Sunday, August 14, 2011
My Experience-ICT Training Modules 3 and 4
My experience at the ICT Training for Modules 3 and 4 was a great one. I like to describe it as an educational expedition with technology. I have learnt a lot about Web 2.0 tools and their application in education. I am sure that I will be able to use these tools to enhance the work that I do. I tried to capture the highlights of my experiences on my prezi presentation; however, I will need to take time to explore with prezi much more. To view my prezi presentation, please cilck here.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Working on Wiki
My Experience with wikis
My experience in working on a wiki for the first time was challenging due to the fact that the internet was moving very slow and it was difficult to collaborate with my group members since we could not be on the wiki at the same time. I really like the idea of being able to work collaboratively to construct information about a particular topic.
The topic my group focused on was ‘The Role of the Facilitator in Distance Education.’ I learnt that as a facilitator of distance education, it is important to ensure that the guiding principles of distance education are considered.
For example:
1. Support the needs of all users –learn about the background of students at the start of the course
2. Develop and maintain a technological and human infrastructure
3. Provide immediate and regular feedback to participants
4. Accept limitations and challenges*
5. Provide opportunities for users to experiment without evaluation, grading or marking.
A video on the guiding principles of distance education can be viewed here.
Undoubtedly, the facilitator’s role in distance education is very critical in ensuring that meaningful online learning can occur. This is especially important for 21st Century Educators who must embrace the virtual classroom to work with students who are in many different places at the same time.
Personally, I believe that I can use wiki with my beginning teachers to have them search for information on topics that are important in helping them to become effective teachers.
Some of these areas include:
• Classroom Management Strategies
• Strategies for Teaching Math
• Strategies for Teaching Language Arts
• Alternative forms of assessment for students k-12.
In Belize we are vey comfortable with the traditional classroom and the advantage of being able to interact face-to-face with our students. Infact, it is a part of our culture that we enjoy that personal contact with others and the advantage of being able to sense their personal frustrations in person-something that is not possible in online learning.
However, in order to embrace the challenges of the 21st. Century, as teacher educators, we must take advantage of both face-to face and distance learning. Also, we have an opportunity to utilize both face-to-face and distance learning.
Guiding Principle 4 is especially important to consider in the Belizean Belizean context where the internet service is not very reliable and to ensure that sufficient time is allotted to complete the given task.
Also, being patient, flexible and offering emotional to students when there is a challenge can make a huge difference-as was demonstrated by the facilitator in today’s training.
This experience has helped me to reflect on the level of frustrations that students may face when engaged in distance education and of critical aspects that should be considered.
The following websites provide some helpful ideas for facilitators of distance education:
1.
2.
My experience in working on a wiki for the first time was challenging due to the fact that the internet was moving very slow and it was difficult to collaborate with my group members since we could not be on the wiki at the same time. I really like the idea of being able to work collaboratively to construct information about a particular topic.
The topic my group focused on was ‘The Role of the Facilitator in Distance Education.’ I learnt that as a facilitator of distance education, it is important to ensure that the guiding principles of distance education are considered.
For example:
1. Support the needs of all users –learn about the background of students at the start of the course
2. Develop and maintain a technological and human infrastructure
3. Provide immediate and regular feedback to participants
4. Accept limitations and challenges*
5. Provide opportunities for users to experiment without evaluation, grading or marking.
A video on the guiding principles of distance education can be viewed here.
Undoubtedly, the facilitator’s role in distance education is very critical in ensuring that meaningful online learning can occur. This is especially important for 21st Century Educators who must embrace the virtual classroom to work with students who are in many different places at the same time.
Personally, I believe that I can use wiki with my beginning teachers to have them search for information on topics that are important in helping them to become effective teachers.
Some of these areas include:
• Classroom Management Strategies
• Strategies for Teaching Math
• Strategies for Teaching Language Arts
• Alternative forms of assessment for students k-12.
