It's not the end

After watching the numerous presentations by my coursemates, it dawned on me that we are all set to bring about about changes in our classrooms. The new understandings that we have gathered from the course and the interaction among ourselves have set us apart from those who simply think that digital literacy equates to knowing how to use powerpoint or technology. Even though we might not create a macro impact on language education, we are able to do so in our own ways within our means in our own classrooms. The end of the course signifies the beginning of a responsibility in educating our students what it means to be digital literate.

Re-thinking my DST

For the digital story on seven deadly sins, I managed to find a lot of suitable images. However, finding a suitable music to go along with the images is difficult. What proves to be most challenging is that I find it an upheaval task trying to connect with the digital story I was working on even though this is significant as it is work-in-progress during the Lenten season.

So, in class last Wednesday, I asked two coursemates for advice regarding my digital story. Based on their comments and after watching their digital stories, I decided to change the topic and work on the story based on my maternal grandmother instead. As suggested by Rach, to compensate for the lack of still and moving images, I could use other pictures to narrate the story instead which I did. Choosing the song was easy because I had in mind a song which is apt for my story after watching a charity programme. Most importantly, I feel a sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, and joy while working on the project as compared to the digital story on seven deadly sins.

For this project, as an adult learner, I have the liberty to change topics or themes but if this piece of assignment is given to students, I wonder what kind of leeway do teachers have to allow room for personal preference of topics. As it is, alternative assessments are not very well-received by teachers because of they perceive it as having more work to do. There is a need for paradigm shift.

For the DST on my grandmother, while planning, I referred to Ohler's (2001) annotated visual portrait of a story and came up with this:

Proposed Title: Grandmother
Proposed Duration: About 2 mins
Target Audience: Self and family members
Purpose: To remind myself of my grandmother's love for me

Genre: Narrative
Modes:
- For visual: still images and text.
- For audio: music

Overall Design

Beginning: I will first begin the story by having a title page that will signal to my viewers what they will be watching. Then I will introduce my grandmother by using a photograph of her when she was young.

Middle: The story develops with a series of images of her and me and other images that can metaphorically represent her love for me. By using a photograph of her and me first when I was a child then to one that was taken when I was an adult show the progression from childhood to adulthood with her as my caregiver. The conflict is introduced by showing a series of images that portray anguish and sadness.

Closure: The resolution comes in the form of reconciliation with her death and by dying she has conquered death, and is reunited with God.

Reflection on DST Project

Working on the DST project has made me realised that it is not as easy as I had thought! Initially I thought that the project is to simply put together a slideshow of pictures with effects and music. However, I soon realise that a lot of thought process goes into the creation of the DST. Despite the fact that there is planning during the conceptualisation stage of the DST, there are constant changes made to the initial ideas while working on the project on Windows Movie Maker. The orchestration of the various semiotic modes are made after much consideration.

One aspect which I think is helpful is the workshop session on using Windows Movie Maker. During the session, I was able to ask my coursemates for advice on using certain functions of the program.

Linking to the school context, I think that when teachers decide to get students to work on a multimodal text such as a DST, they need to provide scaffolding during various stages of the project. The kind of scaffolding depends on the profile of the students - the younger they are, the more help they need, especially in the using of software such as Windows Movie Maker. Other than ensuring that they are competent in using the software, teachers need to ensure that students know the process involved in the creation of a multimodal text. Only then is learning meaningful and purposeful.

Harnassing Digital Technology in the Singapore Classroom

Sometime back, a reader wrote to the forum page (article and MOE's response can be found on http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/forum/2010/03/in-the-letter-whats-the.php#update-digital-learningof The Straits Times applauding Crescent Girls' School for its innovative digital learning technologies and at the same time raising his concerns regarding MOE's digital learning initiatives. His concerns are not unfounded. One question raised is whether there are other success stories on the use of e-books in other schools. From personal experience, the piloting of the use of tablets in my school has not been that successful and the programme has since been phased out. Reason for doing so? Students download games and instead of using the device for learning, they used it for gaming. This is the other concern which the reader has and I'm sure a real concern for other parents. Monitoring students' use of tablet is difficult because teachers cannot be nannies. Such an initiative works well with the high ability students because they are motivated to learn and are likely to be more disciplined. The perceived benefits from learning technologies are not immediate and it will take time before any gains are evident.

Reflection on the use of WHD

In a National Education (NE) course which I attended, I had the experience of using WHD in a fieldtrip. This fieldtrip which I attended is identical to the one which my students will be going through as part of their NE coursework in their CCA. WHD in the form on Omnia handphones were given to us and each group were given three. I took one and started navigating using it. The tasks were rather simple because I had to do was to open the web browser and download information from a sever, answer the questions posed when I reached the site and transmit the answers to the server. At the end of the learning journey, marks were tabulated and answers revealed. I remembered commenting to my colleagues how badly designed the task was because the Omnia handphone was used merely as an internet browser and a data transmitting device. There was in fact no real need for us to be physically present at the site to complete the task because the information search could be done in an air-conditioned room using the computers with internet connection instead of out being in the rain or sun. This goes on to illustrate that learning tasks need to be well-designed to optimise the potential of WHD as a learning tool as well as students' learning.

Implications of WHD in the Singapore Context

Dieterle et el (2007) states that there are five affordances for WHDs that support neomillennial learning styles: collaboration, authenticity, role-playing, mobility and self-directed learning. What I understood from the article is student-centred pedagogy. What we can't do in the Singapore classroom is to customise learning programmes and activities to suit individual students due to the huge class size, we can instead provide mass customisation to best suit the learning needs of our students. When we do that, we are taking into consideration the neomillennial learning styles.

Indeed technology has opened up a world of possibilities for educators in the design of innovative pedagogy. Technology, such as WHD if harnessed effectively, is able to engage our students in learning given our understanding of the neomillennial learning styles. In harnessing the potential of WHD as a learning tool, the design of learning tasks is critical to optimise learning. Tasks should be meaningful. Since it requires the use of WHD, it should be unique in the sense that WHD should not be used as merely a device to transmit or download data. Instead, it should be as interactive as possible, allowing students to work on tasks on sites which they wouldn't be able to without the use of WHD.

Assessment

The session on assessment is helpful and provided insight on assessment. After reviewing Brenda's DST using the rubric given by Phillip, it dawned on me and my colleagues that there isn't one standard rubric for the assessment of projects and in this instance, our DST. For example, the given rubric does not take into account the overall design meaning given that the product being assessed is a DST project. When we were given the opportunity to design our own rubric, we took into account the objectives of the course as well as from our understanding of assessment. When we used the rubric which we designed to re-assess Brenda's DST, we had many questions regarding her decisions to use certain modes. Just by examining her end product alone isn't adequate. I realised that the product and reflection should be marked holistically given that the reflection is the articulation of the process involved in designing the DST. When I give my students a project to do in future, I'll be sure to design a rubric together with my colleagues to assess that particular project rather than just take one off the internet.

E-Learning DST Conceptual Planning

There are two topics that I would like to work on for my DST project and I can't really decide which to work on yet as both topics are rather close to heart. One topic is to narrate important aspects of my maternal grandmother's life. The other is to examine the concept of seven deadly sins according to the Catholic tradition. Initially I had wanted to work on the story about my grandmother because she is really dear to me. However due to potential issues such as the lack of still and moving images, I decided to work on the other topic instead. Given that this is the Lenten season for Catholics, I have decided to work on the seven deadly sins. This topic is significant for me because as a Catholic, the Lenten season is a time of penitence and self-denial. I can also use it during my Religious Moral Education lesson.

Proposed Title: Seven Deadly Sins

Proposed Duration: About 3 mins

Target Audience: Catholic students

Purpose: To educate Catholic students about the seven deadly sins, in particular the sin "Pride"

Genre: Narrative and Expository

Modes:

- For visual: still and moving images, and text.

- For audio: music and voice narration

Overall Design

Introduction: I will first introduce the topic by listing the seven deadly sins before providing a history of the origins of the sins - from eight to the seven we know of today: gluttony, lust, greed, anger, sloth, envy, and pride.

Body: Highlight that of the seven sins, pride is considered the deadliest according to the Catholic faith. Explain why it is considered to be so. Elaborate on the concept of pride in other contexts such as in greek mthylogy. Explain that there are two types of pride in modern secular context - positive pride and hubristic pride.

Conclusion: Conclude with a verse from the bible that talks of the Pharisees who are blind to Jesus because of their pride due to their societal position. To drive home the message that unless one begins to humble himself and see that all that one has is due to God's blessings, one will continue to be 'blind' to living in God's ways.

I'm still in the process of refining my idea(s) and [still] undecided if I should continue with this or work on narrating a DST of my granny.

E-Learning Task 2: What's so GOOD about a Good multi-modal text?

This DS which I am going to analyze is taken from VidLit What Was I Thinking? The Training Wheels of Love by Mimi Pond. This short clip narrates the events in the bad romance of the persona with her boyfriend which eventually led to a break-up.

The clip begins with a groovy music in the background. Then the picture of a girl appears on the left and the title of the book "What Was I Thinking" in speech bubble appears shortly after. Immediately, the phrase "Bad Boyfriend Stories" appears just below the speech bubble. The use of groovy music immediately catches the attention of the audience as the music chosen is suitable for the topic of love even though this is about a romance gone wrong. To have the phrases appear one after another is effective because it allows the audience to focus on the semantics of the phrases and it is a sort of prelude to what the audience might expect later in the digital story.

What comes immediately after the segment is the zooming in of the title "The Training Wheels of Love" in the form a car tyre with accompanying screeching sound as it comes to a halt. The use of the graphic tyre is most apt because it correlates with the semantic meaning of "Wheels" in the title. The story is presented in the form of a comic strip.

When the story is being narrated, the groovy music is replaced by one that is rather mysterious sounding, almost detective-like, which is not at all melancholic. Key phrases are emphasized through the enlarging of fonts and still images are used effectively to capture the attention of the audience.

The use of voice (intonation and expression) in the narration of the DS does capture the attention of the audience on one hand. On the other, it limits the imagination of the audience as it does not allow them the interpretive freedom a narrative offers.

Challenges and Implications of Multiliteracies in the Singapore Classrooms

After having read, presented and discussed the articles by Tan and McWilliam From Literacy to Multiliteracies: Diverse Learners and Pedagogical Practice and NLG A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures, what got me thinking is actually the challenges teachers face, particularly those teaching in the mainstream Singapore schools. Despite the fact that advances in technology ought to have brought about new ways of learning and teaching, much of what is done in class today has not progressed much from the time when I was still a student. Despite the fact that outside the classroom, students often encounter new modalities and new literacies which demands that they are multiliterate and necessitates an urgent review of language pedagogy, the emphasis of teaching and learning is still on traditional print-based literacy. As I reflected on the question Is multiliteracies merely a 'garnish'?, I began to examine my own classroom practice. In my years of teaching, have I exposed my students to multimodal texts? Very rarely are multimodal texts used. Are my students multiliterate because of what they learnt in the class because of my teaching? I doubt so. Are they even multi-literate in the first place? I need to find that out soon. If it is so important for students to be multiliterate, then why am I (and I suspect not just me)teaching my students in the same way as I was taught when I was a student? High-stakes examinations.

To be successful in the society in future means acing high-stakes examinations which inevitably resulted in the emphasis and importance of traditional print-based literacy. Because the assessment modes do not take into account of the fact that students need to be multi-literate, multiliteracies remains a 'garnish'. Even if teachers are aware of the fact that technological advances require students to be multiliterate to take on new challenges, they are likely to focus on print-based literacy because they teach with an end in mind - students need to pass their PSLE, O levels and A levels/Poly to get to university. Students know that in order to be successful, they need to be literate and literacy to them is traditional print-based literacy because they know how they are going to be assessed.

