Foundation Blocks

On Wednesday 27^th July, in commemoration of UWI’s 50^th Anniversary, Dr. Conrad made a very inspiring speech addressing the issue of “Enhancing the Literacy Initiatives: It takes Village” – she being a strong advocate for literacy development. It was very, very unfortunate that so many of you were caught up in “the Web [2.0]” and were therefore, unable to attend. She addressed so many pertinent issues that a blog post would not afford me sufficient space to do justice to her presentation. You all should have been there, it was simply mind bugging. However, as I pondered over an issue to discuss with you in a blog post, I came across Heather Ifill-Homeward”s post, “Do you know what is Audioblox?” and this immediately caught my attention.

Upon reading her post, I thought it aptly addressed one of the pertinent issues addressed by Dr. Conrad that of recognizing that learning is a stratified process and that there are foundational learning skills which are of paramount importance to the success of future learning. Strangely enough, during my session with Mrs. Aisha Wood-Jackson (concerning Lessons) earlier that Wednesday, she also spoke passionately about what teachers are doing to scaffold how students learn those foundational literacy skills. She made multiple references to giving students enough time and opportunities to practice those skills because they are so fundamental to successful learning.

You have missed Dr. Conrad (she leaves us to return abroad), and Mrs. Wood-Jackson left our country this weekend, but you have Heather’s post available to you. Hence, I strongly recommend that you take a look at her post because I agree with her comment that “so long as one can master the foundational skills, then [mastery at] reading is possible.” I pray for fortitude for our goodly lectureres and for us all as we forge forward to deliver solid foundational blocks to our charges.

Teach Students the Learner Action Cycle

Hi Bloggers,

As I was searching for information for my Lessons, pertaining to the standards (as this is a new aspect of my Lesson Plans), and I came across the following information and found it to be interesting. I found that it was not only interesting for the Lessons but also for conducting the research project.

Taken from, Benson, 2003, p. 86-87 under the title

“Teach Students the Learner Action Cycle”.

Box 4.2 Students Using Learner Actions You have a new assignment so you access by listening, observing, reading, and researching, and what you have is a lot of information. So, you must interpret by selecting, classifying, outlining, sequencing, and comparing, and what you have is your focus. Then you must produce something by designing, creating, planning, building, or writing, and now what you have is a product and knowledge that you have to disseminate by teaching, presenting, and explaining to the audience for your learning. All along the way, you must assess your performance by reflecting, evaluating, and planning for the next time, and what you have is a goal and strategies.

Having students actively involved in the learning cycle of assessing, interpreting, producing, disseminating, and self-assessing is the secret to meeting the content standards now required by state and national documents. If teachers are going to teach the processes in the standards along with the content, they must take students through this cycle as many times as possible so that the process becomes a part of their natural programming. Once this happens, students will have a recipe for success whenever they have to learn something new and use it.

Hope you find it of interest.

(Benson, B. P. (2003). How to meet standards, motivate students, and still enjoy teaching: Four practices that improve student learning. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication, USA.)

i-did-it

Hi Bloggers,

Well, I created my first book, and an e-book at that. I am so very excited about introducing this application to my students that I am anxious for school to reopen (and this is the first time in many, many years). As I am writing this blog, I think that I cannot wait for school to reopen so I will go to school next week and work with the lab technician and inform him about the various applications I learnt about in this course. I will also schedule some lab time for the new term.

Angela, Darrell, Shasta, Renuka and Terence all shared their experiences with e-books and from their various testimonies it can be seen that e-books have great potential for enhancing learning. I agree with Shasta that e-books have the potential to be extremely motivational to students; and I would like to add to Renuka’s comment – in that, it can not only be used as a “shared experience” between child and parents but it can also be a ‘truly’ shared experience between students and teachers. This is so because the teacher can use his/her voice over text for the child to learn.

This is yet another example of how the teacher can extend the boundaries of the classroom, into the virtual classroom.

Research is here!

Hi Bloggers,

I choose today to blog about “Research”. I went on Janice’s blogspot and she has placed some timely advice for us researchers. I commented on this blog but I am not sure how many of us are seriously taking heed of the advice to start our research early. Let us, I employ you fellow colleagues, take some hint from Dr. James’ urgent, desperate concern about the research process. Dr. James realizes the importance of an early start, and as such, he imported a Canadian lecturer to give us a heads-up on our research project. Putting aside the facts that his decision was done without consultation and it would greatly affect our vacation time, I think the onus is now on us to heed the advice/warning – start early.

