Module 4 Activity 7

The module is almost however I am at activity 7, this was very short since it was just based on assessing each group member's Activity 6- activity and rubric. It so happened that each member in my group did activity 6A which i also did so it made it easy for me to simple go through instead of having to take a read up on the criteria for 6B and 6C. The members of my group did really well, better than me I might even add; I enjoyed looking at the activities and hope that each member of the group along with the whole team keep working hard on their  assignments.

Module 4 Activity 6A

In activity 6 I had some fun creating a tool that assessed  students based on their Internet literacy skills; it was quite simple  since i am accustomed to  give my students questions to research whether to present to the class or just to find out the answer. I used my experience by placing the students into groups and create 5 simple questions from the topic data communication. the checklist I created was very simple and catered for  formative feedback. Activities like this helps students to develop their ability to research and evaluate the information they retrieve. I suggest that more activities  like this( for the students)  be done as long as they are carried out effectively. This activity  was very interesting.

Module 4 activity 5

Module 5 got off to a bad start for me, I was somewhat confused on how to proceed on this activity, however as I was given help from my colleagues I got to understand that it was simply creating an assessment tool to assess other assessment tools whether it is rubrics or checklists. This activity helped me really assess what I normally do when i create rubrics and checklists and it helped me pay attention to the criteria I place in my rubrics. After all I enjoyed this activity because now my assessment tools would be created to assess process and product and they will be more formative so my students can have a better assessment of their work. I look forward to the upcoming activity 6

Module 4, Activity 4

Previously we looked at assessment methods now in this assignment we looked at some assessment standards and which methods would be the best for gathering enough evidence. At first I did not really understand what was my objective in this activity however i got around to it and I really enjoyed this activity; maybe I didnt do enough but the that which I did it was quite useful. After this activity I must recheck my objectives and see if I am really using the write methods to assess. I read some of the members of the group's contribution and I learned a bit from that as well. very insightful activity I must say.

Module 4, activity 3

a quite  interesting and informative activity, the reading gave me  great insight on how children can be different and they dont always learn at the same level. i learned that we should cater for diversity with planning and assessment because one basic test cannot fairly assess all students at the same time, this can only happen if all students were exactly the same and learned in exactly the same ways.. planing and assessing works together in order to properly cater for our students with different learning abilities.

Module 4 activity 2

This activity was insightful, I looked at the comments from the other members of the group and realise the large amount of things I don't assess and probably should. We are so accustomed to assessing exercises and such items but things such as, participation, ability, willingness to learn, how students attempt problem solving and so forth are things that the teacher must also consider. I did gather a lot of information for my personal benefit and will use them in my teaching and learning in the future.

Module 4 Assignment 1

This assignment gave me soo much trouble, I had some technical difficulties and really had to rush to get this assignment done, i am not even sure if i did everything the way i should have but nevertheless it has been submitted and I hope for the best.  I learned a lot and was reminded of some of the things i have learned some years ago about assessment so this assignment really brought me back on track.

Module 4, activity 1

This activity introduced me to the module and i must say that it promises to be an interesting one, the survey I gave to my students and I did one also and my  number is -3,, i fell between the -13 to 4 bracket which states that my assessment strategies are very simiar from day to day. it feels like im way too traditional so i have to start thinking about my strategies and how to implement new ones. i look forward to good things in this module that would improve my teaching and learning.

Activity 11

I was happy with this activity since i love the social media and social networking. i quickly jumped on board and joined twitter even though I avoided joining this site in the past. it was easy to navigate since im familiar with these sort of sites so I just used it as a way of educating other teachers and a way of updating my self with new information and chat groups formed. I think using these social media as a way of educating others is a great strategy especially for younger teachers who enjoy social media. I believe this is an effective way to get involved, collaborate  and learn quite alot.

Activity 10 reflection

This lesson helped me to look at the way we work and question how smart do we work. I looked at our potential for smart working and have concluded that the CCTI program is well on its way in helping us becoming smart workers thought social media, i just believe that we need to develop a bit more autonomy and independence when it comes to work; we also need to collaborate some more but i did enjoy the activity and the reading. food for thought

Assignment 2

Easy assignment, but sooo much work. but i learned to properly evaluate websites-- I paid more attention to the criteria that allows me to choose websites for my students that will be more meaningful for my students. this was a good challenge and really had me going.

Module 3 Activity 9 reflection

This activity simple opened my eyes in terms of what sort of websites i visit and how i value the content from websites because not all websites present fully factual unbiased accurate information but we still take it as gospel; ill use this activity to teach my students to be mindful of the information they research and use from the Internet because i myself is paying close attention to the Internet content I use.

