First of all I would like to congratulate Zulfadli for his interesting article. Second, zul if you are reading this blog, I will reference your blog for my project paper.
The reason I took his articles because its relevance to my research. I am not only developing design tool kit for teachers to teach students but also I will develop strategy how to conduct the workshop using the design tool kit. This study uses computers and PowerPoint presentation as a tool in delivering the knowledge to students.
In his article zulfadli had mentioned two theories that able to assist educator in technology in education, one of it is PLEaSE
- Personalized Learning Environment and Student's Engagement...
ZULFADLI RAHIM BLOG
Many of us think that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is nothing but computers and Internet. If we think that that is true, we are definitely wrong. Computers are just a small part of ICT – or can be referred to as tools of ICT. ICT itself is – apart from using these tools – the answers of ‘what do people do with these tools’ and the ‘how do they do it’.
Take this as an example. To use ICT, we need to switch on the computer – a tool. But that is not all. We need to use the program in the computer, for instance, the Internet Explorer (IE). Then what should we do? Think our own objective of using the IE. Most of our students say that they use the Internet to search for learning materials all over the world – online books, journals, and so much more. This is simply an objective of using the internet – and this answers what people do with the tools.
What about the ‘how’? When we want to find a learning material, we will find it first in search engines like Yahoo and Google. Then we look for the best in the list. We might get what we want right after a click. Sometimes, we have to download the PDF form of the material. Or the worst case for students, we might have to buy the books. It is up to each individual how we get those materials, but the methods that we use to browse the resources explains how people benefit from ICT.
New century is about new life. Day by day, we definitely do not want to stay the same. We want to make life simpler, yet richer. The transformation of life includes everything such as skills and knowledge, things, and ways (or methods). Talking about ICT in education, the use of it simplifies our lives by helping us to get learning resources at your favourite Starbucks while you are drinking your favourite latte or frappucino. Time: 24-7. Therefore, technology has changed our live from the old ‘I have to go to the library’ to the new ‘I have my own library on my PC’.
ICT is widely used in university and college level, where most lecturers and students have their own PC or laptop. But why can we hardly see primary school teachers use this technology in classroom? Is there any ‘firewall’ that does not allow them to change their teaching methods? Or is it difficult to change in schools?
When we talk about changes in schools – related to technology in education – most of us (especially teachers and school administrators) think that budget is a huge burden. I would say that they are absolutely wrong. I remember when I was in my first secondary school – before I transferred to St. John’s Institution – the administrators spent the school budget for useless purposes rather than making changes for teaching and learning purposes. They spent thousands of Ringgit to build a few ‘pondok bacaan’ in which to them, the objective was to increase reading awareness. But after the ‘pondok’ were built, were the students motivated? The answer: NO. There was ‘lepaking’ scenario at the place. And did they manage to obtain their objective? Why did not they upgrade the ICT facilities such as having more PC in computer lab, installing LCD projector, or getting a smart board?
School administrators always blame the government for not providing ICT learning materials and enough budgets for their schools. To me, they need to blame themselves for not spending their budget wisely. When it comes to school budgeting, we make the budget, not the budget makes us.
We can only change our teaching and learning methods if only the school culture and mindset are changed. When we go to Malaysian schools nowadays, we always appraise ‘experienced teachers’ who can be culturally defined as teachers who have served for more than 20 or 30 years. But do we appraise ‘innovative teachers’ who enrich their teaching and learning methods with the use of technology? ‘Experienced teachers’ are conventional – they practice teacher-centred learning, they only use blackboard, and they hold ‘rotan’ in their hands. However, ‘innovative teachers’ make use of technology and other learning materials in their teaching and learning session. Most schools are occupied with the conventionalists. The question is, when will this situation stop? Can the ‘experienced’ become the ‘innovative’? It is all about mindset.
There are two important theories that helps
us dealing with technology in education. The first one is called PLEaSE
- Personalized Learning Environment and Student's Engagement. It is all
about what we can do to make our teaching and learning session
different and at the same time, we gain students’ engagement. The
second theory is Pedagogy of Engagement Integrating Technology (PoEIT).
It refers to teachers’ attitude towards using technology in classrooms.
If we look at both terms, the word ‘engagement’ is used. What is
engagement?
Let us refer back to the topic of ‘experienced
teacher’. They practice teacher-centred learning and they use of chalk,
blackboard and text book. While teaching is conducted, is learning
taking place? Are students engaged in the learning process? Most of the
time, teacher give instruction, and students sit quietly and listen to
the teacher – no engagement.
There are five keys to students’ engagement in classroom.
- First, students’ engagement in learning process. Students come to school to learn, not to be tortured. They want activities that they can interact with themselves. They want to be active in class, not passive.
- Second, students’ engagement with the object of study. When students are learning, they want to experience everything. In a Science lesson, students want to hold conduct the experiments. They certainly do not want to be bordered by rules that will restrict them from learning.
- Thirdly, students’ engagement with the context of the subject of study. Students want to learn what they should learn. They want to learn things that are practical, useful for their lives.
- Finally, students’ engagements with the human condition. Students want to learn things that are related to their lives. In an English classroom, they tend to listen to stories about people surrounding them, rather than stories about two African boys living in a rural area in Sudan.