In Belize we are vey comfortable with the traditional classroom and the advantage of being able to interact face-to-face with our students. Infact, it is a part of our culture that we enjoy that personal contact with others and the advantage of being able to sense their personal frustrations in person-something that is not possible in online learning.
However, in order to embrace the challenges of the 21st. Century, as teacher educators, we must take advantage of both face-to face and distance learning. Also, we have an opportunity to utilize both face-to-face and distance learning.
Guiding Principle 4 is especially important to consider in the Belizean Belizean context where the internet service is not very reliable and to ensure that sufficient time is allotted to complete the given task.
Also, being patient, flexible and offering emotional to students when there is a challenge can make a huge difference-as was demonstrated by the facilitator in today’s training.
This experience has helped me to reflect on the level of frustrations that students may face when engaged in distance education and of critical aspects that should be considered.
The following websites provide some helpful ideas for facilitators of distance education:
1.
2.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Educational Project-Project Based Learning
Project Based Learning (PBL)
The website http://www.bie.org/ is designed for teachers/teacher educators in an effort to improve teaching and learning in the 21st Century through the use of Project Based Learning (PBL).
1.)Accessibility: The website is designed with bold labels which are reader friendly and is easy to access; however, it would be even better if the font size and colour could be changed by users to make it more reader friendly to persons with disability.
2.)Underlying Educational Theory: The project focuses on the Project Based Learning Method which is grounded in the constructivist and experiential learning theory of Jean Piaget. However, this is not clearly indicated, perhaps some information can be included on the educational theory on which the content of the project is based so that student teachers can connect the information provided to the educational theories in which it is grounded.
3.)Program’s Structure: The website provides various services which users can utilize to share ideas and seek support: videos, tools, research, services, forums, blogs and store.
It makes good use of various web 2.0 tools such as: videos, diagrams, online storage, social filtering-with online surveys with links to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., forums for online chat; it allows you to upload pictures: , etc.)
These tools provide an opportunity for educators to retrieve free materials/resources needed in using the Project Based Learning approach, keeping up-to date with research on Project Based Learning, share their personal experiences, and much more…
4.)Functions of the program: The major objective of the program is to provide a variety of products, practices and information for educators to explore the Project Based Learning Method, to learn from others and to share their personal experiences with others.
5.)Project’s Evaluation Method: The website offers various means for users to evaluate the tools or services provided through the use of Web 2.0 tools such as: social filters: online surveys, blogs, forums, comments section to files that have been uploaded, etc.
Recommendation: This is an excellent website to inform the practice of teachers and teacher educators and to encourage the type of collaboration among educators of the 21st Century. It is creatively designed to allow persons to get involved in the discussion of an approach that aims to develop students holistically and to ensure that they not only learn concepts but that they can work with others to apply them in a meaningful context as well. In the context of Education in Belize, it provides a approach that aims to achieve the four (4) pillars of education: LEARNING TO KNOW, LEARNING TO DO, LEARNING TO BE AND LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER!!!
The website http://www.bie.org/ is designed for teachers/teacher educators in an effort to improve teaching and learning in the 21st Century through the use of Project Based Learning (PBL).
1.)Accessibility: The website is designed with bold labels which are reader friendly and is easy to access; however, it would be even better if the font size and colour could be changed by users to make it more reader friendly to persons with disability.
2.)Underlying Educational Theory: The project focuses on the Project Based Learning Method which is grounded in the constructivist and experiential learning theory of Jean Piaget. However, this is not clearly indicated, perhaps some information can be included on the educational theory on which the content of the project is based so that student teachers can connect the information provided to the educational theories in which it is grounded.
3.)Program’s Structure: The website provides various services which users can utilize to share ideas and seek support: videos, tools, research, services, forums, blogs and store.
It makes good use of various web 2.0 tools such as: videos, diagrams, online storage, social filtering-with online surveys with links to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., forums for online chat; it allows you to upload pictures: , etc.)
