Session 2 of ICT

In last week's lesson, we learnt about self-directed and collaborative learning and how implementing these teaching strategies in the classroom can maximize our effectiveness as a teacher. We were also shown 2 videos showing us examples of these strategies "live" and in action.

I found all this to be an interesting take on what it means to be a teacher in the classroom: no longer are we confined to being just educators with the sole purpose of transmitting knowledge to our students, our roles can and should be much more than that. In the words of an old adage, "Teach a man how to fish and you teach him for a lifetime", encouraging our pupils to actually have a go at solving real life problems through group work and coordinating with others makes the lesson much more real to them and gives them a first hand knowledge of the problems that require them to exercise their thinking skills and put them to practical use. These fresh ways of making a lesson come alive will also greatly stimulate students' interest and make them more motivated to pay attention in class. Thus the collaborative efforts of the pupils in solving these problems will hopefully lead to the self-directed part of the lesson, where they actually without any "pushing" on the part of the teacher, go back and read up on the topic and take the initiative to find out more about the subject at hand.

After seeing the videos, I was very impressed by what the 2 schools featured had done to encourage the students to be independent thinkers and learners both inside and outside the classroom. Both the EAST programme and the astronauts' simulation were very well thought out and implemented, they taught the students how to communicate and work with others, how to bring their best skills and talents to the table to solve practical, real-life problems and how to work as a team, all of which are indispensable skills that are essential for our students to master in this rapidly changing and developing world.