Final week!

The final week is the presentation of Assignment 3: The Development of Instructional Materials.

Our group’s topic is The Moon Phase and we have chosen blog as the platform of learning.

here are the other groups, presenting their project:

Group 1 - Rafidah and friends


Their project is on Global Warming with Wikis as their platform.

Group 2 - Umar Fikri's and Co


This group's final project is on the Solar System and they are also using Wikis as their platform.

Group 3 - Chrispin's Clan



This group went for blog as their platform for teaching. Their topic is Endangered Species.

Group 4 - Syafiq's Nerd Herd (my group!)


Our group also went for the blogging platform with "The Moon Phase" as our topic.

After presenting and submitting our final project, we were given some questions to reflect on:

1) What is your opinion about the use of the platform in science class?

In my opinion, using blogging as the platform for the final project is very good indeed. This is because,integrating blog in the teaching of science is a great way to combine both the pedagogy and technology in education, and with the likes of our topic which requires the pupils to read and read to sought for information, blogging could be a better replacement. By reading the blog, the teacher could monitors what the pupils are reading, this helps to avoid misconception that usually occurs when they are attaining the knowledge without any supervision. Through the blog, teachers could also post extra exercises for the pupils to help them further improved on the knowledge gained previously.

From my experience in the developing the blog, i found that it is a very flexible tools to be integrated into science teaching. This is because it can support various teaching platform such as chat room and video podcasting. Furthermore, the blog can be updated, thus keeping all the resources up to date. Thus, there would be no shortage of information that teachers and students can use to explore this classroom topic.

2)How did the before and after the introduction to ADDIE model help in developing the instructional material?

The previous assignment, we picked IM as our teaching platform and the planning was not up to the standards that the Prof sought for. Everything was a complete chaos although we managed to complete the assignment. But with the introduction of the ADDIE model for assignment 3, planning for the assignment could not have been any easier. In the end, we found that our product for Assignment 3 is way better that our previous assignment.

3) Would you choose this platform? If yes, how would you use it?

Of course, in some stage of my teaching career, I would use this platform as a teaching tool, although there are many skeptics on the possibility and practicality due to the lack of computers facility and internet connections especially in rural Malaysian schools. However, I believe that this tool will catch on with our education system.

And that's about it for this semester. Through out the whole course, I am able to gain invaluable knowledge on the implementation of technology into science education.

I'm sure that I'm going to implement the knowledge gain in this course when I started teaching in the near future.

tq Prof. Rohaida..

Week 12

Last week freedom given to us was very beneficial to me and my group. We had use the three hours given to find resources from the internet that could be useful in the our blog. We also had chosen the suitable layout for the blog and discussed what is suitable to be put into the blog.

The report on our project is also finalized within this week, and all of us had a hand into finalizing it. After all, it is a group work.

The last thing is to present our project next week, and everybody had been given the task to present their part on the project.

Week 11

This week, we are given the freedom to work on our project, professor have already had a look at our concept map and had given a green light for us to proceed with the project.

For this assignment, my group had discussed that blogging will be the platform for our medium of transferring knowledge.

My group had undergo some brainstorming session, and the storyboard for the project is already completed.

this is the printscreen of our blog:



There are some modification needed for this blog before it is done..but overall, my group had done a great job!

Well Done guys! and Girls!

Week 10

For this week, we were introduced to the ADDIE Model.
The Model consist of 5 phases:

Analysis

* During analysis, the designer identifies the learning problem, the goals and objectives, the audience’s needs, existing knowledge, and any other relevant characteristics. Analysis also considers the learning environment, any constraints, the delivery options, and the time line for the project.

Design phase

* This is the phase where storyboard is designed for the entire website.

Development

* The actual creation (production) of the content and learning materials based on the Design phase.

Implementation

* This phase is the phase where the tool is tested. Thus, in this phase the effectiveness of the tool will be evaluated and the weaknesses and strengths are discovered

Evaluation

* This is the phase where feedback is gained for further improvements and modification.

With the ADDIE Model given to us as a guidance, me and my group were to come up with a topic and a platform for our last assignment.
"The Moon Phase" has been chosen because it is the most difficult topic though in school and there are many misconception concerning the moon phase and this project will help to correct it.


this is the concept map that my group has come up with. This project will continue on as the week progresses.

Week 9

This week, we need to submit our assignment 2, and present it. The project is based on Web 2.0 tools on science teaching and my group decided to use Instant Messaging(IM). There are many type of IM's,like skype and windows live messenger, but for this project, we had chosen Yahoo Messenger(YM) as it is a very popular platform for chatting and media sharing among Malaysians.



