ICT in the classroom

20 years ago, computer use was just associated with writing. As you know, we live in Digital Age. As many Kazakhstani teachers think that using IT boards or computers means that They have got computer skills. The aim of this topic is to increase the understanding of how school teachers learn to use Information and Communication Technology. Even though old technologies are still used in the classroom, some creative teachers successfully use new ICTs on their lessons for benefit of students.

During this course, I carried out a survey and I asked a question. “How do you evaluate your ICT skills?” And of course, respondents were teachers.

According to the survey, 72% of teachers are excellent and good users. However, 28% of respondents have got some problems with technologies. Many years ago, our teachers used technologies such as tape recorders, language laboratory, overhead projectors.

How we can help teachers of Kazakh

We had a meeting with Chad who is an English teacher at Nazarbayev University, and also he speaks Kazakh well. Now, some of Kazakh people do not speak Kazakh. It is a great problem in our society. A man who doesn’t know his own language, he doesn’t know his own culture and traditions. When other nationalities speak Kazakh well, I pay respect to them. So, How can we help Kazakh teachers?
1. Methods of teaching Kazakh should be revised. Because some of them use old methods. (Soviet method)
2. New Information and Communications Technologies should be used in the classroom. There aren’t any educational websites and software programs in Kazakh. I can say that all software programs which were written by teachers, who doesn’t know special programs or special language such as C++, Visual Basic, Delphi etc. In the nearest future, I want to learn a program language (C++,Visual Basic etc.), and then I want to create my own software program in English and Kazakh.
3. I want to give useful advice. If someone wants to learn Kazakh language, he or she MUST go to the village. Because there is a language environment in the village.

Everyone has a chance to change his life!!!

Yesterday we had a chance to speak to Jon Larsen who is a press attache of American Embassy. As I know, he worked in many place such as Germany, Korea, Tajikistan and so on. When he was a pupil, his farther sent him to Germany for studying. I think that he had a great opportunity to study abroad. Firstly, he could learn German. Secondly, he could learn culture of German and their traditions. As I understood, he was a pilot, and also he likes flying. But many years ago he changed his profession. I was inspired by his stories. I want to understand how he could take a giant step forward and change his profession. As I understood, the US Government gives a chance to change a job. However, you should pass exams. Everyone can work for the government, if he or she is a well-educated person. But I can’t imagine this situation in Kazakhstan. For example, if I work as a pilot or a driver, I won’t work for the government. If you want to be a politician in Kazakhstan, you need special education such as International Policy, International Relations, Local Policy, Economics, Management, MBA or you should have good relations with very important persons. I also think that he is a good speaker as a Glen. I know that if you work as a politician, you must be a public speaker. After his speaking, I understood that everyone has a chance to change his job, and also his life. May be in the nearest future, my group mates will be great teachers or great researchers. As for me, I want to be an engineer or a politician as Jon Larsen.

Virtual Learning Environment

Yesterday I read the article about virtual learning which was written by British and Egyptians researchers. The authors pointed out that traditional ways of teaching depend on tutors. However, They also paid their attention on learning through the Internet.  E-leaning is an approach to facilitate and enhance learning based on both computer and communications technology.  Web-based processes of learning produce structural opportunity at many levels. The authors think that embedding of E-learning in the University will have a great impact on the way of teaching. This article also describes an experiment in building a Virtual World for educational use on the Internet. The main part of the paper details a design and the choice of Moodle as the virtual learning environment. This paper was organized as follows: first they presented a background for the work, then they discussed the reasons of choosing a virtual learning environment, and they compared different virtual learning environments. Virtual learning environments are software packages designed to help educators create and deliver online courses. Such E-learning courses are sometimes called a Learning Management System (LMS), Course Management System (CMS), and Virtual Leaning Environments (VLE). VLEs allow lecturers to create courses quickly and without the need to develop technical skills. VLEs also provide an integrated set of Internet tools. The authors compared the use of these technologies in different universities, especially in Mediterranean and some European countries. The course “Introduction to Computer Science” was developed as a part of the Mediterranean Virtual University (MVU) project. They agreed with the managing committee of the MVU project on the choice of Moodle as a Learning Management System to develop and deliver online courses. As we know, Moodle has existed since 1999 with continuous improvement in following version. They made a decision for the choice of Moodle as the Learning Management System for the Mediterranean Virtual University. First of all, Moodle is open source software supported by a team of programmers and the users’ community all over the world. Secondly, Moodle is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. Finally, Moodle has many features, including: forums, online chats, different subjects, and quizzes. In conclusion, E-leaning offers us new ways of communicating and assessing for students and teachers. I think that this article help me do research, and also it is very useful information.

about URLs

I like this website “Quia.com”. I want to point out three reasons why can I use this website. First of all, This website like a portal. I can add students or special class and give them different tasks. Secondly, I can create different activities and handouts with the help of this site. Thirdly, I can create quizzes via Basic quiz manager and check my students’ progress. Also, I can use and create Survey. It is like SurveyMonkey. Anyway, This website is very comfortable and useful for me and for my students. If I have access on this site, I will use it on my lessons.

