Module 14 : Adult Learning

ASSIGNMENT 1: PERSUADING OTHER ADULT LEARNERS TO USE ICT'S IN THE CLASSROOM.

(Group assignment)

Groupmembers:

- H. Simson
- P.Amat
- J. Van der Zijde
  R. Bergen
- B. Cotino 

Description of the video

               ASSIGNMENT 2:  TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

There are a lot of benefits of using technology in general but today I would like to discuss the benefits of using technology in the classroom.

I am a supporter of using ICT's in the classroom, because:
- in today's world, ICT is a part of everyday life. Students use it, teenagers love it and to keep them interested in the subject matter, they should be allowed to use technology during classes.

- Using ICT's in the classroom is more fun, for example you can let students do a lot of creative multimedia projects e.g. like using Toondoo to make a story around a certain theme e.g. poverty, letting students do interactive and dynamic presentations etc.

- Nowadays almost every student has a mobile phone. Teachers should make use of that, because now information is available at just a push of a button in contrast to my days where I had to go to the library to gather information about a certain subject. It is also a way to test the students' knowledge about a certain theme or sublect before a test e.g. socrative.

- Ofcourse one argument of teachers who don't want to use technology is, that students get easily distracted, but I believe that with the right coaching and monitoring of the teacher, that can be minimized. It is beyond of a doubt ofcourse that using technology in class rooms should have an educational purpose.

- What's also important for the students to get motivated is that the teachers must also be motivated, they must be willing to learn new things, because if they are not motivated, their behavour will also reflect upon their pupils.

- There are not a lot of  schools in Suriname that are seriously thinking about ICT in the education of the students, to implement ICT. I think that that should change because using ICT's in class in a responsilble way,  will certainly lead to the improvement and benefit of the students.

ASSIGNMENT 3: MENTORING AND GIVING FEEDBACK

Peer lesson of Miguel Cramer

The lesson was a physics lesson, about length.

Good:
The lesson was clear, the voice loud enough and there was interaction. The personal guidance of Mr. Cramer of the students was good. The use of ICT's was good. He used google to answer questions of the students. He taught them how to go to the site. He asked questions and he encouraged the students.

Improvement:
He told the students at the beginning of the lesson, that they had already heard about the subject earlier, but it would be better to ask the students if they still remember the subject and what they still remember. All the ICT's which he had to work on, in order to save time, he could have done them before the beginning of the lesson.

But all in all it was a good performance.

ASSIGNMENT 4: MY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

My CAREER DEVELOPMENT you can read here


My Personal Development Plan

What is my current state?
What are my strengths?			Strengths: 1.       Communication skills 2.       Empathic
What are my weaknesses?			Weaknesses: 1.       Impatience 2.       Hesitant
What are the common feedbacks (positive & negative) that I received from others?			Positive: 1.       I can motivate and inspire others 2.       I come up with very good ideas Negative: 1.       I have to slow down my phase 2.       I am pre-occupied 3.       Distracted
What other performance indicators can I notice?			Performance indicators: 1.       Team Player 2.       Efficiency 3.       Taking initiatives
Decision on priority focus areas derived from the above.			Focus area priority: 1.       Work on time management 2.       More confidence 3.       Result oriented
What is my desired state?
What do I hope to improve/achieve?		1.       Ambition: management 2.       Problem solver 3.       Good listener 4.       Improve learning and teaching methods Why do I want it? 1.       For my own personal development 2.       Making a difference in students’ learning/education 3.       To keep me motivated and focused
How do I get there? What is needed?
What must I improve / learn/ experience to achieved that desired state? What are the possible resources to learn/ experience/ improve?	Requirements: 1.       I need to make a planning, work out my time management program. Divide my time wisely between my family, my job and the training. Create a balance. 2.       Work on my self-confidence, be less pre-occupied with what others say. 3.       Keep myself motivated, focused and up to date. Learning new things, enlarging my teachers’ circle, visit educational sites like sites that are about teaching methods etc. Resources: 1.       A mentor with teaching experience and who uses ICT in the classroom. 2.       My colleagues, who can make me see teaching from a different perspective. 3.       The internet 4.       Social media 5.       The Ministry of Education who can for example organize trainings, workshops for teachers to keep them up to date and giving them tools to use with regard to teaching.
Timeline and Schedule
When do I want or need to achieve the desired state? What is my schedule to work on these focus areas?			Monday - Friday: 7.00 – 13.00 : Teaching 13.00 – 14.30: Picking the kids op. 15.00 – 17.00: eating/resting 17.30 – 20.00: Kids/House/Schoolwork 20.30 – 22.10: entertainment (TV) etc. 23.00 : Sleeping Saturday: 7 – 12.00: Teaching 12.30 – 15.00: schoolwork 15.30 – 20.00 : Bringing kids to sports training and staying with them. Sunday: 8.00 – 11.00 : Sunday Market Focus area: Thursday and Friday: 18.00 – 21.00 : focusing on the ICT training, doing assignments Sunday: 17.00 – 20.00: Doing assignments, visiting educational sites like Socrative to think about new ways of teaching.	Start date: Monday 13 February 2017 Short term goal: -          To keep up to date with the ICT in Education program, so that the assignments do not get piled up. Medium term goal: To get my certificate. Long term goal: To be an innovator at the school where I teach, by helping my colleagues using ICT’s in their classroom too. By getting stakeholders interested to implement ICT's in the curriculum,

