“An evolution of the pilot smart school project, the Making Schools Smart programme is built on the various ICT initiatives from the smart school project to educational television broadcast service” http://ischool.tv/news/category/ict-facilities/ … This initiative is based in Malaysia. This just goes to shows the emergence and increase of ICT in primary schools all over the world.
This image shows estimated numbers of ICT in schools and how it works…
I agree with Erin’s commentary in relation to Bill Ferriter’s blog. For technology to work effectively in the classroom, teachers must be able to embrace change and “policy makers must step upt ot the plate”. Teachers are constantly neing challanged, therefore, there needs to be support readily available for them; and teachers need the time and resources invested in/for them to grow as learners. Ferriter goes on to suggest that teachers receive the “right kind of professional development”. I agree, teachers need the training necessary to be able to teach and aid children in ICT learning. I like how Erin put it, she said, “I personally plan to start small and progressively and sequentially expand my horizons through experimentation and professional development courses”… It’s all about risk-taking!
This is a podcast of a comment made on Amy’s post regarding ‘Sharing Technology’.
I was just reading other people’s view on learning, and have truly been inspired. Last week, in one of my tutorials, I can’t remember whcih one anymore, but we were questioned, “why are we doing what we are doing”. As teachers, I believe we constantly need to ask oursleves this question. In the ICT realm (and every other educational realm), we should have solid and valid reason why we are doing ‘x’…
I finally worked out why I couldn’t add any site links. I had to take a risk and explore, why and then I worked it out. I’m really quite proud of myself. Anyway, back on what I’m suppose to be talking about… Everything is going to be ok now. So, here are a few musical sites I found on the internet. I’ve tried a few, and found them worthwhile. A lot of the sites and programs available require students to take on the constructionist apporach–which we delved into last semester’s e-learning class. When children are given the opportunity and power to construct theri own learning, produce then publish their achievements, it raises a sense of ownership achievement. I also had a look at Matthew’s del.icio.us site for some. One of the main programs that are avialable, is Sibelius, which I’m looking at further in a critique.
The following sites covers composition, information, music theory, free mp3 download, games, lesson plans, etc.
I believe that Music is a fundamental part of the school curriculum. From previous practicums, my own schooling experiences, and other recent experiences of talking to music educators, I have really noticed a great lack in actually doing meaningful music education in the classroom. One thing, there’s a lot of teachers out there who don’t have much expereince at all in music, as in have any musical backgorund. Now, that’s understandable as everybody has their own interests, hobbies and so forth, but I think there must be a greater emphasis in training teachers in the foundations of music. This training would be probably be best done at university. I did Music, Movement and Dance in first semester of year one, I saw that it was profitable, but there needs to be more trainng than just singing songs from recordings–students and the teachers need to be more involved to really appreciate and learn music.
Teachers should probably look at integrating music with other KLAs more frequently. This would be beneficial and worthwhile as it covers several learning outcomes simultaneously, students can learn in an interactive and fun way… Especially with the revolution of technology in music, learning music can be really “be something”, not just another page in the syllabus.
I have chosen to focus on dicipline-specific technologies for task 2; and delve into specifically, music and music composition software. This was mainly inspired for my love for music and everything musical. Also, I recall Matthew saying, with great consideration, select a topic which is meaningful to you and something which you will possibly make good use of in your future teaching career. I aspire to share and to inspire my students with music in the classroom, hence my decision. In actual fact I was tossing up between a few topics. The other topic I was leaning towards was ‘new and emerging technologies’ and then focusing on special education, another interest of mine.
Here is a screenshot of an interesting article I found today about music and technology…
Today we briefly looked at the 6 C’s of motivation…
Prior to today’s session, I don’t think I had ever come across this concept before. I am fully aware of the importance of motivation in learning–that one must be inspired, spurred, driven to reach certain goals; this is usually steered by an incentive and/or stimulus. But after reading the article posted, Shiang-Kwei Wang and Seungyeon Han (The University of Georgia) in Wikipedia, motivation encompasses several notions which can apparently be modified and adapted to suit the relevant instructional design. Here are the 6 C’s…
From what I’ve gathered, I can truly see how these strategies can be quite effective in the classroom to enhance the learning and development. Classroom teachers must be aware of the 6 C’s when creating learning programs, especially open-ended tasks, so that the activity is meaningful. Wang and Han also suggest that teachers should allow students to reflect continously and also provide feedback on their learning.
This strategy definitely can definitely be utilised in creating the LAMS sequence. In the classroom, students can be given the opportunity to make choices; the teacher can create challanges; involve students in various stages of the development, etc. etc. etc. I believe that my partner and should closely consider this strategy while we create our LAMS sequence.
The Skype conversation/conference with Debbie Evans via Skype was an incredible experience–the whole class listening into a mini-lecture/talk about the use of technology and interactive educational programs in the primary school sphere. I found this talk inspiring, as I gained more understanding of the effective use of LAMS in the classroom; intially, I was so confused with LAMS and didn’t clearly understand how it could be really used in the classrooms besides a few q. and a. activities, but Debbie expressed how it can be so much more than that… Here are a few quick notes that I took down during the Skype conversation:
Download Video: Posted by Cadbury at TeacherTube.com.
This is a podcast created by Shirley and I. Here, we have expressed our beliefs regarding ‘learning’ using a series of images as metaphors. Learning is multi-facaded, it really can be everything and anything that you want to be–it’s up to the individual. I think that is what must be promoted in the primary classroom, as well as in high school and futher education. Learning is an individual journey of discovery in which one is supported by so many people near and far. Today, technology has allow students to link with other people on the other side of the world to also support them in their learning in so many ways. I believe it is true what they say, “you never stop learning”. It’s like a path which has no definite destination. Happy Learning!
