Sunday, September 16, 2007

THE REFLECTION ON IWB LECTURE

I know that it is a little bit late to post this entry...It is due to many works need to be done and my poor time management ( honesty is the best policy )...But I still want to share how I view the use of IWB in classroom and the knowledge on how to 'touch' the software...
Here are some of the interesting activities which I feel the teachers out there can incorporate in the classroom with the help of SMART board:
  • Story telling ( as what Sze Mei's did during the lecture...Can you recall?)
  • Matching activities for teaching of vocabulary
  • Video clips
  • Games ( students play the game in which they use their knowledge regarding the lesson learnt and apply them during playing the games )

This is actually my first time ever in my life being exposed to this kind of technological advancement product as I come from a rural area. But no worries...since I have done the project successfully, molesting the software and create a very interesting activity...I feel that I can conquer this 'product'.

In my point of views, IWB offers a great deal for teachers out there to be more advanced in their teaching and provides a more memorable, enjoyable and real activities. These are some of the advantages of integrating this valuable 'product' in the classroom:

  • colourful, animated images and real pictures help the students to grasp certain concepts taught faster and better. This is very relevant to teach vocabulary especially for visual learners.
  • a new exposure to the students ( especially in rural if the facility is provided ) about the computer software.
  • allows the teachers to elicit responses from the students easily during the activity. This may help the teachers to check how much the students have gained and learned from the activities.
  • an integration of a new approach in teaching and learning makes the students enjoy the learning process optimally since they are curious about the ' product '. This leads them to get engaged and actively participate during the activities.

Another thing to consider is the precautions before any teachers want to explore this 'product' in the primary classroom. I would like to share a few since I have experienced creating activities for young learners once. Here are some of the precautions:

  • check the learners prior knowledge since we are all aware that the learners need to have some of background knowledge before they are introduced to a new knowledge.
  • clear instructions are vital since the leaners need to be clear of what they are expected to do during the activity
  • appropriate fonts and pictures size so that everybody inside the room can see the board.
  • 'LOCK' all the images so that they will not move here and there since the screen is very sensitive.
  • provide answers so that the learners can check their answers and learn from their mistakes.

Now, this is the last part of this entry where I need to answer the 3 questions.

1) Do you understand the basic knowledge using Note book function in SMART board? If yes, which part do you understand most? If no, why did not understand?

The answer is YES. I manage to apply what Miss Fenny told us about the cloning, dragging, locking, capturing and etc in my project. I did face difficulties throughout the process but I did ask my mates to assist me.

2) Do you understand the basic knowledge to use gallery and attachment pictures in SMART board incorporate for teaching English vocabulary for Standard Four students?

YES. The pictures provided and browsed from the net are useful to teach vacabulary since the provide the real images and allow the students to memorize and understand the words easily. Besides, the students can check answers, spelling and surf the online dictionaries or thesaurus to look for the definitions.

That's all for now...Till then...

Monday, September 10, 2007

2nd STAGE OF IWB PROJECT

Haaa...I was wrong...the submission date is not 5 September but on the 12 September. Now, I'm working hard to get things done...my back aching problem is back after it flies to another place for quite sometime. It is not that easy to deal with the soft ware since there are many questions have been puzzling my brain. Is it interactive enough for the students? Or is it really worth to use the acticities inside the classroom? Or is it suitable for the particular learning outcome that i have chosen? Or is it succint enough to cater for different types of students in the classroom? Or is it still need to be improvised? Can you see how difficult it is? But, never mind..I still have more than 10 hours to finalize everything. I'm doing good as the 70% of the project is completed. The most important thing that I need to bear in mind is that the activities that I have created are completely perfect with the integration of the smart board software. Alright...back to the real business now...To authentic educators....I'll give my part to be uploaded tomorrow ya...