Weekly Reflection (Wk 5)

In today's lesson, I learned about the following:
1) Common considerations for teachers when setting up a website
2) Hands-on activity in creating a web page with frames
3) Introduction of Microsoft Agent Technology
From point no.1, I learned that 1) when setting up an educational website, it is important to consider the Pedagogical approach, how and what students can learn from it. There must be a context for students to work in and teachers must provide scaffolding. Scaffolding can be provided, for example, by breaking the website into manageable pieces, so that students can read and understand its content better. 2) As we do not have the capabilities to set up a video stream server, small video clips should be provided in the website, instead of one huge chunk of continuous video stream; some students may also not have broadband access to the Internet. 3) Hyperlinks should also be provided for easy navigation in the website. 4) For visuals, it is important to consider how items or objects are composed e.g. we should not have too many pictures on one side of a web page, or too many text at one time, so as to achieve a balance in weight. 4) The pictures and the text in a web page must also be closely related; we should not have just a few description beside a picture and then write about something else. This refers to the proximity to the text concerned. 5) For navigation, we should consider how much control students have when surfing the website, whether it is easy to navigate around. We should provide separate buttons to lead students to different pages in the website. 6) Technical aspects include the following: whether we want to put videos in the website, what kind of plug-ins we should use and whether streaming technique is necessary. It would be easier for students to download videos by right clicking and saving them for viewing later, rather than viewing it as a streaming video. 7) Security concerns: we should use scripts to password protect the website. To protect copyrighted materials, we can program the web pages to disable the ‘print screen’ function or the ‘save as picture’ function.

We then have hands-on using MSWORD to create a web page with frames. We were also introduced to Microsoft Agent Technology. We discovered that the software is very human-like, however it may require a lot of programming. We will learn how to use Microsoft Agent to create a character with scenes in the next few lessons.
What I learned most from this lesson: I learned that MSWORD is a very powerful tool in creating attractive-looking web pages. I did not know that I could create web pages with frames with MSWORD until today.

Weekly Reflection (Wk 4)

In today's lesson, I learned about the following:
1) Recap of last week's lesson

2) Students as Researchers (Research-based Learning)
3) How to create a jump page (Hands-on Activity)
4) What is scaffolding
5) Limitations and Pitfalls of Web Searching (Class Discussion)

From point no.2, we learned that in a knowledge-based economy, the shelf-life of knowledge is getting shorter with time. Knowledge are becoming obsolete very fast, and as teachers, we cannot just teach students knowledge; we must make them learn knowledge by themselves as well (to enable them to learn just-in-time). When we ask students to do research on the web, we should assist them by giving them some guidelines. This can be done by creating a jump page or issue them with worksheets which contain guiding questions and important instructions. When we ask students to do a project, we must not present all the necessary information to them. On the contrary, they should be asked to look for the information by themselves and make good use of it. Knowledge can only be acquired when students connect the information they discovered to their own understanding.

From point no.4, we learned that as teachers, we should scaffold our students to become independent learners, gradually reducing the amount of help until they become capable researchers. The jump page is also a form of effective scaffolding as teachers can narrow down the scope of search for students, provide them with the relevance and making the Web safer for students to surf. The Web is a good tool in teaching students to teach themselves. Students learn fast nowadays and open-ended topics e.g. Can lies be told? Can people keep tigers as pets should be given to them. We must not give students a topic which they can get answers directly from the Web, as it will be no different from asking them to read and find answers from a book.

From point no.5, we learned that because of the 'free' nature of the Web, people can abuse it for their personal benefits. Students can be exposed to harmful threats while they engage in their internet search e.g. by going to websites such as http://www.chinese88.com whose contents had already been changed and become inappropriate for young children. Students can also go to the wrong website if they type the wrong URL e.g. http://www.geocity.com. These two examples are just some of the many traps used by unscrupulous web venders. Students must be shown and make aware of such practices when they are searching for information on the Web. We were also asked to reflect on some questions, and we concluded with the following in a discussion:

1. How can we prevent unwanted sites from popping up?

(We can use freewares such as pop-up killers, or run a home server for students to exclude unwanted websites. However, as the server would be run 24x7, there is a danger that it may be targeted by hackers)

2. How much control we have?

(We have very little control over the Internet; however we can minimize the dangers and threats with close supervision)

3. Is there a way that we can prevent or at least limit such a threat when our children search the Internet?

(We can use the Jump Page to regulate their search, or use software like Cyber Nanny to block out inappropriate websites, or use digital certificates)

What I learned most from this lesson: We cannot control what students surf, however we can minimise the dangers by teaching them how to search for information 'smartly'. They should be make aware of the dangers of the Web and scaffolding should be provided for their research.

