ICT Post 1

ENHANCED SCHOOL EXPERIENCE

PREPARATORY TASK FOR ICT FOR MEANINGFUL LEARNING
Enchanced School Experience: Classroom Observations of ICT Use

(I) Specific Observation

School name: Bukit Batok Secondary School
Class: 1E3
Profile of the class: This is a Secondary 1 Express class. The students are generally well-behaved, with the more disruptive ones exiled to the sides of the classroom. They have only been taking History as a subject since the start of Semester 3, and are still building up the necessary skills. There are a mixture of students. Some are willing, however inappropriately, to share their opinions on all matters under the sun, while others are shy to the point of being terrified to admit that they do not understand what the teacher is talking about.
Subject: History
What ICT tools are used in the lesson? Powerpoint Presentation and Visualiser
Describe how ICT is used for teaching and learning in the lesson.
The lesson covered the reasons why Raffles founded Singapore. The primary tool used was the Powerpoint presentation. Unfortunately, the projector had distorted the colour and made the slides very difficult to read. This led to frequent complaints by the students over their inability to follow the lesson.
Otherwise, the Powerpoint incorporated good illustrations and animations concerning the monsoon winds in Southeast Asia. this allowed the teacher to show the favourable position of the various ports in the Malay World.
Moreover, the visualiser was useful in displaying a palimpsest on a map. This was useful in helping students understand the shifting political allegiances in the Malay World. This method was also useful in showing the location of artefacts and how these locations reflected the change in trading patterns.

(II) General Observation

How do teachers in the school feel about the use of ICT for teaching and learning?

Some of the teachers in the school embrace ICT. The ICT committee, together with the English Department, created an English Oral E-Learning task for the Secondary 1 and 2 students. The English teacher uploaded a passage onto the portal and students were instructed to read and record their voices using their hand phones at home. These audio files were then uploaded onto the school portal. Their classmates were in turn assigned to listen and comment on their classmates’ oral presentation. Rubrics were uploaded online to assist students in the grading of the presentations. The response of the teachers and students to this initiative has been particularly good since it has encouraged the students to collaborate and learn. The success of this programme has led to the projected expansion to the Upper Secondary levels. Other departments, such as the Chinese Language Department, have also taken up this initiative.
Sticking with the Language Departments for now, the Chinese and Tamil Language Departments have also embraced the use of podcasting. These podcasts have been broadcasted over the internet, enabling the students to gain confidence and to enhance their presentation skills. The Chinese Language Department uses podcasting as one of the ways to communicate with their partner school in China.
The Tamil Language Department has led a pilot project on the use of handphones in classrooms. Videos of students and teachers speaking and posing questions are routinely filmed and uploaded through Bluetooth to be replayed immediately. The body language, expression, and tone will then be analysed by the class. Although this requires more lesson preparation, this allows the students to be more aware of the impression they make, while also allowing them to gain confidence in speaking directly to an audience or camera.
The Mathematics Department relies heavily on the use of ACE Learning System. This has been an established practice for some time and the teachers seem happy with it.
The Science Department uses Datalogger in their experiments, while more dangerous experiments filmed on video are also used to impart lessons in class.
Away from the Departments,, the ICT head also explained the ICT-specific activities the school has been promoting heavily. Firstly, the school has funds set aside for subscription to services such as customised Channel News Asia broadcasts meant for teaching and Hansvision programmes. The emphasis, for him, is on the infusion of ICT into lessons, not the explicit, knock over the head type of teaching.
He also explained the general shift toward collaborative teaching and learning, best-exemplified by the use of Google Docs. In order to promote a more ICT-savvy culture, he routinely organises training and update workshops for school staff. There is also an ICT Mentor Programme within to school to help those new to ICT integrate into the school’s ICT culture. These programmes, he hopes, will help improve the school’s BYiTEScore.