Blog Three

BLOG 3:
MAKING CONNECTION BETWEEN YOUR ESE AND THE MASTERPLANS FOR ICT
IN EDUCATION

For your third post, describe which achievement(s) of the three masterplans for ICT in education are evident in the school/classes that you are attached to for your ESE. You may want to refer to your blog post about your ESE.

The achievements of the three masterplans for ICT in education were evident in Greenview Secondary School to a certain extent.


Masterplan 1:

Almost all the teachers (even the senior teachers) are sufficiently equipped with the basic ICT infrastructure and knowledge and demonstrated a basic level of ICT competency. I have also asked around and all the teachers accepted ICT as a pedagogical tool in the classroom. Students are allocated with projects and I have seen them having the necessary skills to complete their projects with the knowledge of ICT.



Masterplan 2:

Greenview was provided with the necessary physical and ICT infrastructure for ICT-based teaching and learning. This infrastructure included networking within every school and access to MOE’s Intranet and the Internet, and basic equipments such as projector and visualizer in every classroom.  

Most students were competent in the use of basic ICT tools, namely, Internet, email, word processing and presentations, with almost all of students knowing how to use the Internet.

My CT was proficient in the use of the basic tools and resources, namely, productivity tools, Internet and email to support classroom teaching.



Masterplan 3:

I have attended the Science Department meeting and during the meeting, they introduced the 21^st Century Competencies where these components are identified in a sample lesson plan. These goals can be achieved via the introduction of Masterplan 3. The achievements, i believe, are still in the making.

Blog Two

BLOG 2:
MASTERPLANS FOR ICT IN EDUCATION 

Blog One

ENHANCED SCHOOL EXPERIENCE:

PREPARATORY TASK FOR ICT FOR MEANINGFUL LEARNING

Enhanced School Experience: Classroom Observations of ICT Use

(I) Specific Observations

School Name:  Greenview Secondary School

Class: 1E3

Profile of the class: (For e.g., the students’ academic abilities,  stream and other characteristics) Students are in the express stream whose PSLE aggregate ranges from 200 to 210. Though it is not the best class (i.e. class with the highest PSLE aggregate), their attitude is positive and almost the entire class wants to learn. Most students are responsive and keen learners except for a handful who always seem to display fatigue and no interest in learning. Nevertheless, the overall class spirit is good and generally well-behaved.

Subject:

What ICT tools are used in the lesson? -        Overhead projector -        Visualizer

Describe how ICT is used for teaching and learning in the lesson. As the students in Greenview are mostly kinesthetic learners, they require and very much appreciate visual aids in their learning. Visual and hands-on work the best for the students there. Thus, lessons are conducted using powerpoint and displayed to the entire class using projector. The class appreciates this method of teaching more than the usual whiteboard learning. At the same time, videos and animations can also be shown in the powerpoint slides to further engage the students and arouse the students’ curiosity in the particular issue. They are very appreciative of videos from youtube.com and CD-rom. I had witnessed how a simple ICT tool – the visualizer has helped in conveying information to the students in a more fruitful way. The class teacher was showing a demonstration on how the charcoal can be broken down into smaller pieces by hammering to illustrate the idea of indivisible which means atomos in latin and atom in English. The charcoal was placed on a piece of white paper. Had the visualizer not been used, the small size of the charcoal piece would not have been seen by students at the end of the class and the idea of the whole demonstration would not have been conveyed to them. When the visualizer was used, every step of the experiment was clearly broadcasted to every student and that totally capture the attention of the whole class.

(II) General Observation:

How do teachers in the school feel about the use of ICT for teaching and learning? (For this question, you may want to speak to the HOD/ICT and other teachers you know in the school.)


“An effective tool to help promote a more meaningful learning among students.”

“Very beneficial to the kinesthetic learners in Greenview.”

“ Would work best for students in normal technical class.”

“Would greatly aid in the teaching of mathematics and science subjects as the concepts would then be more successfully delivered to the class."

“Captivating for the students!”

“Very well appreciated by the students.”