WEB SEARCH

Day III                     (7th July)

ICT in modern system of education is like the spinal cord to support different branches of studies at finger tips. It is the source of knowledge , information and a tool to boost the learning at all levels. This paper will take you through some of the web search engines that were introduced to us during our classes. 

During the day's session on Web Search we were introduced to the following:

• Google Scholar for our Research
• Boolean Operator 
• Search Smarter, Search faster 
• Truncation
• Wild cards

The following are brief description of the web search listed above:

Google Scholar	Boolean Operator	Search smarter Search Faster	Truncation	Wild card
A search engine that searches wide variety of sources, including academic publishers, universities, articles and theses. Areas of Scholarly Reasearch -Searches a specific subject of Google’s index -Covers wide range of academic content areas -Results are shown like the Google web search- shows the list according to the search query. Articles Click article link to see if full article are available, if not you can access them on campus with settings done. Help Ask librarian if you are having difficulty	A search engine which allows users to combine keywords with operators such as AND, NOT and OR to further produce more relevant results. AND Narrows our search/limits search as it looks for the terms we want to combine. OR Expands our search. It looks for any item which contains either or both of the terms we want. NOT Limits search/limits result. Its more precise and saves time AND and NOT are sometimes used as + or _-	Sometimes finding the best information takes a bit more skill than just typing in the space. Steps To find keywords to find database we need planning and arranging. -Group synonyms words together -OR – to group similar terms AND- to connect words together to create a search. This steps saves our search time and improve our results. This is how we search smarter and search faster.	-Searches for words with varying endings. -Searches are broadened. -we need to enter the root word and put truncation symbol* at the end. -Symbols used is * and some alternatives are !, #, $ Examples: sun, sunshine, sunny	-Similar to truncation - it substitutes a symbol for one letter word…generally a ? Example: wom!n= woman, women Colo?r= color, colour

After learning about these web searches and learning how to do it, we will be able to save our search time and also it will improve our result. In this way we will also be able to find relevant information on a topic. It also helps us find spellings and it would be useful while teaching suffix and prefix in English.

If we are to find articles and journals we can use the Google scholar instead of the Google web search. Google Scholar can give us authentic materials and even help with our difficulty by asking the librarian as shown in the video clip. I have used this to do my assignments and I am yet to try the other web searches.

Lastly I would like to share this web search engines to all my colleagues at my school so that they can also use it. We as teachers need to update ourselves with information related to curriculum and others so it will be of great help to all of us. 

THANK YOU FOR OPENING THE DOOR

The time I have spent searching the educational websites were worth spending it. It now saves a lot of my time to do other school activities. For example, I used to spend a lot of time drawing pictures for my lessons in PP as we need a lot of visual aids to teach a concept and then to revise on the following days. But now I have found a website where we can find pictures on different themes which can be printed out, coloured and then can be used in our class. It looks attractive and our classroom looks conducive to learning. Please check this website for colouring pages because it is going to help you a lot, dear fiends http://www.coloring.ws/

We teach children some songs and rhymes as they acquire oral language. They learn it in a fun way. Now to make our singing session more lively and excited we can download midi files and make children sing. This can also develop the skills that they will need in their later life. So for this, check this website   http://www.nurseryrhymes4u.com/

Thank You                  

The 21st Century Teaching

Being in an ICT class, there were video clips to communicate and disseminate information which I thought was benefitting.  Due to time constraint we could not prolong our discussions but with these video clips in hand we can always revisit and make thing clearer at the click on a button.

