Final Presentation!

This was the final week which meant that, we need to present what we had worked on for the past 3 weeks.

The presentation starts with my group. 

We began the presentation by explaining about the misconception and problems faced by the students in understanding the GLOBAL WARMING. Marhani presented it well and then Nizam continued by introducing our googlesites

This was our google sites front page or HOME

Nizam explained about what was the content of our google sites. There were Picasa Slide show inside it. It was good to have the Picasa Slideshow because, the pictures were organized and easy for students to view it. Other than that, we provide the students with the information about global warming which was understandable by the year six students. There was also online games inside it where students could try it as an additional activities for them. We were also inserted the videos and simulations so that students will get the clearer picture of what global warming was all about. There were also the section where the students could interact with the teacher to ask questions or to give their opinion. For more information, click this LINK to explore more about our google sites. 

The presentation was continued with group 2

This group also use wiki to teach students. They use 'The Solar System' to teach using wiki..

Then group 3 continued the presentation. 

This group uses blog as their medium of teaching. They used blog to teach about the extinction of wild animals. 

group 4 ends the presentation..

This group use blog as their medium to teach the students about the moon phase.

Last but not least, we need to fill in the evaluation form where we need to evaluate the other groups presentation. Based on the presentation on that day, all of the group had shown a lots of improvement compared to the previous presentation. It was proven where Prof praised us that she was satisfied with our products and we hoped that, we could used this meaningful knowledge in our teaching later. 

Final exam was just around the corner. I hope, everyone will be prepared and I wish we could answer all of the questions successfully. This was the last entry and I wish all the best for everybody! 

Designing Sites!

This week was the moment for us to work on our google sites. Within the three hours of class, we had divided tasks for each of the group members. We assigned each of the group members to collect as many information, and materials, such as pictures, videos, online games, online dictionary to be inserted in our sites. 


We worked together as a team, and luckily, we managed to collect enough material and we start to design it. Prof did tell us to be as creative as we could in order to attract the student's attention to learn through our sites and we tried our best to accomplish the Prof reminder. This was the final stage of designing our sites and we wish all the best for the final presentation in week 13. All the best!

Discussion Week

For this week, we were asked to discuss in group to decide our preferable platform to be used in our assignment 3. Finally, we decided to use GOOGLE SITE again. before this, we had an experienced of using it and we found that, it was very easy and systematic platform to provide students with the knowledge. 

We had to come out with a story board of our google site. Story board was kind of a plan of our sites. we need to show from the beginning phase of logging in into the sites and what was the sites contain. Its kind of confused at the beginning of the discussion, but we managed to understand it after Prof clarified it to us. This is the image of our story board. 

It looks so complicated right? Prof told us to refer back to the rubric to ensure that our google site would not went astray from what supposed its look like. All in all, we believed that, by having the story board in planning the platform, benefits us. This is because, we could spot the weakness and strength of our sites. Now, we were ready to proceed to the next stage which are to design our sites. 

ADDIE MODEL

for this week, we had learned on ADDIE model. ADDIE stands for:

A-Analysis phase

D- Design phase

D-Development phase

I-Implementation

E-Evaluation




A-Analysis phase
In the analysis phase, instructional problem is clarified, the instructional goals and objectives are established and the learning environment and learner's existing knowledge and skills are identified




D- Design phase
The design phase deals with learning objectives, assessment instruments, exercises, content, subject matter analysis, lesson planning and media selection. The design phase should be systematic and specific. Systematic means a logical, orderly method of identifying, developing and evaluating a set of planned strategies targeted for attaining the project's goals. Specific means each element of the instructional design plan needs to be executed with attention to details




D-Development phase
The development phase is where the developers create and assemble the content assets that were created in the design phase. Programmers work to develop and/or integrate technologies. Testers perform debugging procedures. The project is reviewed and revised according to any feedback given.




I-Implementation
During the implementation phase, a procedure for training the facilitators and the learners is developed. The facilitators' training should cover the course curriculum, learning outcomes, method of delivery, and testing procedures. Preparation of the learners include training them on new tools (software or hardware), student registration.


E-Evaluation
The evaluation phase consists of two parts: formative and summative. Formative evaluation is present in each stage of the ADDIE process. Summative evaluation consists of tests designed for domain specific criterion-related referenced items and providing opportunities for feedback from the users.




