Specific Observations
I have been a contract teacher at Bartley Secondary School (BSS) since Jan 2011. Hence, I was to return to BSS for my enhanced school experience (ESE). During this period of time, I have had the opportunity to witness a few ICT infused lessons and I chose to blog about the lesson I had observed with 3E1 during their Physics class.
The 3E1 students are generally of higher academic capability, as compared to even the students from 3E2/3. They are part of the small cohort which take pure sciences at "O" level, as compared to the others which take combined sciences instead. That being said, they are however, quite an unresponsive group and oft more than not, need a little pushing and prodding before they respond to questions put forward to them. They are rather well-behaved, perhaps, a little too well-behaved for their own good.
This lesson on kinematics would be an interesting one for 3E1. Before I had observed this class during the ESE period, I had opportunity to also observe an N(A) class during Semester 1, doing the exact same topic. Being a new teacher back then, I was less aware of ICT and the tools that were available to teachers. While the teacher was able to teach the subject content well, the analysis of kinematic graphs proved to be a little too dry for some of the N(A) students.
But I digress. Let us take a look at the application which students had the opportunity to fiddle around with:
Moving Man Applet from PhET
As you can see from the screen capture of the applet, the user is allowed to adjust various parameters of the application. We are able to control the initial position, velocity and acceleration of the man in the applet. There is also a record and playback function, so that the user can easily playback the motion of the man, without having to input all the parameters again. For ease of use, there is even a "reset all" button to set all parameters back to zero.
For the students, I felt it was the visual impact which allowed them to engrain the basic concepts of kinematics in their brain. There is only so much a textbook is able to achieve by means of still pictures, and it would not be feasible to set up instruments to measure all the parameters as mentioned above. Hence, the concept of acceleration for example, becomes clearer to a student when they are able to see the man move faster. The concept of vectors and scalars also are made clearer as students now see, that a negative value would cause the man to move in the opposite direction.
What is even more impressive about the applet however, is its function to plot various kinematic graphs according to the parameters given. Let us take a look at the following image:
Kinematics Graphs Charted by Applet
The above image shows the man at time = 0, at the initial settings of the applet. Students are then encouraged to put in various parameters and observe the charting of the graphs. As an example, let us investigate the relationship between displacement and velocity using the applet. The following results were achieved:
From the applet, the student would be able to see a real time charting of both the displacement and velocity graphs. The teacher would then be able to explain how a constant velocity would result in a straight line the displacement-time graph. Similarly, an object at rest (as denoted by the zero velocity portion of the graph) would result in a horizontal straight line. Other variables could also be investigated, such as how acceleration would affect a velocity-time graph etc.
Upon summing up the lesson, I felt that even I had benefited a great deal from the class, as I had garnered more ideas on how I could introduce concepts to students in a clearer manner. I believed that the students enjoyed it as well, as opposed to the usual chalk and board method. The only concern was that the lesson was drawn out since more time would be needed for the students to learn and experiment with the application. Other than that, it was a well thought out lesson, and something that I would be able to use in the future.
General Observations
The teachers in BSS in general are welcome to the use of ICT tools to teach and conduct lessons. Even myself, during the contract teaching period, had made use of programs like Apple Garageband, to teach students about looping and creating music. The looping software in Garageband allowed students to create and mix music, even without knowledge of music notation or theory. Here is a sample image of the program as follows:
Apple Garageband
With this program, I was able to introduce to students simple looping techniques, often used by DJs, in order to create dance music. The program was also versatile in the sense that you could add various digital instruments into the track, without a need of the actual instrument itself, allowing the creative juices of the student flow.
I had mentioned earlier about the Moving Man Applet which is from PhET simulations. Originally an acronym for Physics Education Technology, PhET is now a site which provides free online simulations for Physics, Chemistry and Biology. It is an indispensible tool for any science teacher, and I highly recommend the website, if you haven't already discovered it. It is accessible from the url: http://phet.colorado.edu/. A few members of the Science faculty of BSS sometimes would bring students to the computer lab, or make use of the java applications in class.
To further clarify other matters we had doubts on, a group of us doing the ESE in BSS decided to interview Mr Liu Kah Yang, HOD ICT of the school. The following is an excerpt from the interview:
(Please note that these responses were summarized, and represent his personal views of ICT.)
Interview Segment
Mr Liu Kah Yang
Head of Department - ICT
Bartley Secondary School
1. What is ICT? What are the ICT platforms available in Bartley?
ICT in education refers to its effective usage in developing students into thinking, self-directed, collaborative and discerning learners.
ICT platforms in Bartley are in a progressive stage. We are moving towards developing teachers’ competencies in their pedagogical approach in terms of ICT through PLCs (Professional Learning Circles) within respective departments. Teachers meet up on a weekly basis where we will come together to infuse and design a ICT lesson package.
Sharing will also be done within departments and across departments during PLCs and staff contact time so that ideas can be shared at school level for others to innovate for execution within one’s department. Well-designed ICT lessons plans will also be shared at national level through The ICT Connection in Edumall and at various sharing platforms.
2. How does the school select various ICT tools to enhance learning?
There may be five aspects to consider, namely content, order of thinking, level of self-directedness, level of collaboration and developing competencies in a particular software. We may not be able to meet so many targets at one go but often, there should be a mix of tools that meet the learning outcomes. In order to select the right ICT tools, teachers have to put aside some time every week in trying out different tools available free online so that we are able to know the affordances of these tools, i.e. what can be done and not be done with these tools in order to use them effectively in a subject area.
3. What is the adoption rate of ICT-based lessons in the school? How are teachers in the school encouraged to use ICT tools during lessons?
The adoption rate of ICT-based lessons is not prominent at this present moment since this is an area which our teachers have never been familiar with. The ICT journey in Bartley has a long way to go and it is only at the beginning stage where many areas need to be explored. There must be teachers who must be willing to role-model in delivering ICT-based lessons so as to encourage other teachers that this is one effective strategy to deliver content as well as to engage our students in learning.
Other ways of encouragement would be to include good infrastructure and technical support, so that teachers willing to experiment with ICT in their lessons will not end up frustrated should there be technical glitches. Financial resources may also be provided to departments willing to try out new ICT initiatives.
4. What are the challenges of implementing ICT in the school? Going forward, what are the plans for ICT in Bartley?
Implementing ICT will not be an easy process. It has to involve all staff in the school. There must be teachers out there who believe strongly in ICT, just like most teachers who presently believe strongly in conventional classroom teaching and learning. As their focus is more on content, they tend to develop stronger competencies in teaching content in the classroom. Teachers’ belief must first change. They must first realise that education is not simply about learning content. It is about learning how to get access to this content as independent learners and go about in creating new content as self-directed learners with the help of others as collaborative learners.
End Interview
Mr Liu had kindly given us many insights on how and what exactly is ICT. We thank him kindly for his gracious feedback on the issue.
In conclusion, while teachers are generally welcome to the use of ICT tools to teach, there is still a long journey ahead for BSS before ICT is fully adopted as part of its pedagogy. There seems to be still a continuing need to innovate, and come up with exciting new strategies towards planning ICT infused lessons.
No comments:
Post a Comment