function of a computer. The new information is entered and is worked upon in the working or short term memory. I see most of the times students reach this stage and forget some of the content that was taught in the lesson.  This is where the model has implications for the teaching-learning exchange.  This is where learners need to be taught meta cognitive skills so that they can think about their own thinking ( how they learn or how they want the information to be stored) so that new information learnt is readily available in long term memory. When storing information on a computer it must be saved in special labeled places (file documents, pictures, etc.) where they are readily retrievable.  The same must be done with our learners. When they come into contact with new information, it is important that we draw from their readily previous knowledge and make connections with the new information. 

Module 1 -Activity 2 Self Activity

A I did this activity I found it a bit challenging. The only information I could have remembered was the contents of what was on the coin as it is something that I come into contact with everyday thus it being in my long-term memory.  I saw the stimuli being the string of letters and list of words. My brain being the sensory register made an attempt to memorize them by rote only being able to recall the first four letters of the string o letters. I realized that learning the letters was more challenging than learning the words as I needed more time to strategize them into memory. I did remember the list of words eventually after much repetitions and arranging them in a way that easy for me to remember but all the information was soon lost after I had left the computer for ten minutes.  This showed that the information was not in my long-term memory as I had only learnt the information because I needed it for the activity.

Hello

Hello

Hello my colleagues, I must say that I have been a wee bit careless in starting this module because I did not keep up to date with checking my emails as often as I should but I am a hard worker and will ensure that I complete each requirement.
I am Gillian Bradshaw, a fifth Grade teacher assigned to the Dorsetshire Hill Government School. There are currently 9 students in my class, a more than manageable number, but still faced with the same challenges as other schools. I teach all subject areas. My school is adequately equipped with a number of technological devices which teachers attempt to use at their disposal. I hope to equip myself and my colleagues with expert knowledge of teaching with ICT while engaging students in meaningful learning after completing this course.

Module 1 - Acivity 1 reflections

This activity highlighted the traditional learning paradigm versus the new learning paradigm. In my opinion the traditional is based on all learners given the same conditions to learn regardless of their socio-economic or intellectual backgrounds. The new learning paradigm, on the other hand, focusses on reaching each learner where they are as each learner has needs. As I reflect on my days in primary school, the traditional learning paradigm was practiced by my teachers where it was seen through drill-and-practice and learning concepts by rote. But as time progressed new practices were incorporated in lessons to help the weak learners to succeed. In modern times technology has made the teaching-learning exchange more attainable as teachers have found it necessary to sharpen their skills by also involving themselves in the learning process. This activity has enlightened me to the fact that I as a teacher am also a learner.

Module 3 Activity 7

I honestly don't know how I managed to miss the first part of the activity however I did the second part dealing with handling big groups in regards to using the spreadsheet software.  Instead of the teacher solely keep records of students' grades, I think that it is a good move to teach them to be responsible in keeping track of their own grades using spreadsheet especially after completing exercises for the different subject disciplines.  This will help to control a big group where using spreadsheets is concerned.

Module 3 Activity 11 reflections

The only professional learning network that I have ever engaged myself in was this very CCTI course.  After doing this activity I have learned that any social network could be utilized as a PLN.  Most persons use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date on friends' and families' lives and to share their experiences. I, too, am guilty of this, especially on Facebook. PLN have the power and potential to assist us on a professional level. I see social networks a bit differently now they can be used to link and collaborate with colleagues who may share their expertise or ideas. I hope to build on the PLN that I created on Twitter and in the future build a PLN on Youtube.

Module 3 Activity 10 reflections

In this activity which dealt with us being smart workers using social media, I was drawn to the reality that the majority of us do not use social media such as facebook to collaborate with persons on a professional level. In Jane Hart's blog she posted 8 key features of a smart learner. All are quite important but the one that impacted on me the most is the learner learns best with and from others. In this ICT course, for example, we collaborate with other colleagues to see things from another person's point of view or have tasks being clarified. We even encourage and praise each other's efforts. So I, as a smart learner, would come to the realization that I don't know everything and find support from other colleagues.

Module 3 _ Activity 9

This activity really enlightened me as to how to check and evaluate websites as I do research for my lessons and also for my personal benefit. Some websites would seek to mislead the researcher but I have learnt to check for the purpose, reliability, biasness, credibility and accuracy of the websites. All are important but I think that the most important ones to me are evaluating the accuracy of the information being searched for and the credibility of the website because I must find the utmost correct information from a legitimate and trusted site.

Module 3 -Activity 1 reflections

In this activity, I thought it really amazing to see other participants' ideas as I typed mine into the brainstorming application. It was also insightful to see the many different roles of the educator and how they were spelt out by the author, Emilia Potenza. I have performed these roles everyday without actually realizing it. I particularly liked that the roles were in order of the duties that we perform. We must first know the students whom we are teaching to design instructions that would meet their needs. Then lead them in a path that would let them unlock their true potential. Then we still have to evaluate our strategies and continue to research to sharpen our skills. Then we have a responsibility to our community and to be the assessor of learning to ensure that it has taken place. I think that the last role comes naturally as we must be knowledgeable in what we teach to students

Activity 9 reflections

After analyzing the STaR chart I thought that it was a rather useful tool to show where my school was in terms of being ICT ready. I learnt from it because it also showed me where need to realistically reach using the available ICT tools which my school has. I will be visiting this tool from time to time to track my school's position  and progress as we embark on making ICT an integral part of daily school life.

Activity 5 reflections

In the activity 5 which dealt with the integrated approach, its challenges and whose responsibility it is to oversee it, I have learnt a lot. The integrated approach, as far as I understand, basically stresses on the reason for using the computer and not how to use the computer to accomplish tasks. I did the latter when I was a student in secondary school and now that I am a teacher I see the importance to teach students the skills that would prepare them for the real world. The challenges that I may face when using this approach may include working with limited resources and the necessary upkeep of students' net books since many of them are in need of crucial parts e.g. chargers, batteries or even keyboards. I do not consider myself entirely computer savvy but  little by little I will attempt to integrate ICT into my lessons.

Assignment 2 reflections

This assignment required a lot of critical analysis and evaluation. The lesson plan that I chose to evaluate from the many was appealing to me as it showed students using ICT to aid in solving a problem at their school. This lesson provided the students with skills that they would be able to use in later on in their lives. I was actually proud to see my strong points being acknowledged by the assessor with ticks and my mark had improved from the previous assignment. However I still do have a lot to improve on. For the next assignments to come I plan on reading ahead and sending them for the assessor to critique.

Assignment 1 reflections

I have learnt a lot from doing this assignment. I think this assignment attempted to test my ability to use skills in computer literacy to apply to a real life situation such as processing the data from the survey that I collected using graphic representation. This was a skill that I had learnt a long time ago but never really used it often  in a meaningful situation such as this. This assignment shows that teachers have to remember to allow students to partake in meaningful transfer of learning with subjects that we teach and link it with the real world setting. However my survey had some flaws which I will do my best to improve the next time around.

Acivity 4 reflections

It was interesting and insightful to read about Vygotsky's theory and Dr. Mitra's findings. They both have similar ideas in the sense that children learn by donig tasks spontaneously. However, it is my opinion that although students can learn on their own, they still need a guide (teacher) to build on their prerequisite knowledge and to steer them in the right direction to be competent in a changing technological world. I have learnt to talk less and allow students to be in charge of their own learning because I believe in this way tasks will be more meaningful to them.