Getting closer to Mr. smartboard…

22nd August 2007….We had Prof. Dr. Raja Maznah back at last….We were given some additional information regarding smartboard on how to make it suitable and ‘easy-user’ amongst children as well as trying to make it suitable to Malaysia curriculum specifications. What I meant by suitable to curriculum specifications is the use of smartboard should be able to cater with all students’ needs in learning such as grammar, pronunciation and vocabularies as required in curriculum specifications.

First and foremost, we were demonstrated on how to prepare interactive activities using smartboard in a particular topic. There are activities that will allow pupils to match, spell out, and ‘choose and paste’ in learning using smartboard on their own WITHOUT hesitant….we were also showed on how to prepare the answers for questions set on the smartboard, yet the answers will only appear when needed. These were things that amazed us and trigger our interest [me especially], to explore and discover more on smartboard. Believe it or not…through this class, we realize that teachers just have to play tricks with children in preparing their activities in lesson and to get pupils motivated and more into learning….that is the concept that I gained…

The class became more exciting as Prof. showed some examples of activities using smartboard prepared by previous batch. There were lots of interesting activities that we never thought of. We learned greatly from the examples showed, and try to adapt them to make them more suitable to our targets and our objectives of the lesson…

In short, we can see clearly how the existence of smartboard reduces teachers burden and change the conventional ways of learning.

Below are some questions and answers [that is supposed to be put in previous entry]:

Do you understand the basic knowledge using Notebook function in smart board? If yes, which part that you understand most? If not, why you did not understand?
Yes….as far as I am concern…I understand it well as I realize that the function is merely the same as the function in Microsoft Office Word…..except that smartboard can be viewed largely in class, but note book is basically for personal use.

Do you understand the basic knowledge to use gallery feature and attachment in picture in smartboard incorporate for teaching English vocabulary for standard four students?
Fortunately, I guess I can say yes again as the way to use gallery feature is just the same as in Microsoft office word also except the new term that is being exposed in smartboard which is ‘cropped’ picture. This term or function actually allows us to choose the selected part of the picture to be used in teaching vocabulary for standard four students for example.

Do you find that smartboard is useful tool to support in teaching and learning? If yes, why is it useful? If not, what is the problem?
Yes again…I really found that smartboard is useful tool to support in teaching and
learning as it provides differences in the classroom in term of the teacher, students, preparation and also the pupils participation. It is undeniable that we need differences…in order to let ourselves move forward….. =P

My first ‘real date’ with Smartboard

As a matter of fact, Prof. Dr. Raja Maznah has been using smart board since our first class. This left me in excitement and wonders as I always want to touch it…and feel it.. ee …just like a child… I really do think that the chance that we got while presenting does not make me satisfied and not ever enough.. as we just could touch it once or twice by clicking… deep in my heart, I really want to explore it on my own…

At last, my dream came true…. On 15th August, we were introduced to Ms. Fenny [correct me if I am wrong], who is supposed to tell and brief us on the use and ways to manipulate the smartboard in teaching and learning process….in details…First and foremost, we were introduced to the smart pens, eraser and to the specific names of the smartboard body. Even though it sounded ‘alien’ to us, yet it made us excited… Later, we were been revealed to the fact that actually could diminish statement where ‘smartboard can actually hamper the teaching and learning process’. This is due to the fact that smartboard is actually adjustable which is able to cope with the height of the children, and could be the teacher’s height himself, and also its ability to crop the appropriate pictures from the internet and paste it on the smartboard which able to cater the pupils’ needs in every lesson….
Later, Ms. Fenny gave us chances to be in the pupils’ shoes where we pretended to be ‘kids’ and explore the kid’s activities using smart board. From there, we could actually see and feel the differences that smartboard brought to classroom as well as the differences of learning activities that takes place in classroom in our era and our future generation era due to the sue of smartboard. Undeniably, the use of smartboard in classroom triggers pupils’ motivation and interest in learning and break our conventional ways of teaching and learning….

In addition, the use of smartboard also enhances the learning process as pupils get the chance to touch and explore the learning themselves….as what has been suggested by Piaget where he claimed that children learn faster with the involvement of psychomotor skills….
In conclusion, lets give our full hands towards the use of smartboard in teaching and learning process…..

= ] SEARCHING for answers on SMARTBOARD questions, please refer to my next entry…thank you…=]

I'm deeply in love....with Mr. DISC....

Yeah…at last…I have time for my ‘blogging’…WEEKEND is undeniably the nicest time…any denial? [with the exclusion of our beloved Dr. R’s assignments and tasks, definitely]..right?....
I would like to start my third entry of blog with the revelation of my first notion on DISC [Designing Interactive Student’s Collaboration]. Few weeks before I entered the class, I once thought that it would be nice if I were introduced to software on how to design and produce a nice yet meaningful poster. Therefore, once our guest facilitator, Ms. Nazirah told us that we were going to work on DISC, I was very excited. However, it was something different from my expectation… there was no use of any new software in designing a poster. According to Ms. Nazirah, designing a poster could just involve a power point. It actually depends more on our creativity and our ability to produce the best out of the limited sources. At first, it hampered me a little since I was expecting software on designing poster that would be ‘alien’ to me…yet I continued and enjoyed the lesson as I LOVE posters so much where I will always look at posters whenever I found them and try to read the meaning that is meant to be conveyed….let me tell you and describe my most memorable poster that I have encountered…. the most meaningful poster that I have found is a poster portraying an old man wearing formal lying on a rest chair and he is having his cigarette….and the phrase stated in the poster is ‘TIME IS VALUELESS’….every individual is unique…thus, I will leave it up to all of you to interpret it on your way…it would be nice if I can find the poster and let you all have a glance on it…. Unfortunately….I am sorry ya…

