Thank You...

Words of appreciation …

Thank you to everyone who stood by me through the good and the bad. To everyone who has tried to help me.To everyone who has made me laugh.To everyone who refuses to give up.To everyone who loves and supports me.Thank you.Because without you I would never have been pushed to my limit.I would never have tested my boundaries.I would never have seen what a beautiful world this is.


By:Katherine Ruth Simpson

Thank you very much to Prof. Raja Maznah and the crew for being so nice to us. Dedicated to all of the teaching teams (Prof. Raja Maznah, Miss Chin, Miss Ng and etc) .You are amazing…

Something to ponder...

I have to say this semester in University of Malaya mostly on ‘technology explosion’. It is wonderful experience to learn new things about computers. Since I have being as a ‘computer dummy’, I really feel that this new knowledge has indirectly changed the way I do things. In the pastime (which is during my time at IPIK), I have only known few things of computers such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power Point and little experiences to perform Microsoft Movie Maker. This array of software is commonly used for presentation and microteaching. Nevertheless, when I encounter UM, school of education, I know how to operate with interactive whiteboard (SMARTBOARD), participate in on-line forum, express my feelings and share some thoughts at blogspot.com etc.When I seat back and listened attentively to the lectures on ‘digital citizens’, it’s remind me to my schooling experiences. When I was at primary school, the word ‘computer’ is still bizarre to me as a young kid. Since I was schooling in rural area which is FELDA, (it emphases more on the agriculture land project), the using of computer is not really popular since people merely use the computer as medium of communication. The school itself also did not have any computer tools and services. Most of the teacher also hardly seen use the computer during teaching and learning process. Until one day when I was in year 6, my father had bought us a computer by using loan provided by his company. At that time, most of the government workers are given opportunity to apply loan on buying personal computer in order to bring the technology into the society.Meanwhile, there are adequate provision of the technology based infrastructure and facilities in my secondary school systems. I’m really shy to say that I was taking IT (Information Technology) for one of my SPM elective subject. In my opinion, the subject is quite tough and challenging. Based on my experiences, I have to memorize a lot of computer formulae to make the programmes work smoothly, besides that it was also compulsory to create creative homepage and websites for that subject. My memory like a sieve, I have forgotten every single formula that I had memorized during my schooling time.Although, I am not too technology savvy, I believed that ICT is important for our lives. Undeniably, we could access the information faster than traditional way of using books. The power of knowledge is just at our finger tips as ‘World without boundaries’. The expression http://www/ is known to us even slightly familiar with computer-based communication. The www refers to the world-wide which uses the internet to make available various types of information to people all around the world. Certainly, it uses a browser programmes such as Microsoft Explorer or Netscape Communicator.Technology in primary education is kind of interesting course and an eye-opener for me to become as IT literate. I should use the technology wisely and integrate the tools into teaching and learning process. Technology is a powerful tool that can be used in the engaged learning process. This process creates a classroom that is an environment for continuums learning community. Information technology will provide a means of placing the industrialized and developing societies on an equal footing.

Prompt quiz..

The sudden technology quiz really shocked me. Honestly, I did not prepare anything for the quiz. However, Prof. Raja Maznah soothes us by saying that the quiz is simple and manageable. I assume that I manage to answer the quiz whereas when I look at the first question of the quiz ….Oh my God !I forgot the acronym of PLEAsE! I said to myself “P.L.E.A.S.E Prof., help me!” The one-page quiz reflects our previous knowledge and it test our prior knowledge on ICT in the Primary Education. However, I realized that learning is life-long process. We should not learn and study hard just for the sake of examinations or marks, yet we should have intrinsic motivation towards learning. Meaning that, L.E.A.R.N.I.N.G….is never stop growing as learning is a lifelong process. That's something technical educators are always telling their students, but through their professional development activities they are also practicing what they are preaching. Meaning that, we are teachers of our own. I am learning and still learning. For me, education is school of lifes.The whole of life is learning, therefore education can have no endings. I had my own styles in learning and in getting knowledge. In my opinion, other people experience and ideas is also part of my learning since I can learn something interesting and valuable from them.
MORAL : This experience taught me to be prepared all the time. I should fully-equipped with knowledge and experience.

Okay,now I would like discuss about learning technology is a lifelong learning process. In education, technology is a compelling force that needs to be in line with the curriculum to create an engaged learning atmosphere that allows pupils to become skillful learner with an endless passion for learning. According to Brennan,there are few visions of ICT in educations which are to enable the child to live a full life:
- to enable the child to live a full life as a child, and to realize his or her potential as unique individual
- to enable the child to develop as a social being through living and cooperating with others and to contribute to the good of society
- to prepare the child to further education and lifelong learning.

In my opinion, ICT offer teachers and children educational tools and resource which extend their learning environment. There are 3 ways of approach to ICT which are learning with ICT, Learning through ICT and Learning about ICT.

LEARNING ABOUT ICT : Teacher and children develop skills and knowledge in using the ICT technology tools to support learning.

LEARNING WITH ICT: Teacher and children use ICT resources to support the curriculum and achieve the learning objectives.

LEARNING THROUGH ICT: Teachers and children use ICT to transform the process of teaching and learning in new ways. They learn effectively and meaningfully by the use of technology.

Just to drop by...

