Archive for September 2009
Netbooks in primary school
Posted by: ashleytan on: September 30, 2009
Thanks to a Tuck Soon, I discovered a my paper article yesterday on how some North Vista Primary School students were using netbooks.
Click the image above to see a larger version.
I am glad and mad for a couple of reasons. First, the reasons why I am glad.
I have written about netbooks before, the earliest almost [...]
Alan November on integrating technology
Posted by: ashleytan on: September 29, 2009
Here is a video offering interesting perspectives on technology integration in schools. Here are my takeaways…
Video source
Alan November believes that schools are using the Internet mostly for information instead of collaboration. He also added that the biggest barrier is not teaching teachers how to use technology but for them to shift control to students. Students [...]
Alternative assessment?
Posted by: ashleytan on: September 28, 2009
I started thinking about how we assess teacher trainees here in NIE. While my thoughts are still forming, I think that we should be evaluating them instead.
It never ceases to amaze me how well some of my teacher trainees write when they reflect in their blogs. It also never surprises me how poorly constructed some [...]
Delayed impact
Posted by: ashleytan on: September 25, 2009
Teachers know that their efforts are likely to manifest only over after a long time. They bump into former students and they see how far they have come (or how far they have fallen).
What about teacher educators? When do we see the fruits of our labour? I recall telling one batch of my teacher trainees [...]
Google Apps in schools
Posted by: ashleytan on: September 24, 2009
Two days ago, I tweeted MOE’s press release on how all schools here were adopting cloud computing in the form of Google Apps. I thought that was wonderful news.
What do other people think of it? Chris Dawson who is far away in Massachusetts and a fan of Google Apps seemed pleased for us, but he [...]
Think and act as teachers
Posted by: ashleytan on: September 23, 2009
One of the things I tell my teacher trainees at the beginning of the semester is to “think and act as teachers, not as students”.
NIE calls them student teachers, but I think too many see themselves as the former rather than the latter. The rest of the world might label them preservice teachers but this [...]
Online teaching, cheating, learning styles
Posted by: ashleytan on: September 21, 2009
RSS feeds delivered these useful resources. I am putting them online as I also use my blog as idea cloud that I can revisit.
Online teaching tips
http://www.onlineteachingtips.org
Do students cheat more in online classes? Maybe not.
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Do-Students-Cheat-More-in/8073/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Student “learning styles” theory is bunk
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/daniel-willingham/the-big-idea-behind-learning.html
Second Life course
Posted by: ashleytan on: September 18, 2009
Warren Sheaffer of Saint Paul College offers a course called Second Life Basics. This is part of a certificate for its Computer Information Systems Technology programme [article].
Here are some choice quotes that I extracted from the article:
We’re challenging the whole notion of concrete, sequential learning by offering a rich learning environment that allows students to [...]