Through YM, we could get the pupils into discussing on the topic thought in class and they are able to ask the teacher about anything on the topic.



Although YM enables us to share the medias such as videos or paperwork, Prof. Rohaida thought the media sharing on this particular platform is not clear enough, so we had to think of some other platform for the next project, or find a way to improve on it.

Tq for the opinion Prof.

Week 8

This week, we were introduced to software evaluation rubrics researched and Developed by Kristin Miller and Jacqueline Bach, SAS inSchool Interns.

The rubrics evaluates the software and websites based on several aspects such as the instructional contents, curriculum connections, graphics and multimedia, lay-outs, technical aspects, adaptability and accessibility, learner engagement and interactivity, teacher and learner support material, assessment, age/grade level, and lastly flexibility.

We, teachers nowadays are showered with teaching aids from different sources. But we need to make sure that the sources comes from a reliable sources with high validity, not ones that is not available the next day when you're trying to find the a teaching aids from the same source. We also needs to make sure that the source gained from the internet meets certain aspect of the curriculum. This is because the information exists in net can be facts, opinions, stories, interpretations, statistics and it can also be fake. This is why need to evaluate the sites before proceeding it and incorporates it into our lesson.

Week 7

WEB 2.0 TOOLS

This week, we were introduced to web 2.0 tools. We are actually very familiar with all the tools as we have been using it for the past few years connecting with long lost friends, or downloading song or movies illegally from a specific source on the internet, hahahaha.

But today, we are utilizing the tools for education.
for those who are still not clear what are the web tools 2.0, here are some examples:
1)Blog
2)Social Networking Sites [Facebook/Friendster]
3)Wikis
4)Media Sharing [Youtube/MediaFire]


Web 2.0 is about online interactivity and linking people through web technologies.In a sense Web 2.0 is a buzzword used to signify new and developing Web technologies. Examples of well-known Web 2.0 sites include Google Maps, Flickr, YouTube, Delicious, Digg, and Technoratti.In addition to the widely recognized sites, there are also many thousands of websites that take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies.

An example of some these technologies that are seen as contributing to Web 2.0 include web blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, and other forms of publishing.The concept of Web 2.0 is a move away from static websites to a more interactive and dynamic World Wide Web.

Week 6

This week's lesson, prof took us to the science lab on the 1st floor. It is a Lab that it MicroComputer Based. the lesson is a continuity from last week class, where we were introduced to MBL strategy, and this week, we are give the chance to do some hands-on activity using probes to experience MBL's learning itself. My group agreed on testing the "light Sensor" by conducting a simple experiment. The sensor can measure the "illuminance" (The density of light indicated on an area)in units of "lux". my group tried to measure the illuminance of the florescent light in the lab, and the light from a phone camera. The data are attained in the computer which the probe attached to.

There are other probes that our group tested on, they are: temperature sensor, motion sensor, force sensor, magnetic field sensor, barometer sensor, pH sensor and heart rate sensor.

When we are done experimenting with all the probes, we discussed on the use of MBL's in teaching science. Our group thought that the use of MBL is suitable to be carried out in the primary classroom because it is safer, especially when coming to an experiment that requires the mixing of dangerous substances like acids. It also makes things a lot more easier for the teacher as they don't have to look over their shoulder should anything bad to occurs when using real dangerous substances. The probes are also easy for the pupils to use, and they are able to gain the results from the experiment easily. The MBL's also helps the teacher in teaching as in the same way when experimenting by using the traditional methods.

However, I think that the use of MBL is more suitable to a higher level students in the primary school, or even better, the secondary school students as it is more practical for them to use the probes in the experiment. The probes would also cost tens and thousand of ringgit should it to be provided to all the school all over Malaysia.

Should it be provided to rural schools, I think the students there might even have a bigger problem to use it, so, the implementation is very hard.
Besides that, teacher who are involved in the teaching of science using MBL, they need to be well trained, should they encounters any problem during the use MBL in their teaching. Moreover, it's going to take time for the teacher to explain to the pupils on how to use the probes before each lesson and time is lost just for the explaining of the use and answering pupils question should they have a problem using these probes.

The experience of using MBL was very enrinching as I gain valuable experience and these probes might never get through the school system in Malaysia.

Week 5 - The Strategies

Ok, today's lesson is on the 6 strategies that could be used to in the teaching of science. the 6's are:

1) MBL-computer-based laboratory - utilizes a computer, a data collection interface, electronic probes, and graphing software, allowing students to collect, graph, and analyze data in real-time. This real-time atmosphere allows students to attend to and process important details in each experiment.

