Final Thoughts

Globalization and technological change have created a new global economy “powered by technology, fueled by information and driven by knowledge.”  The emergence of this new global economy has serious implications for the nature and purpose of educational institutions. Schools must promote “learning to learn”; the acquisition of knowledge and skills that make possible continuous learning over the lifetime.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been recognized as powerful enabling tools for educational change and reform. They expand access to education, strengthen the relevance of education to the digital workplace, and raise educational quality by making teaching and learning into an active process connected to real life.

As a teacher in the schools of kingdom of Bahrain I want to seize the opportunity of studying at BTC to get the appropriate tools that can enhance the teaching process inside my classrooms to help the new generation learn better and compete in the future.

In the ICT course I learned many attractive tools, which I need to look in deeply such like mind mapping, Webquest, educational games and web blogs.

New Insturctional Era

ICT as a tutor is a very appealing strategy to support my teaching where I can use available resources on the web as well as develop my own software to enhance my teaching methods and help my students understand easily in the way the like more.

ICT tools as tutor can be:

1.         Drill And Practice: 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 sophisticated learning tasks or physical education games and sports.

A better way to learn math

2.         Tutorial: it is to assist users in learning how to use (parts of) a software product. There are two kinds of software tutorials: movie tutorials that the user views; and interactive tutorials where the user follows on-screen. Some computer based tutorials can also be put up on the Web.

I usually refer to this website to get the help for any programming problem I face in many programming languages.

http://www.w3schools.com/

3.         Simulation: is based on the process of modeling a real phenomenon with a set of mathematical formulas. It is, essentially, a program that allows the user to observe an operation through simulation without actually performing that operation.

The Stock market game

4.         Games: are games that have been designed to teach people about a certain subject, expand concepts, reinforce development, understand an historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they play. They include board, card, and video games.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/games/

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/

I would like to go more it this field but I may face some difficulties in selecting the appropriate resources due to:

1.      Cultural values of those resources might be away from our values.

2.      Relevant to our content knowledge.

3.      Rarely available Arabic resources.

4.      Level of difficulty

My target goal is to enjoy teaching and make my students love the learning process. And these tools offer us a great chance to fulfill this goal.

I just loved the Idea

ICT Mind tools engage users in higher order thinking.  Students cannot use Mind tools without thinking deeply about the task at hand.  Mind tools require students to be creative and to think and make connections for themselves.

Mind mapping is one of the ICT tools that visualize the information including a central idea surrounded by connected branches of associated topics. Where it allows people to comprehend, create new ideas and build connections, through the use of colors, images and words.

I usually use mind mapping manually to clarify any idea to myself. I came to know recently that people who use this strategy are gifted with the visual intelligence. I believe that mind mapping is useful to anyone especially students because it Helps students brainstorm, recall information easily, better organization of ideas, Summarize information and easily understand relationships among concepts



Cindrella Mind Map

  To view intersting mind maps, please visit this website Mind Map Art

When I used the computer tools for mind mapping I found it easy, interactive and much clear than the manual approach. I also introduced to the different types of mind maps and how they can be used.

It always begins by creating an image or writing a word that represents that first main idea. From that main idea, create branches (as many as needed), that each represent a single word that relates to the main topic, then, create sub-branches that stem from the main branches to further expand on ideas and concepts.

I found one interesting example to enhance English writing about color blue by illustrating ideas about what blue color could mean to the writer. I'll certainly encourage my students and my own kids to use the same tool to improve their writing and generate creative ideas.



Blue Color



  

Enjoy Your Learning Journey

A Webquest, according to WebQuest.org, 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.

They provide teachers with the opportunity to integrate Internet technology into the course curriculum by allowing students to experience learning as they construct their perceptions, beliefs, and values out of their experiences

WebQuests provide a practical way for students to acquire information, debate issues, participate in meaningful discussions, engage in role play simulations, solve problems, and, perhaps most importantly, become connected and involved learners.

WebQuests may be created by anyone; typically they are developed by educators. The first part of a Webquest is the introduction. This describes the Webquest and gives the purpose of the activity. The next part describes what students will do. Then is a list of what to do and how to do it. There is usually a list of links to follow to complete the activity.

Through my search about webquest I found very interesting use of this technology

Modern Museum of Romanticism

In the webquest students are allowed to educate the general public about Romantic art, music, poetry, and prose based on four main themes of Romanticism: monstrosity, nature, passion, and innocence vs. experience.

How do I feel?

