The Journey

This is the final journey for EDC3100 and to my Bachelor’s Degree on Early Childhood Education. I have learnt so much in this few months and I am using these ICT tools not only to teach my nephew and nieces but also in my work place. Who said learning this course was only for teaching in schools. The presentation tools learnt in this course like Prezi, Vimeo, Slideful, Animoto, and many others has opened up a door of other possibilities to what ICT is all about and how it can enhance our learning in this Technological Era.

i may not be able to use my skills and experiences in a school setting anytime soon but I do hope in the near future I will have this chance and I am sure I will be a good teacher and aspire others. But, none is gain if not for the hard work and dedications to all those who has made my journey a memorable one and I cannot thank them enough – my lecturers in USQ, David especially, my lecturer in SEGi, my mentor and school coordinator, my college mates, my friends and family and to the students who allowed me the chance to teach and experience learning together with them. I thank you all for this opportunity and will cherish this always.

Connect.ed

This site ACMA – Cybersmart Connect.ed, is a survey has four modules that states the followings aims and outcomes as below and it is important that students, teachers and families should be aware of. I listed the details as below;

Module 1: The connected world

Learning aims for this module:

• increase your awareness of the online world by familiarising yourself with digital technologies
• appreciate young people’s everyday experiences as they use online technologies
• learn effective strategies to help students and school communities both prevent cybersafety issues
  and react appropriately should they occur.

Learning outcomes for this module:

• the ability to influence student behaviours and attitudes towards the use of online, digital technologies
• achieve insight into how young people use online technologies for social interaction, self-awareness and education.

Module 2: Cybersafety and your students

Learning aims for this module:

• become aware of the many cybersafety issues that young people face online
• gain effective strategies to help students and school communities to both prevent cybersafety issues and react appropriately should they occur.

Learning outcomes for this module:

• be able to identify students at risk of unsafe behaviours online
• influence student behaviours and attitudes about the use of online technologies
• establish strategies to prevent unsafe online behaviour and use among the student body
• have successful plans to deal with unsafe online behaviours should they occur
• gain insight about how young people use online technologies for socialising or interaction.

Module 3: Schools and the law  

Learning aims for this module are for educators to:

• learn effective strategies to help students and school communities to both prevent online safety issues and react appropriately should they occur
• discover how the school environment and student body, influences, and can be influenced by, the use of online technologies among students
• be able to critically assess the school’s policies around ICT usage
• understand the current legislative context around online use and be aware of any legislative change in this area.

Learning outcomes for this module:

• know where and how the law applies to online behaviours
• influence school environments and policies when it comes to online safety and ICT use.

Module 4: Putting it into practice  

Learning aims for this module:

• gain new approaches, ideas, methods and understandings about delivering engaging and effective cybersafety education for students.

Learning outcome for this module:

• successfully use Cybersmart resources and tools in teaching practice and programs.

 

This is my Certificate for completing all four modules online:

Cybersmart Outreach – Professional Development for Educators Program.

 

Facts above retrieved from: http://acma.janison.com/

Integrating vs Using Technology

This is a reblog from Miss R that I would like to share as I find this very useful and easy to understand. I too get confused when using Technology in teaching. I tend to use them instead of integrating ICT’s into the lessons and sometimes find it easier to teach without them instead. Learning how to incorporate technology to enhanced learning is vital for teacher’s to create a meaningful learning experience for students instead of just using technology for convenience. Technology does create a huge difference in student’s learning and that is why I find this table a useful guideline for teaching.

Hey! Miss R

This has been a little tool that I have kept by my side as I wrote my Unit of work to remind myself that I am wanting too integrate ICT rather than use ICT.

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10 Reasons Why I Will Continue to Give my Children Handheld Devices

This is a reblog that I stumbled upon while learning what blogging was all about. This blog is one of the most interesting argument that I’ve read. It explains the use of ICT devices for young children that enhanced their learning (skills) in some way or another. Indeed ICT tools can be harmful to children if used excessively but in moderation, children learn many new skills in an instant and with much interest and self motivation. Here’s a blog from a parent with two beautiful daughters that is somewhat a testimonial of how some parents may feel about the use of ICT’s and how it has helped her children learn creatively and independently. I do hope you find this blog inspiring just as I did.

Chop Wood, Carry Water

My children, both on handheld devices, learning and laughing.

Last week the Huffington Post ran this article titled 10 Reasons Why Handheld Devices Should be Banned for Children Under the Age of 12.

As an educator who advocates for the intentional and appropriate use of technology, I could go on about this forever. But instead I’m writing here as a mother.

Here are my 10 reasons why I will continue giving my children handheld devices, and all other forms of technology as well.

