ESE: Classroom Observations of ICT Use

School Name: St. Andrew's Secondary School

Profile of the class:

3SA is the best class in the secondary 3 level, rivalled only by fellow elite class 3SB. They are part of the RKS Adams programme of St. Andrew's, a special setup where the school devotes more resources and opportunities to expose the students to more possibilities in the future.
 

This class learns fast, and goes the extra step in asking questions of their teachers when in doubt, unlike most classes in a boy's school, which exhibit textbook behaviour of keeping quiet when encountered with a problem, as detailed by Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens in The Mind of Boys.

The boys of 3SA are also very vocal, and tend to talk a lot when the teacher is speaking. However, unlike the 3NA classes I have taught, 3SA prefer individual work to group work, wanting to prove their proficiency in the subject by themselves.

Subject: English (Journalism)

What ICT tools are used in the lesson?

For this session, the students presented their work on journalism using Prezi, an online mind map programme as their main vehicle. They interlaced the presentation with videos of their coverage of a rugby game (as part of the journalism course), the transcript of their interviews, Facebook posts of how they went about preparing for the match coverage, as well as the final product on the 3SA class blog, the school website The Village Online and Red Sports, a website dedicated to local sports.

An example of the boys' work on The Village online

Describe how ICT is used for teaching and learning in the lesson.

In this case, a pair of students presented to their peers about what they learnt from their coverage of a rugby match during their English lesson. The pair was part of smaller group given prior lessons by Mr. Leslie Tan (of Redsports) and I on the rudiments of sports journalism.

The Prezi presentation was a strong visual tool, offering a powerful mind map that the students could easily take to, given that boys are more visual learners. The videos added were also a useful visual aid in the lesson, as the boys could easily find out about the presenter's experience "behind the scenes". The transcripts of the interview, Facebook log and liaison posts were informative and their classmates could easily learn from their experience for their own journalism projects.

The boys' work on Red Sports

Finally, the articles produced from this exercise, on the class blog, the school website and Redsports are a powerful teaching tool, as the students get too see the impact of their work. Members of the public, be it school alumni or sports enthusiasts, left comments on the articles, which gave the presenters a sense of accomplishment, pride in their work and that their work mattered. The responses to the articles also gave the remaining boys a push to outperform the pair in their own journalism exercise. Boys generally perform better when subject to competition.

How do teachers in the school feel about the use of ICT for teaching and learning?

Most of the teachers I spoke to took a genuine interest in trying to include ICT in their lessons, citing the need to better connect with their students.

Mr Kenson Go, a beginning teacher at St. Andrew's, developed a Secondary 3 narrative package, involving videos and animation. He reasoned that the technology ensures that the students are competent in one aspect of writing, since most productions have the basic Orientation, Conflict, Climax and Resolution patterns that the boys are very familiar with.

Mr Go, along with veteran English teacher Mr Stanley Ong have also been using blogs for learning and disseminating information to the students. Many classes in the school have their own class blogs where the boys frequently populate with content and lesson notes. The teachers also sometimes give instructions for lessons there and summarize a previous lesson as well. Mr Go and Mr Ong believe that the presentation of information in a form the students can relate to have been key in the boys retaining information more efficiently.

Another veteran teacher, Mr Tan Yan Ho, has been getting students to write for The Village Online, the St. Andrew's Secondary School's website, which he believes creates an authentic writing exercise for student.

Mdm Seow Geok Chew has turned to Facebook to give students information, such as speech writing format. The inclusion of formats and instructions on Facebook will save on printing and these will always there on their group wall. She believes that the use of Facebook saves time for the teacher as he or she does not have to keep repeating him or herself long after the lesson has ended. She also added that since the students usually log on to Facebook in their homes, it is a good tool of reference for them when they attempt their homework.