Through ADDIE model, we were required to design a teaching plan to teach the students and we need to identify the misconception and the problems that the students faced in particular topic. 
 Our group had chosen to discuss on the topic GLOBAL WARMING. This was the first step to accomplish the assignment 3. 

Presentation Week

For this week, our group had presented on the Web 2.0 application that could be used in the classroom. Our group had chosen to use wikis as our platform to be used as a method to teach the students. In order to do that, we had used GOOGLE SITES. We had create the google account and came out with our own sites, named

Science with 6 Kreatif. Lets take a look at what we have in our sites. 

This is how our google site looks like. We had chosen to focus on the Unit -Interaction Among Living Things. Inside it, we provide the students with a lot of input about the interaction that occur in animal lives. Other than that, we provides them with online games, vocabulary section, videos, and many more. Do visit our site by clicking this LINK for further information. 

The other 3 groups had also presented their online tools to teach the students.

Group 1 ( chris, maha, izzati, woo) ----> BLOG

Group 2 (halimah, anuar, Umar fikri, adhwa)-----> facebook

Group 3 (fatin, syafiq, aimerul, nazwan)-------> yahoo messenger

From the presentation on that day, we had learned many platform that can be used to make the lesson become more creative and interactive. By having this kind of tools, we could enrich the students centered activity which was very essential for their cognitive development. 

Rubric!

For this week, Prof had taught us on how to evaluate the website by using rubric. We were given a sample of rubric as a guide, and we try to determine whether the website was good or not. there are some criteria to be concern such as

a) the content was reliable or not
b) the content was organized appropriately or not
c) the layout
d) the accessibility
e) the complexity of the website (the language used)
f) etc

I had found an example of rubric to evaluate the educational software. click this LINK

Get to know WEB 2.0

Web 2.0--------------->> 

This week, we were introduced with a new platform of applying technology in science classroom. Through Web 2.0, we could extend our approach of disseminating the knowledge to the students. But, do we really know, what is web 2.0? Let us watch this video first.

In other words, web 2.0 could be define as, a medium that commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web (www). According to Prof. Dr Rohaida, some of the examples of web 2.0 were:

• Social-networking

• Blogs

• Wikis

• Hosted services

• Mashups

• Folkonomies

• Video-sharing sites

• Web applications

Other than that, we were also been introduced with 

>> Blog

>> wikis

>> social networking

>> media sharing.

lets take a look at each of them.

BLOG

A blog originally was a personal website meant to be like a diary or journal.  The word blog is the shortened version of the word weblog. A person would usually create a blog as a hobby to share their information and experience on a particular subject. The blogs are designed to be very easy to add new entries to, so the information on blogs is updated much more frequently than a traditional site. As the blogger adds entries to the blog, the viewers can add comments to the entries, so the blog becomes an interactive site. If the blogger is interesting it does not take long for that blog to create quite a following.

WIKIS

A wiki is a server program that allows users to collaborate in forming the content of a Web site. With a wiki, any user can edit the site content, including other users' contributions, using a regular Web browser. Basically, a wiki Web site operates on a principle of collaborative trust.

A wiki allows a visitor to the "wikified" Web site to edit the content of the site from their own computer. Visitors can also create new content and change the organization of existing content. The simplest wiki programs allow editing of text and hyperlinks only. More advanced wikis make it possible to add or change images, tables, and certain interactive components such as games.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

 Social networking is all about communication. People with common interests are able to share information with each other via a huge variety of social networking sites, sites created specifically to make sharing, communicating, and creating information as simple and efficient as possible.

Examples of social networking sites:

>>Facebook

>>twitter

>> Yahoo Messenger

MEDIA SHARING

Media sharing occurs through online social networks and digital communities with a comprehensive platform and diversified interfaces to aggregate, upload, compress, host and distribute images, text, applications, videos, audio, games and new media. It is the interactive process of sending via email, instant message, text message, posting or linking to media on a website or blog and other methods of sharing media to a targeted audience. 

Micro Computer Based Laboratory

  For this entry, I will recap on what had been presented by our group during the sixth week class. This time around, we had discussed on the advantages and disadvantages of  Micro Computer Based Laboratory in teaching science. 

Our group had chosen to do an experiment on the device to measure magnetic field. The reason for us to test this device was to identify whether this kind of probe was suitable to be use in teaching or not. 

We had discovered that, there are advantages and disadvantages of using this device.

