What is the purpose of the COTF?

Personally, I feel that the concept of COTF is to promote Teach Less Learn More through increasing student centred learning approach. The approach of COTF focus on the learning outcomes; Goals and Objectives; instructional Strategy; Assessment; Teacher’s Role; Student’s Role and Learning Environment to design the COTF¹.

Characteristic of the following can be observed at COTF.

 The learning outcomes

• Interdisciplinary information and knowledge.
• Higher order thinking skills, for example: problem-solving.
• Information processing skills, e.g. access, organise, interpret, communicate information

Goals and Objectives

·                  Students work with teachers to select learning goals and objectives based on authentic problems and students’ prior knowledge, interests and experience.

 Instructional Strategy

• Teacher works with students to determine learning strategy.
• Self-paced, designed to meet needs of individual student.
• Student given direct access to multiple sources of information, e.g. books, online databases, community members.

Assessment

• Assessment is integral part of learning.
• Performance based, used to assess student’s ability to apply knowledge.
• Students work with teachers to define performance criteria.
• Students develop self-assessment and peer assessment skills.

Teacher’s role

• Teacher provides multiple means of accessing information.
• Teacher acts as facilitator, helps students access and process information.
• Teacher facilitates learning.

Student’s role

• Students take responsibility for learning.
• Active knowledge seekers.
• Construct knowledge and meaning.

Learning Environment

• Students work at stations with access to multiple resources.
• Students work individually at times but also need to collaborate in small groups.

  Characteristic / features of COTF & How it enhance the purpose of COTF? 

An air-conditioned classroom furnished with a long cozy sofa and bar like counter. The class room is designed to accommodate about 8 students with 4 students to a table for discussion purpose or group project. There are 2 round tables in which computers are embedded. The use of technology is very intensive: students may access to the wireless internet and able to find information at their finger tips. They can also communicate with students or researchers from other countries to exchange knowledge or even contribute to each others’ projects. The technology “erases off” the language barrier across countries. Activities carried out in the COTF are no longer teacher-centered, teacher plays a facilitator role while students are the once that take responsibility in what they have done. Activities such as designing your own project, educational games, group discussion among classmates or even with students from other countries can be carried out easily or even simultaneously with the present of technology in the COTF.In the science laboratory, students can take their attendance through scanning their individual hand held Ultra Mobile PC ( UMPC) via the infra-red technology in the smart classroom. These help the teacher save time marking attendance and lesson can straight away.  The lab is also supported by wireless and hence enhances e-discussion with other students, scientists or researchers from other countries whenever doubts or contradiction arises. The technology that in cooperated in the COTF encourages students to find solution on the spot since they have access to internet hence they are able to find information immediately and do not have to wait till after school. There is also LCD screen to show data or results to the students so that they can have a better understanding or view to the experiment that they are doing. There is an amphitheater where there are two round tables where 5 -6 students can sit around each table for discussion. There is a computer screen on each table. A “stylus” is provided for each table, it enables the students to do writing or drawing on the screen of the computer and it will be reflected on the other computer screens and also the teacher’s screen in front of the class. This enables interaction and instance discussion. There is also a wide screen on the wall where teacher can provide information on it. Students’ attendance is again detected electronically in this classroom. Teacher is able to monitor each of the students’ activities and their discussion more efficiently. The use of educational software, for example, graph plotter, helps in a great way to enhance learning.  The technology allows teacher to give questions and accumulate the results immediately hence errors are able to address immediately.The use of technology is not only limited to the school. The UMPC that the students are having can also use in public places to download information displayed in public places such as MRT electronic boards where information or music are placed. By tapping and downloading, the information from the electronic boards can be saved into the UMPC. Educational games such as war games that require shooting, flying air planes and etc are introduced to make learning more interesting. The game that I was exposed during the visit was a war game. The game is trying to teach physics concepts through playing the game. The topic was on projectile motion. This is part of the soft ware incorporated into the technology of COTF. The technology enables teachers to post reminder to the students after school to remind them on their homework or project. Parents can also monitor their children activities and keep on giving encouragement even though they are on other places far away. 

