School Name: Evergreen Secondary School
Class: 1 Respect (Secondary 1)
Class Profile: Express stream. A very lively and enthusiastic class. Most of the students in the class are very vocal and will voice out their views and opinions without prompt. However, this can pose as a problem when trying to get the students to focus on their assignments. Nonetheless, on the whole, the students are quick to learn and eager to please.
ICT tools used in the lesson: Video.
How ICT is used for teaching and learning in the lesson: The subject at hand was Literature. It was the students' second introductory lesson into poetry. The theme for that week was 'The Environment' and the goal was to get students in touch with their emotions. As a trigger activity, the teacher decided to use a music video of Michael Jackson's Earth Song to get the students riled up while drawing their attention to the lyrics and, in particular, the message behind the song and the emotional content of the words. Through the video, the students were able to literally visualize the words and hence, relate to the song better. It also demonstrated how studying poetry can be fun, exciting and meaningful, all at the same time. All this was accompanied by an in-class assignment consisting of a few short-answer questions related to the song. The teacher then round up the lesson by pointing out to them how the lyrics of some popular songs can be seen as poetry in their own right and that the next time they listen to a song, they should pay more attention to its meaning. She also highlighted to them how many musicians are like poets in their own right and that music is just one of the many different means one can use to express poetry and imbue it with emotion.
How teachers in the school feel about the use of ICT for teaching and learning: They feel that ICT can help to make their lessons more interesting but only up to a certain extent. At times, students can get too excited by the visuals and not pay attention the content of the lesson. Thus, it is important to note that when using ICT, teachers need to be able to strike a balance between content and character. Lessons should be memorable but not for the wrong reasons.
The use of ICT can also be a hindrance to the lesson in the event where the facilities in the class room are not in working order. It is thus important for teachers to come up with a backup plan for lessons involving ICT and not become too overly reliant on them.
Additionally, there is a fear that students now-a-days are becoming too over reliant on ICT to the point where they get bored and restless easily where ICT is not used. This is especially pertinent to Language and Humanities where written assignments are the norm. With the current generation growing up in an age that is used to short bursts of information through mediums such as Twitter and Facebook, there is an increasing worry among teachers that this will affect the students ability or willingness to elaborate their answers.
Ultimately, the use of ICT is seen as a boon and a bane to many teachers. Most see it as a boon for teaching but a bane for learning. While it can help to enhance and broaden the education of students, it cannot be relied upon entirely to impart certain essential skills. In addition, there is a fear of becoming overly reliant on their usage in classrooms. For the older generation teachers in particular, many of them still feel very skeptical about using ICT in their lessons and prefer to minimize their usage. Some are also afraid that students might become 'dumbed down' overtime in terms of their creativity and use of imagination in the classroom due to overexposure to ICT. Ensuring that students stay to motivated and hands-on in their assignments outside the classroom remains a challenge for most teachers and many still feel that the use ICT has done little to alleviate the burden of this important aspect of teaching and school-life for the students.
Hi Judy! I think the use of MJ's video is particularly apt here, given the theme covered and the fact that the it was the students' first few introductory lessons on poetry. She made it such that the idea of poetry itself became more accessible and familiar. You mentioned the fear that students may come to expect the use of ICT in class over time, and become restless when such tools are not used. I think this is a very valid point. I observed this for myself in my ESE experience. As i was covering the theme of technology for my class, i showed them some videos in the first few lessons, and they responded quite positively. A few days later, when i moved on to skills-based lessons, my students asked if there were any videos and appeared quite disappointed when they were told no. That episode still nags at me. I feel that the students already have very short attention-span, which i suspect exposure to technology and multimedia has a lot to do with it, and that i am contributing to this when i use videos in the classroom. At the same time, I also see that the use of videos does engage the students and pique their interest to a certain extent. So i guess i am on the camp that sees it as a boon and a bane, but perhaps this module may change my mind, or at least help me think about how to minimize the potentially undesirable consequences of using ICT.
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ReplyDeleteI totally agree that ICT is both a boon and bane. Like your teacher, I used music and songs to teach the students about poetry. I used youtube to play the music video of the song and specifically told them to listen out for the lyrics. But they end up being engross with the visuals. For example, I played "Imagine" by John Lennon, and they were very disturbed by his tinted glasses and would not stop harping on the fact throughout the whole lesson. It was rather irritating to me, but the students found it amusing.
I also agree that the students are restless without ICT. When I come to class without my laptop, they will whine and request to watch videos. I feel that the use of ICT to them equates to being entertained and "chillax-ing", and might forget that they should be learning.
Wow, great insight into ICT as a double-edged sword. I think what you've mentioned about how ICT can help or hinder teaching and learning is really happening across schools today.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that "Thus, it is important to note that when using ICT, teachers need to be able to strike a balance between content and character." Senior teachers have had the experience and challenge of teaching without ICT tools (in earlier days) and with ICT tools (today). They can compare and see how effective some learning strategies are and choose. But as BTs, we are trained right now to incorporate ICT into our teaching strategy. As BTs, how can we gauge whether our lesson involving ICT has been effective? What are some methods of checking to see that students learn as much or more with ICT than without? Can we have effective lessons without ICT and still engage students? I'm very keen to know if this still works, especially with what everyone else is pointing out - students get bored/disengaged/disappointed without ICT use during lessons.