Collaboration and Execution

Hello Fellow Students and Readers,

I am progressing through this course and my expectations have exceeded. One of the areas that I have particularly developed is that of collaboration. For me, I have a great deal of computer experience, but this course has solidified what I do know is that we are in an environment that ensures that we are continuous learners, regardless of the level we believe we have attained.

Getting the comments from my classmates as well as other teachers at school, and even collaborating with the students who are the recipients of the content was exciting for me. I love to learn and to be taught something new that I had not known before. The ideas I received from classmates on the synthesis assignment made me clarify and add to areas that I had not thought about, and that I believe is what is so enjoyable for me.

With regards to the website search, at first I thought that the exercise was tedious, but, it allowed me to produce a lesson with the right site for the right purpose! My assignment three and synthesis lesson received greater thought about the qualities of each site and as I collected sites for the students' webquest it made the development and implementation of those lessons much easier and much more successful with surprisingly positive unexpected effects. The students' response and even the teachers' response to the lesson was heartening: students did not need much teacher intervention, even technical because they were more technosavvy that I had realised an the teachers were motivated by first seeing how ICT can be used to teach in a practical and easy way and in the classroom how much less work the teacher has to do in the class when ICT is utilised. The students are totally engrossed in the work as all students were on task, forming their own groups. As a Principal, to see my teacher become motivated and excited because of the ways in which I have been taught to integrate ICT is worth millions as this is one of the difficulties that too many Principals deal with in many schools across the nation. This course has given me a strategy to actually be the instructional leader and not just a boss over my workers.

With regards to my personal goals, I believe that I will work towards increasing the number of teachers that I can motivate and get excited about ICT integration and continue work hard to learn and not get too complacent as the course continues. I am also pleased that I have met my deadline for the final assignment and hope to continue doing so throughout the others. Additionally, I need to be more active and spend more time commenting on other classmates assignments and hopefully they will receive the benefits that I have gained from their comments.

I am looking forward to the next module and I really do appreciate this course because I see it as a means to motivate and bring excitement into the job of teaching into my school and to actually perform the duty of instructional leader.

Thank you CCTI

Learning is FUN!!!

Logistics of Computers in the Classroom

Limited resources in the classroom calls for a lot of pre-planning on the part of the teacher. Where there is only one computer in the classroom the teacher must be in charge of that computer, but additional peripheral resources, such as multimedia projectors, is vital if it is to benefit the students in the class as a whole.

Learning takes longer with only one computer in the classroom as students will not get sufficient contact time on the computer to practise skills learned in class. This, I imagine, would be frustrating for the teacher and the student because many of our classes have over 30 students. When would all our students learn to use the spreadsheet effectively with only 1 computer in the classroom? This is almost an impossibility and would serve better as a teaching tool for content other than teaching a topic in IT. Just imagine a Science lab with only one Bunsen burner and a class to test that requires each student to conduct the experiment. That class would take days to complete and learner and teacher frustration would increase.

Therefore, one computer in the classroom cannot be used to teach IT skills because the logistics of getting students 'practical lab time' is impractical.

If however, there was a lab with student ration 1:4 I believe this is even better than just one computer per child as children would learn better as a group in learning IT skills. They can watch others perform the same task repeatedly and they to repeat the task for others to learn.

In this instance where students can share the computer fitting four students around a PC is a bit difficult if the lab does not have much space between computers as it will be a jostle and perhaps chaos to fit so many students in a small space. The teacher can have to halve the class: half on the computer with a reduced ratio of 1:2, while the other students participating in a written or discussion activity. The students in the class can then rotate. This would work well and give each student a chance to use the computer.

The strategy the teacher uses would be more towards that of a differentiated classroom to reduce chaos and manage the class effectively.

This exercise pushes you into thinking how to best use the resources available and to accept the reality of limited resources and not to expect to get similar results with a fully outfitted lab. I see that I have to work with what I have and be satisfied with what I can do with it.

Learning is Fun!

Excel Assignment.........

I enjoyed the Excel assignment as it brought back fond memories of me teaching my Social Studies students how to produce it the MANUAL WAY!!! LOL. I believe that they need to understand how to do it that way first to get a full understanding of what the computer is actually doing. It can be confusing, especially the new MS Office 2007 platform. Instructions are done in the old version so I will have to do research online if I need to use a more complex formula. Thankfully, I believe that I have some advanced Excel knowledge so performing above basic tasks should not be that difficult. The updated MS platform was recently introduced to the school so I do still have some learning with regards to Excel.

This will make sure I keep up with the new technology and software changes.

Learning is Fun!!

First Assignment and Beyond........

The First Assignment has been sent and I feel as though a load has been taken off of my shoulders!!!! Going through the various activities was fun but it got a bit confusing after activity 3, but thank God I had a tutor who was patient and well able to dispel any fuzziness. :)

This course is making me think!!! To think of using the knowledge I have to develop creative ways of delivering the curriculum to our students. One major difficult I face is not being in a classroom and having to have another teacher use the material that I have developed as his/her own. However, I have found a willing and capable teacher to deliver my lessons.