Topic	Summary of content	Analysis	Future Commitments
1.      What does it mean to teach in the 21st century?	It is the 21st century world but we are still using the same old method – delivering content and facts though we plan some activities to make learning fun. Teachers are now not the main source of information as our digital natives can find information from many other sources now in this digital world. Our responsibility now is to help them find the right kind of information at the right sites. It is not just feeding them with information but to ENGAGE them so that they develop skills and not just learn mere facts.	Delivering content and facts to children of this digital world would be boring so to make children interested in learning we need to engage them properly and meaningfully. I remembered the words by the Former Chief Justice Lyonpo Sonam Tobgay in the meeting at the DYS hall “Self-Satisfaction is the starting of downfall.” So, as a teacher we should be satisfied with what we learnt and gained but should crave for more knowledge and experiences and our doors are already opened. So, we can now gain more ICT knowledge by interacting with our tutor and our friends.	Our role is seen as OBSOLETE because we had been using the same old teaching methods and teach the content and facts and not skills. To cater to the my children I will now use ICT in my lessons as teachers are not just the resource to get information but children can get it from anywhere. It is important to engage children rather than entertain children. It makes learning active and in a fun way. So, I would keep this in mind while planning my daily lessons.
2.      What are the 21st century skills?	The 21st Century Skills are: ·         Critical Thinking ·         Media Literacy ·         Communication ·         Collaboration ·         Information Literacy ·         Creativity	The teachers teaching in the 21st Century should guide and support our children to posses this skills. ·         The curriculum needs to be designed and implemented that integrates the 21st Century skills into the classroom. ·         I feel that teaching strategies like the Project- Approach can be focused to encourage collaboration and critical thinking. ·         Though integrating technology into the instruction can enhance learning but we are in short of resources. ·         Our classroom teaching and learning should foster student’s creativity.	Teachers can make a difference by an action or lack of action. Accordingly to bring some changes in the teaching style, we need to think of these skills and plan accordingly. In our daily teaching we can have activities like colorings and instead of letting children use individual crayons packs we can offer just a packet to encourage sharing and taking –turns to foster social skills. I will also promote teamwork whereby students learn the skills as they interact with each other. We can design some lesson using ICT and can take children to the IT lab to inculcate these skills.
3.      ICT for Education	Meaning and definition ICT- Information and Communication Technology are technological tools and resources used to communicate, to create, disseminate, store and manage information. Various forms of Information ·         Text ·         Audio ·         Video ·         Graphics ·         Flash (multimedia) ·         Data-base (students)- is a collection of related information. Various file format of Information ·         Text Files- MS word document ·         Data Files- ppt. ·         Audio Files- mp3 ·         Video files- flv We were then introduced to Teacher sites .Teacher sites help meet the needs of the teachers. It also has resources that the teachers needs and shares teaching ideas and has lesson plans for teachers to refer to. This site enhances own teaching methods	The session talked about using ICT in education.  The participants had a lot to say about using ICT in our daily lessons which is only possible if our classes possess a computer and other accessories needed to carry out the lesson.  Teachers are trained on using computer skills and are given refresher courses to make them fully equipped but as teacher get back to schools they forget because they don’t use it. It can only enhance our teaching and learning process using ICT if we are provided with the facilities. Discussions on various forms and format of Information made us realize why files open in one computer but do not in the other. It is because we need the software to support the file format in our computers. The teacher sites would help us find information on different subjects which will help us design activities which will engage children and make learning fun.	I have come to learn the importance of ICT in Education and now I would use it in my lessons though the facilities are limited. Our school has a LCD projector and I will make best of it by using it to begin my lessons with the new technology. We can plan lessons using it when we take leave from work as we can capture what we want children to do during the period. The activities can be made and then uploaded so that the lesson is still continued without our presence. As a saying goes “Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still.” It may take some time to practically do it but it’s never too late to try it out now.

ICT in Education- A Reflection

Day 1 (3^rd July, 2015)

“Wherever you go, take your whole heart along”,  I chose this module whole –heartedly so that I can cater to the digital native students of this 21^st century.

As I entered the IT room, I thought I would learn more on MS office but as usual when our tutor, Mr. ChengaDorji started presenting the work plan and briefing on assessment for the module, I was totally mistaken. It talked about things I have never heard or experienced. I was confused and feared thinking that I would score very less this time but as our tutor started off with the content of the module I was confident that I would learn a lot. I tried to interact with my tutor and my friends so that I can get a clear concept of what I am learning.

The video clip on Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants showed that the digital natives are born after 1980 when technologies came in and due to accessibility they have become skillful so are Digital Natives. Some of the characteristics of Digital Native Students are:

·         They receive information very fast.

·         Multi-tasking

·         Prefer visual (graphics) than text.

The Digital Immigrants are over the age of thirty and as they are into the digital world they are trying to adopt many aspects of new technology. It is said that digital immigrants can build the skills with daily practice and use. Some of the characteristics of Digital Immigrants:

·         Controlled release of information

·         Single or focused task

·         Prefer text than graphics

As I watched the video clip, I felt that there is a greater need to fill up the gap between the Digital natives and the Digital immigrants. The word “horribly boring” struck me and thought that some of the children are simply inattentive because they find our teachings boring. So, now to cater to these digital native students we need to redefine our teaching and learning process. As they prefer graphics, we need to design activities including graphics (audio and visuals) and not just charts and chalkboards. Now, we as teachers need to update ourselves and keep in touch with the latest technology to become proficient and cater to our digital native students.

The reading on “A New Culture of Teaching for the 21^st Century” says, to bring change in our Teaching and Learning curriculum goals and materials should make a shift without which new technology would not be used or acted out. I also feel that the curriculum should include activities where we need to use the new technology. In this way we can learn as we plan and also can cater to the needs of these digital natives of the 21^st Century.

Thank You

The Opportunity Did Knock

As the only girl child in the family, I always watched my brothers fight over the joysticks as they played the video games. I wanted the joystick too but was never able to unless they were out of home for some rough and tumble with their friends.

 Since childhood I was fond of the typewriter in my father's office. Whenever I was taken with him to his office, I ran to Mrs. Bina, the typist and start playing with the keys. 

Afters years of playing with keyboards and video games, I now have gained basic computer skills by attending the  workshop by Chigphen Rigphel. Now as I have chosen this module, I have learnt to use some of the google apps and I know I will learn more as I progress with my assignments and interaction with my friends.

Lastly I would like to sincerely thank our tutor Mr. Chenga Dorji for his guidance and support during the residential school and hope for the same here after.

Thank You