Reflections at Level 14

Visit to AH

2006-03-19T21:30:00.000-08:00

I think the idea shared on seeing healthcare not as something you go into when sick but to be taken as something more preventive is interesting.
Believe this should be the case for the development of professional development programmes too.
What can schools look to from time to time without attending a training workshop? How can we provide this kind of service?
Hmm..let's think about this..

On reflections

2006-03-16T18:08:00.000-08:00

Hi, today marks the end of another week. And not just any week but end of Term Break. So for those who joined us this year, you have completed one Term at ETD!! *sound of mini fireworks*

We have started a roving workshop with NIE ('roving' - because it will travel 3 times) on the use of Alternative Assessment, and that's where I come closer to learning about using rubrics and portfolios.
One key aspect of student portfolios is reflections. My own sense is that private and public reflections may be slightly (or vastly) different. Blogs, I suppose, is somewhere between private and public. One question which I hope could see more discussion is - why publish reflections? Indeed, why publish them online?

Suppose you have read my reflections here - so what? How does that add to my learning? I suppose you could add comments; it does beg the question, though: should you do that? I have posted comments at SK's blog but that's because he sought comments. Oh, or were those rhectorical questions he asked?

The point is - when asking learners to reflect and then publish their thoughts - always ask "why is this necessary?", "what value does publishing the reflections add to learning?", "why is there a need to log at different times?", "so what if others comment on the reflections?", "is reflecting and writing out the reflections a natural flair for the learner?"

have a good weekend

UbD

2006-03-07T04:38:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have been co-facilitating the Tier 1 training, UbD should be a familiar idea.

After attending the session in one of the Wave 1 schools, was thinking if the baseline lessons would be able to address UbD? For example, would students who have used copy/paste know why and when to use this feature?
Why search? Why use online search? Also, for the subject content/matter, would they be able to have the 'deep understanding' part?

In any case, good to revisit the lesson design - hence, suggesting that we have protected time in Week 7, 8 and 9 of Term 2 to polish up on the lessons. After all, most schools would have completed the lab lessons by Week 6.

What do you think?

Living Space

2006-03-04T22:22:00.000-08:00

Hi, LSP III has a online discussion group. It has reached over 200 postings... and still counting... thanks for all the support :)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Urban_Heat_Effect/

To Learn, Live, Meaningfully

2006-03-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

If someone were to tell me, you must eat properly, sleep enough, rest well, exercise, don't work too work (they shld have just said 'don't work', that's more like it ya? hehe), sit properly, take eye break break from computer, the good intentions do not really register. Sad to say. Hence, repetition, hence, 'nagging'...

But if there is a certain ring to it - TLLM... and enough people talk about it - it'll stick. Hence, more likely to follow. Hence, change.

Education is like that too. To unlearn, then relearn - tough.
The 'slogan' part of TLLM is meant to deliver just that - a deep impression so that we can all 'remember' to look into how we go about teaching...hence the idea of teaching 'strategies' - the idea that one has to think first in relation to a situation and not just using a off-the-shelf method in the classroom.

TLLM is a 'rethinking about teaching' process. There are no short cuts.

SEED and SAIL - these are more 'strategies'-based.
First on SAIL - there is a common perception that it is about rubrics. Actually it is about INDEPENDENT learning.
Rubrics is used in no small part because level descriptors are there and learners can act upon them to guide their own learning. SAIL is also about ACTIVE learning. Simply put, if there's a 'SAIL' lesson which the teacher drives everything, then, well, there may be a need for a rethink.

SEED is not about play. The association with play may be because PLAY activities have been used to ENGAGE young pupils. But don't get carried away because it's about the E and not the P. SEED is also about EFFECTIVE learning, hence the need to check for understanding - which is not easy with young pupils because they are not very articulate.

Can IT support SEED and SAIL? Yes. SEED - Animation is very powerful for engagment. IT makes things vivid and come alive. And being corrected by a software when you are 'wrong' is less 'hurting' (because it gives you the sense of being in control) hence making self-checking more endurable. SAIL - IT as scaffolding tools and mindtools are very powerful for enabling learners move up the levels descriptors.

Some of the elements above also correspond with PETALS which is a 'summary' of key components of effective teaching.

So much for now. See you at my next posting!!

Enroute to Oblivion

2006-03-04T20:19:00.000-08:00

Here's starting an ocasional series...on topics, ideas and learnings that I have picked up along the way.
This being my final year (sounds like completing a dilpoma like that), hope to surface some ideas that others may wish to pursue in the days, weeks, months to come.

Today's 'topic' is about map publishing on the web.
Suppose you have customised your own map, say on a GIS, any platform, and would like to upload it onlone for sharing and elicit comments. Not so easy...

What we have done at the moment - and that's with the blessing of Google Earth - is to download the free version of Google Earth and tag information before sharing the tagged files.

The problem is that the maps are aerial/satellite pictures... and there are clouds, inevitably. Hence certain parts of the map(s) are blocked, and this could be a school that you wish to tag.

Autodesk is trying to come up with something upload-able. I hope this is something that can be explored by local participants (schools, HQ, IHL, industry) as the potential for use in education would be great.

http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=812&trv=1

In the meantime, try Google Earth la!

It has 3 D capability - and that's a long way towards better visualisation for learning.
And there are layers to turn on and off too. To quote blogger Stephen "tons of layers":

http://newrecruit.org/archives/2005/may/googlekeyhole

About Portfolios

2006-02-28T07:10:00.000-08:00

If you have researched on portfolios, you would have come across Aurbach among others.
Aurbach's writing on portfolio is helpful as the rationale, objectives and processes are well-explained.

She also reminds that the portfolio should always have a segment for reflections.
Tips, particularly on the reflection cycle, are given.

