EDWARD'S 👨‍💻🖨️ CCTI PROJECT

Collaboration on an online project like developing a wiki is fun if everyone is collaborating. It becomes challenging if you have to work with a team that either is reluctant taking up their responsibilities in the group or probably, for one reason or the the other, do not at all contribute to the group collaboration.  In the last experience I had with group collaboration task, the experience was not so good; although it made me learn a lot in the process. For starters, only three members of the five were taking part actively. Of the three, two continued to the end and of the two one seemed not very conversant with what exactly was supposed to be done. The one left did something which, at this juncture, I must condemn! Not reading what the rest of the members had come up with, the said person decided to delete all the work two of us had come up with; the research write up and links were all deleted and substituted with what the person saw fitting. Good enough, it seemed to be re

Looking at how I would integrate search literacy and information literacy, I am drawn to believe that the first step would be to make an attempt to change the mindsets of those who are going to get involved in this integration. Change them to the mindset that will embrace the integration of course. This is because no clear achievement can be made in this line unless those I am going to work with (including myself) have the will power to see these innovations coming to pass. Once those minds are changed for the 'good' then we can get to work. It will be important to ensure that all skills needed to interact with computers and/or any media we are going to use are mastered and the learners are proficient in the use of these tools (I am assuming that the technology and facilities we need are already in place). Later, use of relevant applications and the browsers must also be mastered. The skills of the learners can be improved as they get along. Next is to ensure that the learn

Hello Group! I have tried to comb through the internet for websites that will provide support in determining the best digital literacies education strategy for a school. Kindly look through and share with me your opinions. http://www.teachthought.com/technology/63-things-every-student-should-know-in-a-digital-world/ http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/digital-literacy-skills/ http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/digital-literacy-across-curriculum-handbook http://classroom-aid.com/educational-resources/digital-literacy/ http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/10/29/ctq_crowley_digitalliteracy.html http://rpsconnected.rbe.sk.ca/2013/04/no-lights-no-camera-but-lots-of-action.html https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum http://swgfl.org.uk/magazine/Waving-Silently-Technology-and-Self-Harm http://www.digital-literacy.org.uk/Home.aspx https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002144/214485e.pdf

This has been an interesting journey through Media Literacy. Just when I thought I would not be prompted anymore to think a little deeper about the view I have concerning different phenomena in teaching and learning, I have just come across media literacy "reloaded"; The integration of which, into the teaching learning process, being of very high importance. I believe that media literacy can be integrated into the teaching learning process in the following ways: Making learners think critically as one facilitates learning. This can be done by making them know that media can be interpreted differently and that meanings of images, sounds, etc. do not really need to be universally standardized. Flexibility in choosing the most appropriate media source for driving a particular point home should be encouraged at this point. When I usually challenge my learners to carry out research using media (media search) on a particular topic, it goes a long way in integrating media

An understanding of Digital Literacy It is now very clear to me that at the end of it all Digital Literacy should make an individual a true Digital Citizen. In my limited understanding, I had thought digital literacy should just focus on imparting digital skills on an individual making him/her in position to carryout basic manipulation of digital tools and, probably, effective communication to other individuals online. This was of course a limited perception of the whole concept of digital literacy. I now see that digital literacy goes a long way in making individuals successfully and productively integrated in different communities. They are equipped to generously contribute to knowledge pools and to have their say in a more organised and acceptable manner. The basic skills for using digital media tools are just the foundations for digital literacy. When a learner is given access to technology, content, a learning network and guidance; the individual will not only acquire the re

I have learnt many things about a lesson that infuses Digital literacy and about Digital citizenship. But first, about Digital citizenship. The notion that some are digital immigrants  and others digital natives not entirely true. For starters, we all have a lot to learn from Digital literacy. Every time you get an opportunity (as a teacher for example) to interact with others in a Digital setting using Digital media, you realise that the learners are finding more and more ways to manipulate and use the technology they had thought they entirely new. The teacher also in this process is learning a lot. S/he is at times challenged to even spend longer time becoming abreast with the most current technologies. As for a lesson that infuses Digital Literacy, I must say the indicators I used to evaluate the lesson in Lesson 4.3.2 say it almost all. A lesson infused with Digital Literacy must have the following: engages learners to create meaningful content in collaboration with their collea