The requirements of that day task was to design the most meaningful and interesting in line with our 50th independence day using only prepared background/ outline of posters in power point and limited pictures provided. In addition, the poster would also function as a medium for us to convey or send our gratitude to our ancestors’ sacrifices and voice out our love to our beloved country Malaysia….
At last, we came to an agreement where each of us agrees on designing a poster that portrays the development and the progress that Malaysia is having today and having a picture that portrays efforts, unity and sacrifices of ancestors before independence were declared ours….Suddenly, Ms. Nazirah came to our group and had a look at our poster…she asked us, how do we know the concept of centrality because centrality is one of the most important aspect in designing poster due to its ability to capture viewer’s attention…at this moment, our answered hampered her actually because we ‘just do it’ as nike….he…no basic in designing poster at all….really sorry Ms. Nazirah…but we tried out best…and it is not over said, I presume, if I say that we are satisfied with our poster…as the best part was our words and voices are conveyed meaningfully through Hadi’s poem…[one of our group member]….so, thank you everybody…

Before I end my third entry, I would like to attempt questions posed by our lecturer….down here…

Ö Did you face any problem during the session? Why?
Yes, we faced some problem especially in selecting a picture out of limited pictures provided. Yet, it can be seen in positive way where it actually challenged our mind and creativity in producing the best out of limited sources.

Ö What do you think of the instruction?
From my humble point of view, [quoted asha], the instruction and the requirements were very clear as we can see clearly what was expected from us.

Ö What improvements can you suggest?
Frankly, everything was carried out very well as we were given clear instructions and ample examples. Guidance was also provided. It is just that the class would be more interesting if we were briefed on the important characteristics in designing posters so that a better, more meaningful and more creative posters can be produced during the session as compared to just learning from our work at the end of the session. This is due to the reason that we do not have the opportunity to be judged again after learning the basic principles of designing a poster…..

Ö How would you carry out this design session with primary level students?
Since that ‘primary level students’ are the target that we cater with, I do think that the best way would be ‘handling them in small groups’. Perhaps, it could be only 15 – 20 pupils in each session. This is due to the reason that primary level students need more guidance and we, as teachers should avoid them from feeling neglected as it will hamper their learning. Moreover, as we know, this designing poster activity involves the use of computers. Thus, this will stir the pupils and the class will be hard to control and the best way to cope with this problem is ‘having them in small groups’

Thank you all for spending your time here….

PROUD TO BE Malaysian…..Siti Nur hanis Binti Mohd Zainol….

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

ohh...i just know you Mr. PP...he...

Hi everyone….AT LAST…I am back after been nearly a month not updating my blog….I presume that most of us understand well the condition right…a chapter to be finished every week and ‘world’ of presentations everyday…plus the worry of exam questions ….right….thus, considering that writing an entry in the blog could just be a simple task that can be completed by sitting face to face with our beloved laptop in minutes, we tend to keep this significant task to be completed at the wee hour of the morning…as the consequences, our blogs are empty…hu…

Realizing my responsibility…I shall start my second entry of my blog by responding on our second day class…and the following week class…At first, we were asked to prepare a power point presentation on ‘yahoo’ thinking that we would be assessed on the content and not the creativity or the well-manipulating skills of using and beneficiate the power point presentation. This is actually where the second class linked to the following class. In the following week, we were been exposed and revealed by the actual function of power point presentation which is actually to support or assist the presenters and not to be ‘written notes comprises of sentences, words and facts’….that was my first perception of power point presentation.

The third class was started by the question posed by Prof. Dr. Maznah ‘are you satisfied with your last week work?’….thinking that we have put our maximum efforts and done our best…we confidently replied ‘yes….’. Unfortunately, that was not what she was expecting from us….she wanted something that serves the real purpose of using the power point presentation….

Thus, the class continued with a briefing on the power point presentation by Ms. Ng. She showed us the correct way of preparing and using the power point presentation…we have been poured with the significant guidelines such as “it is preferable to put phrases or words to be explained rather than sentences as the presenter must be the ‘center of attraction and not the power point’”, “power point is only to assist teachers” and “relevant pictures can be also put in the power point slides in order to replace the sentences or to the facts to be conveyed better…..”

In short, the way we were presented with power point was very meaningful as we can see clearly our previous weaknesses and led us to the correct way of the use of power point. The best part is we could beneficiate this session not only in Technology subject, yet can be well applied and manipulated in other subjects as well….thus, I assume that it is very respectful and nice to convey my thanks and gratitude to the lecturers for introducing this particular side of power point to me….THANK YOU, GRACIAS, SYUKRAN, and TERIMA KASIH….. [sleepy]….

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