2) Drill and Practice - is a structured, repetitive review of previously learned concepts to a predetermined level of mastery.

3) Tutorials - Interactive class taught by a tutor to students at university or college, individually or in small groups; Of or pertaining to a tutor; belonging to, or exercised by, a tutor

4) Simulations - The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system.

5) Problem-solving - is a mental process and is part of the larger problem process that includes problem finding and problem shaping.

6) Educational Games - are games that have been specifically designed to teach people about a certain subject, expand concepts, reinforce development, understand an historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they play.

Teaching is not merely asking the pupils to open their text book and do the exercises in them. Where's the fun in that??

As a future teacher, I intend to make my classroom learning as fun as possible without losing the fundamentals of a basic classroom orders and the losing the respects from the pupils.

Who says schools no fun?

Week 3

Today is the third class of this semester, and the topic for today is "Learning Theories". There are three learning theories and they are:
1 Behaviorism
2) Cognitivism
3) Constructivism

These three "school of thought" had bee taught to us in the previous semester in our child psychology class at the teaching college.

The three theories basically tells about one's way of learning or to be more specific, children. These children in their early years of childhood doesn't just merely pick up a book and started learning about the world, and these research proves that each and every one of us during our childhood has a different way of learning.



The three school of thought are is taught again tin this semester to help us be a good science teacher as it helps us to identify the different learning styles of our pupils, thus enabling us to prepare different teaching aids or method to ensures that our pupils will be able to gain the knowledge that we are disseminating to them.

Later on, we were to discuss about the suitable food that astronauts can bring to space, and give reasons why their are suitable, scientifically and logically. There were some funny answers by my classmates. Some even suggest that astronauts can bring a Ferrero Rocher (a chocolate ball)!

Prof. did this activity not just simply for fun, but the hidden message in the discussion is that we, also need to think why each food is suitable or not, taking in count that it is zero-gravity out there in space. The discussion also indirectly kicks the constructivist theory in, and with that thought makes me think that does this teaching method suits my future pupils?

Our role is to impart some knowledge that will help them to think appropriately before they can construct science concepts/knowledge regarding the subject matter.

so, that is it..

until next time!

week 2 = Double the fun!

This week, we were introduces to "Brief History of the use of Technology".

here's the URL of the slideshow on the topic of todays lesson

The lecture given by Dr.Rohaida cleared the air on the terminology of computers and technologies. Here are some example:



FTP - File Transfer Protocol; transfers file from computers to webservers; need FTP program

Browser cookie - packet of information sent by a server to a World Wide Web browser and then sent back by the browser, used for user authentication, user tracking, and maintaining user-specific information

RSS - a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works-such as blog entries

I never knew what were this thing means until now!

After the lecture, we were assigned in groups and to come up with a presentation on Artifical Intelligence and Virtual reality.

My group prepared a presentation on Virtual Reality. This technology had not been implemented thoroughly throughout the whole education system all over the world. Even here in Malaysia it's still not being considered to be implemented. this is probably due to the high cost of it to be implemented. But its way cool to be able to use it in education. I do hope for it to be implemented someday.

That's it!

till next time,

chill!

science + technologies = cool!

first class.. after some confusion were sorted out, class were as usual. our lecturer Dr. Rohaida briefed us on the overall layout of this course for the semester: topics to be discussed and the assignments that is to be done.

More or less, this semester science subject will not be focusing on the theory of relativity or explosion caused by mixing two different chemical substances, but more on the technological side of science.

The first lecture given by Dr.Rohaida is on the integration of technology in science. Science and technology have been walking side by side for a long time, thus can't be parted. After the lecture, it is clear that the integration of technology in teaching science is important as it can motivates the pupils to learn.

We were then assigned in groups and given each an early technology tools in education and then present it in the form of powerpoint presentation to the class.

OHP, Visualizer, Television, and the video players were the earlier technology used in education. For instance, the TV education is a method use to integrate technology in education as the pupils could enhance their understanding of certain topics that had been taught in the classroom by switching on the television.

Overall, science is going to get a lot more fun when teachers are equipped with the right technological skills!

Until next time, see ya!

Blogging for science!

As with the title of this post,
it's confirmed!

i'm going to be blogging for science subject as well!

so, 2 blogs and a googlesite in 1 semester..not bad for a newbies in this blogging arena eh?

ahahaha..

so, this blog will be filled with post of my lesson from this semester science class.
no worries, i won't force anyone to read all of the content!

do follow this blog of mine!

keep chillin'!

out~