LeARniNG pRInCiPleS Of ICT iN PrIMaRY ScHooL

1st AUGUST 07 (4th Class)

Time really flies.. we're already fast moving into the mid-way of the semester, the first day of a brand new month of august..

This is my 4th week of my journey towards equipping myself with the bountiful knowledge of discovering the vast benefits of the technological tools in the Education system. Indeed, each new lesson offers a brand new thought and valuable insight for me to further explore on its exploitbality in the Primary classroom.

To kick off the lesson, Prof. Maznah has shared with us her experience during her visit to SMK Datuk Ahmad Badawai in Penang, a school which has been selected to be the subject for the pilot test of "INTEL Teach to the World" project. This project aims to provide each student with a CMPC personal computer, thus making the ratio of 1:1 computing laboratory a reality in the ten schools chosen to go through this project. For these schools, all the classes are carried out using computers with each student having a PC of their own. Wow, what and advancement of technology in the Education arena. Well, this project is currently still under the observation of 3 evaluators and we're proud to say that our Prof. is one of them. So, what's the feedback from the teachers in the school who are required to make use of technological skills to be used in their lessons? According to Prof., from her discussion sessions with the teachers there, there were "PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS!" In fact, teachers feel that they need to take up a longer time to plan their lessons, having to include the use of technology in their lessons for the pupils. Teachers who are not keen on incorporating ICT in their lessons would find this project a chore and there would be complaints and unending complaints.

As for our Prof., teachers should take up the initiative to equip oneself with the skills and think of creative ways to add more fun and interactive sessions in our lessons. It all boils down to the teachers' perspective and attitude towards teaching and learning process and we, teachers should be the catalysts to bring about changes in the classroom learning environment. I believe that is the core reason why we are learning this course on ICT in the Primary Education, to expose us to the various ways and methods of integrating technology in the classroom especially to the Primary pupils who are curious and enjoy visual and audio input during the lessons.

After the introduction to the INTEL Project, Prof. mentioned about the teaching courseware provided by the government such as the ETeMS (English for the Teaching of Maths and Science) or PPSMI (Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Inggeris), MyCDs for the textbooks, and e-bahan on the Internet. Prof. threw us a thought to ponder on: "Are Teachers really Using These Materials?" Well, in my opinion, these materials can be considered still quite new in the classroom teaching and very few have actually taken the steps to exploit it in their lessons. As a result, these materials are left untouched and served as display purposes only to some teachers. However, I believe that with the much emphasized ICT programs and effort made by the government to help teachers to adopt technology in the lessons, more and more teachers would eventually take up this challenge and make full use of these materials. Let's all be optimistic and take up the Government's effort to rise up a generation of IT-savvy citizens starting from the young learners who are still fresh, and active to learn new things. Teachers need to plan, support and access children's learning with the ICT to develop their interest and understanding of ICT use as a tool in lifelong learning.

One of our coursemate voiced the question on e-portfolio and how we can use it in the class. From here, Prof. then lead us into a brainstorming session on what is e-portfolio and the benefits of having e-portfolio.
What is e-portfolio?

• consists of knowledge and skills (Teachers will need to teach the pupils the skills and to monitor their work)


• a collection of pupils' work


• shows progress or development of work


• reflects one's ability to organize eg. logical sequencing, mapping, grouping

Why choose e-portfolio? Among the reasons mentioned are:

• to get comments


• to promote oneself


• to share information/ express creativity such as blogs/ photos websites


• easy retrieval


• to keep a progress (for an Evaluator or a potential employer)

And the best part of it is the only tool that we need is: the INTERNET.
Just with the access to the Internet, teachers and pupils are able to keep a record of online learning or to practice e-learning.

The next session is taken over by Ms Chin who patiently went through the important points on the Learning Principles of ICT in the Primary School Curriculum as found in Chapter 1 of Brennan. The 3 main approaches/ ways in using ICT in the Teaching and Learning are:

• Leanring About ICT


• Learning With ICT


• Learning Through ICT

Specific Aims of ICT Use:

• Use ICT tools


• Develop ICT skills


• Foster confidence


• Develop understanding and practice safe use of ICT


• Overcome barriers of access to learning


• Support learning (through the courseware provided by Education Ministry)


• Inform students the benefits of using ICT (eg. learning at their own pace, allow repetition and revisions to be done)


• Develop social skills (eg. cooperative and problem-solving)

The Principles of Learning ICT in Primary Curriculum are:

• Child's sense of wonder & natural curiosity


• Child as an acitive agent in his or her learning


• The developmental nature of learning


• Child's knowledge and experience as a base for learning


• Learning through language


• Aesthetic dimenstion


• Social & emotional dimensions of learning


• Integration of learning


• Transfer of learning


• Environment-based learning


• Learning through guided Activity & Discovery


• Higher-order thinking & problem-solving


• Collaborative Learning


• Taking account individual differences

Indeed, some of these principles of teaching young learners are our previous knowledge which we have been taught on the characteristics of young learners such as having a curious mind and learning through real-life contexts or environment-based learning. However, this lesson has opened up my view and knowledge on the rationales of incorporating ICT lessons based on the pupils' learning behaviour.

We were then given our next assignment which is to find out on the various forms of ICT initiatives taken by the Ministry of Education (MOE) such as the ETeMS, MyCD projects, e-bahan and to share it with our friends on the power point.
Ms Chin also gave us several websites as additional links for us to search for information on this assignment:
www.tutor.com.my/tutor/etems
http://myschoolnet.ppk.kpm.my/indexg.htm
http://apps.emoe.gov.my/lpm
http://www.on-sl.edu.my/

The class ended with each of us browsing through the websites given to explore on the efforts taken by government to ensure that ICT is used and becomes a culture in schools.

What an eventful lesson. In fact, ICT is never my cup of tea as I am no expert in it but now I can at least utter: "It's fun learning ICT and I begin to learn to enjoy it". Isn't this a positive sign?