Reflections: Session Ten.

Our group’s mind map on our thoughts and lessons learnt at the COTF.

(Please click to enlarge.)

How do you think your tutor has attempted to engage you in this course?

Using the categories listed on the MOE website, I have seen the following emerge from the tutor’s efforts:

1. Collaboration with others, where one example would be informed group decisions. We had opportunities to share our opinions on classrooms issues (e.g. the latest online poll we just had on the lesson assignment deadline) so that we are involved in structuring our own learning. I think this is important because it gives students a sense of ownership of the lessons, thus motivating them to want to participate more actively in the classroom.
2. Meaning making with scaffolds, where each subsequent lesson builds on the knowledge gained in the previous one. This course has one of the best-scaffolded lesson structures I have ever had, and I’m not saying this just to polish any apples – I mean it from the bottom of my heart. My experience and realisation of what good scaffolding really means came about during the Individual Essay Assignment. As I was writing the paper, I realised – hey, this essay has been much easier to do compared to the other essays I’ve done before, precisely because we were given prior opportunities to carry out research + knowledge building. What’s more, those opportunities were also part of the evaluation schema, so we were effectively killing two birds with one stone. I’m a big fan of efficacy, so I was really bought over by this concept, and it’s something I aim to carry on doing in the future.
3. Real world learning contexts, where we are challenged to create lessons using ICT tools that we ourselves find useful, so that we can conduct classes that are meaningful and have an impact on students, in order to enhance their learning.
4. Evaluating on-going performance, as exemplified by this blog. I am constantly testing out new ideas and questioning old ones in order to push the limits of teaching. As I type this statement, I am forced to consider: are there any limits in the first place, or are said limits set by our own fears?

Which of these strategies might you use in future and why?

Ideally, I’d like to use all these strategies in the future. However, we don’t live in a perfect world, and changes are bound to occur. So perhaps a more moderate viewpoint might be useful here, one that might state that we carry out each strategy to meet the needs of students, if it is desired that these needs must be met, according to the environments and contexts that both the students and I are located in.