Module 3 activity8 Reflection

This activity was a great one, it had me thinking that i should use more spreadsheet software in my classes especially because I teach math and it can become a very handy tool for me. The lesson plan i came up with was one that i always wanted to do but i just nver did. I will do my seek to get it done, also by looking at a few other lesson plans that dealt with spreadsheets it gave me more ideas to use in my everyday teaching, activities like this one can really help all teachers as long as we collaborate.

module 3 activity 7

handling a big group
this acitvty was was a bit different from the previous 6. the reading about the lesson in spreadsheet was very interesting because i was reminded that lessons that are based on just in time learning are always essential and key to students. i enjoyed the activity though. the group discussion on the blog is always welcomed. I always learn a lot from the other teachers.

Module 3 Activity 6 reflection

I am so loving this module and its activities; even though this activity was just an excel document where we created a chart i still think it was good. Some teachers who are new to excel would learn quite a lot. I knew how to create charts but i still took time and followed instruction and had fun while doing it.  It was yet another good activity.

Module 3 Activity 5

This activity was quite simple for me since I am accustomed to creating documents like these  daily. This module is becoming very interesting, I hope it continues this way, anyway i realise that this activity is directly leading up to Assignment 1, so i tried my best to create these documents in a professional manner. I hope that assignment 1 would be as satisfying as these first 5 activities.

Module 3 Activity 4 reflection

this activity seem really long to me, but somehow it was manageable. I have prior knowledge of the use of Microsoft Excel so the navigation of the software and creating the document the an easy task. This activity reminded me that as a teacher we need to be competent with a variety of software in order to prepare documents that can help students and also help us with administrative purposes.

Module 3, activity 3, reflection

This module had two parts: part one was quite a simple and interesting exercise, it didnt take me too long because i am accustomed giving my students the word processor to use as a learning activity, espcially in maths to draw charts and graphs etc. however i learnt a few things from the other teachers who posted in this collaborative document; like i always say when we collaborate we not only share our views but we learn from each other so i continue to look for collaboration exercises in this course.

In part two of this module i had to create a lesson plan where MS word would be integrated. I found this a bit easy since as a teacher lesson planning is integral, however the activity reminded me to be always planning and remember to integrate ICT in future lessons.

Module 3 Activity 2 reflection

This activity was not a challenge since I am accustomed to creating worksheets and other documents as part of my everyday teaching/ learning experience, however I was glad for the practice.

Module 3 Activity 1 Reflecion

This activity was such an easy task since I had the help of our tutor Gerald on site to aid in any way that he could have, however I was confident that I was doing the right thing, this activity introduced us on word processing and other office material for administrative use in the classroom, It was a collaborative document and i enjoy working on these types of documents, in the end they are always content filled based on our varying thoughts and experiences. I am looking forward to learning more from the entire module which can help me in my work as a teacher.

Activity 9 Reflection

Activity 9, a very relevant activity, I can now use this STaR chart to assess the level of ICT readiness in my school, this chart may not be 100%  on target, but in assessing this chart I found it to be very useful because this chart can be modified where necessary, I would recommend all  participants in this activity and principals to copy this chart, critically analyse it and tailor it to their school.

Activity 8 reflection

A quite interesting activity, firstly I want to mention about the first research question-- how does the availability of ICT changes the use of classroom spaces? The author of the paper shared exactly what I was thinking--The classroom must be completely revolutionised, there must now be access to online resources, video displays, data projectors, students must now be seating in a non-traditional/conventional way to ensure student collaboration and use of ICT tools, teacher now takes up a more facilitator role that being the centre of the lesson. I also learnt that if teachers are to use ICT as an integrated part of lessons it would mean teachers would need to plan for it, causing a change in the curriculum basically, so teachers and administrators now have to go through curriculum reform. I am always first scared about the amount of reading that is required but I get to realise that the readings are beneficial to me as a teacher, soi continue reading.

Activity 7 reflection

Amongst all the activities, this one in my opinion had the most reading, however what stood out to me was
1. The levels of teaching practices-- showing us levels one to three, we should always strive to be at level three in all areas of teaching (materials, activities, strategy,evaluation, technology). My staff does not have a ICT developmental plan but the readings showed me a simple 5 stage evolution(entry, adoption, adaptation,appropriation, invention) of classroom practice and if followed correctly, the entire staff can be transformed ready to deliver constructivist , ICT integrated lessons. In essence I was giving ideas on how to properly implement a staff ICT development programme and how effective it would be.

