UIIT Assessment item 2

According to my teaching philosophy, in order to help students in learning, teachers

need to enhance their motivation in learning. In order to do so, we need to aim at

stimulate students interests in learning.

After several weeks of teaching practice in a band 3 secondary school, I found that the

concentration spans of students in this type of school are particularly short and thus

they need a variety of sources, media and tasks to keep them focus in class. The

traditional use of blackboard and chalk is still useful in some parts of my teaching, but

not all. Students with lower academic abilities and shorter con concentration spans

they tend to loose their concentration quickly in class, especially with traditional

teaching methods. Therefore I have tried to incorporate traditional teaching methods

with the use of ICT tools such as using computer to play video and audio, using

projector to project images and slides, using power point to present grammar items,

and the result was very good as the use of ICT and catch students’ attention and it also

helps to explain ideas and concept clearly.

As an English student in the past and an English Teacher at the present, I found that

the teaching and learning styles can be very different when ICT is used or not being

used in the lesson. I grew up in a local band 1 secondary school in which the majority

of the teachers like using traditional teaching method, I found that it was feasible but

it could not stimulate my interests in learning at all.

When I am now teaching in a band 3 secondary school, I found that the traditional

method of teaching may not be feasible to this group of students mainly because they

cannot behave and concentrate as good as their counterparts in band 1 schools.

Therefore, more help from different media is needed. For example, in one of my

reading lesson, the lesson’s objective is to teach students new vocabulary and revise

the grammar item: adverbs of sequence by introducing Lamma Island. At the

beginning I played a video and asked students to jot down the vocabulary in the video,

then I asked some students to present vocabulary of Lamma Island with their power

points, finally I went through the reading passage with the class with the use of power

point as well. The strategy of using ICT in teaching and learning seemed successful as

the majority of the class did pay attention to the video and presentations. During the

time when they were doing pair reading, I introduce the online Oxford Dictionary to

students and showed them how to check the meanings of new words through online

dictionary. Students were interested in it as asked questions about it.

When I was revising the grammar item with the class, I used both blackboard and

power point to help illustrate the grammar structure. The power point appeared to be

more attractive to students as they tended to be more focus when I was talking with

the power point.

Therefore, with the use of ICT, it can catch students’ attention, stimulate their

interests, help weaker students to concentrate in class and help in concept elaboration.

In terms of effectiveness, the use of ICT was effective as students could answer my

concept checking questions at the end of the lesson.

When comparing with the traditional teaching approach, the use of ICT may be even

more effective when teaching students with lower abilities or special needs.

UIIT Assessment item 3

I think using ICT in education in Hong Kong has both pros and cons of infusing ICT

in education. In terms of effectiveness, both traditional teaching method and the use of

ICT in teaching are effective. For traditional teaching method such as practicing exam

drills and doing grammar exercises, these are good for students to handle the exams.

In terms of students’ interests, the use of ICT in teaching would be a better choice as

students can come across the same topic or message through different forms of media

such as video, audio, images, power point etc. In fact the use of ICT is very common

in Task-based and project-based learning. Teachers nowadays often ask students to

carry out research on different topics, to prepare power point presentations and later

present to the class.

Besides, teachers often make use of internet searching machines in teaching; for

example, checking meanings of words through online dictionary, using online

stopwatch in exams, sharing resources and communicate with students through online

forum and social networking website such as Facebook and Twitter. Apart from

assisting in learning and teaching, the use of ICT can increase student-teacher

interaction as they can always communicate and exchange ideas through e-class,

emails, forum and social networking websites.

In terms of classroom management, the use of ICT can help teachers to maintain

classroom discipline especially in the computer lesson;

According to Leask(2001),

My experience as a teacher and educator strongly suggests that the role of a teacher

despite pressures to change towards that of a facilitator and creator of didactically

prepared web-based learning material, remains absolutely control in rendering the

experiences and work of pupils with and at the computer conherant.(p.17)

Thus, teachers should have appropriate control on their students in the use of ICT.For

example, a teacher can lock students’ computers when he is teaching and unlock the

computers during students’ practice. In this case, it can help students to concentrate

on teacher’s talking.

In terms of students’ learning, some students are visual learners who learn better with

visual images and audio. In this case, the use of ICT can particularly help this kind of

students and improve their learning efficiency. For students who have special needs

such as hearing problems, teachers can adjust the volume of audio and microphone to

help him in listening.

Suggested by Chau(2000),Students’ perceptions of the influences of IT was divided

into positive and negative ones...in general students’ attitudes towards the use of IT

were more positive than negative. They regarded IT as an important survival skill and

a useful tool (“draft Report,” 1998, p.21). Thus, it is important for teachers to

introduce the use of ICT in class in order to facilitate students’ learning and enhance

their survival skills.

For the cons, facilities availability may contribute to the problem. For most of the

schools in Hong Kong, there should have basic ICT teaching aids available such as

computers, projectors and audio amplifier etc. In some DSS schools in Hong Kong,

there are computers available over the campus, even in the playground. But there are

also some rural private schools which do not have sufficient fund to afford the most

updated ICT aids and the number of computers in those schools is just sufficient, the

computers can be very old and are mul-function sometimes.

Since the availability and the updated level of the ICT aids are different in schools, it

may affect the use of ICT teaching because of facilities availability.

To conclude, the use of ICT in Hong Kong’s education has both pros and cons, but

after considering the factors including effectiveness, student-teacher interaction,

classroom management, cater to students’ needs and facilities availability, the pros of

the use of ICT in teaching are still out numbered the cons, therefore, we can see that it

has become the main trend and it’s being commonly used in nowadays teaching.

Reference

Chau, K. (2000, May 23)Survey on CU Students’ use of Information Technology

(IT).United College Newsletter [Attachment 2],p.1.

Leask, M. (2001). Issues in Teaching Using ICT. USA: RoutledgeFalmer.