What I like about COTF:

-         Conducive environment

COTF is a very relaxing place to relax and for group discussion. Moreover it is conditioned hence students are able to study in a comfortable environment since Singapore is summer throughout the year and it is humid hence without air-conditional in class-room students may feel hot can could not concentrate.

Noise level is minimize since COTF is an enclosed room hence students can concentrate better and not easily distracted by surrounding noise.

- Instance results analysis

Teacher is able to analyze the students results in a short time, this is a good technology as the teacher is able to analyze the results immediately when the concepts are still fresh in their mind what they done; where and why they have gone wrong in the assignment.

- Updating parents easily

Homework or exam results can be sent to the parents directly, this allows parents to monitor their children’s work. This also encourages parents and teacher to work together closely.

  What I do not like about COTF

- War game

The war game that helps to learn Physics, students may just play with the game without understanding the concept of projectile motion hence problem may arise in this area.

Violence may also arise from the games that the students are exposed to.

- Wide screen

The wide screen stretch across the classroom is too wide for the students to look at. The colour is too light and makes reading more difficult. Hence it does not help by putting up a big screen as students are unable to view all the information on the screen at one look. The screen is far too big compare to our range of vision; I do not think that this is necessary in the class. It is a waste of resource.

- Too much computer screen

Too much of computer will affect the eye sights of our students since we know that they are belong to the IT age and they are going to use computers for hours when they reached home.

Reference:

1 Adapted from Atsusi Hirumi, Student-Centred Technology-Rich Learning Environments (SCenTRLE) – Operationalizing Constructivist Approaches to Teaching and Learning http://www.bath.ac.uk/e-learning/student_centredness.htm

Strengths

• Picture and audio used to capture students’ interest to introduce the topic
• Simple and clear layout hence instruction can be read easily.
• The font size is appropriate to ease reader’s reading       

Areas of improvement

•  “Click on the buttons to learn more” should be placed just below the two links so that students know where to click.
•  “ Click the icons to hear sound of the frog” can place at the last slide to as it is not related to the information that the teacher is teaching. The main objective is the Life cycle of Frog.  Hence the sound of the Frog should be place at the end of the lesson as a wrap up for the lesson.

Slide 2

Strengths

• Pictures are provided to show students different types of frogs.
• The texts and graphics allow reader to follow easily
• Space between the lines were appropriate for easy reading 

Areas of improvement

• Picture can be larger so that it will be clearer for students to see the different types of frogs.  
• The animation used on the words should come out in paragraph instead of coming out slowly. It is too slow for students to read.
• The bullets used should change to dot or dash as the bullet used is very confusing.
• Heading title used could be capital letter for every first letter and followed by small letters instead of all capital letter.

Slide 3

Strengths

• Life cycle was used to illustrate the life cycle of frog instead of explaining in words. This gives a better and deeper impression.
• Simple pictures, texts and background were used.
• Pictures were used to represent the stages which give students a clear view of how each stage of the frog looks like.

Areas of improvement

• The sentence: “CLICK ON THE STAGE THAT YOU WANT TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT”  slows down the reading speed. It is better to change the fronts to small letters.
• The pictures should  show the duration for each stage to enhance learning

Slide 4

Strengths

• There are links at the bottom of the slide for easy navigation to the different stages
•  Space between the lines are easy to read

 Areas of improvement

• Links could be in different coulour tone to make it more distinct.
• The links could have the “home” either on top or below the two arrows.
• The animation of the frog and the two pictures at the bottom of the slide are not relevant to the information provide in the slide. Infect it caused distraction the students.
•  The animation used on the words should come out in paragraph instead of coming out slowly. It is too slow for students to read.
• The bullets used should change to dot or dash as the bullet used is very confusing.

Slide 5  

Strengths

• Graphics used matches the information that is providing in each paragraph.
•  Consistent animations used for every paragraph makes reading more easily.