ACTIVITY 6 REFLECTION

Im glad that I did the activity 6 readings, now I am more aware of the UK and USA experiences, I am more concerned with the roles the teacher must now take in order to ensure ICT in the classroom is effective. I loved the way students as early as age 8 can be engaged in writing to penpals in other countries and gaining so much insight in their culture and language. I really wish that our educational system can be as developed so schools in a district can setup  TV/Monitors so collaboration can be done within classrooms and among schools. I think that the teacher must now change their roles, we must now act as facilitators and as a guide so we can allow students to collaborate and develop autonomy, however we must be able to help the students with setting up equipment, monitoring students progress and assessment of students progress.

This is another important piece of document with is very enlightening.

Module 5 reflection

These readings were quite a mouthful, but from these reading I gathered a lot of information about the integrated approach compared to what is 'taught' as computer literacy.

My eyes were opened to what we term as computer literacy and what computer literacy should be. The integrated approach is definitely the way to go because children are not just learning computer skills for use in the future but they are engaging in meaning full learning.

After this reading it makes me think about the ways I present my lessons, even teaching Information Technology as a subject. So I am now thinking of ways to use the integrated approach given the adequate resources are set up at my school.

General Activity 4 reflection

Activity 4 was quite a mouthful, seemed like a lot of reading but very beneficial to any educator.
I've got to understand from both spontaneous learning and the experiments conducted by Dr Mitra that students actively construct their knowledge in a context, rather than simply absorbing ideas spoken at them by teachers. Children invent their ideas and they also assimilate new information to simple, pre-existing notions, and modify their understanding in light of new data. so sometimes we as teachers need to simply be a guide and allow students to construct knowledge based on observation, discovery through play with concrete objects and collaboration with other students. I also learned that it is the role of educators to decide what knowledge should be passed on to learners, how to pass on the knowledge, and at what stage a learner should undertake the learning but educators should learn to link scientific concepts with real world experiences and students will have a better learning experience

Self activity 4

My Niece lives with me and she is 4 years old and have began primary school last September, here is a list of some of the things that she knew prior to attending primary school.

1. Identifying animals by their sounds and pictures

2. Counting numbers and reciting parts of the alphabet.

3. Knowing the names of everyone she lives with and names of all friends that visited the family.

4. Identifying some colours

5. Having an idea of size

6. Turning on my PC/ using the directional keypad on the keyboard to navigate through pictures on Facebook

7. Play/Stop/Pause videos on you tube

8. Using my iPad, navigating to games and playing some

9. Using the remote and typing the number for the cartoon network

10. Turning off and on the radio/TV and knowing the name of items throughout the house

and the list goes on.

she learnt these behaviours through:

1. Playing with educational toys/ other objects
2. Asking questions
3. Modelling and observing
4. Early teaching from parents(memorizing numbers)
5. Television - educational children shows.

Activity 3

I have just completed activity 3 and I must say that I had a hard time finding my way around but in the end it was for my own good. The online brainstorming/mindmapping activity using Mindmeister opened my eyes about how teachers and students can work together on a single topic and bring together a wealth of ideas.

The online collaborative document was as effective as the brainstorming activity. I enjoyed reading the comments of my colleagues, then I made my input on the topic and when we have all made comments I know this would be one great collaborative document with the most smart ideas that one can think of :)

I look forward to more interesting interactive activities in the future of this course.

Activity 2

After reading Silvia Ferrero's argument, I must conclude that there is no generation divide amongst teachers but more so an implementation divide; This is because we (younger teachers) find that ICT integration  is somewhat boring because it is most of what we know and what we were taught, but when we look at older teachers, most are willing and ready to embrace technology simply because it is a new learning experience for then and a new way to look at pedagogy. Older teachers in my opinion are quite willing to use ICT in the classroom just as long as they are getting enough technical support at home and at school along with readily available resources to make lessons fun and highly interactive.

My School's current situation

At the Buccament Bay Secondary School, we have one computer lab and a smart board set up in the library but it is not fully functional at the moment. Our lab is mainly used for the teaching of the subject ICT but when not in use, other teachers use it to aid and enhance teaching and learning  mainly through internet research. Each classroom has two electrical outlets so even thought students bring their netbooks to class, the ones with weak or dead batteries are usually left out which makes it a challenge for me planning a lesson which incorporates their netbooks. nb each student of the lower school was given a netbook from the government.

In a country like St.Vincent and the Grenadines, it is difficult to compete with larger developed countries in the field of ICT integration  but I must say it is not impossible. We would get where we want to go slowly but I believe we would achieve our ICT integration goals ie the rationales.

when it comes to the use of ICT in schools, i firmly believe that once teachers use whatever resources are available and focus on integrating ICT in each subject area then each student can become computer literate even thought they are not enrolled in the ICT class.

 Hope you all are enjoying another week of educating.

My name is Maxim Ryan , I love ICT and happy to be a part of this course