 

ICT Skills

Through out the study I have learnt how to create a blog, share content (On google +)

Problem solving (e.g. candle problem etc)

At school I let the students use Toondo, Popplet, Google Sketchup etc to create cartoons, drawings, stories about certain subjects like budget etc.

Some Google apps I use  are Google Calendar, Google Keep and Trello. For example when I make some promises to my students like when they will get their grades etc, Google Calendar gives me a reminder and lets me keep track of certain activities. So it makes it easy, effective and efficient.

Media creation: I made a one minute Video

Learning Inventory and Personalized Learning

What's My Learning Style? 

After taking the test my scores were as follows:

Auditory: 50% Visual: 35% Tactile: 15%

So it seems I am an Auditory learner!
If you are an auditory learner, you learn by hearing and listening. You understand and remember things you have heard. You store information by the way it sounds, and you have an easier time understanding spoken instructions than written ones. You often learn by reading out loud because you have to hear it or speak it in order to know it. As an auditory learner, you probably hum or talk to yourself or others if you become bored. People may think you are not paying attention, even though you may be hearing and understanding everything being said.

Here are some things that auditory learners like you can do to learn better.
Sit where you can hear. Have your hearing checked on a regular basis. Use flashcards to learn new words; read them out loud. Read stories, assignments, or directions out loud. Record yourself spelling words and then listen to the recording. Have test questions read to you out loud. Study new material by reading it out loud.
Remember that you need to hear things, not just see things, in order to learn well.

Personalized Learning 
Each student has his/her own phase of learning. I tried to change the learning environment at school, by letting the students sit in groups and each group has a laptop. I used Kahoot to explain some terms with regard to "budget", which was the subject I had to do with the students. Some groups chose a PowerPoint presentation, others made a cartoon to explain what a "budget" is,

21st Century Learning

An example of 21st century learning (an assignment) is  here 

Evidence of efficiency 

I use Google Calendar to be more efficient in my performance as a teacher. It gives me reminders, helps me to keep track of certain activities, helps with my time management etc.

Using ICT's to Enhance Learning

A Project we did was called " Encouraging English Elementary School".

Our goal was to develop methods, systems, tools, services, products etc. in order to encourage learning, in this case English, at a fun, educational, entertaining and easy way,. We came up with a prototype which is a method where, by using karaoke, the pupils  learned new words and  made sentences with these words.

The target groups were students of the 5th grade, because in Suriname teachers start teaching English at the 5th grade, so to pupils between 10 - 12 years.  

You can watch the blog  here .   For the project we did this presentation   and used this ICT Tool

We also made this video  of the project.

As a teacher I started to use ICT's in my classroom and also encouraged students to do so.

For example, I had to explain some economical terms like "inflation", GDP etc  so what I did was I made groups of three to four students. I asked each group to do some research, and explain it to me at the next lessen. The students came up with videos from Youtube, Khan Academy etc.

I noticed that the students are also very interesd in ICT, because previously students  used only tradional methods for a presentation, but nowadays they use a lot of ICT's, One assignment they are doing now is to write a simple business plan and present it. Some students used a mixture of traditional tools and ICT's. 

One group's business plan was about a child care center. This group created a play room and used ICT's to develop and present their business plan.

My timeline

TechCamp

I participated at TechCamp 2015, organized by the American Ambassy and the Backlot.

TechCamp focused on using technology in innovative ways in the education system. TechCamp participants and trainers came up with ideas on how to solve problems regarding infrastructure in schools (no internet) and how to encourage collaboration among teachers across Suriname who want to make a difference in the educational system by using ICT's in their classroom.

For a closer look, visit : 

http://ow.ly/UQu1w

Certificate Cohort 1

CERTIFICATE FIRST YEAR

On the 28th of October, I received my certificate for ICT in Education (year 1).

It motivates me to continue. I also hope to finish the second year successfully.