Final thoughts

     After taking this course with Dr. Myint, I learnt many new strategies and techniques that are going to help me in my teaching especially in IT field.

     Knowing about how students learn better, what the environment they should be in during there learning and how to deal with individuals differences are some of the main issues facing us as teachers.

     I learn from this course how it's important to know that there are different learning styles inside the classroom, that’s going to help me to do different types of activities in my class. Also, I learnt new way to explain the projects to my students through the WebQuest, which is going to help me as a teacher and my student.

     Finally, I think this was amazing course, I benefited from it, and I like the way Dr.Myint explain the topics, he makes the lesson much easier and enjoyable.

                                                                              

Game, Simulation & Virtual Reality ( Reflection of week 8 )

     With all these improvements in many fields in technology, we can notice that the great improvements are in games.

    Nowadays, most of our students are familiar with using the internet and they spend lots of the time playing different type of games. So, as teachers we all should be aware of the impact of games on our students.

     From my experience in teaching I found that the students are interested a lot in playing different type of games and they like to discover new games always, so I tried to deliver some of my lessons as a game and it worked.

    Through my readings to the websites provided in our lecture, I searched for games that can be applied in my classroom and I found some games which will help me a lot in teaching.

Concept Maps ( Reflection of week 7 )

     A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. It is used to organize information to be presented in easy way to understand and remember.

     There are many types of mind maps such as, Sequential Map, Cyclical Map, and Hierarchical Map.

     Personally I like to use mind map in studying and teaching, because it is easy way to present the lesson by putting the main topic in the center of the map then the basic ideas, it helped me a lot as a teacher and as a student.

     Today there are some IT programs that help us a lot in drawing and presenting these maps in easy and interesting way and I think these programs will make the learning easier to deliver and the students are having fun and enjoying their time while they are learning.

   

WebQuest (Reflection of week 6)

    

     WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented tool for learning; this means it is a classroom-based lesson in which most or all of the information that students explore and evaluate comes from the World Wide Web. Beyond that, WebQuests:

• can be as short as a single class period or as long as a month-long unit;
• usually (though not always) involve group work, with division of labor among students who take on specific roles or perspectives;
• Are built around resources that are preselected by the teacher. Students spend their time USING information, not LOOKING for it.

     As we know that WebQuest is one of the inquiry-based learning methods that the students are the center of learning. As I mentioned in the previous reflection these type of leanings were success when I try it with my students, and from my simple experience I apply WebQuest in explaining the project for the students to show them what the project should contain and how I am going to evaluate them. 

     I can say that using this will help my students a lot in the future because everything is clear about it such as: introduction, task, process, evaluation and conclusion. That's why it much easier to understand and apply than other strategies and methods.

Inquiry-based learning (Reflection of week 6)

     There is an old saying says: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand"

     From here comes the idea of Inquiry-based learning which means learning is mainly involving the learner and leading him to understand. Inquiry here implies on the possessing skills and attitude of yours, which allows you to ask questions about new resolutions and issues while you are gaining new information.

     Personally, I tried this type of learning in my classes last year, it was in specific area in ICT "creating movies using movie maker", I can say it was totally success experience and all of my students create amazing movies using this program.

     First I asked the students if they know anything about movie maker program, after that I evaluate their skills at that area, then I asked them to set in groups and search through the internet and try to find tips that is going to help them to improve themselves in that area.

    Finally, I discuss with them about this strategy of learning, they all agree and enjoy it and they said that they learn more because they create something and understand it; even they are able after the lesson to evaluate themselves and their movies.

    Now, when I think about the whole situation in applying this type of learning, I see that my role was a facilitator and motivator, also I surprised when I see what my students create it was amazing and they work hard to create the best.

    

In my opinion Inquiry-based learning is focusing in what the students know and try to improve it, build on what they know and interested in and encourage meta-cognitive thinking that’s why I decide to apply it.  

Student-Center learning (Reflection of week 3)

We all notice the huge and fast improvement in the Education field. And because of this fast improvement new educational terms were born such as flexible learning, self-directed learning, experimental learning and much more.

All of these terms are linked directly to one major term which is Student-center learning, that type of learning moves the teacher from the center of learning which has so many disadvantages because the teacher presents the book's information and then assess the student on the book's material only, without any chance for students to think, try to search in other resources and link what they learn in school with their real lives.

Student-Center learning focus on student themselves and their individual differences which gives the chance for creativity, sharing resources and let the students know why and what they should learn. Students are learning by doing something, thinking, observing recording and discovering.

Personally, I prefer to apply student-center learning in my lessons because its moves me as a teacher from just a presenter to a facilitator and motivator, it focus more on the students needs and their capabilities and opens the students mind to think and link what they are studying the their lives.

My role as a teacher is teaching the student how to learn, share resources and make sure that they are competent in my subject by evaluating them and getting the feedback to improve my teaching skills, but I can see that sometimes (not always), using Teacher-Center learning (or mixing between two strategies) will be better for students in special lesson when the students were not the center of learning from their primary levels and they are afraid of changing they way they used to learn.  

The Computer modes in Education (Reflection of week 2)

All Information and Communications Technologies such as multimedia, computers, networks and other various services provided by the improved technologies are adopted to be used in new teaching strategies.

These new technologies can be used as a Tutor, Tool and Tutee.

·         To function as a Tutor in any subject the computer must be programmed by experts then the computer presents the subject materials, the students responds and the computer evaluates the students responding.

·         To function as a Tool, the computer should have the basic programs that the students can use them to in other subjects such as graphics programs in mechanical drawings subjects.

·         To function as a Tutee, the student teaches the computer (students learn by programming the computer), so the students use some of the programming languages.

I think all of these uses of computers in Education can improve the learning outcomes, students can take advantage of using these technologies to learn anywhere and all this improvement in communications makes sharing resources much easier.

In my opinion there are some negative sides of all this improvements in ICT field such as lack in social communications and spending to many hours a day in front of computers screens may cause a serious health issues.