There is informative and useful websites for educators which is http://www.homeroomteacher.com/index.html. Feel free to retrive some teaching resources for your future use.

BLOG 9

Do the best for your TEST! (Do not copy your friends’ answer…)

Examinations for the PKEY 3101: Technology for Primary Education.

We have to answer only 2 questions only and I had decided to answer questions 1 and 3 which are:
Question 1: Describe how you would use the following tools to engage the children at the primary school level. Give examples of how the tools can be integrated into your teaching subject. What advise would you give to a teacher who would to use the tools?

I have trying hardly to answer that particular questions.I do not know whether my explanation on Blog and AirSet.com as the teaching tools that engage the children at the primary school level is clear or not. Based on one of the websites at Yahoo.com, the application of AirSet.com is quite similar with Moodle. Basically, AirSet.com helps educators create effective online learning communities and it full-packed of pedagogical principles. Nowadays, educators could access vast informative sources or teaching materials from various internet websites.

According to Wikepedia, a blog or also known as weblog is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs are defined by their format: a series of entries posted to a single page in reverse-chronological order. Blogs generally represented the personality of the author or reflect the purpose of the Website that hosts the blog. Usually,the blog sound academic, include brief philosophical musings, commentary and could be linked to other websites.

Question 3: Brennan in his chapter 1: ICT and the learning principles of the classroom curriculum outlines 14 learning principles which a primary school teacher should follow in order to successfully use technology in teaching and learning.
Based on Brennan in his chapter 1: ICT and the learning principles of the primary school curriculum, I have chosen one of the Principles out of 14 learning principles which is higher thinking skills and problem based. Luckily, I have read and go through that particular note before the test. (However, I’m quite nervous during attempting the test + worried that I cannot do well in the test).
Meanwhile, I had suggest some of the resources and tools that are suitable for use with the principle which are content-based free software, educational websites, Adobe Photoshop and fun-learning games and etc. There are many ways teacher could manipulate those tools in order to engage young learners into higher order thinking skills. For instance, the teacher should promote pupils’-centered activity which the pupil could actively involve in the tasks. Pupils learnt better by doing things instead of just look at their teacher’s demonstration. Besides, the activities also stimulate their critical and creative thinking skills since they have to think critically, make analyzing, evaluating and so on. Do you realize that pupils that always learn by themselves are independent learner? They know on how to manage their own learning as well as their lives since they anticipated in various ICT thinking skills activities. However teacher should always facilitates and monitors his or her pupils so that they know what is good and bad for them.

PRESENTATION WEEK

Blog 8
SHOW us....


On that fine day, all of us have to present our SMARTboard activities. Most of the group came with superb masterpieces.Walla... Some of them inserted videos and audio in oder to make the activity more interesting and captivating. It's clearly shown that they apply the knowledge they learnt during the lecture .In my point of view, they look alike expertise in this field.

Somebody told me that there was a person from US came to the class to take a look to our presentation and her name is Elham. Perhaps, she wants to see the development of technology in Malaysia and on how Malaysian trainee teachers handle with the SMARTboard. It's proud to say that most of us did very well.However, we shoud always improve and enhance our work in order to educate our future pupils to the world class level of education. PHEW...it's seems hard...but 'try the best' is the best word.

The Progression of the SMARTboard group tasks. (HI-Tech)

BLOG 7

The CHRONOLOGICAL of the SMARTboard making….

What I’ve done…

29th August 2007
Divide tasks between group members. I was appointed to do the activity for science
subjects. Brainstorming what is suitable topic for the science activity. I had selected SOLAR ECLIPSE as my topic. Besides, I understand the topic very well so that it’s not a big deal for me to construct science activity based on that particular topic.

1st SEPTEMBER 2007
I have selected the material for SMART board activity. I had retrieved several information of solar eclipse from internet.The websites are very useful for my Smart board making. According to Ms Chin the facilitator, for the one who do the science activities, he/she should incorporate with some notes of the topic that had been chose. Due to that. I had make 3 slides of the notes (which is info of the phenomenon of the Solar Eclipse). To add, I combined my pastimes group science project with this SMARTboard slides in order to make it useful and meaningful.

5th SEPTEMBER 2007
Furthermore, I have found some animated pictures and photo which is all about Solar
Eclipse. There were numerous animated and colorful pictures to grab from the net. I believed that young kids learn better by the assistant of pictures or diagrams. Since I teach them the science concept, I have to put more diagrams to show the clearly the concept of the formation of the solar eclipse. Based on Piaget, children learn fast and get clearer view by looking at concrete material rather than abstract material.

7th SEPTEMBER 2007
I managed to complete my work successfully. However, I have to check my work for many times and I realized that I should ‘touch-up’ few of my slides in order to make it captivating instead of an eyesore.

8th SEPTEMBER 2007
6. Gradually, my mission ACCOMPLISHED!

10th SEPTEMBER 2007
Road to FINALE…
The FINALE….SMART board group work formation (The process where we have to combine the work together and recheck our masterpieces if there are any mistakes found) Thank you for my dedicated friends…Your ideas and comments do help me to improve my work.

The day is coming….12 SEPTEMBER 2007 - My heart pounding very fast. Nervous..actually. All of us have to present our job for the last 2 weeks in front of the lecturers and the facilitators.