I’ve done my experiments with Voki.com and Tokbox.com today. The first one is like sound editor or manager. I can create a speaking character and add my voice. Especially, You can type your text and play it back. I think it will be interesting for my pupils
Tokbox.com is as a communicational website where you can have a video-chat or video conference. However, you must have microphones, headphones and web cameras.

about meeting with a representative from UNICEF

As I understood, UNICEF is powerful organization, and also there are many headquarters and offices in the world. If am not mistaken, UNICEF relies on contributions from governments and private donors. As I know, famous people also help children, and they are members of UNICEF.
These results from the presentation is awful. I can’t recognize that Kazakhstan is the richest country in Central Asia, and also in CIS. WHY we have many problems such as Anemia, Suicide, Infant and Maternal Mortality. If we want to join in 50 industrialized countries, we won’t have these problems, I think.
Suicide is a big problem in our society. 2 month ago, I read the article about Suicide in KZ. The first reason for this problem is bullying. It is known that elder students (aged 15-18) demand money or things from young students. In this week, in Chimkent or in Almaty, I don’t remember exactly, Two students from secondary school took a shot at each other, and one of them was killed. So, It’s a GREAT problem. I hope that the government will solve this question in the nearest future.
The second problem is Infant and Maternal Mortality. I think that we can solve this problem all together. To my mind, we should improve social life, I mean, every person must be supplied or supported by the government. The politicians have to budget for an increase in material wellbeing. I guess that If you overcome social problems, we don’t have difficulties.

Blogs in education

Nowadays Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilize with students for developing writing and reading skills, share ideas and reflect on work being undertaken in the classroom. Last Friday I read the article about Educational blogs. At the Institute St. Joseph in Quebec City, group of students conducted an experiment with blogs via Internet. The  Principal Mario Asselin said that this virtual space is composed of three sets of weblogs or classroom web space where announcements were displayed and students’ works were posted. The students also posted the results of their works or reflection. A fifth-grade student said that the blogs gave them a chance to communicate and motivate them to write more. When they published their blogs, people from other countries responded by using the comments link. Also, they could ask questions or tell them what they liked from blogs. By reading these comments they knew that their weaknesses and talents.   The author pointed out that many schools and colleges worked on weblogs, and also they were as a part of school subject. In this article, the author formulated different definitions for blogs. I liked this definition: “Blogging is something defined by format and process, not by content”.  If someone wants to create own blogs, he will need a hosting service. As we know, a hosting service is a website that will give us access to create a blog. It will offer a form and some tools that allow us to create templates for our blogs, and also access. The best known hosting service is Blogger from Google Corp. Millions of people from different countries use this website. The blogger interface is not much too complicated. The large filed at the top allows us to submit an entry, when instructions and some options are provided in the lower pane. To my mind, this article is very useful for me, and also it helps me do research about Information and Communications Technology.

about self study #1

 

As we know, many years ago, computer use became increasingly associated with writing. The author did research on Computer – Networked Writing Class. They used electronic software program called “eNotebook”. It means interaction, collaboration and writing. Seventeen freshman, sophomores, and juniors involved in this course called as “Technology and Text”. There were five Asians, one Hispanic, one African-American, two Indians, and eight Caucasians who made up the class. These students were interested in writing and technology. Firstly, they posted their topics on the eNotebook, and other students gave them lots of feedback. Also, before they posted their final papers, they could write the comments about papers, which other editors could read before they looked at their papers. Secondly, the students wrote essays or assignments and they could share their ideas or experiences to each other. Finally, teachers or instructors could check their progress on the eNotebook. The author pointed out that with the help of this program, teachers could check students’ writing and reading skills.   As for me, this article is very useful for my research paper. Because I do research on the topic “Information Technology for teaching”. Also, I need more information about IT. Not only do I use this information, but I can also use this method of teaching on my lessons.

Reflection on TED.com

Sir Ken Robinson – Schools kill creativity

I agree with Sir Ken Robinson that schools kill creativity. Nowadays most of parents do not allow their children to be artist, dancer or musician. Because most of parents want to see their children as a president of company, an engineer or a doctor. They pay more attention for education. But they don’t know that their child will be a famous musician or dancer. Who knows? Sometimes our parents do the wrong things, they kill child’s creativity.

Evan Williams – Listening to Twitter

As I understood, Twitter is a communicational website like facebook. He pointed out different reasons why we use Twitter. To my mind, the first reason is communication. With the help of Twitter we can communicate with other people from different countries and we can share ideas or problems with other people.  Secondly, we can read world news from Twitter. In my opinion, most of people like facebook more than Twitter or others.

Reflection on teaching math.

Many years ago, we didn’t believe that we could do math with the help of computers. Today many specialists such as engineers, biologists and geologist use mathematical tasks on their works. They can create different mathematical graphics and lines. Math is very important and compulsory subject at school. But several decades ago, people calculated mostly by hand.

Conrad Wolfram pointed out three reasons why we teach math. The first reason is technical jobs, the second reason is so critical to the development of our economies and logical thinking. The speaker gave the definition for math and examples. He divided it for real world when we use math on our works (for example: engineering and economy) and for education when we do different tasks with the help of math. To my mind, Math is powerful and useful subject for pupils and for specialists.