Engagement itself is not enough. A good
teacher needs to know whether the teaching and learning session is
facilitated. There are 5 essential situations that signal learning
session is facilitated.
- Learners are engaged in solving real world problems – students want to do tasks that are closely related to what happen outside of their school. They want to learn lessons that are applicable in their lives as human, not students.
- Existing knowledge is activated. Before learning process starts, teachers should know whether students have schema or background knowledge. It is good to plan a lesson that activates previous knowledge.
- New knowledge is demonstrated. If students have not known or seen something that teachers are going to teach, teachers must demonstrate it first. Students will be motivated to learn when they see real-life demonstration.
- New knowledge is applied by the learner. Once students have seen the demonstration, it is time for them to act like the demonstration.
- New knowledge is integrated into the learners’ world. After all of the above is completed, learning process is fully facilitated when the lessons have relationships with their world – home, supermarket, park, etc. Students will make use of what they have learned outside classroom.
So, before I end this post, I would like to wrap up all the things that I have discussed. ICT, new century, engagement. How are these interrelated? We are moving to a new era. This era relies on ICT and ICT will be the life for our children (or students). Are we going to teach them how to use a typewriter when they are to use Microsoft Word in the future? Are the students going to be passive learners, or can they play around while the lesson takes place and at the same time, they gain knowledge? These are questions to ponder. Think what the best is for our children.
The end.
(master students) and her undergrad class on online participation. The issues were, why is it so hard to get master students to post any online message on the net and also to read articles posted on the moodle.
Well I guess one of the thousand reasons is commitment. I realize and admit that there shouldn't be any reasons at all. For me, self-motivation is the only drive that could help and push me do whatever I am supposed to do.
As my focus at this time is research, I realize that READING is the only key to do research. Well, in my case...
I have to do :
READING~READING~WRITING~WRITING~RESEARCH
- Research Matrix
- Research documentation
- Write Up
- Chapter one
- Chapter two
- Chapter three
- Read.Read.Read.Read
- Submit Research proposal on October
- Office works
- Freelance work
Stage 1
To identify the elements and principles of design
Stage 2
To develop a design tool kit
Stage 3
To evaluate the design tool kit
Stage 4
To study the effectiveness of the design tool kit in the learning process
The stages of my research are not final yet. But at least now I have the guideline of conducting the research. I will need to do a lot of reading in order to construct my research questions to be research focus.
I have called Ng to inform her about the design-guide book and what needs to be done in order to complete materials for the DISC workshop (design for interaction and students' collaboration). The DISC workshop is a two day workshop. There will be two different group of students aged from 10-11 yaers old.
We manage to get facilitators for the Tuesday workshop. For Wednesday, Ng has suggested not to use any facilitator. We will try to conduct the workshop in real class situation where it only involves teacher and students.
- To chunk the presentation into smaller part. As kids (my sample: 10-11 years old) have short attention spam. For every "chunked" slides I will have to give these students hands-on project.
- To explain about the "Merdeka" poster before the training session starts.
- To use socratic method- whenever slides contained pictures such as an image of wolf, trainer should ask the students what do they think of the pictures, then only give them the answer.
- To insert angry-smiley icon on the red color slide.
Thank you Prof ,Sam and Sarah for the given feedbacks.
As I wrote this message, Ng is helping me to improve the presentation. Thanks a zillion Ng.
I have to finish by today and hopefully tomorrow morning I could send all the materials for printing and by lunch I could go back to my office.
I went to @dec and met with NG. Below are some of modifications that need to be done:
- Change example of posters to latest posters that participants can relate to.
- Make sure posters presented did not use any foreign language that participants cannot understand
- More visual less text
- Explain what is image, font, layout
- Use simple language
“Teaching design to youth is about unlocking a way of thinking. Design is no longer considered a superfluous subject, but rather a process that can be applied to any problem in order to ensure an appropriate, well-informed solution. Creative problem solving has proven itself an invaluable skill for leaders in all fields. The federal education law, No Child Left Behind, has required schools to increase classroom hours spent on math and reading significantly, often at the expense of other subjects, including design,” said Maria Emmighausen, a project manager for the AIGA’s K-12 initiatives.
“I argue that art and design education is for ‘all’ students, not just the talented few and it needs to be a core component of a student’s general education,” added Sproll. “Studying art and design not only provides all students with the opportunity to develop their creative selves and to enhance their creative problem-solving skills, but through the study of art and design students come to understand [that these disciplines are about] the expression of ideas, feeling and values.”
“We empower kids to use design as a planning tool for success. They
break out of their passive roles and become active in the process of
setting and achieving future goals in their education,” said Corey J.
Willis, director of the school’s design education.
The kids of today “are extremely aware about design,” said Lamour. “But I don’t think schools know how to talk about design...My goal is not to create more graphic designers, but to give kids different ways to enter the learning process.”
Design Generation. Today’s kids are design savvy, but where do they get their design smarts?
Nancy Goulet
Originally published in Communication Arts January/February 2007
Purchase Issue
The author of this website reported on the teachers' initiatives to adopt and implement ICT in an elementary school. Videos during the class sessions were also made available.
