Supporting Teaching by

Creating Presentations

One of the popular technologies that teachers tend to use most in classroom is creating presentation through the famous program PowerPoint. But what are the characteristics of an effective presentation? As we have taken in our technology class, that the presentation should be in a big size so that all the students can see it especially those who sit at the back. So it can be seen from 2 meters at least. It also should be simple; we shouldn't write too much detail that may distract students. We can just write the keywords. Another point is that it should be clear and use sanserif fonts i.e. we should use normal or bold fonts but not Italic. In addition, I have learned that it should be consistent which means that we use different color, for example to draw students 'attention but not to distract them. The last characteristic is that it should be progressive. However, before the teacher creates the presentation, he\she has to plan what to include first.

Actually, we have used this program a lot from school days until now in university. Here is an example of a PowerPoint that I have created.

Nowadays a new program has appeared to compete and say goodbye to Power Point. It is called Prezi. But what is special about this program? Can teachers use it? Does it have any disadvantages?

Prezi "employs a common tool palette, allowing users to pan and zoom, and to size, rotate, or edit an object."(Wikipedia) So what's special about this program is zooming in and out. As if it drags you inside the slide which is different from the Power Point. It is attractive to students as well as me. Also, you can design all your work in one slide only, unlike Power Point. Because in Prezi you can make things very small, you may put a picture or a video inside a letter of a word. So when you present, you just click inside the letter and the picture will appear. Overall, Prezi makes you more creative.

However, the big problem with this program is that there should be an internet connection. I say "big" because I'm thinking about the future if I want to use it and there is no internet at school. Even if there is internet connection at school, it will not be available in each class, so I can only use it where is internet. If we compare it to Power Point, the Power Point doesn't need an internet connection. So we can present in any place, even in class, if we take the proxima with us. Another disadvantage that I have read about Prezi is that it can cause motion sickness. However, I don't agree with this because it's the designers who control motions movement. They can the movement of slide simple!

Actually I like this program a lot and it will attract students more for they see a different way of presenting information rather than the Power Point. I was ecstatic when I've known that we are going to learn about such a wonderful program in this course because I have seen some of the students using it before but I didn't know how to use it. So a lot of thanks are due to the doctor because he told us about it. It's easy to design it, but I faced a problem in editing the path. I think this is the only problem. Overall, it's an interesting program.

Here are two of Prezi presentations that I have designed.1  2

Overall, the teacher should take in mind whenever he\she uses any kind of technology, he\she has to make plan B because sometimes for one reason (e.g. there is no electricity, something broken) or another it might not work. Instead of trying many times to fix it, he\she better starts to teach using the normal method.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prezi

http://shaneneilwalsh.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/how-to-get-started-with-prezi-advantages-and-disadvantages/

Mobile Learning

 

I'm going to discuss the definition of mobile learning, its advantages and disadvantages and whether we can use it at schools.

 

We have taken the definition of ML in our technology class and it's as follow:

 

“learning that happens across locations, or that takes advantage of learning opportunities offered by portable technologies” (Chuang, 2009, p. 51).

What I have understood from the definition is that ML is the learning that we can get through any device of technology that we can take with us whenever and wherever we want. For example, we can learn from our smart phones because we can download different educational program. For instance, we can download electronic dictionaries, grammatical rules, English idioms, stories and other things. Even if we can't download them, we can access internet and use them! So this is learning. Another device that we can learn from and we can take with us is laptop. Through laptops we can access internet, there should be connection of course, and search for what we want. Without internet connection, we can use different programs for our study. For example, we can use Microsoft Word to write our assignments or Power Point to design our presentation. We can do so any where even in the car or bus.

Examples of mobile devices

 

So if we consider that we our learning is this kind of learning, what are the advantages?

# It's student-centered which means that students are taking responsibilities for their learning and the teacher is facilitator. So they change from being passive to active.

# It enhances students' motivation. Students feel more motivated whenever they use technology. They find it enjoyable.

# It is at anytime and anywhere. We have done this in our technology course through Whatsapp. We discussed an educational topic and we were in different places (anywhere) and there wasn't a specific time to chat, at anytime.

