Session 1.3 - ICTs in interactive teaching
The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Learning intentions and objectives.
In this session you will learn about:
- Using ICT to support interactive teaching
- resources needed for interactive teaching
- Group work with ICT
- Seating arrangements
- The role of non-ICT resources
Success criteria.
To meet the learning intentions you will:
ICT components.
The ICT components you will focus on are
- Learning about software applications
- Learning about GeoGebra.
- Typing practice.
- Email (optional)
Review of follow-up activities from last session
If you are running a professional learning programme which follows these sessions in sequence, then you should do the review of follow-up activities relating to the (Category:OER4S CPD). The 'review of follow-up activities' for that session is available, and also shown below in the session text. However, if you are following selected sessions in a different order, then you should use the reflection appropriate to the previous session you did.
The review of the follow-up activities for this session (to be done at the start of the next session) is available here.
There is no review of follow-up activities from last session available. You can go to the previous session () and.
Brainstorm on ICT
Whole group brainstorm (10 min) on ICT Consider the following questions:
- What does ICT mean to you?
- What different types of ICTs have you heard of?
- What ICTs have you used?
- Which ICTs would you like to use in the classroom?
ICT = Information and Communication Technology
Remember to record the brainstorm on the board or a large sheet of paper. Things that should feature are: PCs, laptops, netbooks, tablets, mp3 players, mobile phones, games consoles, web content (images/maps/, software applications etc.
Using ICT to support interactive teaching
Whole group discussion (15 min) on the role of ICT in the kinds of teaching this programme has been introducing. Think about the role that ICT plays in the following video clips and be prepared to discuss your ideas with the rest of the group. What is similar and what is different about the ICT use in each clip?
VIDEO
Teacher gives detailed help
Teacher gives detailed help to group: shows ICT use. ("I've never seen a Zebra.")
Video/Eness vertebrates 5.mp4, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Eness_vertebrates_5.mp4,This video is available on your memory stick in the video/Eness Vertebrates folder. Duration: 4:04 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)(Series: Eness Vertebrates, episode 05)
VIDEO
Geogebra group work
A group of students jointly progress on their task to investigate the relationship between area and perimeter of rectangles.
Video/Geogebra-group-interaction.m4v, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Geogebra-group-interaction.m4v,This video is available on your memory stick in the video/Abel rectangles folder. Duration: 2:03 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)(Series: Abel rectangles, episode 06)
The first clip show the teacher interacting with a group of students making use of ICT (digital images on a tablet) and the second clip shows a group of students (no teacher) interacting using a netbook with the GeoGebra software installed.
Illustrations of ICT use:
Look at these photographs from other lessons to see more examples of interactive teaching and ICT use and think about the discussion questions that follow:
Whole group discussion (5 min) on images of ICT use. Share your thoughts with the rest of the group :
- When is it appropriate to use ICT?
- What uses can you think of that promote and enhance interactive teaching and learning?
Discussion around appropriate use and purpose: ICT engages learners but may have novelty value. How can we keep its use motivating over time?
Thinking back to the images classification.
- Activity is easily updated with new images
- ICT use: Helps students? Helps teachers? E.g. teacher doesn’t need to print, which saves time and resources, but doesn’t make much difference to students whether they learn from netbook or from paper. In some ways it’s easier for the students to do this from paper.
Another consideration: At the moment, we are only making very basic use of ICT, where the ICT use is not essential, and the same results could be achieved by other means. However, through this ICT use, the ICT skills of both teachers and students increase, allowing the design and use of more complex activities.
Resources
What resources are needed for interactive teaching – in general? Where do they come from?
ICTs are one resource but non-digital tools can be powerful too. Examples of resources include:
- mini-blackboards
- measuring tapes or sticks
- counters or stones
- calculators
- digital camera
- class set of netbooks (there are logistical issues to be resolved here including charging, security, rota for use etc.)
- digital learning resources
- This includes media (such as images, audio, and video, as well as animations), and using these requires searching for appropriate resources, saving them for re-use with students
- This also includes files (such as text files, spreadsheets, presentations)
- This also includes applications themselves (such as OpenOffice, GeoGebra)
- e-book readers (Kindle, Wikireader)
- etc.
Small group discussion (5 min) on using resources to support interactive teaching. Think about some of the resources you might like to use in your forthcoming lessons and discuss them – with teachers of the same grade if possible – or with a small group of other participants. Think about how you would use them?
Reflection
Talk to the person next to you and/or collectively brainstorm - what can these interactive methods contribute to your teaching, especially over the next few weeks?
Remember to reflect yourself on how this workshop went, and to audio record:
- How did the workshop go?
- Which parts did participants respond to best? Why?
- Were there any parts of the material that didn’t work very well? Why?
- Did you deviate from the plan at any point? How?
- How long did the workshop take?
- Were there any logistical issues? (eg latecomers/absentees, technical difficulties, etc)
Geogebra
This activity will orientate you to make use of GeoGebra to create basic polygons. You will need to access a computer/laptop/netbook and internet. Access a web-browser and navigate to this page: http://mathandmultimedia.com/geogebra/
We will suggest that you go through the exercises in the page in this order:
- GeoGebra Basic Construction 1 – Constructing an Equilateral Triangle
- GeoGebra Basic Construction 2 – Constructing an Isosceles Triangle
- GeoGebra Basic Construction 3 – Constructing a Right Triangle
- GeoGebra Basic Construction 4 – Constructing a Square
- GeoGebra Basic Construction 5 – Constructing a Rectangle
- GeoGebra Basic Construction 6 - Constructing a Parallelogram
- GeoGebra Basic Construction 7 – Constructing a Rhombus
- GeoGebra Basic Construction 9 – Constructing a Kite
You can print this content on a separate sheet here: OER4Schools/Geogebra exercises.
Small group activity (20 min). Working in your small group of three to four participants, complete the following activity using GeoGebra. In this activity, we will like you to experiment with drawing different polygons that you may not have seen before (i.e. be creative!). Draw 10 different shaped polygons using GeoGebra. As you draw, think about what is the same and what is different between those polygons, and how you could classify them into different groups.
You may like to refer to this YouTube clip if you are not certain about how to make use of GeoGebra:
VIDEO
Simple Polygons in GeoGebra
Simple Polygons in GeoGebra
Video/Simple Polygons in Geogebra.mp4, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Simple_Polygons_in_Geogebra.mp4,This video is available on your memory stick in the video/Video from other organisations folder. Duration: 03:12 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)(Series: Video from other organisations, episode N/A)
Take some time to look at the different polygons you have drawn and try to find similar characteristics in some or all of the polygons. Try to group these polygons together and classify them with some sort of descriptor. For instance, some of them may look symmetrical, some may look like regular polygons, or some may have right angles. Be prepared to discuss with your group participants how you have classified them. Share your findings with the other participants and share whether such an activity can be used in the class as a quick taster of what EBL is about.
Try to encourage the participants to draw polygons of different shapes, and to really try to make them different. The polygons should not just be different sizes of the same shape. It is possible that some shapes may just look like the magnification or reduction of size of other shapes but hopefully, participants can draw shapes of different number of sides, length of sides and/or internal angles.
Note that while the instructions for the task are short, it will take some time to complete the task. Make sure you limit the time appropriately, so that there’s enough time for the remainder of the workshop. Decide whether or not to show the following video to illustrate the enquiry nature of this kind of problem-solving task:
VIDEO
The Art of Problem Solving
The Art of Problem Solving: Classifying Quadrilaterals
Video/Art of Problem Solving Classifying Quadrilaterals.mp4, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Art_of_Problem_Solving_Classifying_Quadrilaterals.mp4,This video is available on your memory stick in the video/Video from other organisations folder. Duration: 9:44 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)(Series: Video from other organisations, episode N/A)
Note that Geogebra is quite a complex application, and we're not immediately asking participants to trial this in the classroom. We'll do more Geogebra-based activities throughout the sessions, and will then trial it in the classroom too.
Groupwork with computers: Seating arrangements
By this stage we've reflected on and trialled group work quite a few times. We now look at how ICT fits into the picture.
Whole group discussion (10 min) on computer lab layout. Read the following background text, and discuss any issues that arise.
We now consider the role of computers in group work. Mobile computing technologies (such as netbooks or tablets) are very versatile and can be used as and when needed. By contrast, computer labs are now becoming outdated in schools as they remove technology from subject teaching and learning and from the normal classroom environment and teaching aids. Many do not even have a blackboard. Some of the issues are:
- Moving a class into the computer room is disruptive to teaching (especially in primary)
- Computer labs can enforce a rigid seating pattern if benches are fixed.
- If you have a computer lab with desktop machines, can it be re-arranged to support groupwork?
