Today we enjoyed our first ICT Level 2 Training Session where we were sensitized about the Ministry of Education’s draft policies regarding ICT. Our facilitator, Ms. Annoushka Ishmael, was really knowledgeable on the content of the course and extremely helpful when we asked for review of certain areas. It’s a great step by the Education Ministry to facilitate this professional development as it is time that a more 21st century approach becomes instituted regarding ICT in education. Student/Devices vs. School/Teachers/Parents must now become one symbiotic body that positively affects the education system. I’m looking forward to the next class!
Reviewed by Kailash Rampersad

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In Day 2’s class, we employed the use of various programs that are undoubtedly useful to teachers and students alike such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint. Though their advantages may be profound, and we realize that learning through technology makes life in today’s world easier, it in no way can totally replace an active teacher in the classroom in all instances. To a modernist school of thought, where didacticism sometimes seems unwanted, unenjoyable, annoying or even too costly, I truly believe that we are all humans and we respond best to someone as engaged, passionate, soulful, loving, kind, sensitive, and worldly as any true teacher is! If we can integrate the use of technology within the classroom where the teacher is able to manipulate the instruction and tweak it to the students’ ability so that the material is absorbed easily by differentiated learners, then this would be the utopia that we are looking for. Everyone benefits! The students are engaged, learn more and perform better overall in their subject areas. The new technology becomes familiar to everyone, and we are able to handle all devices, applications and programs productively, and responsibly. Finally, the teachers feel a strong sense of purpose, accomplishment and worth when delivery of a lesson is successful, and are able to carry on a great work day where we don’t feel redundant in the education system.

Reviewed by Kailash Rampersad
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Question 1
Design a presentation on a specific topic consistent with your subject area that incorporates several ICT resources 

1.       The students can immediately be given their grade and corrections via the program’s automated marking system

2.       The students can take their test at any time they are ready to be assessed giving flexibility of location and test times, which will undoubtedly help all students especially absentees

3.       Lastly for administrators and teachers alike, there is a cost saving benefit, that to produce these tests, there will be less administration time to prepare, run, invigilate and grade the papers. 

 

It was a very enlightening session as we look forward to incorporating these methods in classes to come.

Secondly, another model for understanding how children learn was developed by Fleming and Mills in 1992 and was referred to by the acronym VARK – Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic. The two researchers explained that these four modalities seemed to reflect the experiences of the students and teachers when learning information.

When it comes to students with special needs, both of these theories are very relevant because they both describe the idea of students learning in different ways from each other and since individuals (especially students of special needs) learn differently they prefer to be taught differently. Both approaches show us as teachers, that if we include some or all in the delivery of our lessons, students can master the curriculum if they are trained with different strategies or different methods that complete what they lack in classroom instruction. 

Therefore, in order to increase our success in the classroom,  we as teachers must examine and test our own learning styles before we start teaching, and as such cleverly examine and test our students’ in order to develop lessons that will match our teaching styles to those of our students. Undoubtedly, this will aid in increasing teacher productivity and students’ comprehension level in our classrooms.

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ASSIGNMENT
Develop a lesson plan to deliver a topic to a class of students. Focus on addressing any two learning styles or multiple intelligences.

In class today we discussed both. We realized that we must firstly try to minimize the challenges by teaching students what it is to have a favorable digital footprint. For example, as students naturally research information by conducting web searches, we must teach them how to do so effectively. Sometimes they may lack experience online and may be overwhelmed with the amount of information available, and may struggle to manipulate the information they access, so we may need to give them extra support to complete their tasks. 

Empowering students as they go about learning about their digital footprint, their online reputation, intellectual property rights and creative content is incredibly important. We must show them what it means to be a good digital citizen and to form responsible and effective habits about the information and videos they view and share.
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ASSESSMENT 1

Use a Web 2.0 tool to design a forum for collaboration with students or peers.

https://sway.com/nuVs5cZqEGLEqilG?ref=Link

GROUP ASSIGNMENT

My Collaborative Tool using Twiddla, and collaborating with my friends Mrs. Sudama and Mrs. Maharaj.