The difficulty I forsee is that for lower Primary, in the use of digital portfolio, teachers may face the difficulty of getting pupils to save their work in a digital form, especially pieces that make use of videos and recorded sounds, and getting them to retrieve their work periodically for review and comments (by peers).

I reckon the use of portfolio at Secondary level will face less challenges.

Well, do share with me on how Primary schools, especially lower Primary teachers, can start portfolio as a practice in their classrooms.

Current interests and choco

2006-02-28T05:53:00.000-08:00

here are a list of my current interests:

- ICT in PBL
- ICT in Formative Assessment & AA
- ICT in elementary classrooms

if you come across anything interesting, let me know okie :)

(one chocolate point for a good article recommended)*

*claim from cubicle 14-29

ICT & Elementary Learning

2006-02-28T05:23:00.000-08:00

This is about an article entitled 'The Influence of a Technology-rich Classroom Environment on Elementary Teachers' Pedagogy and Children's learning'.

If you have read the 1st Report on Pilot Implementation 'published' on 27 Feb, you would be familiar with some of the issues discussed in this paper.

The extract below, for example, will strike a chord:

"Primary teachers in the UK have been found to use ICT predominantly in the following ways (presented in order of frequency):

free choice activities for pupils;
extension work and extra support for some pupils;
a reward or 'filler' activity for those who have completed other work;
word processing, information retreival and major project work;
instructional use with the whole class
(Moseley and Higgins 1999:83)

Presented out of context, these patterns of use do not convey any sense of purpose..."

This is one of the many examples that illustrate the relevance of the findings in the article to our context.
One of the learning points that came out of this article is how the developing of children's ability could be carried out through 3 phases of activities. In each of these phases, ICT use is integrated.

The main 'shortcoming' - so to speak - of this paper in meeting my needs is that the study is based quite significantly on the use of IWB... not a common tool in our context.

My next step is to pick up on the idea that there is a tension - in the eyes of teachers - between the use of IT as part of a whole class approach and as a tool to support autonomous learning.

I think this is a point worth considering - aren't we also emphasizing a lot more on the latter in the context of BLS?

Linked to M

2006-02-28T05:22:00.000-08:00

This blog is linked to 'mother' blog http://06pddpall.blogspot.com/

Link to Huang

2006-02-28T05:18:00.000-08:00

This blog is linked to Huang's

http://spaces.msn.com/huangcs55/PersonalSpace.aspx?_c02_owner=1

From Engaged Learning to Problem-Based Learning

2006-02-28T04:41:00.000-08:00

The first part of the paper is useful in summing up key tenets of Engaged Learning - good for those who are just beginning to get an exposure to this concept.

I was looking at the section on technologies that support Engaged Learning with the hope of uncovering illustrations of how technology could be used for Problem-Based Learning.

I believe other than a quick summary of Jonassen's main ideas on this issue on page 12, little else connected technology with PBL. The example of tackling a problem on water shortage in Singapore was not well-fleshed out. On page 15, the tools used point to project management - seemingly a far cry from Jonassen's mindtools?

This is a topic quite close to me, actually, as one of the Wave 1 schools is exploring the use of tablet PCs for PBL in Science.
I recall also Sherwin and Joseph's sharing during the induction on the use of simulations for a PBL case, drawing upon a lesson carried out at TJC. My thoughts the TJC example would be that the use of IT is mainly as a resource, rather than as a tool. What other ways can students use IT in PBL then? to investigate? ie. in collecting, analysing and presenting data? If that's the case, then I would say that the Living Space Project and other IT in fieldwork projects are worth a look.

However, I do hope that members here can share other ideas that are not so 'fieldwork bound'. In other words, how can IT be used for PBL type of learning in a classroom setting apart from those mentioned above?

I found this on the Internet. In this case, the use of IT comes in during the artefact creation process.
http://ifets.massey.ac.nz/periodical/vol_4_2001/neo.html

This one focuses on the use of ICT for communications during the PBL process:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/nlc2004/Proceedings/Individual_Papers/Cheng_et_al.htm

My take is that PBL has stages and involves various learning tasks each of which may lend itself to leveraging on IT use. Hence, there is no quick fix or generalisation on what ICT can do for PBL but rather it is useful to look at the different PBL configurations, see which learning tasks are being emphasized and from there rethink the leverage that IT use can provide to make those learning tasks (e.g. investigation, communicating ideas, respresentating ideas) meaningful.

RSP, COP - the twain shall meet?

2006-02-28T04:26:00.000-08:00

Learning within the Worlds of Reifications, Selves and Phenomena
- presentation by David Hung

I like to go back to the fundamentals here, especially in the face of a proposition that appears rather sophisticated.
What David is tackling appears related to knowledge transfer, at least the part which sees the application of the RSP model to COP.

David posits that in the RSP framwork, there is a tie-in between cognition and action AND epistemic cognition.
However, in a COP set-up, I would think that the learning outcomes is not as holistic or complete. For example, what about the observers, those at the fringe? Do they go through Metacognition and Reflective action? If so, how?

In my reading of David, he argues that COP is important for Reifications. That mainly accounts for the active members at the centre. What then is the cognitive relation between those at the centre and the fringe?

The question remains - how to attract members to the COP? What about motivations? In which part of RSP does this come in?

I commend David for his proposition. It looks like a breakthrough somewhat compared to previous sharings last year by various researchers during branch sharings.

COP aside, the RSP model reminds one pertinently about the need to close the learning loop through the constant interactions between R, S and P. I find that part of the presentation useful.

Reflections on 21 Feb

2006-02-20T19:44:00.000-08:00

I hope to reflect on learning and not on courses attended. :)