6^th Reflection- October (2019)

Class: VI

Subject: Social Studies

Topic: Soil Conservation

Period: 7^th

Date: 17^th October, 2019

ICT is impacting on how education is delivered and how students learn in the Bhutanese education system. The integration of ICT in teaching and learning significantly have an impact on the developmental in acquisition of language digitally.

In brief, the application of ICT can take many forms and has the capability to revolutionize the way teaching and learning occurs. The concurrent use of multimedia and computers allows the improvement of new pedagogical strategies involving lively and interactive learning.

So, I carried out the lesson on the use of computers and searching instructional facts from the google. The class VI children had been assigned a work to design a poster in the Microsoft to create awareness on the conservation of soil. The children were given hands on practice in the usage of Microsoft word, typing some phrases and accessing educational data from the google using the internet.  

The children were directed to look for some captions and the most appropriate images from the google. They accessed the facts from the google and pasted downloaded pictures into the Microsoft word. Then children had been asked to design a sample poster on their own using the educational information and images downloaded from the google.

The children were inspired, prompted, stimulated, motivated and maintained genuine interest in doing the tasks. At the end, some children have created a good sample poster and many children did a commendable job on their own using the google.  As a result, this act facilitated practices and drills in the usage of the computer, google and internet.

5^th Reflection- October (2019)

            School with sufficient ICT resources achieved better results than those that are not well-equipped. There is a significant improvement on learners’ performances. Finally, teachers become more convinced that educational achievements of pupils are due to good ICT use.

            So, I had Geography lesson on “Natural resources” with the Class VII students on dated 2.10.2019. I managed smartphones from the teacher colleagues. The children were given hands on practice to use Google in searching useful educational information. The phones were distributed in each group. The students were directed towards the use of smartphones in viewing the types of natural resources. Children were asked to access the information about natural resources. After having accessed the information on the topic, they were given to discuss in the group and share to the whole class.

            In the second activity, they were asked to explore the differences between ‘renewable and non-renewable resources.’ Within a short period of time, children have accessed the required information and asked few groups to read and share to the whole class. It made the lesson more fun and lively. This is one ICT application to teach difficult concept effectively. I found this application is handy and very educational since, they can explore the educational information as directed.

            Thus, smartphones for students helped them considerably to prepare for the lesson by enhancing their learning process.  Smartphones are not only useful for students but are also very useful for teachers. They can easily access the information just by a click. The concept on the type of natural resources are not explained in the book. Through the use of smartphones children could get the idea of topic as shown below. 

Use of varied ICT application like smartphones have made learning easy as children can search helpful content than going through pages of book.

One minor drawback was, children had some challenges in selecting the best and suitable information related to the topic. However, rest of the lesson went smoothly as planned.

4th Reflection on ICT (September month-2019)

4^th Reflection

On September 18th  2019, I have prepared video lesson using Camtasia to teach the students of class VI about the types of family in the real classroom situation.

The children have learnt about the family in class V. This time they are taught types of family and the relationship.  Thus, for effective delivery and in the interest of time I have integrated video tutorial. I have shown video tutorial on the types of family and the main objective was to let children understand the type of family. The type of family i.e., ‘nuclear family and extended family’ were projected with appropriate examples using the LCD projector. One great advantage was, it can be played and paused any time in between to further supplement the points which were left out.  

Teaching them using video tutorial and further supplementing the lesson by the teacher was found very successful. Children were so interested to learn when ICT has been integrated in the daily lesson. The children’s interest in learning helped them to learn better and effectively. I have found that employing such ICT application has truly changed the face of lesson delivery. Classroom with such digital learning tools greatly influence the teaching and learning processes. Thus, I am truly convinced that in this modern era, ICT plays pivotal role in teaching learning.

However, there were few challenges such as that I had to show them the video tutorial for several times because there wasn’t much interaction. I had to explain again and again on what was shown on the video tutorial. This consumed little bit of time. The greatest impact of using ICT in the lesson was that children learnt differently with outmost interest.

Class VI

Subject: Social Studies

Topic: Settlement

ICT Application used: LCD Projector

Date: 6^th September, 2019

Third Reflection

One new way and the most predominant latest ICT application is LCD projector.
The LCD projector offers ways of reaching students in different ways. It allows the teacher to interact with students better, to use a different form of teaching and to provide more entertaining ways to teach and get the lesson objectives and facts across.