# less expensive. I disagree with this if the country is the one that provides the devices. How many students do we have?! Not only that, if the device is broken or doesn't work, who will pay for that?! If it's the country, then it's better to learn in the normal way, through books. However, If students have to bring their devices, then we have to think about poor students who don't have enough money to buy, so this will be a challenge for them.

The following short video shows how Mobile Learning is useful. There are other videos about Mobile learning on Youtube

What are the disadvantages?

# Students may use technology to cheat in exams. For example, the exam is through mobile phones, students may send the answers to one another through Whatsapp. Also, students may cheat if the test is online. I saw those who cheated last year in one of the courses. The course was on moodle and we have everything there. On the day of the exam which is also on the moodle, I saw many students open the materials and looked for the answers from there. The instructor made a mistake that he forgot to remove the materials of the course from the moodle since he trusted his students.

# It can distract students. Sometimes the teacher asks students to do a certain task but they surf on the internet, doing something else. They don't only distract themselves but also the students sitting beside or behind them if they are using computers. Actually, this happened this semester in our technology class. Some of the students surf the internet while the instructor was explaining when he asked us to do a group discussion.

# If students' learning is through technology only, we will hinder their thinking, creativity or cognitive skills in general, how is that? Supposedly, I'm teaching them reading; they will use online dictionaries to find the new words instead of trying to guess the meaning from context. They choose the fastest way.

Can we use Mobile learning at schools?

Yes, we can but the government should reconstruct schools in a way that facilitates the use of technology. Also, teachers and students should be trained to use the technology.

If I think about my future, I don't think that I'm going to use this learning. Personally, I prefer the normal way of teaching. I may integrate technology within my teaching but I will not totally rely on technology. However, if the system will be changed in all the schools of Sultanate, I would use it but I will first find programs that enable me to know the students who are off task or who are cheating. I would also encourage students to develop their cognitive skills, not to hinder them.

I have learned in our technology class that there are 5 ways in which mobiles are used in education. They are the following:

 

1. Audience Response Systems

2. Camera: Stills/Videos

3. Voice Recorders: Podcasts, etc.

4. Applications

5. Research via the internet (Google, Wiki’s, blogs

 

 

IWB (Interactive Whiteboard) in the
Classroom Pedagogy

An online dictionary defines interactive whiteboard (IWB) as " a large touch-sensitive board connected to a computer and a digital projector, used for teaching in the classroom". So, it works with touch that can be through ones' finger, a special pen or with a remote.

I think that ActiveInspire (the program that should be available when using IWB) is an interesting program. It motivates students to participate in class more since it's attractive. It's different from power point because for example students can go out and touch the board to answer which I think interest most students. In general, students like to use technology since we are in the digital age. So in this essay, I will discuss the advantages of IWB, what I've learned from ActiveInspire program, its disadvantages and whether I will use it in my future.

What are the advantages of the IWB?

# As mentioned above, Interactive white board motivates students in learning in general and participation in particular. I think that students will eagerly prepare for the coming lesson in order to answer on the IWB.

#It's attractive for students. For instance, if students didn't understand something, the teacher can immediately clarify it by drawing that thing on the IWB and paints it using different colors, unlike the white board where the teacher can't use many colors.

# It makes" it easy for teachers to enhance presentation content by easily integrating a wide range of material into a lesson, such as a picture from the internet, a graph from a spreadsheet or text from a Microsoft Word file", Techlearn, (n.d).

# Instead of having more than one device in the class, we can just the IWB that replaces the board, DVD player and OHP.

# "When used for interactive testing of understanding for the entire class, they can rapidly provide learner feedback", Techlearn, (n.d). For example, by using containers, if the answer is wrong, it goes back but if it's right it sticks in the correct place. So the students know directly if their answers are correct or wrong.

 

What I have learned in my technology class:

In Technology classes, I've learned a lot from this program. I've learned how to match questions with the correct answers, how we can make the answer return to its place if it's wrong and how to use sounds if the answer is right or wrong. Moreover, I like using magic ink because it's interesting.  I think showing the answer by magic ink will stay in students' minds for a long time because it's a new way and they will be curious to see the whole answer. In other words, when the teacher starts to use the magic ink, they will pay more attention to him\her to see the hidden answer. In addition, there are other wonderful tools that teacher can use in the lesson such as dice roller, to choose the number of student or even group that will answer a certain question, timing, spot light to discover the countries they are going to learn in that lesson, for example.