Areas of improvement

• The graphics can appear at the same time as the paragraphs appear so that students will not get distracted with the other graphics
• The navigation buttons should be consistent. They should be place at the bottom right hand side.
• Paragraph can be given in point form instead of the long sentence.
• The timing for each paragraph to come out is too slow.  Maybe there should not be animation in this part, used click to go to the next paragraph would be better. 

 Slide 6 

Strengths

• Appropriate font size, space between the lines and text for easy reading

Areas of improvement

• The animation used on the words should come out in paragraph instead of coming out slowly. It is too slow for students to read.
• The bullets used should change to dot or dash as the bullet used is very confusing.
• Paragraph can be given in point form instead of the long sentence.

·         Video 1 (Full computer lab)

 The classroom environment was appropriate because ICT was used to enhance learning experience and every student has a chance to have a hand on experience in what they were doing (using the computer as a learning tool). Instruction was given to allow learning to take place in a more systematic way.

·         Video 2 (Half computer lab)

The classroom environment was appropriate because ICT was used to enhance learning. There were also clear instructions given in the computer lab to allow students to enhance their learning experience. Discussion was carried out in pairs.

·         Video 3 (Learning centre)

The classroom environment was appropriate because students learn from a variety of tools. For example, the students used articles, lab top to find answers to their worksheets. They discussed with their classmates to check for answers. The teacher set aside sufficient time for each station and to go through the answer after all the students had finished going through all the station. This is a good practice as it is better to go through answers when all the information and questions are still fresh in the students’ mind.

·         Video 4(One computer classroom)

The classroom environment was appropriate because the teacher made use of only one computer to conduct her lesson. The classroom was chosen over the computer lab and I feel that it turned out to be very effective. This is because there are no barriers or obstacles between the students and the teacher, so the teacher can at one look observe who is not following the lesson.Moreover it is a pyramid game which involved students coming to the front to participate. The classroom setting forms a “participation audience” ambience. The students can also break up into groups simply by rearranging the furniture in the classroom. This is impossible in a computer lab.

 b. The students seems to be focused and on task. What strategies do you think the teacher has used to achieve this outcome?

·         1. Assigning seats according to register number.

This will assist the teacher in identifying which computer terminal belongs to which particular student. This manner also facilitates the students so there would not be any confusion or rushing of seats/computer terminals for the next lesson. Each student has a designated computer terminal.

·         2. Assign row leaders to collect CD-Rom from the teacher’s desk. 

This minimizes movement of students in the computer lab. This creates a more orderly fashion and also reduces chaotic noises.

·         3. Use coloured cup to get teacher’s attention.

The teacher uses this method-blue colour to indicate everybody is on task and okay; red colour to indicate query and to raise questions. This minimizes noise level, hand raising, shouting for teacher and etc. At one look, the teacher is able to go to the computer terminal to help those who need help.

·         4. Dim the lights to gather pupil’s attention.

In case the teacher wants the pupils to stop whatever they are doing and listen to his/her instructions, he does not need to shout but rather dimming the lights and the students will pause and listen to him.

·         5. Get IT representatives to do minor troubleshooting.

This helps relieve the teacher’s workload since the teacher may be attending to another student’s query. IT representative are trained to handle minor troubleshooting and they can help their fellow friends out.

·         6. Turning the mouse over.

This enables the teacher and row leaders to ensure all the computers have been shut down completely without having to go through every computing screen.

c. What potential classroom management issues can possible occur? What proposed solution(s) do you have?

·         1. Students want to “cliché” with their friends and sit together instead of following their index number to sit accordingly.

·         2. Students may navigate to other parts of the CD-Rom lesson instead of the following where the teacher wants them to go.

·         3. If many computers are not working, then sharing of computers terminal may occur. Class may get restless and noisy as some may not want to share.

·         4. Teacher may have to attend to many troubleshooting at a time. Students may get restless while waiting.

·         5. One-third of the time may be wasted to get the class to settle down, switch on the computer, run the CD-rom and leave with little time on the actual content. The teacher will not have sufficient time to conduct the lesson and practice with the class to test their understanding.  

