Using Computers is a challenge for South African high school students!

I teach FET College students, who have almost not understanding of what a computer is and how it should be used. Many of my students argue that they were never taught about computers at school. They claimed that they only got exposed to the world of computers when they reached College level.  I wonder how will such students make it in a fast changing environment, where computers have become the order of the day?  I think teachers need to take a hard look at themselves, and make necessary effort to effect change in the lives of many students who, one way or another need to know what a computer is and how to operate.  Learning online is also a growing phenomena and many students need to know what a computer is and how to operate it.  CHANGE CHANGE

Learning areas or majors are interdependent!

Students learn science to become scientists. However, they also need to learn writing skills in a specific language i.e English in order for them to communicate their new discoveries with other people.  In addition, a scientist needs to pass Life Orientation or Life skill class in order to know how to function as part of the community within where he or she would be doing their scientific research. Furthermore, a scientist would need geography knowledge and skill to be able to locate good places at which they can do their research and other things.  Interestingly, a scientist would need political science education in order for him or her to know the expectations of the political landscape at which he or she resides.  So many other related areas could be drawn into the picture, the bottom line is that there is no one subject is important than another.  

Identifying barriers to learn is key!

Barriers to learning and development are a major disturbance to students academic progress.  Mostly, lecturers assume that students fail because of lack of interest in their studies or because they don't want to be part of the learning process. Identifying the real challenge causing a delay in how the students learns is important.  I have noticed that sometimes invisible physical conditions of students can impact their learning negatively. For instance, I have a short sighted student in my class and he had challenges following our classroom discussion. We were working on computers and he had trouble seeing letters and words on the computer monitor.  I couldn't diagnose that he was struggling until after class when he approched me and siad, "Sir I have a problem." It was that phrase that made me wonder, "what is it now?" fortunately, he explained the situation and thereafter, I had to set up his work station and explain things to him on one one session with him.  It based on such reasons and many other unmentioned ones that teachers should be able to identify barriers to learning and development.    

Virtual world: second life

I must say that I was impressed by the presentation rendered by Dana.  She presented on Second life, another virtual world made up avatars.  Dana mentioned that Second Life, can be compared to MOOs and other programs.  The one thing I learned from Wednesday's class, is that Second life can be really enjoyable if the teacher and students know how to get their way around it.

I remember that Dr. Lybeck conducted some form of a pilot study on us about Second life, she even invited Dana to come and help us.  Every now and then when we logged on to the class meeting Dana would be there to help those that struggled to join the class. I had troubles following the class meeting.  In most cases, I would find myself wondering in the middle of nowhere, where there were no people.  Sometimes when I get lucky and find my way into the class, I ended up sitting or hanging on the fan attached to the ceiling.  Such experiences distracted me and i think that I have come to realize that one can still make second life interesting by making sure students know what to do when they join the class.It's screen appearance is appealing to students, the challenge is just trying to navigate around.

In addition to Dana's presentation, we were divided into groups for peer  review of the final projects. Esther, struggled with her system but ultimately followed the class meeting accordingly.  Her challenge helped me understand that technology cannot be absolutely trusted.  She was calm and allowed Dana to continue with her presentation.   I guess experience counts huh!

Edmodo

I have enjoyed the presentation by Dr. Bibbie.  I think I like this program for a good reason that it looks familiar to facebook.  i think students also don't like seeing something or don't like trying out new things especially if extremely strange to them. The amount of privacy students can get in Edmodo, I would definitely not mind using it. I like keeping students' records in safe places and as for as long as software programs like Edmodo exists, i don't see how we should be skeptical to try out new things.  I know students don't like showing each other grades so if Edmodo provides privacy, I guess it wouldn't be too bad to try it out.  I wonder if it is also completely free for the entire period of use or someone needs to buy subscription to buy a better version. It offers, chat box and discussion box.  I think students can do like we do in our D2L.  