Here is our ActiveInspire Flipchart that we have designed.

However, the problem with such program is that not all of our schools in Oman have interactive white board, so we can't use it. Also, when I've tried this program, I face some difficulties. For example, it was hard for me to edit the text in the way I wish, so when I want it to be in the left, it goes the opposite! Also, if there is the tool "format painter", it will be easier because I spent a long time to change the format for each word to be exactly the same! Not only that, when we were designing our flipchart, we faced a problem with using containers. Some words, for instance, didn't stay in the place that we want, so we spent a lot of time to set them. Thus, I think we need more practice because the more practice we get, the more experience we get.  

 

What are the disadvantages of IWB?

 @ It's expensive compared with the normal white board. It will be difficult to our country to provide IWB for each class in a school.

 

@ It's right that IWB replaces the normal white board but we shouldn't get rid of the white board totally from the classes. We might need it one day if there is no electricity, for example since IWB doesn't work without electricity.

@ Damage: The surface of an interactive whiteboard can be easily marred and stained. If a person mistakenly uses a marker on an interactive whiteboard, the stain can be nearly impossible to remove. Damage usually results in costly repairs.( Pearson, n.d)

@ Students might be over-excited to use the IWB which makes the class noisy.

 

From my experience in teaching practice, students feel enthusiastic to come and answer on the board, so I tried to involve them as much as I could. In the future, if I will use the IWB, they will jump for joy. Hopefully, by the time I will be a teacher, my school has IWB. Certainly I'm going to use it. To have more experience on it, I will have workshops or a specialist to teach me more about it so that I can use it easily.

 

References

Techlear. N. Interactive Whiteboards in Education. Retrieved 15, May, 2013, from: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/Interactivewhiteboards.pdf

Pearson, O. Undated. The disadvantages of interactive whiteboard. Science & Education. Retrieved 15, May, 2013, from: http://www.ehow.co.uk/list_5969798_disadvantages-interactive-whiteboards.html

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/interactive+whiteboard

 

Digital storytelling

 

Undoubtedly, the way or the method that teachers use is very important because sometimes the course is difficult to be understood, but the teachers can make it easy through the method or the way they use. Saying this partially reflects what Tomlinson (2003) has said about the importance of the way we teach. Thus, teaching through computers is one of the effective methods. I believe that technology in general and computers in particular play a vital role on students' learning. I agree with Burns (2005) that computers are "instructional tools" because nowadays teachers are using them in teaching, especially in colleges and universities.

According to Smaldino et al (2012), "The computer has the ability to control and integrate a variety of media, motion pictures, graphic and sound…". If we take an example for this, we can say storytelling which children like most. Actually, children feel happy when you read to them or when they read a story in a book, imagine how they will feel if this story is shown through a computer in more attractive way!! i.e. through technology we add a "value" to the story.







 

Storytelling through a book

Storytelling through technology





 Moreover, I have learned some advantages of storytelling. First, it develops the visual side of students since the story consists of many colorful pictures. Based on what Smaldino et al (2012) have said, visuals can simplify information and motivate learners, so this motivates me to use visuals in general and storytelling as well. Second, if I ask my students to design their own storytelling, they will develop their interpretation skills because they have to look for suitable pictures that relate to their topic. It is them who interpret the pictures as they see them. In addition, it's more authentic and related to students' lives because the teacher might ask them to write an event that happened to them, for example. Another important point is that students mostly learn by doing. According to Confucius:

 

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand". I agree with his quote because I have experienced this with my students in teaching practice. When I asked them to do thing or make something, they understood and feel more interested than when I just explained orally. I also agree with Glosser who found that we learn 95% of what we teach because I've tried this in teaching practice as well. Also, when I taught my friend how to make Prezi, I have learned more about this program. I've also learned the steps of creating a DigiDoc in which we first select a topic, collect media resources such as video and pictures, tell the story either visually or orally. This is exactly what we've done to create the video. Click here to watch our video. 

