Situating tool

Google classroom

Hello and welcome to my blog.

Today I will be talking about what we learned after joining the college. We had a long three months holiday which I probably wasted a lot. But after joining the college we are getting back to our track of learning. We have had a lots to catch up and learn from each other.

In the ICT class we learned about the last tool that is situating tool from the five tools. I understood that situating tool is a tool that situates or places a person in an environment where that can learn. It means that the environment can be real as well virtual if the tutor cannot take the students in the real situation.

We also went through the importance and why we need to integrate situating tool in our learning. Without learning them there may be very less use of situating tool in the classroom.

From the many situating tool I will be talking about google classroom.

Google classroom is similar to what we have been using in the college as virtual learning environment (VLE). We can upload reading materials, provide assignments, make announcement and many more. It is like having a classroom but of course a virtual one. Sir briefed us on what a google classroom is and what are the things that we can do in the google classroom. He also presented a video from where we could learn how to make google classroom using your college Gmail. It was fun to learn that we can make a virtual classroom for our students. Learning about google classroom where the situation in our country is such that teachers need to learn about online teaching is very wonderful. If the situation of corona virus does not subside and continues, we have to learn about teaching online and google classroom is one of the best teaching and learning environment where the teacher can teach.

Here is a glimpse of the google classroom that I made after the instruction given from sir.

This was the task given to us by our tutor. While doing this task I learned a lot about google classroom. I found that google classroom can be an interesting platform to teach the students as well we can learn many new things from there. We can use google classroom when we are in the school and make the students take up their own learning.

Video lesson using camtasia

Hi readers,

In this post I have uploaded the video lesson that we were asked to make. It was indeed a fun to do this activity as I could personally understand more on using camtasia. However, there were so many problems that I faced during the whole recording and editing. I had to redo the recording for six to seven times as I could not get a well organized video. But success was at the end. I learned that there are many ways to edit the video and make it lively for the students. With the right amount of images and well developed lesson plan we can make the video lesson very attractive and at the same time fun to watch.

After we completed making the video, we were asked to upload it in our facebook page which was created personally for our class.

This facebook group was personally made for our class so that we can upload the video lesson that we made and upload it here. I personally found it very helpful as we could view our friends lesson plan. As we use social media for connecting with our friends and are mostly online using facebook, so having a facebook group as a learning platform is a wonderful idea. We can not only enjoy watching the video in facebook but also learn from it.

After uploading the video we were asked to comment in each of the video uploaded by our friends. It was another helpful idea to improve ourselves. As we were able to point out and give feedback on the videos of our friends and also we got lots of feedback so that we can improve our own video.

Happy reading.

Co-construction

Reflection on co-construction

A co-construction tool is also known as collaborative tool, where it emphasis on collaboration and partnership working. After learning co-construction tool it helped me to expand my knowledge and skills. The idea of co-construction or collaboration was inspired by Vygotsky’s social development. Vygotsky focused on the connections between people and the socio-cultural context in which they act and interact in shared experiences.

Some of the co-constructive applications tools are Google docs, electronic whiteboard, blogs and discussion forum. The purpose of learning co-constructive tools was to enhance collaborative learning environment, to be active learner, able to identify and solve problem. Moreover it helps to communicate and convey the messages. After discussing co-construction, I am able to build strong relationship with my friends and have effective communication and learning. In addition, I also know the importance of implementing co-construction ideas in the classroom and developing creative partnership within classroom and in the society as well. I can also apply the idea of co-constructive tools to work cooperatively and construct a shared understanding of new knowledge with my friends.

We also create a Google docs in which we were to plan the ICT integrated lesson plan. In this, the idea of co-construction was implemented where we have to be cooperative with our friends while planning a lesson. While planning and writing the lesson plan, we have to cooperative and understand each other so that the idea of collaboration was used properly. In general the idea of planning a lesson on Google docs was interesting and worth learning at the same time. In the future, I can use those ideas and help students’ to expand their knowledge.

 

ICT as construvtive tool

Constructive tool is a general purpose tool that can be used to manipulate information, construct their own knowledge or visualize students understanding. Construction tools such as Microsoft Word or Powerpoint has a strong impact in the educational environment and is widely used in most organizations in the form of memos, reports, letters, presentations, record routine information, giving businesses. In learning a second language , Microsoft Word manage to help students to make correct sentences and texts as well as modern word processors include spell checking and dictionaries and grammar checkers. Therefore, teachers can use the software to promote writing in the curriculum. PowerPoint is a presentation graphics program packaged as part of Microsoft Office for Windows. PowerPoint presentation is a very advantageous in the context of increase creativity among students. While word processing program is the most common computer applications used, as a spreadsheet like Excel is just as important in teaching and learning of English. Students will be exposed to learning design and statistical data using the Excel program that can be automated through the formula.

