EDIC706 Reflecting On Action Final

EDIC706 Reflecting-on-Action Nerissa Burtenshaw

Reflecting on Action

Phase One – What

Zone: Concrete-Reflection

1. Contacted other schools to find teachers interested in a global classroom

activity

2. Found a teacher and a classroom! Yippee!

3. Had a meeting – discussed activity, purpose, learning outcomes, technology

to use, personal ICT knowledge etc

4. Checked all the all the technology works – Skype, msn, etc on classroom

computer!

5. Email other teachers to confirm timeline of the activity

6. Discussed task with children – big discussion about the zoo – everyone telling

stories about their visits to the zoo

7. Organise children into groups, group names decided

8. Task one began – children amazed how many animals there were at the zoo

but the majority of them wanted to see similar animals –lions, elephants etc

9. Task one continued - Groups emailed and came to an agreement about what

animals they will see

10.Task Two – begins from our class whole group discussion about the map of

the zoo - groups make a track to walk around when at the zoo. They fax the

map to other class – other class discussed in groups and faxed back.

11.Task two continued – Groups participate in audio conferences with other half

of the group at other school – children over excited!

12.Task 3 – Groups discuss lunch options over msn.

13.Group One (Zebras) decided to have a shared lunch – group created list of

the food that they wanted and faxed to the other half of group at other school

– they emailed and said that’s great! With the help of the children, I created a

form for the parents to fill out and emailed a copy of it to the other class

teachers.

14.Trip to the Zoo – What a great day!! Such a success!!


Great communication/relationship formed between all the four teachers involved. This was a really big plus as it made it easier for us to discuss ideas and get a timeframe created quickly.

The fact that they two classes are

connected already and are in the

same city which meant that they had

meant that they had a similar long

term plan and didn’t have any

holidays etc that clashed with the

other school (which may happen if the

class was in a different country.

Children need

more

opportunities

to develop

their group-

work skills!

But they

managed to

come up with

a list of

animals

quickly.

Children only

needed a small

amount of guidance

when sending their

faxes.

Children struggled

with our classroom

internet connection

being slow. They

needed a lot of

teacher guidance to

complete emails – I

felt like I did too

much! Not enough

hands on for the

children which lead to

them becoming

frustrated.

Children became

really excited

about the map of

the zoo – carried

away discussing

the animals – had

to refocus them to

complete task.

Children worked

well taking turns to

circle the animal

and draw the

arrows on the

maps. Children who had not

been hands-on faxing

last time got an

opportunity this time.

Most of the children were very

excited when using Skype and

some acted out/showed off. It

was disappointing that two of

the shy girls (Muzuki and

Kanami) stepped back and

didn’t participate as much as

others. But I”m so glad we

considered VAK and multiple

intelligence when planning – so

that these children were able

to excel with in of the other

activities.

Skype

conversation

went well.

But it was

disappointed

that the

children were

not involved

in any of the

set up process

or dialing -

teachers set it

all up and

children only

participated in

the

conversation.

Because the two

different groups

choose different

options for Task 3 it

meant that one

group had the

opportunity to

experience more

emailing and faxing

where as the other

group did not.

Phase Two –

Why

Zone: Abstract-

Reflection


Phase Three-

How

Zone:

Abstract-

Action

Phase Three-

How

Zone:

Abstract-

Action

More exposure to

Skype, emailing and

msn prior to beginning

the activity would have

minimized children’s

frustration

I need to incorporate more development of group-work skills into all curriculum areas.

Smaller

groups/pairs

may have meant

that the shyer

children in the

class would

have been more

involved in the

Skype/Audio

conferencing

activities.

Task 3 should not

have had a choice

– both groups

should have had

to have organized

a shared lunch.

That way they

would have both

had the same

opportunities.

Re-think group size as well as which children are paired up.

Consider incorporating fun easy emailing exercise so that children can develop more independent emailing skills.

Discuss at Staff meeting what we can do about the internet speed of our classroom computers.

More exposure to Skype/Audio conferencing should lead to the novelty wearing off and the children not acting out so much.

KEEP IT SIMPLE!! I tried to introduce too much!!


Phase Four – What Next?

Zone: Concrete – Action

Even though the activity was a success I felt that we expected too much from the children and did not start basic enough – we needed to start at the very bottom of the staircase at nothing and build our way up the staircase in the aim that in a few years time the children will be confidently able to email, msn and use audio such as Skype, and well on their way to mastering these skills.

One issue that I feel needs to be addressed is the children’s inability to send emails independently. I felt that both I and Kanako were too hands-on involved in the emailing activities and that the children did not get the opportunity to send emails independently – or to learn any of the skills needed to do this. Therefore we need to provide the children with more opportunities to learn more about how to independently send and receive emails. The biggest hurdle I have in making this happen is that even though the majority of the children are confident using a mouse as well as the keyboard, they do not have the literacy (reading and writing) skills needed to be able to email.

Therefore what I will do next is;

Continue to develop their keyboard and mouse skills by allowing them with more opportunities to play literacy and numeracy based games on the computer.

Focus on developing their reading and personal writing skills Later in the school year (Feb/March) provide the children with the opportunity

to participate in a fun buddy emailing learning activity that will be linked to their journal/personal writing!

Another issue is the email connection speed in the classroom – I have already raised this issue at a staff meeting and this issue is going to be taken to the company management by our school manager. Hopefully something comes of this!

Both classes involved have agreed that they want to continue the relationship formed and allow the children to have continued discussions and conferencing. Due to the children’s lack of literacy skills all the teachers involved have decided that right now any independent emailing or msn conversations are not realistic. We are exploring the option of using video/audio conferencing as part of a social studies unit we are going to undertake after Halloween.

As teachers we would all like to continue to develop our own skills and we have decided to try as a collective group (four brains are better than one!) to create a web page where both classes can post and view pictures, videos etc of things that they have completed in class.


Education

EDIC706 Reflecting On Action Final