As the profile of the students has changed, it is important for us to look for ways to use the method that can resonate with the students. Many of the students belong to the digital age and they can multi–task all the time. Teachers can make use of technology to enhance learning.
When I was teaching in NorthLight School, I noticed that many of the students can identify with the interactive smart board. Many of them failed maths but when the smart board is used, now 8 in10 are beginning to like mathematics. As many have short concentration span, every time a student moves up to the board to interact with the board , it will help them to increase another 15 minutes. Many are able to use the digital camera and video recorder as a tool for learning. Many of them are poor and do not have a computer at home but by teaching them how to use the computer, it will narrow the digital divide. The school is also a wireless campus and everyone can go into the internet anywhere. This also show that there is such a thing called “borderless classroom”.
I was also very impressed when the teachers conducted a learning trail at the Changi airport. This was for 240 students and they are divided into groups of 6 with a notebook for each group. They have to complete 20 learning stations. I was very impressed when the students were communicating with the teachers through MSN. The teachers were all in Macdonalds and each teacher is in charge of 7 groups. NorthLight takes in students who failed their PSLE and yet they can do such an activity is really remarkable.
There was another instance which I remembered when I was teaching at NorthLight. I had to relieve a class for digital art and I was instructed to supervise the class as they worked on their projects and that was to construct their dream hotel using google sketch up. Personally, google sketch up is one such software which I do not have any background knowledge on and I was quite apprehensive to relief that particular class. All that was running through my mind was: What if a student asks me for help? How would I respond since I do not have the basic knowledge on the software? Fortunately, all the students were comprehensively knowledgeable and I was deeply impressed with their software skills! Seeing how a class of 13 year olds managing such a complex software was really quite a sight!
After this incident, it dawned on me that technology indeed plays a very huge role in our youths today and many of them are exposed to technology influences at a very young age. It will be very important and crucial for us teachers to acquire the necessary skills and to tap on these commonly used tools to cater to the students' needs and their way of life.
What I already know:
Wiki is a platform in which information can be exchanged and shared among people and that information posted on the wiki page may not be 100% true/reliable.
What I want to learn:
I would want to learn how to incorporate wiki in our lessons to engage our students for meaningful learning.
What I learned this week:
I have learnt more about wiki and a new learning tool called the "mindmeister". It adopts the concept of mindmapping online where various users can create, share, edit mindmaps.
I believe this is one of the ways to engage the students as well as to bring across the message that learning can be fun and can take place outside of textbooks.
What questions do I still have?
Are they any negative impacts of mindmeister?
Yes, the academically less able students are the ones who stand to benefit the most from technology. But they are also the ones who are excluded from it in most schools since they are labelled troublemakers.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to read your view of how Northlight is bucking the trend.
As for your question, I'll answer generally for now. Technology is neutral; it is what you do with it that makes it helpful or harmful.