LESSON A Click here to view This is a Geography lesson entitled "Our Fractured Earth" . In the lesson, the learners work in groups and generally do their research and presentations on a media of their choice. The learners use mainly power point slides they prepare themselves as opposed to those prepared by the teacher. This clearly indicates how the lesson goes a long way in engaging learners to create meaningful content as they collaborate in their groups. This knowledge is later shared. Digital methodologies and pedagogies are seen in the teacher allowing learners to use any gadgets they are permitted by their parents to use. The learners also go ahead to solve real problems when one of the groups creates a Lego motion animation representing what it might be like to be in an earthquake. The objectives in the lessons are clearly stipulated and show that digital literacy is infused. For instance, one of the objectives says that the learners will explore, analyse and evalua

Frankly, I have never collaborated with someone on a task online like I have in the most recent assignment. It was fun. Despite all the challenges we had: power blackout here and there, network on and off, grasping of the whole comic concept and idea - to mention but a few, we had to work within time frames to see to it that the work is done. My partner was very instrumental in bringing pieces from here and there together and helped me see things I had actually missed. In all we each augmented one another and as the saying goes "Two heads are better than one". The important thing though was not the result but the process to the result. This is because in all this I got to know more about Simon (my partner) than about comic design itself. I got to know that the most important thing is developing a collaboration and valuing one another's effort in the process to produce a lasting network which can serve as a platform for future tasks assigned. As for the potential this has

There is a common demarcation made of two categories of individuals in the world today: Digital natives and digital immigrants . These are grouped essentially basing on the way they perceive and interact with digital media with the 'immigrants' (the older generation) failing to adapt to the rapid change in technology and the 'natives' (the younger generation) adapting at such a speed that they find it difficult to excel academically using the outdated teaching methods of the day used by their older digital immigrant ancestors. The gap created has made most of the teachers to defensively stick to their 'old ways of doing things' because of the fear of being embarrassed by their rather limited knowledge new digital technologies and how to effectively make use of it in the teaching learning process. They have in so doing forced their learners to abandon rich sources of knowledge causing their young minds to shut out whatever inspiration had lain dormant inside t

Course #3 has generally set me well aligned with what the feature of lesson planning looks like. This course was generally less demanding compared to the previous one but had its ways of stretching you to limits. A reluctant student can actually have significant challenges in this course because it requires you to apply what you know as a trained teacher in the context of ASSURE (acronym for a list of things you need to do when preparing for a lesson i.e. lesson planning). This rather comprehensive model enables one to clearly envision ones lesson and probably more accurately discern pitfalls in the lesson or, on the bright side, look forward to a really exciting lesson. My knowledge in lesson planning has been rather shallow in the light of the ASSURE model of lesson planning. I could say that the only aspect of ASSURE model I identified from my previous list was the lesson objectives and methods of teaching but now I see the importance of Analysing learners, Stating objectives, Selec

I can now confidently conclude that the Assure Lesson Plan model is indeed one that I can not do without if I am to successfully design a Technology rich lesson. In the last lesson I have discovered a number of ways to make my learners engaged in the lesson in ways I orignally was not doing namely: Placing them in groups allows them to more confidently share their views which they would have not done in a large class due to fear. Allowing learners to have hands on experience with the desktop computers as compared to using the projector or chalkboard to illustrate concepts. Making the learners have a first time experience of a new activity (e-titration with iLab) which if done in a real laboratory for the first time could be potentially harmful to learners. Allowing the learners to critique their own work across groups an make recommendations to their peers. Allowing learners to share their own work online and go a head to get hands on experience on the internet. iLab applica

The whole new experience of lesson planning using ASSURE is getting more interesting. I have now attempted to write objectives, select media and materials using all this to come up with an almost complete lesson plan. You are actually in position to visualise your lesson before hand much more clearly than before. I have even come up with a plan B that ensures that nothing really goes wrong. I want to try out this lesson and see how it gets along when I am done with the whole lesson plan. We have continued to discuss with friends in the group forum and everyone seems to be so enthusiastic about this experience. At first, it was difficult to detect flaws in sample ASSURE lesson plans but I can now do it with ease. In the group forum, I have been able to detect when objectives are not stated well especially when they lack the measurement criteria.

