Shopping online for clothes, sometimes certain chemistry questions, writing down my height does get me irritated and anxious simply because the units of measurements are not the ones I'm usually familiar with. I end up googling "convert cm to inches" etc and each time randomly clicked on some site I vaguely remember using before.
Thinking in the light of enhancing learning, this metric conversion, besides serving the abovementioned purpose - day to day purchases and routines - it has the added advantage of allowing students to clear their doubts about units and its conversion. Units and its conversion such as length and weight would be taught in primary school and sometimes, proceeding on to secondary school, students do once in awhile get confused about which way to proceed, especially when it is in the area and volume dimension e.g. from centimetre square to metre square
With this widget attached to the teacher's blog, they are free to clear their doubts without any embarrassment from teachers or fellow classmates and can 'click click' however they want and play with the different units while seeing the quick change in the decimal places.
They can possibly work out on their own mathematically to derive the conversion (in the area and volume dimension) with the answers from the widget to serve as a form of checking, either by working backwards or forward.
source of widget: blogger :)
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
usefulness of blog for enhancing learning? :)
Affordances
Outside of a classroom setting, this virtual space allows one to create and voice out one's opinion, argubly without constraints such as in the absence of classmates and teacher's physical presence which might poise alittle overbearing if one is shy or afraid to have someone rebut one's opinion at once.
In the perspective of a student, the blog provides the sense of ownership that allows for greater responsibility to share relevantly about the topic set out by teacher, as it can be viewed by the rest such as classmates or even netizens that stumble upon the blog.
Constraints
In the perspective of a teacher, the blog can be a platform where learning materials such as articles, documentary (in the form of a video clip) or interactive educational software could be posted up for students to access in real time. However, there might be too much activities or content uploaded on the home page of the blog that might be overbearing for students to decide or participate in. Ultimately, whether students do participate in the blog's content is still questionable thus the effectiveness of blog for engaged learning is hard to decide.
Outside of a classroom setting, this virtual space allows one to create and voice out one's opinion, argubly without constraints such as in the absence of classmates and teacher's physical presence which might poise alittle overbearing if one is shy or afraid to have someone rebut one's opinion at once.
In the perspective of a student, the blog provides the sense of ownership that allows for greater responsibility to share relevantly about the topic set out by teacher, as it can be viewed by the rest such as classmates or even netizens that stumble upon the blog.
Constraints
In the perspective of a teacher, the blog can be a platform where learning materials such as articles, documentary (in the form of a video clip) or interactive educational software could be posted up for students to access in real time. However, there might be too much activities or content uploaded on the home page of the blog that might be overbearing for students to decide or participate in. Ultimately, whether students do participate in the blog's content is still questionable thus the effectiveness of blog for engaged learning is hard to decide.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
with or without agent?
Taking the stand of a student learning the topic on multimedia design, I did find the foreign voice (version 2) slightly annoying and difficult to catch at times. I would end up likely frustrated after trying to understand, and possibly switch off. Yet, the animation of the character could be entertaining at best.
The novelty of the Microsoft Agent did wear off pretty quickly with the monotonous voice, like it was rambling away; possibly pitch and tone of voice could be twigged for some difference between the voice of the two characters, Peedy and Genie to better follow through their conversation.
The Microsoft Agent could possibly be the choice for INTRODUCING a new topic with all its rigorous content. Since it has that intention of introducing, its dialogue should be kept interesting, short and memorable. It is to effect some curiosity or spark some interest in the student's mind. Thereafter, version 1 with its content, could likely be elaborated at a manageable pace by the teacher, which would be a good switch from the animation.
So a combination, version 2 followed by version 1 elaboration would possibly be synergistic in the deliverance of content.
The novelty of the Microsoft Agent did wear off pretty quickly with the monotonous voice, like it was rambling away; possibly pitch and tone of voice could be twigged for some difference between the voice of the two characters, Peedy and Genie to better follow through their conversation.
The Microsoft Agent could possibly be the choice for INTRODUCING a new topic with all its rigorous content. Since it has that intention of introducing, its dialogue should be kept interesting, short and memorable. It is to effect some curiosity or spark some interest in the student's mind. Thereafter, version 1 with its content, could likely be elaborated at a manageable pace by the teacher, which would be a good switch from the animation.
So a combination, version 2 followed by version 1 elaboration would possibly be synergistic in the deliverance of content.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Pedagogical Approaches
For the 8 pedagogical approaches introduced, all of it has the underlying intention to encourage some sort of articulation from the student about his/her thoughts on the matter at hand. This is a refreshing change from the usual lesson where the teacher goes on and on about new content and at best, hoping the student is interested and motivated in learning it.
Self-motivated learning is unlikely the situation for some students at the start of a new topic, and I see that the 8 pedagogical approaches has its rational in creating awareness to the topic through the students finding solutions to the problem (related to lesson content) and also seeing its basis in real life application. The fundamental hope is that these approaches initiates the student to begin thinking on his/her own accord before any is taught on it.
Self-motivated learning is unlikely the situation for some students at the start of a new topic, and I see that the 8 pedagogical approaches has its rational in creating awareness to the topic through the students finding solutions to the problem (related to lesson content) and also seeing its basis in real life application. The fundamental hope is that these approaches initiates the student to begin thinking on his/her own accord before any is taught on it.
Friday, February 6, 2009
what is engaged teaching/learning?
Learning and teaching is a simultaneous process that is ongoing for both teacher and student, individually or as a class. Engaged learning/teaching would then likely be the spontaneous initiation (of learning/teaching) from both parties, preferably mutual.
Contradictory to the definition of spontaneous, it is realistic to be aware that at times, the initiation is an unwilling effort by either the teacher or the student, likely due to internal or external factors. Laughing is contagious, thus good energy is infectious and with regards to engaged learning/teaching, I would say it's a good workout of both mind and soul for the student and teacher throughout the lesson.
Contradictory to the definition of spontaneous, it is realistic to be aware that at times, the initiation is an unwilling effort by either the teacher or the student, likely due to internal or external factors. Laughing is contagious, thus good energy is infectious and with regards to engaged learning/teaching, I would say it's a good workout of both mind and soul for the student and teacher throughout the lesson.
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