Although there are many positive aspects to including new technologies into the classroom, it isn’t always possible. In this case we need to make the most of what we have and in the past, computers weren’t used in education.
The Learning and Teaching website (Atherton 2005, Online) offers a wide range of do’s and don’ts when using different resources. For example, it is stated that a whiteboard or flipchart could give the impression that the planning of the lesson was rushed or that you are being spontaneous by making notes on it before the lesson starts. To avoid this appearance, Petty (2004 pp.369) advises that tutors should start with a clean board and if you intend to use the board to take notes throughout the lesson, ensure that this is explained to the students to avoid confusion over copying. However if you do wish students to make notes from the board, you should make sure you write in blue or black and write neatly to aid readability but also to encourage the learners to write neatly as well.
Another resource used frequently is the handout. Reece and Walker (2007 pp.175-174) state a number of ways in which handouts can be used, from an information sheet to a worksheet. Worksheets are good when wanting to save time as they can prevent the tutor from having to repeat themselves, especially when teaching a class of mixed ability, but do need to be tried and tested first.
Contrary to this, the Learning and Teaching website (Atherton 2005, Online) advise tutors to be aware of the timing of issuing worksheets as giving a comprehension worksheet at the start of the lesson will give the learner no reason to listen to the tutor as they can read it themselves. I personally like to use worksheets to break up a lesson with a lot of discussion and to enable quieter learners to participate especially if they are too shy to contribute to a large group. However if used too frequently, handouts can become tedious.
Overhead projectors also have good and bad points. Some good aspects mentioned by Petty (2004 pp.361) are that a tutor can face the class whilst writing on the OHTs and are able to spend more time explaining content rather than writing it on the board.
On the other hand, Reece and Walker (2007 pp.360) believe that copying from the board and OHP transparencies is not a good use of class contact time and feel that issuing students with handouts can save a lot of time. OHPs seemed to be an instrument of the past to me, personally I have never had one available to use in the classroom and I have not seen one being used for a while. With the Interactive Whiteboard becoming more and more popular, I imagine it may phase OHPs out. The same can be said for worksheets as it is possible to create and complete them on the computer; however the likelihood of each learner having individual access to a computer other than in an ICT lesson can be even less likely than being able to use an interactive whiteboard.
Atherton, J.S. (2005) Learning and Teaching: Handouts. [Online]. Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/handouts.htm
[21.01.2009]
Reece, I. & Walker, S. (2007) Teaching , Training and Learning : A Practical Guide. 6th Edition. Sunderland: Business Education
Petty, G. (2004) Teaching Today: A Practical Guide. 3rd Edition. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes
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great post heather
ReplyDeletedon't forget that Petty and Reece and Walker need to be in your ref list
also the author of the Learning and Teaching site is Atherton so that biot should look like this:
Contrary to this, the Learning and Teaching website (Atherton 2005, Online)
notice I don't use a comma after his name.