Final thoughts

From this course I understood many useful things, which really will help me in my future teaching. The most important thing that I understood it was the meaning of student centered learning I found that I had to be a facilitator and the resource person during the teaching process but not an information presenter. Also I learned new strategies is the Inquiry based learning which is an information-processing model that allows students to discover certain information through a series of steps that lead to a conclusion or reflection on the newly attained knowledge and I understood the different roles of the computer inside my classroom, as a tutor, tutee and as a tool.

Finally, I would to thank you Dr. for all useful information you presented to us and I promise you to apply it as much as I can in my future teaching.

ICT as Tutor

The computer inside my classroom is playing three major roles; I used it as a tutor, tool and tutee. I will focus here in the computer as a tutor, when I provide for them online educational software to educate and play, and when I give them tutorials software to present some subjects material, to solve different related questions and response and then the computer "tutor" evaluate these responses. From the result the students can determine their levels and what to do next. Also, there are many other software to use as a tutor for many other purposes. For example using games or simulations in my teaching lessons. And that motivate the student too much, it help them to understand and analysis the information easily.

I was always trying to use different games and simulations with my students in the class to teach them certain information. And they were very interesting during the whole lesson. I gave them thinking games, logic puzzles and memory games. There are some modified games that I tried to give to my students, but they are not interested on them as much as the puzzles games. About the simulation, I tried to find an online education simulation to let my students register in and play. The games help me to break from the usual and make my lesson more attractive.

Types of educational software

·        Drill and practice

As an instructional strategy, drill & practice is familiar to all educators. It "promotes the acquisition of knowledge or skill through repetitive practice." It refers to small tasks such as the memorization of spelling or vocabulary words, or the practicing of arithmetic facts and may also be found in more sophicated learning tasks or physical education games and sports. Drill-and-practice, like memorization, involves repetition of specific skills, such as addition and subtraction, or spelling. To be meaningful to learners, the skills built through drill-and-practice should become the building blocks for more meaningful learning.

·        Tutorial

·        Simulation

A computer simulation (or "sim") is an attempt to model a real-life or hypothetical situation on a computer so that it can be studied to see how the system works. By changing variables in the simulation, predictions may be made about the behavior of the system. It is a tool to virtually investigate the behavior of the system under study.

·        Instructional games

o   They are software designed to increase motivation to learning by adding game rules and /or competition to learning activities

o   They are also a Learning tool used during teaching and learning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation

http://www.google.com.bh/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=Instructional+games&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CEcQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.schoolnet.org.za%2Fconference%2FCD%2F45%2Finstructional_games.ppt&ei=xqsJT9nIBM2WOv3OrakB&usg=AFQjCNGh4RmLiN-Elyrk_wAHOOMnwRISlw

ICT as Mind tool (mind mapping)

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and writing.

Mind maps can be used for:

ü problem solving.

ü outline/framework design.

ü structure/relationship representations.

ü anonymous collaboration.

ü marriage of words and visuals.

ü individual expression of creativity.

ü condensing material into a concise and memorable format.

ü team building or synergy creating activity.

ü  enhancing work morale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

I always used this technique with my students all the information I taught them I drew them on the board and connected to each other because I knew that it is the easiest way for my students to remember and understand. But after, when I know more about the visual concept map, I will use it more and more inside my classroom because it is useful for my students in many ways, It provide structure for thinking, writing, focus thoughts and ideas which leading to understanding and interpretation and connect between the previous knowledge and the new concepts.

WebQuest

"A WebQuest is an inquiry oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. These can be created using various programs, including a simple word processing document that includes links to websites."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebQuest

WebQuest is a problem solving learning that is one of the inquiries based learning example. It is based on searching on different source on the Net certain information that helps in solving certain problem.

I do a project in an interesting topic to show to the students. That contains five basic steps of the WebQuest. I started it with an introduction contained a problems. Then when I show the project to student I asked them to solve the problem by working in groups and I asked each group certain task to do. After that I give each person in group a task like search the information, collected them and organized them to do the process step. Then in the evaluation step I evaluate the task they are doing. At the end I do the conclusion step by give each group some smile faces for their work.