ICT as a constructive tool, helps the learner to build their own knowledge based on the information that they have gathered through various sources. ICT helps to show case and bring out the information that the child have in their mind in the form PowerPoint presentation, work sheet, graphs, images and so on. Constructive tool helps the learner to build and construct their knowledge on what they are learning. It is a helpful tool which helps us to construct more knowledge by using different constructive tool. It helps the students to learn more using different tools present, here is the evidence on how ICT as a constructive tool is helpful to students.

This is an example of what we did under this topic. We were asked to make a simulation using PowerPoint presentation. While making the simulation I understood many things that I previously did not know about ppt. It was amazing how in a single slide we can make an advertisement to attract people. I even went through some of my friends simulations and I was awestruck to how much beautifully they have made their simulation using just one slide with background music. We can use such tool in the class in future to enhance knowledge and creativity of the students. It will be a wonderful activity as students will enjoy as well as learn in the process of doing the activity.

ICT as a communicative tool and communication

In order to understand more on the ICT integrated classroom, let us first look at how internet works.

1. ICT as a communicative tool

What is a communicative tool?

• They are tool which helps in the easy communication between teacher and students.
• Ex: mail, video conference, skype, messenger, wechat and so on

 There are a number of ICT communicative tool that we can use in our daily life.
These communicative tools are divided into two types:

1. synchronous, it is a tool where everybody works at the same time

• video conference, chat room and so on  

1. asynchronous, it is a tool where we can work in different times

• wechat, mail and so on.

Using this communicative tool in the classroom, we can make learning more knowledgeable and fun for everyone. 

However, in order to use such tools in the classroom fruitfully it is important for the teachers to have knowledge about on how to use them.

2. Communication skills for teachers

It is very important for teachers to have a good communication skills. Not only in the classroom but also outside to enhance their academic performance and carrier.

People who wants to join the teacher profession should have a good communication skills, as a stepping stone to their carrier path. Without a good communication skills, it may be difficult to make others understand what we are trying to say.

Even in the class, when we communicate with students, if we are not able to express and convey the message the students may not understand. Which will hamper their studies. 

Not only that, but also if we are not able to communicate properly with the parents, we may be questioned on our ability to teach in the class.

Good communication skills are important not only for these purpose but also to develop our carrier or to negotiate with others. Without a good communication skills, it will be difficult to convince others and make them understand what we are trying to explain.

Hence, it is very important for teachers to have good communication skills, to success both in the class and carrier level.

Under this topic we were asked to maintain a blog and you are currently reading the very blog which we were asked to create by our sir. Maintaining blog is indeed a knowledgeable work which included lots of reading and understanding how to use it. This is not the first time that I have created a blog but it is the first time that I am maintaining it so far. There were many features that I learned while using blog to write my reflections. However, I still have many to learn from it. We were provided with videos on hoe to create blog which was a great help for us. As blogging can develop our learning, it is a very useful tool that we can use in the schools with our students. Now most of the students being a digital native, there may not be much problem for them to create and maintain blog for the class.  Here is an example to this blog.

Hitler PPT

This is a ppt which we were asked to make while learning ICT as a informative tool. We had a wonderful journey while doing this assignment. Basically we were arguing whether Hitler was a gay or not. I went with the point that Hitler was not a gay. It was not the point of whether we were right or not but was the point of how we gather information and whether those sources were valid and reliable or not. While doing this assignment we also found that there can be many sources that have their own point of view on the topic. However, it is in our hand to decide which source to use looking at their validity and authenticity.  After learning about ICT as an informative tool there were many new learning that occurred to me. Internet can give us many information on what ever we are looking for but we should be critical enough to understand and analyze a right place to grab the information from.

In future, when we are teaching such things to young children, I will make sure that I provide them with some valid sources as primary students may face difficulties to understand with is good source and with is not. It can save their times as well as give them the right platform to collect the information from. While letting the students to search through the internet we must be careful that they are doing their job and not wasting their time by looking at various things given in the internet. It was good to learn this topic as I could use more of critical and analytical thinking skills.