With regards to technology I am focusing on the Form 1s and 2s because they have their laptops, otherwise difficulties will arise due to the large class size (32 to 37 students) and the insufficient number of computers in the computer lab. Repairs of lab computers are difficult because ICTD has made it almost impossible to purchase parts to repair said computers and down time is high for some months of the term. Please Help Us!!! However, I look forward for positive interaction with ICTD to assist schools in fast tracking the purchase of computer equipment in order to facilitate ICT integration in schools.

I look forward to preparing many more lessons that require the use of ICT in the classroom and hope that the staff in general will come on board with ICT integration. Many of our teachers use the technology, but insufficient multimedia projectors etc. create logistic challenges, which I believe can be minimised with careful brainstorming and teacher support.

I am particularly grateful for the positive feedback I am getting from my fellow classmates as this motivates me to continue on!!!

Thank you fellow students! I truly appreciate any comment and/or feedback.

Learning Is Fun!!

The 7 Roles of an Educator - Empowering Stuents to Learn

As a Mediator of students' learning using technology has given the power of learning into the hands of our students and allowed us to create a group of independent learners, peer learners and persons who will be accustomed to working as a team. The ideas that have been put forward show me that I will have to start encouraging my teachers to empower our students.

As a Designer we can create teaching materials that are best suited to our diverse students which will encourage them to learn or as someone stated motivate our students to learn. We can even include our students in creating the same teaching resources that will be used in the classroom which adds to the empowerment of our students in the learning environment.

As an Administrator we should be able to acquire data on our students. Using tools such as spreadsheets and simple databases provides the tools for us to keep track of our students, to monitor them and provide meaningful feedback.

As a Scholar teachers can have access to continuous learning without having to visit a classroom and collaborate with others in the same field all over the world. The Internet and even snail mail (printed magazines) allows us to become lifelong learners at very little or no cost.

The Pastoral role is important because we need to communicate with the stakeholders in a more potent way than just a letter that may end up in a bin in the home or at school. Using visual media such as Skype, YouTube and other online video postings can be a good way to showcase the talents, mission vision and accomplishments of our student and staff to the stakeholders and the wider community.

As an Assessor we could use the technology to make our students' TESTING LIFE more interesting and FUN! Only giving our student pencil and paper tests may work for some learners but many others can be encouraged to excel by using online quiz programmes, online test games, computer programmes that test students and give them instant feedback in a fun, interesting and exciting way is excellent.

As Specialist educators we have access to online databases of research and articles that will assist in improving our knowledge and skills base to deliver education in the 21st Century environment effectively.

I enjoyed reading all the ideas from our fellow students. Looking forward to reading more!!

Michelle C.

Learning Is Fun!!

About Me - Michelle Carter

Hello Fellow Students of CCTI,

I am the Principal of Valencia Secondary School which is located in the North Eastern Education District.

My first teaching appointment was at San Juan Government School where I taught Caribbean History (CXC) and Economics (GCE) and lower school (Forms 1-3) Social Studies. I was always interested in computers and had pursued a productivity tools course a few years ago and when the chance to apply for IT for Teachers came along I did so, was accepted and spent one year - once weekly- at UWI. The purpose of the course was to be tutored in IT for the delivery of the CXC IT Syllabus. Teachers from all subjects areas were encouraged to apply. Before the course ended I was asked to mark IT for CXC which I did for a number of years.

I transferred to Coryal High School (located in Cumuto) and there I taught Caribbean History and IT for CXC and assisted in teaching IT in the lower forms until an IT teacher arrived. At Coryal Secondary I completed the Diploma in Educational Technology at UWI and made lasting friendships with colleagues in education some of whom are also in this course.

Last year I was placed at Valencia Secondary School where I am currently.

There are two computer labs at Valencia Secondary with eight additional computers for teaching staff, auxiliary staff and administration and 30 laptops for staff and administration . Unfortunately, a series of thefts over the years have depleted other digital equipment and hampered ICT integration. However, there is sufficiently fast Internet connectivity with wireless access throughout 70% of the school, which will be easy to expand.

My aim is to improve upon my technical competencies with digital equipment and their associated software. Additionally, I look forward to re-acquainting myself with material learned in my Dip Ed and access more current theories and their application in creating a student with the skills, knowledge and attitudes for the present needs of the global community.

Thank you for spending time learning about me and I look forward to reading your comments and learning about you all as well.

God Bless.

Michelle Carter

Life is too short to be too serious!
Live and let live!

Welcome To My Blog

Today is orientation for Commonwealth Certificate for Teacher ICT Integration at the Ministry of Education office located at London Street Port-of-Spain.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Michelle Carter and I am a Secondary School Educator. I believe that this train the trainer course will provide the necessary impetus towards meaningful ICT integration in schools.

I know that facilitation of ICT integration by creating a sufficient number of well trained facilitators is a step in the right direction alongside certification of all teachers in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Looking forward to participating in a community of learners in the ICT arena.


Michelle Carter