Proposed Solutions:

1.        Teacher must always do a random check of student’s sitting arrangement. The best is teacher is able to remember the sitting arrangement to ensure that the students did not change place to sit with their friends.

2.        Allocate time for time to finish up a practice questions or example or lesson so that they will not make sure they finish their work first.

3.        Get help from the IT staff in school to be present during IT lesson to help out in troubleshooting and assisting the teacher. 

4.        Since time is an issue in an IT-based lesson, the teacher can do a demonstration of running the software and allow the students to have a hands-on session also. If there isn’t enough time, teachers can actually place the CD-Rom in the library and allow the students to loan and run the program in the library during their free time ( after school).   

• Teacher roles (score: 9)

Before the lesson, Daphne had actually tasked her students to scout for information about various environmental problems and possible solutions in the internet instead of just “spoon-feeding” them with the answers.Daphne also created a scenario for the students to participate in – being task as secret agents and convince the Budget Committee for World Environmental affairs to do something to salvage the environment. The students have to come up with a power point presentation with supporting facts and statistic to convince the Committee in releasing funds/budget to save the environment. This exercise aroused many of the students’ interests as it broke away from the convention way of studying using the textbook. Daphne had designed her lesson modules such that her pupils could take responsible for their leaning as this would help them learn better.After the presentation, Daphne also initiated a discussion forum where the rest of the class can direct questions to the presenters seeking any clarifications. In this manner, it is not the teacher but rather the students who are doing the analyzing and thinking part.

• Student roles (score: 7)

They ( the 2 presenter groups) took up initiative to scout the internet for problem, causes, effects and solutions of the various environmental problems. This broke away from the notion of “Teacher will always feed me with information and answers.”The presenter groups also took the effort to put together a well organized presentation to convince the committee crest of the class to fund their projects.While the groups presented, the rest of the class took notes and categorized the main presentation points using the Inspiration Software. They were very IT savvy and did not really depended on the teacher to help them with the templates.After presenting, the students were very eager to enter the discussion forum (online) and started querying the presenter groups. Although at times the students were asking irrelevant questions but Daphne intervened and began answering some of the questions and also asking a few of her own. But on the whole, the online discussion became a trigger for a lively face-to-face debate amongst the students.When it came to the section for making a decision, the students switched back to their inspiration templates to do a self reflection on what they have learnt. This also broke away from the thinking that the teacher will sum up the lesson for them. This foster independent and responsible learning techniques within students.

• Curriculum characteristics (score 10)

It is very much student-centered. The curriculum for that topic focused on learning through posing problem (by the presenter groups), exploring possible answers and developing students on presentation skills and analyzing problems and coming out with solutions.It trained the students to pursue goals that specify general abilities such as problem-solving, discussion and research skills. The curriculum allowed the students to explore anything within the scope of the topic- Environmental Degradation rather than just focusing on keywords given by the textbook on that topic.

• Learning goals(score 0)

In Daphne’s class, the students are learning from each other rather than from the teacher. While the presenter groups present information to the class, the students listening were taking down notes and trying to link the key points together using the inspiration template. The teacher merely acts as a facilitator.

• Types of activities (score 9)

There are a lot of hands-on by the students. They did research on the internet and basically the whole questions and answers session, online forum , poll are all centered around the students. Daphne merely plays a facilitator role.

• Assessment strategies ( -)

The presenter group were assessed based on the information they researched, presentation skills and slides layout (more graphical)The rest of the class was assessed based on the questions they have for the presenter group. The way the students link the key points in the inspiration template and self-reflection on what they have learn

• Use of ICT (score 10)

Daphne’s class, the students used the internet, power point presentations as tools to construct and deliver content to their classmates. They did not just copy content from the textbook / CD rom (pre-packed) but rather they went online for an open-ended source of information. The committee (the rest of the class) used inspiration software to note down and link the key points.  The use of online forum effectively taps the advantages of  ICT because noise levels in class can be reduced and many students can participate and give their comments at the same time. Students can also participate at their own paces.Overall, I felt that this lesson was student centred.