As evidenced in the article by Tan and Mcwilliam, good intentions and cutting-edge resources are insufficient to overturn long-term entrenched educational cultures. Students, tn terms of their learning practices, are not easily bought because they rather guard against failure than look for new ways of learning. Teachers face pressure from stakeholders and themselves to maintain high levels of print literacy in their students because of assessment modes. It is inevitable then that students are acculturated and socialised to value the types of literacy practices that they, their parents and society believe will contribute to academic success and that translates to a better future.

So, what are my take-aways then? One cannot ignore the mainstream schooling cultures which rewards print-based academic. I am sure as educators, we have our concerns about the digital pedagogy nexus such as the lack of clarity about the benefits of expensive technology, the under-utilisation of technologies in the classrooms, and confusion over whether the main goal of education is improved performance in formal assessment or in a broader sense greater human capacity.

Evaluation of Web Resources

There is a plethora of resources available online which teachers can use in their teaching of language. Given the numerous websites, the question is which resource is the 'best'. In order to determine which particular website is the 'best', there is a need for a checklist. The criteria is definitely not fixed and it defers from teacher to teacher.

Based on the article by Susser and Robb, a list of criteria for the evaluation of the chosen websites was crafted and used to evaluate them. It was not as easy a task as I had thought earlier because not all websites satisfy the criteria I had stated. Evaluation of websites is tedious and time-consuming. Despite that, it is necessary. Even though I mentioned that criteria differs from teacher to teacher, I believe that most if not all teachers will indicate the criterion stating that the website must meet the learning objectives. This, in my opinion, is of utmost importance because only then learning is purposeful and meaningful. It is confirmed during class discussion that indeed most of my colleagues stated learning objectives as one of the criteria. If the websites do not meet the learning objectives, it should not be used because it is a waste of time and time is a limited resource. Hence, teachers before using the website must first evaluate it using a set of criteria.

A chicken and egg question

During discussion on skills and strategies required for locating information on the web, a question was raised - Must the teaching of skills always precede strategies or can it be simultaneous? It's like the chicken and egg issue of which comes first, I thought. When Dr. Towndrow mentioned that many of our scheme of work does not state explicitly the strategies required to acquire the skills, he is absolutely right. When I looked at my SOW, there isn't any explicit stated strategies. My guess is that the team of teachers who crafted the SOW want to give teachers more freeplay in executing their lessons. However, after giving it much thought, I'd have strategies stated in SOW so that teaching is uniform across the level/school. This way, all students receive the same input.

Going back to the question on which comes first, I think it really depends on what the focus of the lesson is. If it is meant to teach students the method of acquiring the skills rather than the attainment of skills solely, then the teaching of strategies is the emphasis.

Perhaps at the end of the day, there isn't a hard and fast rule when it comes to teaching because it is both science and art.

Week 2: The Great Digital Debate

The debate on the motion "Digital technologies (DT) provide beneficial means and enhancements to thinking and learning" got me thinking, especially when I was asked to be on the con side, given that I'm one who believes that technology when used effectively does promote students' learning and thinking. If I had not been asked to think of the cons, I wouldn't.

The inappropriate use of DT in lessons results in ineffective teaching. If the use of DT means the mere use of powerpoint rather than the use of textbooks (or other more appropriate materials), or the use of tablet to annotate rather than the use of the whiteboard (which offers more space for annotation), then the potential of DT is not harnessed in the most efficient and effective manner. Very often, teachers use powerpoint in their teaching, thinking that they have used DT to enhance their students' learning. Tufte mentioned in his article that bullet outlines dilute thought. How often can students make sense of the brief phrases in the teacher-created powerpoint slides? Perhaps time can be better utilised to prepare meaningful notes for students to aid in their learning rather than devote time in 'beautifying' the slides.

[Digital] Technology is everywhere and we cannot deny the fact it has changed the way we teach. It is a tool for us to manipulate to suit our teaching needs so that we can design meaningful lessons to enhance our students' learning and thinking.

"A box of crayons and a big sheet of paper provides a more expressive medium for kids than computerized paint programs."

Clifford Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil, 1995