Theoline Croft 2A 4 Activity 11 - Creating a PLN

Creating a PLN proves to be an important activity, if we are expected to become a learning community.  Even though it was a tedious exercise, I see myself benefiting considerably from this exercise, as many persons will be providing expertise and best practices to issues which each of us may encounter.
My school and practice should improve if best practices and good advice are employed.

Theoline Croft Module 1B 3 Activity 9 school_readiness

I have come to realize that for schools to ready themselves for ICT integration, that it takes much persuasion, buy-in and political will to complete this essential undertaking.  While schools realize the potential of this integration, it remains the business of stakeholders; the principal, teachers, parents, the Ministry of Education and cooperate Antigua and Barbuda to see this through.
In these times of economic challenges, what little schools can do to ensure that the integration takes place will be the energizer to the programme.  However, the Ministry of Education needs to 'take the bull by the horns' and ensure that policies to govern ICT is completed.  Further, the training of teachers will be welcomed as well, to encourage the use of ICT in all spheres of the school.

Theoline Croft Module 1B-3 Activities 8a and 8b "Teaching Spaces" and "Why Wait".

Times have changed and as practioners, we ought to move with the times.  Our students are depending on us to provide them with the best environment for teaching and learning, but are we ready for the change?  Ready or not, change is here!
The transition begins with us, teachers and principals, and we are expected to motivate and encourage the various stakeholders to embrace the vision for education and understand that a new thinking need to be encouraged.  The clients who are our students need from all stakeholders the investment of time, finance, creativity, dexterity, technology, and most of all the political will to achieve the desired outcomes.
Ready or not, here it comes and can we do it?  Yes, we can!

Theoline Croft -1B-3 - Activity 5 Myth of computer literacy

I have gained further insight into the integrated appraoach and realize that it requires ICT in order to complete tasks.  In my reflections, teachers play a pivitol role in ensuring that their classrooms are child-centred and inclusive and that what ever skill is required for a task that students are exposed to it then.

In one of my earlier posts, I commented that I was not able to retain a skill in ICT since I was just required to learn it for an assignment.  I can now relate it to the just-in-time strategy since one cannot be overloaded with learning all skills and may not be required to use them until some time in the future.

Theoline Croft - Module 1B-3 Activy 4A & 4B - Is there a need for teachers?

Vygotsky and Dr. Mitra seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet.  Their conclusions say to educators that in order for students to develop and seek knowledge, it is important to provide the appropriate stimili.  Further, at some point in the learning, the facilitator makes contact in order to ensure that students are on target.

Theoline Croft Module 2A-4 - Activity 4A & 4B - Gathering ideas and integrating the word processor

I particularly enjoyed the collaborative exercise in Activity 4A.  The word processor is truly an important devise used to achieve many of our day to day administrative chores. In this activity, many ideas were identified and from this collaboration we now have a wide range of ideas from which to choose.  It therefore adds to making our jobs easier as documents can be saved, retrieved, edited and the whole world is right at the finger tips in terms of the world wide web to conduct research on best practices and sharing ideas with a community of learners.
Activity 4B was even more interesting as I was able to integrate the word processor in creating and completing a lesson for students to have hands-on experience.  Reading the several documents on the lessons and the experiences of fellow group menbers exposed the variations of creative activities.
I was very pleased by the response of the students during this activity.  There was much excitement just knowing that the computer would be used in the lesson but yet again managing the use of the few resources would be the issue. Some students were doing things that I do not yet know how to do so it was a learning curve for me as well. In order to become proficient in many of these applications will require me to spend more time understanding them so as to improve on my practice.

Theoline Croft Module 2A-4 Group Activity 3 Classroom Materials

It was a good exercise integrating the Word Processor in creating the classroom material.  In using the several applications, students' work will become more alive and they (students) will be more interested in completing their tasks.  Students are looking for exciting work in school and these should be more learner-centered and learner- friendly.
From reading the several documents from group members, it is evident that many different applications were utilized with several variations in subject areas.
It is my intention to engage in more hands-on activity to have mastery of the several applications of the Word Processor.