These tools provide an opportunity for educators to retrieve free materials/resources needed in using the Project Based Learning approach, keeping up-to date with research on Project Based Learning, share their personal experiences, and much more…
4.)Functions of the program: The major objective of the program is to provide a variety of products, practices and information for educators to explore the Project Based Learning Method, to learn from others and to share their personal experiences with others.
5.)Project’s Evaluation Method: The website offers various means for users to evaluate the tools or services provided through the use of Web 2.0 tools such as: social filters: online surveys, blogs, forums, comments section to files that have been uploaded, etc.
Recommendation: This is an excellent website to inform the practice of teachers and teacher educators and to encourage the type of collaboration among educators of the 21st Century. It is creatively designed to allow persons to get involved in the discussion of an approach that aims to develop students holistically and to ensure that they not only learn concepts but that they can work with others to apply them in a meaningful context as well. In the context of Education in Belize, it provides a approach that aims to achieve the four (4) pillars of education: LEARNING TO KNOW, LEARNING TO DO, LEARNING TO BE AND LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER!!!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Collaborative Learning
Technology Mediated Learning Environment...
Education now an in the future should be a collaborative space for all teachers and students. Online technology gives teachers the platform to start creating interesting, engaging and collaborative... http://www.youtube.com/user/2gobeond
Collaborative Learning
View Video on Changes in EDUCATION: TOWARDS A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH
theirFuture
theirFuture
Collborative vs. Cooperative Learning
What is Collaborative Learning?
by Barbara Leigh Smith and Jean T. MacGregor
“Collaborative learning” is an umbrella term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together. Usually,students are working in groups of two or more, mutually searching for understanding,solutions, or meanings, or creating a product...
Collaborative learning represents a significant shift away from the typical teacher-centered or lecture-centered milieu in college classrooms. In collaborative classrooms,the lecturing/ listening/note-taking process may not disappear entirely, but it lives alongside other processes that are based in students’ discussion and active work with the course material.
Teachers who use collaborative learning approaches tend to think of themselves less as expert transmitters of knowledge to students, and more as expert designers of intellectual experiences for students-as coaches or mid-wives of a more emergent learning process.
Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning represents the most carefully structured end of the collaborative learning continuum. Defined as “the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning” (Johnson et al. 1990),cooperative learning is based on the social interdependence theories of Kurt Lewin and Morton Deutsch... These theories and associated research explore the influence of the structure of social interdependence on individual interaction within a given situation which, in turn, affects the outcomes of that interaction (Johnson and Johnson, 1989)...In cooperative learning, the development of interpersonal skills is as important as the learning itself.
Read more about cooperative and collaborative learning at: http://learningcommons.evergreen.edu/pdf/collab.pdf
How can educators in the 21st century create collaborative and cooperative learning opportunities for their students?
by Barbara Leigh Smith and Jean T. MacGregor
“Collaborative learning” is an umbrella term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together. Usually,students are working in groups of two or more, mutually searching for understanding,solutions, or meanings, or creating a product...
Collaborative learning represents a significant shift away from the typical teacher-centered or lecture-centered milieu in college classrooms. In collaborative classrooms,the lecturing/ listening/note-taking process may not disappear entirely, but it lives alongside other processes that are based in students’ discussion and active work with the course material.
Teachers who use collaborative learning approaches tend to think of themselves less as expert transmitters of knowledge to students, and more as expert designers of intellectual experiences for students-as coaches or mid-wives of a more emergent learning process.
Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning represents the most carefully structured end of the collaborative learning continuum. Defined as “the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning” (Johnson et al. 1990),cooperative learning is based on the social interdependence theories of Kurt Lewin and Morton Deutsch... These theories and associated research explore the influence of the structure of social interdependence on individual interaction within a given situation which, in turn, affects the outcomes of that interaction (Johnson and Johnson, 1989)...In cooperative learning, the development of interpersonal skills is as important as the learning itself.
Read more about cooperative and collaborative learning at: http://learningcommons.evergreen.edu/pdf/collab.pdf
How can educators in the 21st century create collaborative and cooperative learning opportunities for their students?
Saturday, September 19, 2009
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