My Enhanced School Experience (ESE)

Classroom Observations of ICT Use

1. Specific Observations:

School Name: Xinmin Secondary School

Class: 206

Profile of Class: Secondary 2 Normal Academic class. The students behaved a little rowdy at the beginning of the lesson but after they settled down, they were very receptive to learn. 

Subject: Language Arts

What ICT tools are used in the lesson?

Smart boards and power point slides were used in this lesson.

Describe how ICT is used for teaching and learning in the lesson.

I really enjoyed observing this lesson because the teacher used ICT to make the lesson very enjoyable for the students to learn. The lesson was conducted in the Xinnovate laboratory where there are smart boards around the lab. Students sat in groups of 4-5 near a smart board and a white board.

The teacher taught sentence varieties during that lesson. After explaining the different types of sentences to the students, she conducted a game for the students to work as a group and also for them to put to use what they have learnt.

As each group of students had a smart board to themselves, the students were able to focus on the task. The task that the students had was to form as many sentences as they could by using a variety of sentences. They were all eager to participate in the game and during the game, I saw that many of the students contributed to their groups. In addition, by allowing each group of students to have their own white board, they students were excited about writing out their sentences.

The fusing of a good and interesting lesson plan together with the help of technology have enabled the teacher to carry out a great lesson where the students really learnt a lot. The smart boards allow the students to stay focus on their tasks because by screening the power point slides on the screen, only the students sitting in the front rows would be able to give their best attention. The smart boards bring students closer to learning.

Furthermore, as the students wrote their answers on their group’s white board, the teacher was able to correct and explain to them their mistakes upon seeing them. With the fast corrections, students understand better as the work is still fresh in their minds. In addition, the students were told to move around the class to read each others sentences and do peer learning after the teacher has corrected their work. In this way, they do not only learn from their own group members and teacher, they also learn from the collective knowledge of the class.

Indeed, ICT have allowed teachers to conduct lessons in a more interesting way where students can make the best out of their learning. 
 

2. General Observations:

How do teachers in the school feel about the use of ICT for teaching and learning?

With the advent of technology in the 21^st century, teaching and learning is no longer confined to a teacher teaching with the textbooks in a classroom. Neither is interesting teaching based on teachers using simple IT tools such as Microsoft Powerpoint.

Xinmin Secondary School embraced the 21^st  IT competency by using “24/7 identity” as their vision in approaching the technology-savvy students. The HOD of ICT, Mr Lee Foo Yong, believes that learning should not only take place in a classroom. He believes that students have the abilities to learn anytime and anywhere as long as they have the resources. The implementation of ICT masterplans in schools has helped students move towards a self-directed learning.

ICT has enabled teachers in Xinmin Secondary School to teach beyond the syllabus. Students not only gain content knowledge but they also picked up many skills as they are being exposed to a vareity of technologies. On the one hand, it may be taxing on the part of teachers as we have to constantly upgrade ourselves to make sure that we are competent in using those infrastructures before teaching them to our students. On the other hand, if teachers are to use these technologies to its fullest potential, then learning will be very enjoyable as these technologies really help to engage the students in learning.

All in all, ICT has been a great implementation for teachers to teach and students to  learn. However, teachers still need to understand the needs of their students before tweaking the different ICT tools to enhance the learning of the students.