The purpose of this web quest is to teach Kindergarten - Grade 2 students how to express a range of emotional feelings: happy, sad, mad. This web quest will also help students learn to identify how others are feeling.

Graphic Design Challenge: Band Poster

Introduce students to pop art and elements of design - Have students create their own pop art. - Encourage academic research and promote library skills. - Promote teamwork (There will be teams of 3.) - Include the use of Adobe Photoshop and other digital design programs. - Encourage creativity.

I'm looking forward to build my own webquest to motivate myself and students and implement the inquiry based learning within my class.

Lessons on who to create a webquest

 

Thinking How

"Inquiry" is defined as "Seeking information by questioning." Individuals carry on the process of inquiry from the time they are born until they die. Educators must understand that schools need to go beyond data and information accumulation and move toward the generation of useful and applicable knowledge.  In the past, our country's success depended on our supply of natural resources. Today, it depends upon a workforce that "works smarter."

Comparison of traditional and inquiry approaches of learning

Element	Traditional approach	Inquiry approach
Focus	Mastery of content	Using and learning content as a means to develop information-processing and problem-solving skills
	Learning about things	Learning things
	Thinking what	Thinking how
Role of teacher and student	Teacher centered where teachers focused on giving out information about "what is known." students are the receivers of information, and the teacher is the dispenser	Student centered, with the teacher as a facilitator of learning
Assessment	The importance of "one right answer."	Determining the progress of skills development in addition to content understanding
Main concern	Preparation for the next grade level and in-school success	Preparation for life-long learning
System style	Closed system where information is filtered through layers to students	Open system where students are encouraged to search and make use of resources beyond the classroom and the school.

The Teacher in the inquiry – based – learning plans ways for each learner to be actively engaged in the learning process, understands the necessary skills, knowledge, and habits of mind needed for inquiry learning, is prepared for unexpected questions or suggestions from the learner, prepares the classroom environment with the necessary learning tools, materials, and resources for active involvement of the learner. Asks questions, encouraging divergent thinking that leads to more questions, values and encourages responses, alert to learning obstacles and guides, asks many Why? How do you know? And what is the evidence? Type of questions and makes student assessment an ongoing part of the facilitation of the learning process

Students in the inquiry – based – learning look forward to learning, seek to collaborate and work cooperatively with teacher and peers, are more confident in learning, demonstrate a willingness to modify ideas and take calculated risks, ask questions (verbally and through actions), use questions that lead them to activities generating, observe critically, sort out information and decide what is important. They use indicators to assess their own work and reflect on their learning with their teacher and their peers

Our modern society is faster paced, globally networked, technologically oriented, and requires workers who can problem solve and think critically. Today, much learning, if not most, occurs after formal schooling. Our schools must change their approach to education to produce students who can thrive in the modern world. Inquiry learning can turn information into useful knowledge

Promising Experience

By the end of the current decade flipped classrooms may replace the traditional classrooms. Flipping style means the students watch and listen to lectures as homework and then use the precious class time for tackling difficult problems, working in groups, collaborating and researching.

As a student in the flipped classroom model, I could access and control the media of the lesson more easily, with the ability to review parts that are misunderstood. I also can not only view the online content but using the technology I can participate and post my responses on the discussion board. As a mother student I would be able to view lectures based on my own time and place so I won't miss any class.

For the learning process flipping classrooms depends mostly on digital content which could be cost effective and convenient and more interactive by the use of multimedia.

But dealing with technology involves problems out of our hands such as internet and devices problems, so I may be away from discussion in the classroom if I missed viewing the lecture online.

Using this model as a teacher would be a promising experience for me because I'll be able to:

§  Establish dialogues and exchange of ideas regardless of locations.

§  Use my class time for collaborative student work, debate and lab work.

§  Allow my students to learn from best sources and maintain access to challenging curriculum.

§  Prepare students for a future as global citizens.

§  Have less time catching up students who missed class.

But if I'm not well trained to use the class time for discourse and providing hands-on authentic learning experiences, I would suffer from void-in class time. That’s why gradual replacement supported by training is a must.

References: The flipped classroom , Flipping the classroom

I love my computer

My computer is a very important member of my family, work and social life. In my career as a teacher I'm using it as a tool to keep records of my students details, prepare my lessons plans and activities, design, research and to communicate with my students.

I'm also using it as a tutor to demonstrate the lessons using .net support and to create interactive e-learning content to help my students self learning.

As a tutee I'm using it to create customized small programs to ease the delivery of programming knowledge, for example web development and visual basic . Also create my own webpage to keep in touch with my students and colleagues.

A look at how technology has changed how information is given to students.