My mind was filled with questions. 'What am I doing here? What this course is about? Who is the lecturer? How is she? Is this course will be a tough one?', I thought in my mind. There were too many questions popped up in my mind.
However, everything went smoothly with God's grace. I realised that this course is basically about integrating Technology in Science classroom in primary schools. Therefore, I realised that I need to be a 'techno-savy' Science teacher in order to shower my students with science knowledge embedded with technology skills.I was happy to meet Professor Dr.Rohaida Mohd Saat whom is the lecturer of this course. She looks kind and very hospitable I would say!!!
She explained briefly the objectives of this course:
Discuss the evolution of technology such as OHP, slide projector, video, TV etc.
Develop knowledge to manage suitable technology to be used in primary science teaching.
Evaluate science coursework and other digital resources in the teaching and learning of primary science.
Evaluate web-sites suitable in the teaching and learning of science among young learners.
Design simple web-based Science teaching and learning materials.
From these objectives,I realised that I need to equip myself with all the technology skills and I also need to integrate all the technology skills in my lesson as a future Science teacher.Looks like this course is really an eye opening for me!!Yet a new journey just has begin...;-)
Dr.Rohaida also explained to us about the assignments that we are going to complete throughout this semester.The first assignment will be Journal Article Review of the Integration of Technology in Science Education.This assignment is individual work:
CRITICAL REVIEW OF A JOURNAL ARTICLE (15%)
Select an article from any science education journals (e.g Journal of Research in Science Education, etc that involves the integration of ICT in science education. Summarize the article and make a critique on the ICT integration. The article you choose must not overlap with other students.
Looks like,the work just begin for me and I need to LOVE it because I believe work become easier and fun if we love it.So,let's fall in love with it...;-)
Besides that,she also discussed the definition of technology,the reasons to use technology and how to integrate it in teaching.From her teaching and discussion with my class, I learnt and realised that there are many ways on how teacher can integrate technology in teaching science. As a reflection, I recalled when I was in School Experience Program last semester at SK Convent Jalan Peel whereby most of the science teachers used PowerPoint Presentation with lots of video clips and animations rather than using text books and exercise books which I think it is quite cliche I would say!!!
Personally, I love the idea of integrating technology in science classroom because it will be a good exposure and intrinsic motivation for the pupils to learn in a fun way yet it can be a very helpful tool for the teacher himself or herself in handling the lesson effectively.Besides that, I realised that Science is actually an abstract subject whereby it needs lots of observations and expriments in order to understand the concepts effectively.Therefore, in this modern era of globalisation,YES we really need to integrate the technology in our science lessons in order to make sure that our students understand the science concepts effectively.
Other than that,Dr.Rohaida also exposed us with the early technologies in science education which are OHP, TV, video and the use of slide projectors. Thus,she divided us into 4 groups to discuss these technologies. So, each group is assigned to one technology item
OHP
Visualiser
Videos
As a result,the students will understand better by seeing them in television and video player rather than reading in the books!!!Besides that,most of the students in this era of globalisation tend to be a visual learner.Thus,it will be a good thing if we integrate televison and video player in our lessons.As a result,indirectly,these will provide students with meaningful learning experience.
Other than that,the teacher can use OHP or Visualizer to project the notes effectively rather than using blackboard and chalk!!!However,I am afraid that it is not so effective.Some teachers tend to merely read the notes which was projected through the OHP and visualiser without communicating with the students.As a result,the students might will lost concentration in class.Therefore,what I can suggest is perhaps the teachers can also give some transparencies to the students and asked them to write from what they understood from the teachers' lecture.Then,the teachers can asked them to present their piece of work through OHP and visualiser and can give some feedbacks to them so that there will be some communication can occur effectively.As a result,I believed that the students will have a meaningful-active learning process.
In brief,this week’s lecture had definitely given me An Eye Opening on the development on technologies and how teacher can use these technologies to enhance teaching and learning process.I am really looking forward to explore more in the next class.Till then,goodbye and see you in the next entry...!!!
