Integrating
technology in the classroom is a very powerful tool to change the way students
learn. In order for technology assimilation to be transformational, teacher
must purposefully craft, ground the lesson in the basic of effective teaching
and learning, and pair with the appropriate application based on the focus of
the lesson. There are ways in which a well-constructed, technology-rich
learning environment can result in boosted motivation and deeper student
learning.
I am a homeroom teacher of grade 5 (five) Kristiansand
International school, Norway. My students are about 10-11 (ten to eleven) years
old. I have a small class size consist of 8 (eight) students who come from
Czech Republic, German-Norway, England-Wales, England-Norway, England-Pakistan,
Sweden, United Arab Emirates, and Thailand-Norway. We have one laptop connected
to the wireless passworded internet in the classroom. Even though the internet
is passworded, when the students bring their own laptops, the homeroom teacher
can connect them to the internet. We also have 16 (sixteen) laptops in the
Information Technology (IT) Lab which are connected to the wireless internet.
Students have IT lesson once a week for 60 (sixty) minutes. In addition to
that, the homeroom teacher may take the class to the IT Lab for working as long
as there is a time slot available or the homeroom has booked the IT Lab. At the
library, we also have one computer connected to the wireless internet. At home,
most of my students have at least one computer or a laptop or a tablet/IPad
that is connected to the internet. The parents set limited time for students to
use it, especially when they use it for having fun (playing games). On the
other hand they do not set any limited time when the students use it for doing
the school project at home.
We had a unit of inquiry that focused on Fantasy. I
wanted my students to learn on how to analyse three fantasy stories. I wanted
my students to develop their communication skills. Some of my students will get
the benefit on how to improve their self-management skills. I also want them to
improve their collecting and organizing data skills. For the summative task, I
asked my students to combine three popular fantasy stories that they know into
one fantasy story. The final product for the summative task was a fantasy short
clip using Windows Movie Maker.
First, the students were guided to find the stories from Sparklebox website (http://sparklebox.co.uk/). Then, the students were guided to
download the material (images) from Fantasy and Fiction topic on Sparklebox website (http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/topic/fantasy/#.Upx583Csim4). The downloaded materials were in
PDF format. My students were guided to convert the downloaded images onto JPG
format using PDF2JPG website (http://pdf2jpg.net/). After that, I guided my students to crop the
images using Paint program. The next
process was to combine the images using Windows
Movie Maker program. After they had combined the images, and put a
narration for the lip, the students were asked to find suitable music, from
Youtube website (http://www.youtube.com/) that would accompany the clip. Once,
they found the music they downloaded the music using Keepvid website (http://www.keepvid.com/). The downloaded music was inserted
onto the fantasy clip as their final product.
Next
year, when we have the same unit of inquiry focus, I would like to teach my
students using blog, especially Kidblog (http://kidblog.org/home/) so that they are more prepare when
they are doing the Exhibition as the final project at grade 5 (five). I will
provide my students blog page for each student. I connect the student blogs
with my blogs. I will blog the instruction (step by step for making the
summative task) that the students will need to follow and do at home. I will
also ask my students give comment or feedback to their friends once a week). By
doing so, my students are working collaboratively using the technology, not
only at school but also at home. This experience will transform my classroom
from an ordinary teacher-centered into more students-centered since the
students will discuss and work collaboratively outside the class more.
References
SparkleBox Teacher Resources
Limited. December 2, 2013. Sparklebox website. Retrieved from http://sparklebox.co.uk/
Youtube, LLC. December 2, 2013. Youtube.
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/
Keepvid website. December 2, 2013. Keepvid
download streaming videos. Retrieved from http://www.keepvid.com/
Kidblog, Inc. December 2, 2013. Kidblog.
Retrieved from http://kidblog.org/home/
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