blended learning 的联想

a fellow co-learner in the course wrote this as part of weekly reflection activity:

“混成式的学习方式,和一般的面对面的上课学习,在时间上的付出更多。面对面的上课,一下课就是下课,可以不去管它了。但是混成式的学习方式好像不是这样,有帖子A,B,C,有贴1反2,有反思等等。对于“自主学习”和“协作学习”的概念,就一直跟着我,好像每一天都要拿出来在脑子里想一想。虽然每天都在想它们,想得很多很多,一有空就想,无时无刻都在想,但是要把所想的都打写出来,又没有那么多的时间。”

混成式学习的“阴魂不散”,其实所发挥的仅仅是ICT教学所提供的可能性,即每一个人,不受时空限制,只要有想法、有问题,都能够展开或进入学习的“状态”。

这里也深刻带出另一个问题,即ICT绝对和“省时”搭不上关系。或许在基本材料的准备从长远来看是省下了一些时间,但是作回复、为回复而事先搜索查证、阅读、理解,整理内容发帖子分享想法、问题,这些种种的种种都是需要大量精神与时间的付出的。

当学生都积极学习时,教师的“Happy Problem”出现了。试想,当班上40名学生的“学习引擎”若被我们开动了,那种学习所产出的排山倒海的内容不是一个教5班带200个学生的教师所能招架的。怎么办?!?

这或许就是为什么我们要培养学生的SDL和CoL。有了SDL的自我监控(无论是个人学习,或是对小组负责),都能省却教师一些“监控”的时间,转而把精神放在引导学生;有了CoL,小组内出现分工,学习不再是一个人的事,同侪间各有所得、各有长进。最重要的是,学习将是学生主动、教师辅动的意义建构中产生的。

我们目前的挑战或许是,有些华文老师也许觉得有太多的“课文要教”、“技能要教”。要让学生有机会负起SDL、CoL式的学习,或许还得从教师如何看待“学习”这回事着手,才有可能改变教学的设计。是这样吗?

感激老师的这一段反思,推进了我的思考 (:

2nd reflection on course 12470-00002 facilitation

转眼下周一就要是课程的“结束”会晤了。需要做准备的事已在脑海萦绕了几天了。

回顾过去10天的线上交流活动,相较于上一轮的课,这一回的老师们在个别讨论的互动率有明显的增多。这主要集中在分享个人的经验和想法,也有一部分的回复是衍生的问题。“质疑性”的问题(questioning assumptions)则还未多见,这或许是老师们对彼此尊重的“文化”表现吗?又或是老师们还不习惯问“为什么” (Why)的问题?急不来,文化是要时间改变的,习惯是要时间培养的 (:

上一轮课的结束会晤我主要做了整个讨论的内容分析和观察,感觉有些过于“说教”,参与度能进一步提高就更好。思索着,是否应该给老师们“增添”一份会晤前的“功课”,让愿意准备想分享的老师(“sdl”)谈谈他们对于这次课的经验如何影响他们日后设计SDL/CoL课时的过程和课本身的内容,限时5分钟,由此或许能引起一些讨论和擦出进一步的火花来? *hmmmm* 还得想一想。

得去做我的“说教”部分的准备了,期待再度与老师们会晤面对面继续我们的思考与探索 (:

rainbow photo(acknowledgement: photo by werner22brigitte)

classroom, the return

it’s been 7 yrs since i was away from the classrooms, away from teaching, away from marking, away from graduating students, away from the whole list of roles and responsibilites. today, marks a day in history where i returned to the classroom, and ‘graduated’ students, not from the school, but from a course, the ICT for Meaningful Learning (aka QED 527). the fellow teachers in my tutorial group 8 belong to the january 2012 intake.

(from left to right, in order of appearance, regardless of front or back): Low Yee Lin, Fu Hsun, Oh Siew Gein, Huang Yin Chiao, You Lixia, Zhang Rui, Lim Xin Yi, Serene Eng, Kenny Wong Boon Chong, Koh Xue Ting, Lee Chain Ting, Nurul Musfirah, Huang Chenmei Juliet, Jacob Jonathan, Wee Wen Jie Melissa, Linus Chan, Mohamed Hafiz bin Mohamed Ridwan, Shian Pui Kuen, Zhuang Junming Edwin, Shang Xiaoyan, Chew Kechang, Ong Zi Xiang, Cheu Siew Lan, Chang Qi Yin Zoe, Dai Qi, Deng Kaihua, & Lim Kaihui. (not in picture Melanie Kee)

all the best to one and all (:

Two new books published for teachers!

(cross posting my 3-mths old post in The ICT Connection Happenings blog, which is opened to ‘members’ only)

—- <begin cross posting> —-

It’s been 1 year since the launch of The ICT Connection portal. Part of our objectives is to deepen the common understanding of the multifaceted concepts of mp3. In-line with this objective, we have worked over the past many months with the NIE professors. And today, we are pleased to share with you that two new books are now available for download through this portal.

 

The first book is titled “Self-Directed Learning with ICT: Theory, Practice and Assessment (By Tan Seng Chee et al.)

 

And the second book is “Advancing Collaborative Learning with ICT: Conception, Cases and Design (By Chai Ching Sing et al.)


With these two newly written books, one touching on SDL, and the other on CoL, we hope educators in schools will benefit from reading them as much as we do. Enjoy! (:

—- <end cross posting> —-

LK has also a post on the two books here (:

a quick n brief response

if i may quote sabrina’s tweets:

“time seems to be THE issue during ICT mentor discussions on ICT lesson implementation. is it becos our timetable isn’t made for ICT lessons?” … “if we’re to really go forth with ICT in every aspect of learning & teaching, our current entire system needs an overhaul?”

it’s going to take too many tweets to response, so return to blog instead. i think we’re dealing with a few issues here:

1. we’re still very much operating in an efficiency+ability-driven mode, though we are trying hard to transit to aspiration-based mode.

2. our emphasis for ICT use leans towards developing a 21st century learner (hence, self-directed, self-discovery, collaborative & lifelong learner etc). even without the use of ICT, developing a 21st century learner requires a paradigm change in beliefs about learning and teaching, and leading on an entire pedagogical change/shift. perhaps a more fundamental question to ask is, how far have we shifted in terms of this paradigm change in teachers’ belief? if so, using ICT requires teachers to move 2 leaps forward, instead of 1.

3. if content mastery is perceived as very important (again something to do with teachers’ belief), and in the name of efficiency, content delivery (cf. personal meaning-making; construction; creation) becomes the way to go! cos the more knowledge one stuffed into a student, the more a student would have learnt! (or has learning takes place someone with a different belief might ask)

when we put the above together, if it is no wonder a teacher has no time, cos there’s so much to “deliver”, a belief system to change, and the technicalities of any ICT to pick up (not to mention ICT appears and changes so fast, new versions get rolled out so quickly). i think i have not covered all influencing factors, but the above is enough to make any teacher pants (and pants a 1000 times) any moment.

“a system overhaul” is needed indeed, but our system is already trying hard to shift (if we reflect upon the philosophy behind those many initiatives which teachers again cried “make us extremely busy, no time, etc.”. if anything is to be overhauled, it is a teacher’s personal belief (which influence all his/her actions) needs an overhaul first i felt.

— changelog —
minor edits to (3) to include the ‘efficiency’ view on Apr 1, 2016