Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Online activities can make learning fun and enjoyable. Not only can it be a teaching tool, but also as a reinforcement on a certain concept or theme the teacher has taught in class. Below are three links to different online activities for children to explore and play, while learning at the same time.
Activity 1. Match The Animals
(http://bright-productions.com/kinderweb/lionhead.shtml)
This game allows children to learn about the animals by matching the animals head to the body,then it will produce a sound. Children can also match the body of the animals to the given head. This activity teaches children about matching body parts of animals. This game is relatively easy, and it is suitable for children of age 3.
Activity 2. Zoe's Pet Shop
(http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/games/flash.php?contentId=11230208)
This is an activity that can be used as either a teaching aid or a follow-up reinforcement on the Mathematic concept taught by teacher. This particular game is all about classifying, in this case, classifying different animals according to different requirements. A character, Zoe, from Sesame Street will instruct the children step by step. And for every right move made by the children, Zoe will provide positive reinforcements like 'Alright!', 'Nice!', 'Yay!'. And for every species of animals, there will be a few kinds of classifications for children, so they are learning a few different ways of classifying the animals.This online activity is suitable for Nursery children, of ages 3-4 years old.
Activity 3. The Laundry Game
(http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/games/flash.php?contentId=111824)
This game is a matching game. These are simple matching games, for example ''match the shirt with purple circle'', or ''match the socks with red stripes''. Children will listen to Elmo, and then click on the corresponding clothes on the clothes line to drop it into the basket. If the choice is wrong, Elmo will repeat again what the children should find to match to the given picture. For each right laundry chosen, Elmo will thank the children, and after every round, he will say ''Great'', as a form of verbal encouragement.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Introduction:
In this technologically advanced world of ours, we interact with machines more than with people. Internet is a need in our everyday lives, and thus web tools are all around us. Web tools are basically tools that bridge the gap between people, widen our social circles and allow us to cross beyond the limited boundary of communication. Web tools include, blogs, guest books, online calender, photo album, forums and many more.
Our first chosen web tool, the Message Forum:
Teachers and parents are able to communicate through the forum by exchanging opinions on a certain thread started by either a teacher or a parent. These threads are only accessible to the teachers and parents whom are members of the Message Forum. These discussions can aid in the understanding of the school’s curriculum as well as the children’s development in school and at home. Parents can be reminded through the forum regarding the activities and get themselves prepared beforehand and are able to give feedbacks and comments on the upcoming activities.
Any kind of issues that are of parents' concern can also be put on the forum, and teacher can reply to the parents' concerns. Through the usage of Message Forum, teachers are able to connect to the parents who are too busy to make personal trips down to the school, but still stay in the loop of their children's development as well as the teaching pace in the school. Teachers can also start forum threads on any issues that parents should take note of. Issues regarding the children's health, studies, safety or any news school-related.
By doing so, parents are being notify of what is happening in the school, and teachers are aware of the situations of the children at home. Discussions are being held between parents and teachers through the usage of Message Forum, without having both parties arrange a time and date to speak face to face.
The use of Message Forum enables the teachers and parents to talk open-mindedly on issues that are troubling both parties. This connection made through the Message Forum also allows teachers to know about the children in their homes, and vice versa. Knowing the children better makes teaching easier for the teachers, and teachers can know what method to use, which child to spend more time on, thus, making the journey to learning for children much better.
Our second chosen web tool, the Photo Album:
Teachers are able to load the pictures of the children's excursions and events in the album. Then, flashing them on screen for class discussions. Children are able to recall the particular event and able to voice out their thoughts and feelings. This would benefit teachers who are teaching Language Arts especially. Teachers could upload interesting pictures beside only pictures of children's involvements also.
As such, children are exposed to many different pictures and scenes and could learned more about different places, cultures and perhaps religious practices as well. Children are encouraged to draw pictures and create a "place" of their own too. This actually enhanced children's creativity. Parents can also view pictures of their children's activities.
By having the Photo Album available to the teachers, parents and children, learning becomes a fun thing rather than just textbooks and worksheets alone. The photo album aids not only in spicing up teaching and learning, but also bridging the gap between children and teachers, children and parents, as well as teachers and parents.
Similarities and Differences between Message Forum and Photo Album:
The similarities between the forum and photo album are that both help in enhancing the children's learning. Both web tools are very commonly use in the society nowadays. Message forum and photo album allow parents to keep in touch with the children's school lives. They are proved to be very useful in this technology-savvy era whereby most parents have access to internet and computers.
Parents might not have the time to talk to the teachers in the morning when they drop their children off at school or during the evening when they pick their children up. Some parents do not even send and fetch their children to and fro the childcare centre. So by having the message forum and photo album made available, interactions can happen between the teachers and the parents.
The parents of students can also interact with one another as well through the forum. The forum is not only for conversations between teachers and parents, but also among parents as well. Photo albums containing photos of the excursions and the snapshots of children involving in everyday school activities enable parents to witness their child's involvement and engrossed moments.
However, both web tools have their differences as well. Photo album is a media that only contains pictures. Even though 'picture says a thousand words', there are things that pictures are unable to convey to the parents. For example, their children's development physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially(PIES), as well as some constructive feedbacks and comments the teachers have for the children.
These feedbacks can be made known to the parents through the usage of message forum. Not only does the message forum enables teachers to give constructive feedbacks to the parents, it also allows teachers to describe the scenarios and the specific area of the child in words which perhaps may not truly be reflected in the photos. The forum provides a large spaces for interactions and two-way communications whereas photo album does not provide at all.
Photo albums can be used to enhance learning and teaching, but it is only a device to exhibit the different sides of the children, be it in play, during lessons, on an excursion or simply having interactions with their peers. Photo album can only carry out conversation to a limited extend between the parents and teachers about the children through the viewing of the photos. Even though message forum can allow two-way and unlimited conversation between parents and teachers, and among parents, but the conversation is afterall done with a computer screen acting as an invisible wall.
Conclusion:
Both web tools play a part in the education of children. These two web tools may be similar to an extent, but both tools are different in their own nature. Each has its own pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses. It will be a cohesive work if two of these two web tools were to work together, compromising each other's strengths and weaknesses.