Below is the course outline from the Art & Design - Poster advert.
Poster advert
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Information |
Objectives
• To learn how to use a digital camera to capture an image
• To learn how to transfer a digital photograph to a computer
• To review, modify and evaluate work as it progresses
Prior learning
To benefit from this lesson, children should:
• have looked at and discussed examples of:
– the work of graphic designers or artists such as Matthew Roby, by using the Internet, making visits to galleries, looking at posters;
– adverts, including posters, fliers, magazine adverts, TV or radio adverts;
• have analysed critically different examples of graphic designs and discussed how the artists have exploited text and images;
• have decided on a product to advertise in a poster, such as a book or video, and the purpose and audience for the advert;
• have listed the ideas and types of media to use in their poster designs;
• have produced their poster using a range of media.
Vocabulary
advert, image, digital, digital camera, open, save, image, graphic designer, artist, poster, purpose
Resources
• data projector or interactive whiteboard linked to a laptop
• ICT suite or set of laptops
• presentation software (in this Example, PowerPoint)
• graphics software that enables colour manipulation of selections (in this Example, Revelation Natural Art)
• digital cameras
• scanner and scanner software
• posters/designs created previously
ICT skills needed by teachers
To teach this unit, teachers need to know how to:
• use a digital camera and transfer photographs to a computer.
Preparation for this lesson
Prepare a set of help cards, or prompts and diagrams, to help children to remember what to do when they are transferring digital photographs to a computer.
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Lesson extract |
Introduction
Begin by reviewing children’s completed adverts. Ask:
Q What do you think and feel about this advert?
Q How could you develop this work in the future?
Q If you could create your image again, what would you do differently?
Encourage others to evaluate the work by commenting on the image in a positive way.
Remind children how to use the digital camera, including taking pictures and deleting images. For example, you could pretend that you have forgotten how to use it and ask children to give you instructions. Encourage them to come to the front to show what to press.
Main activity
Organise the class to work in groups so that each group has a digital camera. Give the groups time to practise taking photographs of the classroom, their friends, and various objects. Using one group as an example, show how to save a digital image from a disk or media card onto the computer as a JPEG file. Ask each group to practise this skill, saving one image each.
Now demonstrate how to place a design flat on a surface and use the digital camera to take a picture of the image. Transfer the photograph to the computer. Ask the groups to take digital pictures of their own design and save them on the computer as before. Remind children that they will need to remember where they have saved their work as the photographs will be needed in the next lesson.
Alternatively, children could scan their images and save their scanned image as a JPEG file.
Plenary
Bring the whole class together. View and review a selection of the digital images.
Next steps
Show children how to use the tools in image manipulation software (in this Example Revelation Natural Art) to change the size, colour, focus or shape of the image, to flip or rotate it, to use the brush tool, to fill an area, to undo or erase, to add details from other images using copy and paste, and to use special effects such as smearing, spraying, highlighting, softening and spraying.
Ask children to refine their images and experiment with adding text to them.
Use a selection of questions to encourage the children to think in a reflective manner:
Q How did you feel as you worked on this image?
Q Did you have a good starting point?
Q What could have been better about your starting point?
Q How could you develop your work in the future?
Q If you could create your image again, what would you do differently?
Q What are the similarities and differences between your original photograph and the end product?
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Notes |
Links to QCA schemes of work
The lesson links to:
QCA ICT Unit 2B: Creating pictures
QCA ICT Unit 3A: Combining text and graphics
Context of this lesson
This lesson is the third or fourth session in a series of six lessons.
Subject links
Links can be made in literacy to non-fiction writing for an audience. For example, children could be asked to write a review of their adverts.
Why use ICT?
The advantages of using ICT are as follows.
• A digital camera can be used to record children’s compositions created using traditional materials. The photographs can be used for discussion and evaluation with the whole class.
• Using image manipulation software, children can explore, draft and present pictorial information. They can experiment directly and quickly with different images. Their work can be saved, developed and refined later.
• ICT
allows teachers to project enlarged visual images and to model different
compositions for whole-class demonstration, discussion and evaluation.
Data retrieved from http://primary-strategy.nen.gov.uk/ on 21/8/07
Than you to Prof RM for giving me the opportunity to conduct the mini workshop in her class and thanks to all the students who had been very supportive and also not forgetting to Ng and Chin for being there and facilitated the students.
This mini-workshop was aimed to teach the students on designing skills. How to design poster using the right design elements. They (the students) were given a topic on Hari Merdeka. They have to design one merdeka poster in a group of 5 base on the design skill taught by me. By end of the session they will have to present their posters to the entire class. I have to admit that I'm not sure how to do it but I think I have the guts just do it and seize the day. Try first and see how.
Two weeks later, Prof RM gave her feedback on the mini workshop conducted. There are many improvement need to be done. I have to guide them clearer. I should show the participants the good and bad poster examples. Explaining to them Font types (serif and san serif) that are suitable for designing posters. Thank you Prof for the comments and suggestions. I will definitely try to improve it and apply it on the next workshop.
on Merdeka poster