Overall, I like the idea of storytelling and I will use it in my future, instead of the traditional way in which students see some pictures and write a story! I will assess them in many things such as the design, their creativity, the writing style, language level and organization.

 

References

Burns. 2005. Tools for the Mind. Educational Leadership .Volume 63 (4)
Smaldino. S, Lowther. D and Russell. J (2012). Instructional Technology and Media for Learning. (10th ed.). USA: Pearson.

 

 

Technology in Education

Nowadays the use of technology has spread around the world. It's used in different fields such as business, medicine, politics, science and education. But, how is technology used in education? What are the benefits of technology? Does it have disadvantages or challenges? Can we use technology in the future properly? All these questions will be discussed here.

Technology can be used both in teacher- directed learning and student-directed learning. First, the teacher can use technology as supplemental support in the classroom (Smaldino et al, 2012). For example, the teacher first explains the lesson and then shows them a video related to the topic of that lesson or might be the other way around; i.e. the teacher shows the video as a warm-up and then starts the lesson. The effectiveness of the technology depends on the teacher. Accordingly, Wittich & Fowlkes (1946, as cited in Smaldino et al, 2012) found that when the teacher used a film and related it to the learning objectives, the students gained more information from the film. I agree with this because if the teacher doesn't state the aim of the thing (a video, film…etc) he\she uses, students will get lost or simply they don't know why they are watching that video or film!

Watch this video to know about the reasons behind using technology in classroom.

Regarding student- directed learning; it can be through distance learning where students can access the course from home without the teacher. An example for this is E-learning that we have at SQU. We can find the materials and do quizzes online. Also, technology could be used in classroom where the teacher asks them to design something but still it's student-directed because they do it by their own. Students also can do their assignments or projects and search for the information they need through technology.

Moreover, Donely (2012) said, " Social networking is a great example of technology that can help— or hinder — education, depending on how it is used and integrated into teaching plans". Yes, social networking like face book or Twitter may distract students if they are used in classroom or they may be used as a tool of bulling. However, we can get benefits from them at the same time. For example, in our class, we could successfully use Whatsapp for discussing an educational topic. Also, students can share their ideas which is another way of collaborating work. There are many other benefits of using technology in education. First, students usually learn more in less time and like the class when they have computer-based instruction, as James Kulik (Wikipedia) has found. Second, technology makes the learning process easier. For instance, the teacher can summarize a lesson through mapping i.e. "Concept maps are graphic tools for organizing and illustrating knowledge. They show relationships between different concepts", as we have taken this definition last semester. The following pictures show examples of mapping

 

 

Moreover, as we mentioned in our tech-class that technology enhances student's motivation. From my experience in teaching practice, I saw that my students enjoyed the lesson when I used OHP, so how will they feel if we use other technologies! For example, I may create a webQuest for them and assess them through it. I and my friend have already created a WebQuest. Click here to see it.

 

Although technology has all these benefits, it can be a challenge in classroom as we have discussed in technology class. How is that?

#The teacher might not know how to use it, so every time the teacher uses technology he\she bring a technician with him\her. Of course this will consume time.

# Also, sometimes the schools don't have technology. For instance, the school that I went to this semester has neither OHP nor proxima. The Ministry of Education should provide these devices at schools because teachers need them, hopefully they will do soon.

#There is no time to use technology because teachers are forced to finish the curriculum.

Here are some suggestions to be able to use technology properly at classrooms in the future:

# The government should provide different technological devices in all the schools of the Sultanate.

# There should be technician specialist in each school so that if any of the devices doesn't work, he repairs it immediately.

# Teachers should have a workshop on the use of technology.

# Students should be taught about danger use of technology such as bulling.

 

References

 

Donley, M. 2012.Technology's influence on Education. The Tech Issue: 15. Retrieved 14,May,2013, from: http://source.southuniversity.edu/ technologys-influence-on-education-76874.aspx

 

 Smalodino. S, Lowther. D and Russell. J (2012). Instructional Technology and Media for Learning. (10th ed.). USA: Pearson.

Wikipedia. N.d. Retrieved 14,May,2013, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Educational_technology