Weekly Reflection (Wk 3)

In today's lesson, I learned about the following:

1) What is a Search Engine
2) Types of Search Engines: Yahoo, MSN, Hotbot etc (including Search Engines for kids)
3) Tips / Strategies in using Search Engines
4) Hands-on activities in using Search Engines (Google and Yahoo)

5) Criteria in evaluating resources

6) Discussion on Blogs and hands-on

From point no.3, I learned that without a clear search strategy, using a search engine is like wandering aimlessly in the stacks of a library trying to find a particular book. This is inefficient and very time-consuming. Many a time, the chance of getting a correct hit depends on how well the author of a webpage had specified the keywords for searching. We cannot do anything about this, however we can improve our hits by searching more intelligently.

We also had hands-on activities in using two Search Engines, Google and Yahoo. We were guided to compare the search results of the Search Engines. Searching on the topic "table", we came to the following conclusion:

1) Google had more hits (122 million compared to Yahoo's 98 million, however these may include not-so relevant links)

2) Both are very fast Search Engines (searches done in 0.12 sec to 0.49 sec)

3) Both do not need to include the AND operator (we were taught the use of Boonlean Operators) during searching as it is included by default

We were then guided to use the Advanced Search features of the Search Engines, and also Phrase Search and Direct URL. We learned that using Advanced Search and Phrase Search resulted in more accurate hits.

Upon further investigation, we also discovered about the following:

1) Both Search Engines can be used to search for images and this can be very useful for us teachers. We searched using the topic 'Nepal' and discovered that the hits in Yahoo are probably arranged by alphabetical order e.g. from Building to Mountains.

2) Yahoo is directory based. It prefers to categorise links according to their classification and is thus more 'intelligent' than Google. Google places heavy emphasis on users' search techniques.

3) Yahoo has more advertisements.

4) Google has a 'I'm lucky' button for instant search.

5) A search done in 'News' in both Search Engines (using the topic 'Straits Times') revealed that

Yahoo is more western-based. Google offered more hits with contents from the local scene.

6) Groups e.g. soc.culture.singapore, are useful in searching for different views on certain topics. We can get inspiration from groups however the views maybe biased or distorted.

What I learned most from this Lesson: We can get more accurate hits by using the Advanced Search features of the Search Engines.

Weekly Reflection (Wk 2)

In today's lesson, I learned about the following:
1) The concept about Internet (a global network interconnecting millions of pcs) , Intranet and Extranet
2) What WWW (World Wide Web), TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) are
3) Why we use the Internet (for information, entertainment, transaction, just to surf etc)
4) Internet tools and services (email, Newsgroups etc) and considerations for using them (tech-savviness, infrastructure, cost etc)

From point 3, I learnt that surfing does not equate to searching for information. Surfing can be casual while searching for information is more specific and focused (complete a project/solve a problem). One of the caveat in using the Internet is that many people spent most of the time surfing but not searching. They do not realise that the Internet is only a means to reach out to something, and what you get from the web pages may not always serve your purpose.

As teachers, we should task students with projects that are meaningful and allow them to reflect on real-life problems. It will be meaningless to do projects if students can simply find their answers straight from the Internet. I believe the Internet is a useful tool for students to search for information relevant to their learning.

Lessons must be meaningful and we should use attention grabbers (e.g. jokes, real-life accounts etc) to make them more interesting. Learning should be self-exploratory and also inspiring (help students gain wisdom and foresight). Students should be allowed to go deep into the many issues around us (e.g. why do human beings need two eyes) and find out about their repercussions.

What I learned most from this lesson: I learnt that information without meaning is never knowledge, and knowledge itself must be structured and meaningful.