As time progresses, methods of instruction are being metamor phosed and updated continually. The days of 'Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child' are slowly vanishing and newer ways of instilling knowledge are being introduced in schools worldwide. Where only direct instruction and repetition were the chief means of learning, teachers are now using a variety of teaching aids to stimulate the various senses of the students.
Every student has a different learning capacity and each child learns better from a different set of senses. For example, some students learn better from stimulation through sound or rhythm, some through visual stimulation and others through touch.
To reach the most number of students, the teacher needs to create a variety of learning experiences. This can best be made possible through use of technology and multimedia in the classroom.
Today, technology has made it possible to access a sea of information through just a click of a button. The internet has opened vistas for an assortment of educational benefits. Students can use it to research on a given topic, share ideas, directly ask an expert on the topic, discuss it in online forums and finally put together a school project or a multi-media presentation.
The internet has also facilitated collaborative work among peers, whereby, students in a project group can mutually discuss what they want to put into their project and work together from their own individual homes. What's more, schools can use it to keep students and parents updated with the latest school events and PTA meetings, inform about any emergency holidays and even provide immediate results of any examination or test given through their website.
With the help of e-mail, teachers can post lecture notes to absentees or all the students in general, absentees can submit their projects or homework from home, and teachers and parents can use it to keep in touch with one another about their child's performance in class.
Scholastica in Dhaka has used this approach to allow the school to keep in touch with parents at all times. They have started an SMS service that keeps parents informed about important school announcements and provides other emergency notifications. They also maintain a database of email addresses of parents and use it to get in touch with them, even if they are not in the country. Parents can also communicate with the school through email with their individual queries, complaints or suggestions. This way, parents can remain updated with their child's progress no matter where they are.
Besides the internet, there are numerous multimedia programs designed to meet the special needs of diverse learners. For example, a student learning English as a second language would benefit from a computer program where they could learn the language at their own pace. They could spend as much time as needed on the computer, without feeling pressured to keep up with other students in the class. One class may consist of a range of students, each with a different preferred way of learning. One cannot expect all teachers to teach every student in their preferred way and pace, but a computer program or multimedia application may have the capabilities of doing so without taking additional time away from other students. By utilizing such programs, a single teacher can employ many more resources and methods within one classrooms, rather than teaching the information in one manner to all students. A wide range of such educational software is available for every subject imaginable and teachers can use these effectively for their benefit.
Educators can also use the multitude of software available that are designed primarily for them, such as time-table generators and other class management software that help teachers to record, analyze and summarize attendance and student test scores. Such software save time, ensure accuracy, make the assessments more objective and fair and allow for flexible and easy changes. There are even software that can transform any text into fun classroom activities, like crosswords, jumbles, flashcards, pair-matching puzzles, and more.
Interactive White Boards are revolutionising the education sector today all over the world, and SMART Technology has pioneered in this revolution with their SMART Boards. The blackboard, chalk and eraser may become obsolete with this new technology that retrieves information, notes and lessons with a simple click. According to the official website of SMART technology (www.smarttech.com), a SMART Board is "an interactive whiteboard that connects to a computer and draws the power it needs from the computer.
The SMART Board driver automatically starts when the computer is turned on, and the interactive whiteboard becomes active once the driver is running. When (the SMART Board) connects a digital projector to your computer, you can project the computer image onto the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. The SMART Board driver converts contact with the interactive whiteboard into mouse clicks or digital ink. This feature enables you to use your finger as a mouse or write overtop of applications."
With the help of the SMART Board touch screen, teachers can make their lesson more interactive, allowing students to directly interact with the application on the Board. It has also been reported to enhance student concentration and participation in class. Since it is basically connected to a computer, it can do everything that a computer can, including accessing the internet and running multimedia applications. To top that, colored digital pens provided with the Board can be used to highlight, mark or write over. This makes it ideal for teaching maps or diagrams. Moreover, teachers can easily save the notes and markings that she had used during her lecture and use them for later reference or to distribute them to the students at the end of her lecture.
Unfortunately, due to the high cost, very few educational or training institutions in Bangladesh have been found to use SMART Boards. However, if the cost is weighed against the teaching benefits, SMART Boards may prove to be quite worth it, especially in boosting the institution's reputation.
Interactive Personal Response Systems (PRS) are yet another wonder of technology for modern education. It includes a radio frequency (RF) remote for each student in the class, a central receiver, whiteboarding software and assessment software, which tally student responses, record attendance, post test results and provide individual feedback. In this way, the PRS systems provide a direct wireless connection between the teacher and students.
With it, the teacher displays or speaks prepared or ad hoc questions, students anonymously key in answers with their remote, and responses are tallied, then displayed on a projection screen or interactive whiteboard immediately.
The advantages of this system are manifold. It allows frequent questioning and feedback, which engages students more actively in the material being studied. This data can then be used to provide relevant in-class feedback, and to adjust instruction according to identified needs. Moreover, Students send their responses privately, so they are free to answer without feeling judged by peers.
The International School Dhaka (ISD) has used of the advantages of integrating technology into education through their Laptop programme. All students of Grades 9-12 are required to have a laptop at school everyday. Student laptops are configured by their IT Department for use with their wireless network so that students can access resources found on the school server and via the Internet during their regular lessons. Of course, such kind of technology becomes a breeding ground for plagiarism, but the school has ensured originality of student submissions by subscribing to Noodle Tools and Turn It In.
The Noodle Tools software is designed to help students with online research and provides bibliographic citations. The software can be accesses by students from both school and home. Turnitin.com helps teachers to detect non-original work and plagiarism. Assignments submitted to Turnitin.com are compared with all other digital documents available on the Internet, including other student submissions.
Sadly, although private schools have started taking the initiative, the public schools of Bangladesh give little importance to technology or the use of computers. The whole world is making a transition into the age of information and if Bangladesh and its citizens do not want to be left behind, every effort should be made to inculcate computer skills among students in the public schools as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment