Reflections for Week 1

In yesterday's newspaper, there was mention of the use of Nintendo Wii's 'Fit' that acts as a virtual exercise coach and guides players through yoga moves, basic strength training and fitness. The article also reports that as more and more people make less efforts or time to get daily exercises or workouts in, perhaps console games are now the solution. This will also allow children and adults to hop onto the fitness bandwagon to strive for a fitter and healthier lifestyle. So no more excuses for the conscious (poor body image), or for other equipment related excuses (oh the treadmill's occupied by that lady again... etc). In order to sustain interest there is perhaps a need to introduce a multi-player dimension to the fitness game when the novelty wears off.

This could shape in the way we implement Physical Education for the lack lustre in the future. Instead of getting unfit students ( a programme formerly known as TOUGH), we could now get those lacking in fitness to go through an hour's use of Nintendo Wii instead of subjecting them under torturous sunny conditions. This could also help in achieving Physical Education's idealistic goal - which is to encourage students and all people to stay fit, incorporating physical activity in their daily regime, for the rest of their lives.

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K : I KNOW that for my previous school, there have been steps to implement the use of ICT in curriculum. Like for example to engage students for oral presentations, teachers (and myself) have asked students, in groups to record a reading of a newspaper passage into their handphones. After which they will upload their audio files onto the teacher's laptop. The teacher will then go through the files, and can highlight a certain student's diction or pacing to the whole class, and at the same time, the teacher can playback this to the class to illustrate the point.

Some teachers have also gotten students to start blogs, to start reflecting on issues and to offer their points of view, while the teacher facilitates the comments and points for the purposes of an expository essay exercise.

W: I want to learn what other ICTs we can effectively use to compliment a successful and fruitful pedagogy or lesson plan. And i want to learn how this can be sustained.

L: I've learnt that ICT masterplans have been in place and is still in the process of development and research. ICT MP1 focuses on the basic implementation of ICT infrastructure, while MP2 focuses on further enhancing the use of ICT. This includes the vision of 'Engaged learning.' From the ICT readings, MP2 'called for a shift from predominantly teacher-centred, didactic teaching to a more student-centred, constructivist pedagogy.' Which means giving students the power to be in charge of their own learning to do their own research, through using the vehicle of technology (forums, wikipedia, msn) to fuel their knowledge and to engage discussion synchronously or asynchronously.

MP3 will try to merge all the works of Mp1 and Mp2 for the purposes of 'harnessing ICT, transforming learners' as mentioned in the ICT readings chapter 1.

Q: How can we facilitate learning through ICT and yet try to get students to focus on achieving good examination results? Is this viable for subjects like biology or physics? Where the crux of study is the regurgitation of formulas and theories?