Teaching IT/Computer in School

1. Logo Programming Pascal Programming Visual Basic Programming Computer Ethics CJ inputting methods Information Age MSWord Topics Taught Excel Security Issues Webpage publishing Teaching IT/Computer in School PowerPoint MS Access Communication Technology GIF Animation Computer System Network Technology PhotoImpact

2. Teaching IT/Computer in School Diversification Computer Applications Programming Social Issues Computer/ Communication/ Network Technology Multimedia Production Word Processing Information/ Knowledge Management

3. Problems/Challenges Fragmentation Content Volatility Diversification Weak Conceptual Linkage Teaching IT/Computer in School T: I can only teach the skills in using PhotoImpact without any sense of aesthetics….. T: I’m afraid of touching on those social issues since I have no undergraduate training related to this area! T: It’s difficult to prepare notes since new version comes up every year! T: Students find it difficult in learning software packages since they share very little similarity ….

4. Which Teaching Approaches and Methods to adopt? • deductive approach? • inductive Approach? • task-based approach? • problem-based approach? • project-based approach? Reference: http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/ci/strategies_and_such/teaching_strategies.html http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/m-weeks/deduct.html http://staff.ed.uiuc.edu/m-weeks/induct.html http://www2.imsa.edu/programs/pbl/cpbl.html http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/PBLGuide/WhyPBL.html

5. Deductive Approach • students are first taught general rules, and are then asked to apply them to particular situations to reinforce learning.

6. Inductive Approach • Through interpreting given examples and analysis of data (with teacher’s guidance), students ‘discover’ and make generalisations by themselves.

7. Which Teaching Approaches and Methods to adopt? deductive approach inductive Approach task/problem/project-based

8. Hands-holding approach Self-exploratory approach Balance point: appropriate scaffolding + anticipated exploration Which Teaching Approaches and Methods to adopt?

9. Task-base learning • Illustration of the task/product • What?  authentic examples • Why?  relevance, purpose, linkage with other subject domains or their daily-life experience • How?  planning; help students identify different components of the task; sub-tasking • Illustration of skills or concepts at the beginning of each sub-task • Allocation of reasonably sufficient amount of time for students to do the sub-task • Conclusion and summary

10. Establish the purpose, legitimacy and motivation Illustration of the task Sub-task 1 Briefly summarize what have been achieved Student work Supply students with instruction guide Sub-task 2 Illustrate key concepts or skills Student work Templates for each sub-task capable students can accomplish the task at a faster pace Summary/conclusion Sub-tasking

11. Fragmentation and Diversification • Challenge • How to work with other subject teachers to derive meaningful tasks from or across subjects? • PhotoImpact → Arts Teacher • Excel → Math. Teacher • (e.g. teaching system of equations/ quadratic equations etc. )

12. Weak Conceptual Linkage • Challenge • How should I teach students PASCAL programming so that they could have better transferrabilityof knowledge in understanding Visual Basics, JAVASCRIPT, JAVA, C++, ActionScript, Lingo Script, PHP, etc?

13. Weak Conceptual Linkage Commonality Among Languages • How to fire an action under certain condition(s)? • How to fire a set of actions repeatedly? • How to reuse a set of instruction without bothering to rewrite it again? • etc.

14. Web publishing tools, e.g. DW/ Flash/ Director/ Authorware Algebra ill-defined, depending on the designer’s conception of the nature of problems and how they are to be solved. Well-defined & logically structured Content Volatility • What is the difference between • learning algebra and • learning the use of a web publishing tool?

15. Content Volatility • Challenge 1 • Problem/Task oriented Approach: Learning computer application is meaningful only when it is used to solve a meaningful task.

16. Content Volatility • Challenge 2 • How to equip students with necessary skills so that they are competent enough to explore and learn on their own? • How to help student develop a habit of looking up the HELP menu, relevant websites, etc.?

17. Issues to consider Delivery Nature of Tasks/ Problems Questioning Teaching IT/Computer in School • Avoid irrelevant and close-ended questions • Think ahead one or two key conceptual question(s) • Encourage more students to participate • Is the task/problem interesting enough? • Is the task/problem challenging enough? • Break down the task/problem into more achievable sub-task/problem • Avoid always hands-holding • Allow exploration but with sufficient scaffolding • Break up the task into appropriate sub-tasks.

18. Lesson Planning Revisit • Why should we bother spending time writing lengthy lesson plans to satisfy the requirements of PGDE supervisors?

19. Thinking through the purposes and structure of one’s teaching activities Lesson Planning Revisit

20. It ensures that the key aspects of a lesson are well thought out, and that the lesson is suitably designed to achieve clearly defined objectives Lesson Planning Revisit

21. the SET introduction Advanced organizer key questions teacher activities Lesson plan development student activities homework summary evaluation Recall: Lesson Plan

22. Duration Relevancy Interest Linkage Building up The SET

23. What you teach What they learn ≠ Building up The SET ＞＞

24. Close-ended questions Open-ended questions low order thinking quick feedback Promote high order thinking exploratory talks Questioning Type

25. Low level skills Drills and Practices Nature of activity

26. Challenge ahead How can we make the activities or tasks more authentic and meaningful? Nature of activity