We also discussed our final interview questions in small groups. Esther grouped us according to nature of classes we observe.  Youssouf joined Laura, Xu and I, he was not sure whether to be in our group or a different group. We talked about key issues we need to look at including how feedback is given and how communication is done between the teacher and students.  Esther also clarified the question of why we are doing field research.  She explained that the target is to answer the two questions she provided at the beginning of the semester.

Online class interaction 3, guest presenter

Wednesday's class was very interesting.  Our guest presenter discussed how uses cellphones in his class.  I thought it was interesting to learn that while some of us are  still thinking about incorporating or infusing cellphone technology use in their classes, some teachers have already started the process.  I think using cellphones can be very cost effective for students and convenient for teachers, because in most cases students have cellphones that have internet access, and frequently, they use their cellphones for social networking sites such as facebook and twitter.  Such networks can be put to good use such learning and classroom discussions. The speaker also talked about the use of E-books which are usually cheaper than paper books.  He said the books they buy usually expire after 6 years.

Secondly, we learned about MOOS from Karen's presentation.  I would have love to really experience MOOS in details but I was unable to do that since I could not follow in more details what she wanted us to do. I hope to probably make a follow-up with my class mates to clarify some of the things I struggled to understand.  However, the presentation was good since it involved some bits of programming since we used punctuation marks before we could say or do anything.  Generally, the class went well and I hope to learn more from  and I hope to use all that i learned in my future teaching experience.

Lily's presentation: 2 online experience

Our second online encounter wanted to cartoon me because my screen was not showing me what I expected to see!lol. Anyhow, I figured it out and joined the class successfully.  Even though  I missed telling our guest professor about myself, I did not miss hearing her telling us about the advantages and pros of online teaching and virtual learning.  When she mentioned virtual online learning I thought of second life in Karen's class. Lily mentioned that online has come in handy in the sense that it has provided access to education especially for people who live in extreme remote and rural areas.  She mentioned that because of online learning, people who cannot physically make it to class or school, have the opportunity to learn and not miss out on anything.

Lily's comment coincided with what the Professor I'm observing said. They both agree that online class allows people who have jobs or people who are very busy with other things than just school to an opportunity of learning whilst at home or where ever they could be. What arose my curiosity was when Lily, mentioned that the problem with ESL teachers is that they tend to put more focus on teaching how technological tools are used rather than using technological tools to teach L2 learning and acquisition.  I agree with her when she says the focus should be how can we best use technology to teach L2 acquisition, not how to use L2 to teach technology use.  

Another point I liked the most was the pyramid.  I think the pyramid is good, because it gives the teacher a clue of which stages to start with.  However, I think it was absolutely and well calculated move by her to have that table broken down into simple but well defined stages. Her table showed stages of where the novice teacher and the experts are expected to function based on their teaching experience in as far as CALL is concerned.  

Apart from Lily's presentation Esther clustered us into our respective groups based on common features of the classes we are observing. We then discussed what we have so far seen and found out if we are observing the same things, in which case we discovered that we were not really having the same things in common.  we concluded the class schedule, by talking about voting on whether we would prefer to share questions for the second set of interviews with our professors or do it differently. We didn't conclude on this matter.

twitter

This week we have learned about twitter and how we as teachers can use it as a teaching aid in our classrooms.  We also created twiiter accounts. Furthermore, I learned about how rapidly technology changes.  It was fun sitting in a cirle discussing about our opinions regarding technology and how we understood the article that was posted in D2L about teachnolgy as a transformer or replica of the traditional method of teaching.  What interested me most was the fact that many of us are technophobic which is something to look at from a different angle.

Peer teaching is the way to go!

Many students learn much better when helped by their peers.  Sometimes students do not understand what is taught instantly, therefore, teachers use those that understood better to explain and help those that didn't understand the material taught.  However, there are some students who may not really benefit from peer teaching, but majority of students will always understand if helped by their peers. What do you think?