The Final Week - Presentations and Reflections

The final week of our ICT course was our chance to showcase our skills of using SMART Notebook within the context of creating a multimedia classroom resource, and to reflect on our attainment and participation in the module on the whole. As such, this blog will be considerably shorter than the others.

The Presentation:

To observe the multimedia aspects on offer in the presentations of the other students in the group was a fantastic insight, not only did it give me the chance to observe how they would appear in the classroom, it was also fantastic to become aware of other uses of the software and ideas for lessons.

On a personal note, I do believe that my presentation went well, and obviously, there would be room for improvement. Also considering that I chose to do a starter activity, as opposed to a main lesson meant that I did not have to introduce any new teaching within that relatively small time frame given, so I had the chance to provide a resource to aid revision of what would have been a previous lesson, and show how this would move onto a similar, related lesson.

The Reflection:

The course has provided a wonderful look at the role of Information and Communication Technology, not only within the lessons specified as ICT, but the application of such technologies available that can be used across the entire curriculum.

A lot of the tools that we experimented with in the workshops, such as bee-bots, can have a wonderful use within the classroom due to their simplicity and application. However, these tools cannot be used as a matter of normality, because it reduces the wow-factor of the resource, it would be a huge disappointment if such resources were to become boring to the students because of over-use. No-one would want to see a bee-bot with a sad face, would they?

Overall, I think that this module has been a very worthwhile and interesting experience, and has helped wonderfully in preparing me for the challenge of teaching ICT and using it in my lessons..

I thought I would sign off with a piece of advice, best of luck everyone and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Alex