What’s the most common complaint that teachers have about their classes?
If you and I were to ask ourselves that question then the answer would be ‘BOREDOM’. Most often, students have blank looks on their face or are just not interested in classes. There are several external and internal factors influencing the interest level in a class. However, if students’ interests are flagging because they are doing ‘Black Line’ activity sheets or listening to the teacher talk, then it’s time to change.
ICT in classrooms follows a three-fold path and that is:
-ICT for visualising thinking
-ICT for creating
-ICT for communicating
Students are expected to work on all three when using ICT. However, it pains me to say that at my last practicum, I did not see ICT used for visualising thinking. Also, I felt that the NetBooks, NotePads, Computers and Laptops were not tapped for their maximum potential. Except for using MS Publisher to create posters and brochures or to access websites, I never saw students create designs or use tools such as database software.
I believe the lack of knowledge about S/W and H/W amongst teachers is to blame for the non-tapping of ICT resources. This’ further influenced by the fact that there are teachers who suffer from ‘Cyber-phobia’ – a fear of computers or ICT. But these are unjustifiable reasons for not learning. It is imperative that we are aware of the potential of computers since our students’ future depends on it.
There are several websites available for teaching topics such as Humanities, Arts, Mathematics, etc. Some of the websites are:
-www.buildyourwildself.com (Great for Preps – Grade 3 to learn about animals and their conservation)
-http://catchmentdetox.net.au/ (Applicable for Grade 5 – Grade 6 to learn about conservation of resources, especially since it is an on-going game that involves strategies, pooling of resources, financial analyses, etc)
-http://myths.e2bn.org (Apt for Grade 5 – Grade 6 to create stories on ‘myths and legends’. However, some of the graphics and stories are gory and am unsure whether all students would be unaffected by it)
-http://ziptales.com.au (Apt for Preps – Grade 4 to create stories ranging from fairy-tales to folk-lore, i.e. work on Arts, Literacy, ICT and Humanities. However, this is a site that requires subscription. Personally, I have never liked subscribing to websites since I am unsure of how effective they are in protecting my information.)
-https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/primary/pages/Default.aspx (Apt for Grade 3 – Grade 6. This website is well laid out and is very user-friendly. Also, there are no unwanted advertisements or pop-ups since it is maintained by the DEECD. There’s a wide range of material for various domains such as Science, Arts, Literacy, Mathematics, etc.)
As you can see from the first picture on this blog, I have been playing around with the ‘www.buildyourwildself.com’ website. Though it was interesting to go through the various animals and play around with changing the features on my cyber-self, I have to say that it was not very entertaining. However, I believe the Prep – Grade 3 students will be more than glad to spend 15 – 20 minutes on this. The time could be changed depending on the level of learning and skill that the students are at.
I did try to work on the ‘www.catchmentdetox.net.au’ game but I have to say that I was quite inept at it. But I am sure that students in the concerned age group would find it not only interesting but also quite addictive. I felt that the game involves strategies and planning that will keep students occupied for ages. The best feature about this game is that it is educational and can be played at home or anywhere else other than only at school.
As said earlier, I am not very keen on the ‘www.ziptales.com.au’ or the ‘www.myths.e2bc.org’. The former as it involves signing onto their website and the latter because I found their graphics quite gory. Indeed, I would be more than glad to sign off both websites to the ‘Middle Years’ or ‘Secondary’ students.
A data bank of websites for easy learning is always good to have for reference’s sake. However, I would prefer it if as teachers we invested more in S/W and H/W that students can access to create their own websites or games relevant to the domain they’re working on. This way, they can improve their ICT skills and equip themselves for a better future.
There are various S/W such as Microsoft Photo Story 3, Windows Live Movie Maker, Corel Digital Studio 2003, iStopMotion, etc. The important thing is to discuss with people who are aware of such S/W and H/W so that one can make a calculated and educated decision with regards to investing in technology that will improve our students’ learning skills.
Till then, I guess I will have to work with what I have and ensure that I do my utmost to improve my students’ learning using those tools that I have access to.