There has been a heated debate in our group discussion on the importance of certain elements of analysis of students in the ASSURE lesson planning model. These are ethnic background (to what extent should we analyse these students background? By country of origin, tribe, skin colour or others?), What learning styles need to be considered in what kind of lessons? and How do this analyses auger with the use of technology? I strongly agree that analysis of students is important and MUST be done if proper planing for individual needs in a classroom is to be successful. However, only those criteria which may affect the teaching learning process should be considered. For instance, if you are going to handle a lesson on piggery in agriculture, you must consider religious affiliation as an issue otherwise some denominations may have a problem at the end of the day. The same would definitely not be true if you are handling "law of diminishing returns" in the same subject. Some

It is long since I last blogged and I am happy to finally get back to this rather enjoyable activity; especially about what I am learning on the CCTI online course. Today I encountered applications in a way I had never done before. The evaluation of a particular application to gauge its suitability for the task at hand seems to really make one appreciate how much effort developers put into their projects to meet our needs as teachers. It is surprising that one app when evaluated almost seemed to meet all the requirements of not only my lesson but many other lessons I envisaged could be conducted to facilitate learning using this particular app (I am not surprised that it is not a free app). Today, the favorite pass time of most of our learners (and even, surprisingly, some of their parents) is video gaming -- online video gaming to be specific. The sensation to win, discover, create, compare, anticipate, design, remain in suspense etc. lures these gamers to always want to go back to

I have a few resource websites that I want to recommend. In my analysis, I have chosen to consider the following key elements as criteria for gauging their potential to enhance teaching and learning: Authenticity and credibility: Is the site legitimate? Is the authorship recognized? Who are referring to these sites? Are these referees of significant caliber? If a site is not authentic and credible then whatever it has to offer may not be accepted broadly. You may be able to identify some useful content in it but not all academicians may buy in. Relevance: Does the site have what I want; clearly brought out without any unnecessary jargon? Can my learners' class level of learning match that of the website's content? If a website cannot meet the need, then however fine looking and credible it may be it cannot be beneficial in bringing change. Organisation: In today's world this is a key factor. If the website is not easily browsable then learners can not easily get wha

I must say that office software is an invaluable resource to the teacher. What you would have taken ages to do can now be done in a matter of moments. A learning aid you used some time back and now needs to be modified can be worked on quite faster than you would have using charts or models for that matter. Take the case of diagram drawn on a chart which, with time needs to changed. Take a map of Africa, for example. Drawn 5 years ago, it does not have the country - Southern Sudan. You would probably have to buy a new one or draw a new one (both ways being costly in terms of money and time). Using a projector with images downloaded from the internet, you can update your information quite cheaply and quickly. Talk of a list of new words that have to be increased, a diagram in science that needs a 3D feel, a song in sol-fa notation, the list is long. Office Software is definitely a thumbs up. As concerns stifling of depth of knowledge, I would say let us use office software for what it

The level to which one has integrated ICT in facilitating the learning process obviously varies from one individual to another. How this variation is measured has always been a challenge, at least, for me. This has made me settle at using ICT for what I now understand is in enhancement of tasks (substitution and augmentation) as categorised by the SAMR model. The SAMR also has another level of integration used for task transformation (modification and redefinition). I cannot say I have completely understood these level of categorisation but I know that the higher the category the more proficient you are at integrating ICT in your day to day activities as a subject teacher -- the higher the better. I am so impressed by the task transformation modes of integration i.e. modification and redefinition which provide for ICT significant task redesign and creation of new tasks previously inconceivable. This will provide for better learning especially for those who find it had to grasp certain