1) Because banning things never, ever, ever works. 

Remember when your parents wouldn’t let you watch rated R movies so you just went to your friends’ houses to watch them? I think I’d rather have my kids using technology and handheld devices with me beside them. Where I can engage with them, answer questions, and limit content if I have concerns.

2) Problem solving.

When my kids…

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Practical Experience coming to an end

As I sit here reminiscing the days of my Practical Experiences, I suddenly feel a little sad to be leaving this school and the children. I have had the pleasure of getting to know teacher’s, students, and some parents in a very short time and the number of hugs I have received is more love than I had in the past year. The students had the experience of using the IWB with much ease and created a presentation that they could not stop talking about and the word “Selfie” is a new “Why”. There are actually a lot to write and share but I have no idea where to start. It was also an uncertain journey as to whether I was planning the lessons correctly, was I benefiting the students and teachers, was I creating an impact and so on so forth. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful experience and I would do this all over again if I had the chance. Now I am going back to work, in my little cubicle at the office. I hope everyone had gain so much from this and has made some difference to the lives we’ve touched. Good Luck!

Fun with our Feathered Friends

Couple of days back was our trip to the Bird Park. It was a super fun day with students, teachers, and parents. The students all wore the school T’shirt and all the teachers including myself had a red T’shirt given especially for this trip and as a token for Teacher’s Day. We saw many different types of birds and the facts about them.

It was a productive day and with Parents engaging in their children’s learning, I took the opportunity to ask students to use a camera or their parents smart phone to take pictures of the birds and parents guided them through out the visit, taking pictures of every type of birds. It was a wonderful hands on experience.

Here are some pictures I have attached for your viewing.

Hatchlings

Selfie Bird

Peace

Bird Show

Here comes the parrot

It’s feeding time

She wanted to take a pic but was scared of the bird

Mobile Phone

Mobile Phone

Pic taken by a student

Parents Envolvement

PE Day 1

The first day of my Practical Experience was scary. It is almost three and a half years now since I have been in a school environment and on my very first day, I had to replace a four year old class who’s teacher  was feeling under the weather that day. Because I am new and both the students and I are unfamiliar with each other, I had slight problems trying to catch their attention and it was very noisy as everyone had so many Why Questions. But after an hour or so, all was good. I manage to kept them calm and prepared some activities, mostly sing along as they love to sing these children. It was an interesting day for me. I wished I had prepared something much earlier but will surely be more prepared tomorrow and the coming days. I will be assisting a 5 year old class for my practicum and I know it is going to be just fine.

The 7 Skills

7 Skills students need for their future: http://youtu.be/NS2PqTTxFFc

This Video explains the skills students will need in the future as argued by Dr. Tony Wagner on asiasociety.org. He points out that in today’s digital age, the “Net generation” is, among other things, accustomed to instant gratification and use of the web for extending friendships, interest-driven, self-directed learning; and are constantly connected, creating, and multitasking in a multimedia world—everywhere except in school. Why is this so? In order to motivate and teach this generation, the school system must be reinvented to be accountable for what matters most. That means to do the work–teaching, learning, and assessing–in new ways and that new ways is by incorporating Technology into the lessons. To use the available tools to create, be innovative, and proactive for a better future.

Tally Tots

Something to share. I stumbled upon this video on YouTube called TallyTots.

It is an interactive counting game has some cool activities that has action turned into numbers and engages children’s learning, making them fun. They’ll learn how to count one to twenty through a variety of well planned activities; whether it’s feeding the chipmunks, racing cars around the tracks, or picking apples, there is always a number element. Children can associate numbers through the audio and visual cues with sounds and with the kid-friendly navigation it makes it easy to return to their favorite numbers.

This activity allows frequent repetition that teaches children how to count with positive verbal reinforcement for completed tasks that gives children the feeling of accomplishment for being able to complete the task. It’s kinda fun for kids and an easy way to understand counting and numbers.

So many other applications available online especially on YouTube, and children these days may easily be self-taught just by browsing and watching fun online tutorials on “how to do’s”. Hope you do find this useful.

Pin your Interest in Pinterest

Pinterest is a fast an easy way to store all your favourite websites or pictures or anything you come across with. It allows you to organize your creativity, ideas, hobbies, etc in just one click.

Teacher’s can use this tool to create weekly themes, learn about places, buildings, types of animals, sports, hobbies, anything and everything that they could find on the internet. Children can pin a webpage and come back to it later on read about it or share other friend’s pin.

Alison and Emilie also agrees that this tool is an awesome ICT board for children and teacher’s to follow on Pinterest. Just like us, I hope you will find many interesting ways to incorporate this into your teaching.