I was chosen WebQuest because that has some advantages like:

v Internet sites are pre-selected so students don’t waste time searching.

v Students can have higher level thinking to process information.

v Ease of use net.

v Students can learn in pairs or group.

v Scaffolding provided within the lesson can help lower learners catch up.

http://sd71.bc.ca/sd71/edulinks/workshop/webquest.pdf

Inquiry based learning

"Inquiry-based learning is an instructional style based on the idea that learning may be facilitated by giving students the opportunity to explore an idea or question on their own. To arrive at an answer or to better understand the concept, students often collect and analyze data."

http://www.education.com/definition/inquirybased-learning/

Student centered learning is related with modern teaching strategies like, Authentic learning, Active learning, problem based learning, Project based learning and Inquiry based learning. And I will discuss in this section Inquiry based learning (IBL).

From the definition of  IBL as I understood I can say this IBL is an information processing model. Student can used this model when they have questions or problems so they will search and collect for answers, reflect and analysis on what they find, integrate the information they find with their knowledge then conclusion the information.

There are many benefit of  IBL for the student like:

•   Reach to high thinking.
•  Learn how to analyze problems.
•  Learn how to solve problems.
•   Build new knowledge from previous knowledge.
•  Build self directed learning skills.

There is some example of IBL that can help teacher when he teaches students in different level. They are Super3, Big6 and Web Quest. Super3 and Big6 they are similar in analyze problem and solve it by follow series steps but Super3 can used for children to solve problem in 3 steps. Also student can use Web Quest when they want to know specific topic by using World Wide Web.

At the end we need to know more about example of IBL. To used it in teaching and learn it to student to use them when they want to solve any problem.

Student centred learning & teacher centred learning

"Student-centered learning (or student-centered learning; also called child-centered learning) is an approach to education focusing on the needs of the students, rather than those of others involved in the educational process, such as teachers and administrators. This approach has many implications for the design of curriculum, course content, and interactivity of courses.

Student-centered learning, that is, putting students first, is in contrast to teacher-centered learning. Student-centered learning is focused on the student's needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles with the teacher as a facilitator of learning. This classroom teaching method acknowledges student voice as central to the learning experience for every learner. Student-centered learning requires students to be active, responsible participants in their own learning".
"Definition of student centred learning from en.wikipedia.org"

Student centered learning is effective because they are excited when they discover something by themselves. This excitement generally translates into better engagement, longer retention of knowledge and great motivation to learn. Also these technical can give the students confidence in themselves to learn more and can have experience from himself or others when they resolve problem. From this learning can help to build social skills and self team.

But from this learning will have some problem that can accrued with young student (pupils) that group work may not be suitable for them and they are more likely to be distracted from their work.

We can resolve these problems by have the learning individual or competitive.

The teacher centered learning style is a direct way of teaching. This can help that students are learning what they want to learn, from telling them to do and think, but from this method can control the class, have lower noise level and have higher level of academic achievement.

This method may have some teaching style may not suit to some student, for example: one teacher may just spend a whole lesson talking, this may not suit some students where as it may suit others. Also there is a good advantage of this style is the information is received from the teacher is more accurate and reliable than the students was working alone or in group they may be learning wrong things.

At the end we must balance between students centered learning and teacher centered learning to received the information and learn in best way.   

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student-centred_learning

http://www.coursework.info/University/Education/Teaching/Debate__Student_centred_learning_Vs_Teac_L15851.html

http://www.mrsroemmich.com/manual/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/student_centered.jpg



Cmputer as tutee, tutor and tool

When we used computer in right way in education we can change the education and learning in the beast way for teacher and student.

There are three basic ways of using computer in school; computer can be tutee, tutor and tool.

We can use computer as a tutee that can useful for student to learn how to build a program or a website by using some programming language like: visual basic, java, Dreamweaver, and FrontPage……

Also the computer can use as tutor to teach the student the idea of the lesson. We can describe the lesson by using educational game, practice and tutorials.

Finally computer works as tool that that include the software of computer like desktop, Microsoft office (word, PowerPoint, excel…..).