1st Blog Entry: Classroom Observations of ICT Use

ENHANCED SCHOOL EXPERIENCE: PREPARATORY TASK FOR ICT FOR MEANINGFUL LEARNING

Enhanced School Experience: Classroom Observations of ICT Use

(I)         Specific Observations

School Name: Bedok Town Secondary School

Class: 3NA1

Profile of the class: The students were very responsive to the related ICT equipment – the Interactive White Board (IWB). Though they are streamed in the Normal Academic, their standard of English exceeds the Express Stream classes’. The students of 3NA1 are always able to instantaneously answer the teacher’s questions.

Subject: English

What ICT tools are used in the lesson: Interactive White Board and ActiveStudio software

Describe how ICT is used for teaching and learning in the lesson.

General Observation: My teacher, Miss Lim, used the Interactive White Board (IWB) as a good tool of learning for the students. IWB is one of the most utilized ICT tool in Bedok Town Secondary. The teachers there are often encouraged to use the IWB to further tap into the students’ potential in learning particular subjects. As IWB looks like a typical whiteboard in its appearance, students are not afraid to use the IWB when they come up to the board to pen down their answers. Before going for classes, she prepared the slides for IWB as the comprehension had to be re-typed into paragraphs so that the words would appear bigger and clearer to the students. ICT is especially useful for English Language teaching because using tools like the IWB can retain the students’ focus on the screen, not by pure reading their own scripts/questions. By gathering the participation of all the students in the class, the teacher is able to teach efficiently as she/he is able to capture the attention of the students.

In this particular lesson, class 3NA1 was doing their English comprehension work where the students had to exchange papers with their classmates and to check the answers of their friends’. Thereafter, the students had to write their points on the IWB. As the marking scheme was provided for the teacher, the students had to number their points to see if they had missed out any point. ICT can go hand-in-hand with conventional teaching. For example, exchanging papers with fellow classmates is a good approach as the students would know their mistakes and be corrected on the spot when the teacher points out the mistakes and correct answers on the IWB. Hence, by utilizing the IWB, it helps the students to rectify their mistakes instantaneously as the teacher goes through the papers. The ActiveStudio software which is the software that works in collaboration with the Interactive White Board system. ActiveStudio has various tools like highlighting, underlining, numbering, enlarging, zooming, drag-and-drop – all these are effective tools for the teachers to emphasize on the important points, and the students can also participate in the learning. Also, the collaboration between IWB and ActiveStudio allows both teachers and students to edit the work on the screen, and the edited work can be saved for reference. Unlike the conventional white board, the IWB is able to store and save the edited versions of work (passages, worksheets, students’ answers, etc). In addition, the IWB is a more student-centered approach in learning. My teacher gave very clear sets of Specific Instructional Objectives (SIO) at the start of the lesson. She instructed specifically to the class that they had to exchange papers with their fellow classmates, and to mark the papers. Thereafter, the students were randomly picked up to write the answers on the IWB. The students were very responsive in answering the questions. My teacher then demonstrated in answering one question as an example for the students. Generally, the students were able to follow the instructions and highlighted the important points, and they then discussed with their peers in the given 10 minutes. This collaboration of ICT with conventional teaching is very useful as the students are exposed to various answers and explanations offered by their classmates.

How do teachers in the school feel about the use of ICT for teaching and learning? (For this question, you may want to speak to the HOD/ICT and other teachers you know in the school.)

The teachers in the school feel that using the IWB is an extremely good tool for teaching and learning. Bedok Town Secondary also sets up this ICT sharing among the teachers where the teachers come together and plan their lesson plans with ICT collaboration. The teachers in the school are very much encouraged by the HOD to use IWB as IWB is able to thread towards a more student-centered approach in the students’ learning where they can further explore their potential in learning. Although the IWB is very beneficial, it has many problems as well. Usually, the teachers have to ask one of the students in the class to set up and calibrate the board first. Sometimes when the projector is not well aligned or adjusted to the screen, then the IWB will have difficulties in calibration to get it started. Also, as the software may not support the full copy-and-paste version from the powerpoint slides, it means teachers have to go type word by word to rearrange their teaching materials. In addition, the glaring sunlight outside the classroom may make the students squint their eyes to focus on the IWB.