My colleagues at work at first seemed not be in position take this whole integration of ICT thing very seriously. The survey, however, has proved me wrong. I see that the interest is there much as few are willing to part with a cost to gain this benefit. I strongly believe that now that we have a larger number able to operate a computer, almost have able to access the internet and easily search for information online and all willing to learn more about ICT; I believe they are ready to pursue! I will get to group them up in an effective way to ensure that the ones who know more are able to make the ones who know less be at the same level with them. As we get along we may all be at the same level probably some day. You-tube video and other tutorials are going to be very instrumental in meeting our goals and so have to be downloaded and made accessible to the staff. We also now have to find a way of making the computer laboratory administration team design a convenient schedule for us. T

GROUP WORK AND WIKIS In my previous article I shared how much I had learnt about bookmarking and curating clearly describing the whole process of curating as I have understood it. The processing of curating being a very key element in building my Professional Learning Network, makes me more confident now that I am moving towards my professional goals.  Working as a network is the essence of this whole Professional Learning Network thing. Today I have improved on this greatly. Having colleagues contribute and give their views on your contributions is indeed exciting. I no longer feel lost as an individual seeking Professional Development. I am now in position to use wikis to make contributions and changes to content about specific areas of interest.  We should have more colleagues contributing to the course wiki My colleagues have been very resourceful in helping me out. First of all, their appreciation of my contribution to the whole discussion gives me fulfillment and confid

My insight on content curation It has always been my passion to contribute something to someone out there who is looking for knowledge. This is the passion that drove me to eventually become a teacher. The fulfillment I experience when I see a learner who has passed through my own very hands making use of what s/he has learnt to bring a difference in the world; brings me great joy. I have gone to large extents to see to it that what I provide to my learners is quality, well researched work; proven and tested to prompt learning and inspire the learner into having an insatiable desire for my subject. I have now come to know that content curation and bookmarking are here to help me fulfill my dreams of being the ideal teacher (according to me) who is satisfactorily contributing content to the world. I now have the chance not only to share information with my learners in the classroom but as I browse the internet and come across different content which is useful in designing my lesson,

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/8-ways-to-find-great-social-media-content/

I truly feel a smarter worker. This is because I have learnt that social media can actually be used by teachers and educators to help them guide the learning process and also to help them get more knowledge about their work from a large number of like minded educators out there. I have been using some social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, etc. but never did I think that they were that useful to me as an educator. I now see the benefit. I also see that you can use #hashtags, make direct messages, re-tweet etc using twitter. Google plus is having, according to me, quite a number of features which I still need to burrow into and probably see how to work out but it won't take long before I have mastered it. The  interface in the  video tutorial  looks very different from the one on my browser but I can still pick up some useful ideas. Facebook is something I have spent some time on but after reading about it through one of the links , I see there is still some bit to learn. Co

I read through all the ideas in the group and made and attempt to summerise all our ideas. What do you think members? It should be easily accessible by all members in the network to allow members to easily share their information and access each others ideas. Should provide applicable and immediate solutions to the challenges faced in the profession. Allow members get feedback after ideas from the network are applied. Provide a continuous  learning experience for members in the network. Should be relevant to all those in the network. Should provide some level of confidentiality. Edward

I have gone through the smart worker assessment and this is what I look like.

MY CAREER GOALS My understanding ICT integration into teaching and learning has been totally revolutionised in a recent experience. I love ICT and I am one of those who have been more or less addicted to gadgets - computers, phones and the like. However, after the CCTI introduction I can say that never in my career have I ever been so inspired to re-write my career goals as far as integration of ICT in education is concerned. As a matter of fact I should say never in my life have I been so inspired to write my learning goals as far as integration of ICT in teaching and learning is concerned. Why? Well for starters, I don't think I really knew what integration of ICT in education is until after the CCTI course introduction session. I saw 'the' video during the CCTI introduction session. The video made me know that it is more than showing students animated pictures, videos and using all kinds of computer applications to bring about learning. By you interacting with them thro