- If machines are located around the perimeter (learners have backs to each other and teacher), or in rows, this is not conducive to collaborative learning.
- Some computer rooms even partition off machines so learners cannot interact
The seating arrangement. Sometimes labs are arranged in a certain way, because of certain concerns. For instance, if the school administration is worried about off-task behaviour, computers are arranged in rows. However, this isn’t a good solution, as it interferes with groupwork. Instead, if a teacher is worried about off-task behaviour, they can cruise around the room!
Experience shows that an island arrangement works best, ideally large hexagonal tables, but large round or square tables are fine too.
Discuss some of the following statements and questions:
- How would you interact with learners in these various setups? For instance, if computers are arranged in rows, what would the interaction be like? If they were sitting in groups, what would the interaction be like? For these activities, refer to the two pictures above! What is the interaction like in the picture that shows the booths in the comptuter room?
- With mobile technologies, what are good ways to configure group seating? Refer to the picture of our lab!
Individual activity (5 min): Drawing a computer lab. Draw a sketch to show how you would arrange computers among groups.
Groupwork with computers: The role of non-ICT resources
Pair work (5 min). In pairs, discuss the role of mini-blackboards in groupwork with and without computers. How can mini-blackboards support interactive teaching? How can mini-blackboards support groupwork with computers? What other non-ICT resources can you think of, which can be used with computers? How?
If you need to provide further input, remind them of Eness' lesson on vertebrates. In this lesson the pupils were using the tablets to look at pictures of animals, while they were using mini-blackboards to write down their observations.
You could also do a short brainstorm about what resources you can think of, that might support group work? E.g. books, newspapers, other technology (like radio), things found in the natural environment, etc. Get participants to think creatively about what might be available in the local environment.
Discussion (10 min). Discuss the outcomes of your reflection as a whole class.
Typing practice
Pair work (10 min): familiarisation with typing tutor Familiarise yourself with a typing tutor programme. From now on, you should spend a little bit of time practsing typing, ideally a few times a week. This will really help you speed up your interaction with the netbooks.
Follow-up activities
Agreeing follow-up activities (5 min).
Part A: Homework in class. Another slideshow.
Part B: Homework outside teaching. Plan a simple activity using digital resources in some way to support learning in a lesson you will be teaching after one week’s time; you can either plan to use the netbooks with the pupils, or just use one connected to the projector.
Don’t actually carry out the activity, just plan it using a lesson template. Use the teacher lab to search for resources before you come to the next workshop. Bring with you the lesson plan and the link to the resource(s) you have chosen.
Part C: ICT task (optional). In addition to the lesson planning, all teachers should do an ICT task, to advance their ICT knowledge. This week you should:
- Log into your email and send an email to the mailing list. You can just say hi, and how you are finding the workshop, or post any question that you have.
- Make sure that you are able to transfer your audio recordings.
- Save a page into the “lessons_resources”
Make sure that the participants know the email address of the mailing list you are using! For the OER4Schools programme, we are using a mailing list at google groups: oer4schools (at) googlegroups.com.
In the next session, these follow-up activities will be reviewed. If you are using this session on its own, you can have a look at the review of follow-up activities here.
At the end of each session, we provide an overview of the activities in this session, together with their suggested timings. Although this appears at the end of the session (for technical reasons), you should keep an eye on this throughout the session, to make sure that you are pacing the workshop session appropriately!
Total time: 100 (min)
Activities in this session:
- Whole group brainstorm (10 min) on ICT
- Whole group discussion (15 min) on the role of ICT in the kinds of teaching this programme has been introducing
- Whole group discussion (5 min) on images of ICT use
- Small group discussion (5 min) on using resources to support interactive teaching
- Small group activity(20 min).
- Whole group discussion (10 min) on computer lab layout.
- Individual activity (5 min): Drawing a computer lab.
- Pair work(5 min).
- Discussion(10 min).
- Pair work (10 min): familiarisation with typing tutor
- Agreeing follow-up activities(5 min).
If you have printed this session for offline use, you may also need to download the following assets:
- Video/Eness vertebrates 5.mp4 (local play / download options / download from dropbox)
- Video/Geogebra-group-interaction.m4v (local play / download options / download from dropbox)
- Video/Simple Polygons in Geogebra.mp4 (local play / download options / download from dropbox)
- Video/Art of Problem Solving Classifying Quadrilaterals.mp4 (local play / download options / download from dropbox)
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