Week 13: Presentation of Final Product

The presentation of our final product begins. This is our site for the final project.

This is the URL for our Google site:
https://sites.google.com/site/heideiz88sci/home









The other 3 groups’ presentation:


Rafidah’s group: Saving Mother Earth (Google site)









Faiz’s group: Animal Extinction (Blog)






Syafiq’s group: The Phases of Moon (Blog)






Done with the presentation. Now, I would like to give my opinions on the use of Google sites as a platform in order to enhance teaching and learning of science.

1- The integration of technology such as Google sites in teaching and learning of science has the potential to arouse students’ interest and indirectly, engage them in learning science subject.

2- Google sites could assist teacher in teaching and give students a better understanding in learning science. This is especially when they have to deal with certain concepts that are difficult to be explained verbally. For example, using Google sites could help students to understand the Solar System and its constituents. This is because this platform provides a space for teacher to upload videos which make students easier to visualise and increase their understanding.

3- This kind of technology however has limitation. The internet facility should be considered in order to use it for teaching and learning. Therefore, it is best to save it into CDs if teachers face this situation.


Before and after the introduction of ADDIE model:

At first, I thought that designing and producing instructional material is just about using various teaching materials for teaching science. I don’t know that many aspects should be taken into consideration when designing this teaching materials and it also needs a good planning.

Through the introduction of ADDIE model;

I realize that it must start with a good instructional planning. The earliest phase needs us to analyze and come out with a concept map.

The second phase which is Design Phase requires us to design and visualise how the material will be presented.

The third phase of ADDIE model is Development phase. This is where the materials are developed and produced as a solid product.

These phases are fundamental in order to have a systematic planning and to produce a teaching material with good quality.


This semester really gives me ideas on how the teaching and learning of science subject could be carried out in a more creative and interesting way. it also gives me ideas on how increase teaching and learning through the integration of technology. Thank you Prof for the knowledge and the values integrated in the lectures.

Week 12: Site in progress !

This week, we were given the whole 3 hours to focus on designing our website. Thanks to Prof. because we were running out of time. There are a lot of works to be completed and these 3 hours are the time for us to get everything done. We really appreciate it Prof!


Now, back to our website progress. We started by designing the homepage as it should be interesting and able to capture students’ attention. We also focused on searching for reading materials related to our topic, “Solar System”. In addition, we thought that it is good if the students could get further information from this website. Therefore, we decided to include several links which are suitable and related to the topic. Other things that we did during these 3 hours were designing the layout, browsing for pictures and designing attractive homepage.


After focusing on designing this website, we then had a short discussion in order to finalize and justify everything. We need to write a report about this website and this must take into consideration the learning problems of students that we are focusing on. Good planning and discussion are important as this is our final assignment and these would ensure that we can fulfill the task requirement.


Get everything done and next week is……………. GROUP PRESENTATION!!!

Week 11: STORYBOARD

This week is the second phase of our progress in completing the last assignment which is about development of simple instruction materials. This is a group work.
These are the requirements for this assignment:


DEVELOPMENT OF SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS (GROUP WORK)

Develop an instructional material for teaching science. You can choose any mode (eg. On-line materials INCLUDING Web 2.0 tools, CD, etc ) You need to present the instructional material to class and submit a written report in the following format:

I - objective of the materials
ii - flowchart
iii- sample of hard copy of the materials


We chose the topic of ‘Solar System’ and we decided to use Google sites as a platform of designing the instructional material. The second phase requires us to come out with proper planning and we have to sketch a storyboard.


After having a quite long discussion, we decided to come out with a simple storyboard.




* This is our storyboard 1

Week 10: ADDIE Model

For this week, we were introduced to the ADDIE model. This model consists of five phases. Those phases are:

1- Analysis phase
2- Design phase
3- Development phase
4- Implementation
5- Evaluation


:: ANALYSIS PHASE ::

The learning problem is identified, the goals and objective of the lesson is predetermined, the delivery options and the timeline for the project are decided.


:: DESIGN PHASE ::

The storyboard is designed for the entire website.


:: DEVELOPMENT PHASE ::

The actual product and the designed tool.


:: IMPLEMENTATION PHASE ::

The tool is tested. Thus, the effectiveness of the tool will be evaluated and the weaknesses and strengths are discovered.


:: EVALUATION PHASE ::

Feedback is gained for making improvements and modifications.

Week 9: Group Presentation >>>> TEAMWORK!

For this presentation, we have to choose an online tool whether it is wikis or blog and design an educational website to be used for teaching and learning. We are the fourth group and we chose Facebook as the online tool. Using facebook, we use the quiz application whereby we created a set of questions about ‘Solar System’.
However, we made a mistake because we did not fully explore the applications in facebook that can be used as educational website for teaching and learning. Thanks to Prof. because she gave us the second chance to improve our educational website.





The other 3 groups presented their own choice of educational website.

Group 1: BLOG

This group chose blog for teaching about ‘Endangered Species’. This gave us ideas on how to integrate the applications if we are using blog for our future teaching.



Group 2: WIKIS

This group chose Google site as it is good and flexible to be designed. This is suitable to be used for teaching and learning as it could meet the needs of primary school students.



Group 3: INSTANT MESSAGING

This group chose to use instant messaging as an after class activity. This is applicable in order for students to get immediate feedback from teacher and also their peers. Besides that, it could help teacher to improve their teaching for the next class.

Week 8: The importance of Systematic Evaluation

There are many aspects that should be taken into consideration when we want to create an educational website which is used for teaching and learning purpose. Therefore, rubric plays an important role to help us when using the platform for an educational purpose. A rubric functions as a checklist and reminder for us as we might overlook certain aspects when designing a learning website. There are a lot of aspects that should be taken into consideration in designing a website for educational purpose.


Those aspects are:

1) USABILITY CRITERIA:
- purpose
- homepage
- navigation
- design
- enjoyment
- readabilility

2) CONTENT CRITERIA:
- authority
- accuracy
- relevance
- sufficiency
- appropriateness

3) EDUCATIONAL VALUE CRITERIA:
- learning activities
- activity plan
- resources
- communication
- feedback
- rubric
- help tools

4) VIVIDNESS CRITERIA:
- links
- updating


Reasons for the need of rubrics to evaluate an educational website:

1- Determine whether the website is updated for being used in teaching and learning process. This is important in order to provide students with latest information about the topics taught.

2- To ensure that the learning website is usable in terms of functionality. Visitors especially students will refuse to pursue the content if the website functions poorly or does not function at all.

3- To clarify whether the website is user-friendly or the other way around. This is important on order to engage students in learning.

Week 7: Knowledge Sharing~

For this week lecture, we were introduced to some platforms that can be used for teaching and learning process. Those platforms are:

1- Wikis
2- Blog
3- Social networking
4- Media sharing


These four platforms are different from each other in terms of certain functions. However, they have the potential to provide knowledge for sharing. Moreover, these platforms allow communication to take place through instant chatting and feedback received as comments.


Among these platforms, I think that wikis are more suitable to be used for this knowledge sharing purpose. One example of wikis that can be used for knowledge sharing is Google sites.


The applications in wikis provide a new learning space for the students besides engaging in daily classroom learning. Wikis has the advantages whereby we can control the navigation and we can also add anything that we like such as videos, quizzes and many more.


Wikis has the potential to help teacher in giving additional information about certain topics taught in classroom. This would help students to enhance their learning especially in learning science. As mentioned earlier, a Google site is one good platform for teaching science. Moreover, Google sites provide a space for students to have online discussion with teachers and also their peers.


This is an example of using Google sites for teaching and learning process.




This Google site is used for my PKEY 3101.