It is also important, as Shelly-Ann mentioned in her comment to Janice’s blog entry, “we must also remember to prepare ourselves for the seminars (which are really our Oral Examination). Shelly-Ann quoted Mathias and Gale (1991) in stating, “Postgraduate research can be seen as a period of uncertainity, ambiguity and lack of structure. (However,) the task is not really complete until the Oral Examination is over.”

Hence, the purpose of this blog entry is to re-emphasis the importance of an early start. Do not let yourself be bugged done by Murphy’s Law (as a friend said to me, “Google it.”). To ensure you obtain your ‘Master Degree’ in good health, you must first master to some degree your dedication/commitment to doing the research. Take charge. Good luck and God’s speed and fortitude.

The "Invisible Web," or "Deep Web"

Hi Bloggers,

I posted a ‘Comment’ to Shelly-Ann’s blog with the same trend of thought as this blog post, but I found that I should not take it for granted that you will visit her blogspot and the information is so informative.

I agree that there is a lot of information on the World Wide Web. However, after doing my evaluation of Websites, I found that a lot of valuable (seminal) work was not published. Have you ever experienced trying to source some pertinent information and getting “This page is unavailable”, over and over. Isn’t it frustrating? What I realize is that there exists an “Invisible Web,” or “Deep Web,” which contains information that cannot be indexed by search engines because it is hidden within databases. Therefore, we owe it to students to make them truly understand that there is a great deal of information that they will not find on-line.

In general, students should be aware that any proprietary or copyrighted information is not generally available on-line for free, at least not legally. A good rule of thumb is that if an information resource costs money in print format, it probably costs money on the Web too, if it is also available there. A huge amount of information is simply not available via the Internet, for free or for a fee. This means that with the explosion of electronic information over the past few decades, there are electronic archives, research datasets, and personal and organizational records “out there” that may never be preserved, not to mention made public.

The significance of this blog is that while the Internet can be an excellent place to conduct research, relying on it exclusively will mean missing a great deal of valuable information.

A Pre-Destined Marriage

Hi Bloggers,

I was unable to blog after Wed. 14^th July because I hibernated for the STATS storm to pass. Now that I have obviously survived, I am back. I must say, this time was so much better than the last and (though the feeling of failure wasn’t a pleasant one) I am in a much better position to do any statistics, if it should be necessary, in my research. I view my experience of having to repeat statistics as a blessing in disguise.

After my research on blogging, I am convinced that there are various educational benefits to be derived from blogging. I believe blogging is one of the many Web 2.0 technologies we must introduce to our students. However, due to the words constraint in my Web 2.0 paper, I was unable to include some related sources on classroom blog service providers, hence this blog entry. RELATED RESOURCES

1. Edulogs – offer advertisement free sites that can allow the teacher to control comments and limit access to the site. They also offer templates for students that allow them to build their own blogs.

2. Class Blogmeister – this is a good site for teachers to connect with other teachers and classes.

3. ePals Schoolbag – offers varied design templates and useful templates for surveys, calendars, parents-only sections, controlled public access

Writing is seen as the medium for self expression and I view blogging as an excellent tool for self expression. Hence, therein lays a natural marriage.

A Case for the Challenged only?

After reading the article recommended for the creation of our E-books, I got the distinct impression that it conveyed the concern for Inclusive Education. It refers to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) which advocates the use of assistive technology to meet the needs of individual students with disabilities, within the regular classroom. This concern for Inclusive Education was mirrored in the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) Draft Policy for Information and Communications Technology [ICT] in Education (Sept. 2005, p. 33) when it was stated that,

“8.2. Inclusive Education

ICT represents a major opportunity for providing learners an opportunity to develop to their full potential.

8.2.3. The MoE shall use assistive technologies to support those who are physically and mentally challenged.”

What is a regular classroom?

“Today’s typical classroom might include students whose first language is not English; students who are not reading at their reading level; students with behavioural, attentional, nutritional (sic) and motivational problems; students from varied cultural backgrounds; and students classified as gifted. In addition, there are students with particular needs, such as limited vision, motor disabilities, emotional difficulties, speech and language difficulties, and learning disabilities.

(Rose, David H. & Meyer, Anne. (2002, p.5). Teaching every student in the digital age.)

IDEA precludes a separate educational agenda for students with disabilities and holds teachers responsible for ensuring that these students demonstrate progress within the general education system, however, doesn’t the above definition of a regular classroom describes most, if not all, of our students? Shouldn’t the factors discussed for the enhancement of students learning then be equally applicable to all learners? Wouldn’t you agree? Share your thoughts.