Second Presentation on IWB

This is the second presentation for the 'smart board' activities that we have came out with. As for my group, we chose Siti Zarne's activities as the best to be presented. We are glad to receive some positive feedbacks though they are negative ones as well. Prof. commented on our presentation as simple but yet interesting and variety. However, we still to work on the fonts and the picture size so that it is large enough.

Overall, based on the presentations, Prof. Raja Maznah and her team member, Miss Ng, Miss Chin Chin and Mr Hafiz, emphasize on what we should consider on before submitting our final products.

First, we need to justify why we chose that particular activity. Every single step and activity need to be justified why included the rubrics used as well. Next, pictures used should be related to the kids' knowledge. They must be familiar to pupils and are able to catch pupils' interest. Last but not least, learning outcomes must be specific to what you intended the pupils to achieve at the end of the lesson.

So, it's time to work on the final touch....

Smart Board : Presentation

Well, this is the day when we chose the best smart board activity among five of us to be presented. Based on what all of us have presented, i have to admit that the products that we came out with are 'up to the standard' yet. And thus, i am glad that we are given more time to polish our smart board activities.

We all also given some tips by our lecturer and the rest of the tutors in order to make our 'smart board activities' more appealing to 'young learners'.

First, of course the font used should be large enough to be seen by the pupils especially to those who are sitting at the back. Next, the activities should provide immediate feedback such as " Well Done" and "Try Again". Then, of course, we need to beware of the grammar mistakes since we are teaching young learners, it is for sure that we do not want our pupils to fossilize the incorrect grammar use in them. Again, background used in the slides should be appropriate. I guess for some people who used 'too many characters' background, this makes the activities too compact and heavy for the pupils. Last but not least, the content must be related to the Curriculum Specification that we use. It is a must, otherwise your objectives won't be achieved at the end of the lesson. =D

Smart board 90 % in progress

Now, i think Prof. Raja Maznah and the rest of the tutors had made it all clear regarding to the criteria that we should take into consideration when doing our 'smart board' activities.
I used to think that when it comes to 'teaching young learners', there is a must for us to use large and clear wordings and thus i always use "Arial" to be safe. But now i realized that it is important to make the wordings interesting and 'eye catching' to pupils in order to trigger their interest participating in the activities that we will carry out in classroom. "Arial" or "Times Roman" are too boring for them. Perhaps i could change to "Comic Sans" or "Jokerman" then.

Moreover, we need to consider on the background colour and the images that we use in our slides. The colour should be 'nice to be seen' but it cannot be too striking beacuase it will distract pupils to pay attention on the input that we have prepared for them. Meanwhile, the images should be related to the topic chosen and of course images should also be interesting and suitable for young learners.

Another criteria that we need to consider on are 'various activities' and 'types of activities'. Well, i guess what i understand here is that the activities should be variety and interesting to pupils. and of course, when creating and activity, we need to make sure that all pupils are able to participate in the activities for examples in giving feedbacks or let them work in a group. Of course we don't want any of them to miss the activities, right?

Working on The Smart Board

Well, I guess that the rough idea of the whole lesson is already there. But it seems that it is not as easy as it looks to start working on the assignment itself. I have asked my group members regarding the ideas that i came out with, and they came out with positive feedbacks towards the idea. I guess that perhaps they couldn't say much because i haven't put it in slides. i could say that working in a group like this is even helpful to me. Why? Because i am a last minutes person or pehaps i could say it was now. However, having a group work like this, had pushed me to start working on my assignment rather earlier since. Of course i cannot be selfish when it comes to work in group, so i follow the time that we have sceduled for the progression of our works so that all of us can give feedbacks to what we have came out with so far in order to improve our work. I guess, 'all the best' to all'.

Happy working..

Assignment 3 : Smart Board

Well, first and foremost of course we need to work in a group. But as for my group, we are more comfortable to stick with the same group. The next thing is, we need to decide the subject for our smart board lesson, where here, we choose either mathematics or English. I guess i was a bit late to make my my own choice since they have already decided their own topic. so, i go for mathematics.

The first thing that i should always bear in mind in preparing a smart board activity is that it should be interactive and interesting enough, or otherwise, there's no use of using the "IWB" anyway. Next thing would be the originality or our own activity which i could say here is that the interactive activity should be original which is not the ready-made one that we can simply get from the 'smart board software'.

Well, i guess in order do start working on this, i should seek some opinions and advices regarding to the activity that we are required to create. I better get going then.

Video reflection

First of all, in order to create a video, the most important things to do is create a story board for the video. Story board is important because it is the outline and the first impression of the video itself. It is also important to plan first before we start working on the video making so that the video is progressing based on the storyline that we intended to produce. And what i have learned from the storyboard making is, a narration is the explanation of what will appear in each of the frame in the video.

Based on the video that i have produced, there are several new things that I have learned from it and one of them is the software that I used in the video making. To make a video, i guess it's important to choose the suitable software and for that I chose to use the "Cyberlink Power Director" and "Movie Edit Magic". This is because, Power Director provide interesting features and options to be used in my video making and this really help for a beginner like me. Meanwhile, Movie Edit Magic gives me the 'fast mode' feature so that i can show most of the part of the video that I have shoot within the lenght requirement which is 3 minutes.

More over, from the video making project, i have gained soft skills such as teamwork, communication skills, critical and creative thinking as well. From the video making, I have learned that it is important to have a clear instruction in the video depends on the purposes of the video itself. If let sat the target group is the primary school kids, thus, the instructions should be clear and precise to be be understood by the target group.

Getting Smarter...

As far as i remembered during my schooldays, tool that i can consider as the smartest is using the whiteboard and present our presentations in 'Power Point' with the aid of the LCD. That was about 6 years ago. And now, perhaps I could say that we are all moving much more steps ahead in the name of technology and globalization where our presentation nowadays is not only can be online but also interactive at the same time. When it comes to interactive, I guess it is even helpful in teaching and learning process in the classroom as young learners are encouraged to actively involve in the classroom activity with the use of interactive whiteboard. When they are actively involved, it means that they participate and concentrate to the lesson carried out. this could be a good sign in controlling them in class in term of the classroom management.

Moreover, using interactive tools like 'Interactive Whiteboard' aids young learners to understand the concept better especially in learning 'Mathematics and Science' and Grammar in English as well. When using interactive tools, teacher can simply assess the learners' understanding based on the answers given by them in the teacher's presentation. It is quick and easy.

However, in my point of view, it is quite costly to be implemented in all schools in this country. And therefore, not all schools are well-equipped with this 'Interactive whiteboard' yet. As a result, not all children have the opportunity yet to experience lesson in the classroom by using the 'Interactive Whiteboard'. I hope things will change in years ahead so that those children especially in the rural areas will not be left out.