ADVANTAGES

>>>The tool can be used effectively to collect, analyze and display data in the form of graphs and charts, showing relationships that change as the values of the variables change.

>>>Data can be stored in computer’s memory.

>>>Students’ ability to interpret graphs is improved

>>>It saves time if the lesson is aimed to finish in a very limited time.

>>>It is suitable for independent learners that are very proficient in science.

DISADVANTAGES

>>>As data collected is transferred into graphs, the   students might not be able to see the relationship between the diagram of the magnetic field and the graphs collected.

>>>It is not suitable for the primary school learners as they need to master the science process skills first.

>>>Even though, students of level 2 can grasp abstract concept, but in learning science, their scientific and manipulative skills are still developing at this time

>>>The discourse used by the device is considered to be complex.

       All in all, we think that, this device was not suitable for the primary school students and it is more likely to be useful for the secondary school students. We did agree that this device has its own benefits, but if we wish to implement it in our primary classroom, we were still not ready to go for it.

Strategies use in teaching SCIENCE

This is the fifth week of the class. For this week, we had learned about 7 strategies that could be implemented in teaching science. 

The 7 strategies are: 

a) MBL ( Computer-Based Laboratory)

b) Drill and Practice 

c)  Tutorials

d) Simulations

e) Problem-solving

f)Educational Games

g) Informational retrieval

a) MBL ( Computer-Based Laboratory)

MBL is a computer based learning that utilized data collection through certain software that allows students to accumulate data and graph in a short period of time. MBL also could reduces distractions and lower-level student chores during the laboratory.  The immediacy of feedback allows students to "self-regulate their learning" and to readily select information so as to construct appropriate mental structures. 

b) Drill and Practice 

Drill and Practice is a directed technology integration software method that helps students practice very structured problems. Students answer a question and get immediate feedback. Feedback can be as simple as “correct” or “incorrect”. Drill and Practice software creates motivation in students because it is in a different format and offers immediate feedback unlike paper graded assignments. Branching drills allow students to move quickly past problems they understand and to a new set of problems based on their skill levels. Teacher grading is reduced and that allows them to individualize attention better.

c) Tutorials

A computer tutorial is an interactive software program created as a learning tool. Tutorials help people learn new skills by using a step-by-step process that ensures the user is following along and comprehending the material

d)  Simulations

Acting out or mimicking an actual or probable real life condition, event, or situation to find a cause of a past occurrence (such as an accident), or to forecast future effects (outcomes) of assumed circumstances or factors.

e)Problem-solving

Describes the process of working through details of a problem to reach a solution. An individual seeking to solve a problem will have to identify the most important elements that influence the answer and then work through a series of operations to determine a logical solution. 

f) Educational Games

An educational game is a game designed to teach people, typically children, about a certain subject or help them learn a skill as they play. Some people call these types of games edutainment because they combine education and entertainment.

g) Informational retrieval

Information retrieval (IR) is the science of searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching relational databases and the World Wide Web.

It is noticeable that, these 7 strategies are very helpful to get the students engaged with the learning especially when learning science. So, it is depend on the teacher to implement it in the class or not. For me, I am pretty sure that, I will use this strategies in my teaching later because, I could feel that, it will benefits me and my students. 

Learning Theories~

For the third class, we had been taught on the learning theories. There are three major LT, which are:
a) Behaviorism

b) Constructivism

a) Behaviorism is a worldview that assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli. The learner starts off as a clean slate and behavior is shaped through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. Both positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the probability that the antecedent behavior will happen again. In contrast,punishment (both positive and negative) decreases the likelihood that the prior behavior will happen again. Positive indicates the application of a stimulus; Negative indicates the ignoring of a stimulus. learning occurs when students are just to follow the teacher's instruction and they are just focusing on the product, not the way the product was made. this is more likely a teacher -centered approach. 

b) constructivism can be define as, a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own “rules” and “mental models,” which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences. for that reason, there are lots of activities that require students to discover on their own on how something works or most likely to occur. Those activity could generate the discovery of new knowledge and its fit the meaning of constructivism. 

After we understand the meaning of those two learning theories, we were given a task to identify some website which used both of the learning theories. From there, we discovered that, the website that contain experiment in it, served the students with the constructivism learning approach whereas the website that given steps for students to follow, most likely applying the behaviourism learning theory.