Thus, on 6^th September, 2019 I have employed projector in my lesson to teach about “Types of Settlements” in Class VI Social Studies. It has helped the communication by expanding the image of the computer screen to be large enough for a room full of students to see. It also enabled teachers to create bulleted PowerPoint presentations or other highly organized notes for the class. With the use of projectors in the classroom, my students could take better notes with the ability to discern what information I have displayed are most useful to them.

With the advent of projector in the classroom, teachers can do away with the use of chalk and chalkboard unlike in the past.  Rather than writing notes across a board, teachers can make use of PowerPoint presentations and images as teaching tools through the use of projectors.

Consequently, teachers and students alike find projectors to be useful classroom devices. Additionally, my students could ask me to repeat a slide on the missed information. So, with this approach I felt that this is the most powerful teaching tool. By using projectors, teachers can more easily prepare all notes prior to class for easy presentation. We also spend less time repeating or rewriting information that is now accessible with a simple click.

Thus, using LCD projector provides educators to reach students with multiple approaches. I am happy to observe that my students enjoyed seeing, hearing and interacting with technology rather than simply reading a textbook for listening to a lecture. They could participate in real-time and interactive activities.

So, LCD Projector has played pivotal role in delivering the lesson content through images and on the other hands it helped to save time for both teacher and students. I deeply realized that such application is transformational tool which, when used appropriately, can promote the shift to a learner-centered environment.

Blog-Reflection 2

PowerPoint is an effective tool to present material in the classroom and encourage student learning. PowerPoint can be used to project visuals which would otherwise be difficult to bring to the class.

Consequently, on 19^th August, 2019 I taught a lesson on ‘Main courses of river’ in class VIII Geography using PowerPoint, since PowerPoint, when effectively planned and used, can enhance instructions.

Employing the PowerPoint, I have presented information by using text, images, diagrams with animations and transitional effects etc. in slides that helps to explain the topic or idea in front of audience easily and practically.

In the course of my lesson I have realized that, this very ICT application tool makes the presentation more interesting which perhaps aid to improve the audience's focus. Additionally, PowerPoint enables a teacher to design the lesson associated with images, audio and video to have a greater visual impact. The visual and audio cues also help a presenter be more improvisational and interactive with the audience. At the same time, PowerPoint presentation saves a time considerably.

Furthermore, it was noticeable that children were profoundly motivated and curious towards learning with the integration of such ICT application. Perhaps, it was remarkable to observe children being fully engaged in the assigned tasks unlike normal teachings in the class. Using transactional effects, audio, video, images and animation in the PowerPoint seems to have provided the clear and concise concept especially for the abstract ideas. The employment of this application in fact, made the lesson so interactive where it drew many children to argue and discuss thoroughly on the assigned tasks. Accordingly, I have realized that this PowerPoint application is a strong transformational tool which, when used appropriately, can promote the shift to a learner-centered environment.

Thus, I hereby suggest my colleagues to apply this approach of teaching for effective and enriching lesson which would equip children with intended skills and concept of ideas.

Reflection on ICT integration

Subject: Social Studies

Topic: Rotation of the Earth

Level: VI

To teach this topic, I have integrated ICT in my lesson as it was very difficult to provide clear idea about the Rotation of the earth. Therefore, I searched the relevant video clip with narration from the you tube.

I organized the class in multi-purpose hall and talked what they have learnt in Class V about rotation of the earth.  I have provided them clear directions about the lesson what they will study from the short video clip.

Children had been in fact, without a doubt thrilled as I was readying the video. This act has given me a speedy sense that youth love mastering via different method, exclusively using the ICT mode. I instructed them to watch the video attentively so to understand the concept clearly. I too reminded them to answer some questions in the text after watching the video. All the kids enthusiastically watched the video silently. After watching the video, I have let them discuss in their groups about the video. I could see that there have been lots to share in their group. Each child in the group desired to speak and argues in discussion. This type of high-quality learning attitude proven by way of teenagers actually made me recognize that integrating ICT in the lesson is very high-quality method.

I assigned them with some questions from the textual content to answer.  I was completely happy to see that children want to answer all the questions in their own words. This was the tremendous sign shown through the youngsters in their learning.

I was absolutely contented with my lesson as all my youngsters want to show off their learning in the form of questions and answers. Thus, video lesson stands as a powerful tool to teach the children explicitly.