voyeurism

inviting a guest to class

for yesterday's class with my postgraduate geography teacher-trainees, we invited someone from their senior cohort to chat with us.
having graduated earlier this year, he's already emplaced within the teaching population, in one of the junior colleges here in Singapore.
we recorded our conversation with him, and i've assembled it into the eighteenth episode of ventriloquy, which weighs in at 8.5 MB.

Show notes:
- Introducing the invited guest
- Differing student profiles
- Express and Normal (Academic) streams
- Preparing lectures at junior college
- Teaching physical geography
- Non-teaching roles and responsibilities
- Teaching mathematics and geography
- Balancing academic work and technical competence
- Closing remarks on teaching at junior college

microteaching discussion #4 - earthquakes, Sec 1 (Normal (Academic)), and orogenesis, Sec 3 (Express) (part II)

here's the concluding part of today's 74-minute discussion.

it weighs in at 12.9 MB.

in this part of the discussion, we narrow our focus to discussing the particular issues which arose during the two microteaching sessions.

Show notes:
- Observer A's opening remarks
- Overcoming lethargy
- Making cross-curricular links
- Putting constructivism into practice
- Teacher A's responses
- Time management
- Using videos in class
- The importance of a good closure
- Staying alert
- A teacher's language
- Specificity in feedback
- Using various media types concurrently
- PowerPoint slide design
- Observer B's opening remarks
- The importance of commanding attention
- Eating in class
- Clarity of explanations
- Passing a learning resource around the class
- Staying alert, revisited
- Capturing students' inputs
- Encouraging student contributions
- Addressing students by name

microteaching discussion #4 - earthquakes, Sec 1 (Normal (Academic)), and orogenesis, Sec 3 (Express) (part I)

this seventeenth episode of ventriloquy is the fourth in a series which records the conversations that my students and i have in class, around the microteaching sessions that i've designed to be part of their postgraduate teacher-training course.

this episode is 74 minutes in duration, so i've split it into two files.

the first part is 9.1 MB in size, and follows-up on some very good points that the teacher-trainees raised in their blogs, after having participated as students between the ages of twelve to fifteen in the microteaching.

Show notes:
- Ensuring engagement
- Latecoming
- Engaging with parents
- Using learning resources effectively
- Finding your own voice

microteaching discussion #3 - vulcanicity, Sec 1 (Normal (Academic))

this episode is the third in a series which records the conversations that my students and i have in class, around the microteaching sessions that i've designed to be part of their postgraduate teacher-training course.

this time, we were only able to capture the few minutes immediately following-on from the end of the microteaching session - the bulk of the ensuing discussion was not recorded, for which i apologise. my oversight was especially regrettable because this particular microteaching session was one of the best instances of teaching that i have seen. it not only employed explicit constructivist principles, but it made use of realia as well, to demonstrate abstract concepts.

episode sixteen is still worth your time to download, at only 4.2 MB, because i've tried to show how this very skilled teacher addressed the issue of bridging gaps in learners' geographical expertise.

readings and reading groups

had a meeting with Allan Luke and Kerry Lee today :-)

they have very kindly agreed to help me find my way out of the present impasse which i currently find myself with the thesis.

Allan will help look at the messaging transcripts, while Kerry will look at the pre- and post-tests.

i've been given a few books to read, and i've also been told to join the Digital Curricular Literacies Reading Group here at the CRPP :-)

all this efforts are undertaken to help me get a singular theoretical grounding upon which the rest of my thesis can hang.

some sage words from Allan today: "you'll know when you're making true progress in your PhD when you hive off those parts which you've fought long and hard to keep in" (not sure if that comment is entirely applicable to my case, but i think it's generally good advice anyway :-) )

EcoRangers® in 'Educational Media International'

more than a year after EcoRangers® made its debut as the world's first educational game designed specifically for mobile phones, it is still making the news :-)

this time, as a follow-on from its presentation at the International Conference on Education Technology last year, i've just been given the wonderful news that the December 2005 issue of the journal 'Educational Media International' (Vol 42, No 4) will be carrying the article that Jason and i co-wrote, entitled 'collaborative handheld gaming in education'.

thanks be to God :-)

Technorati Tags: EcoRangers®, education, games, geography, ICET2004, learning, Singapore, technology, TLLM

learning about the Holocaust Centre

yesterday, my colleagues and i were privileged to meet with and learn from someone who's doing some fantastic work at the Holocaust Centre - 'Beth Shalom' - in the United Kingdom.

i've extracted the highlights of the discussion and have assembled them as the fifteenth episode of ventriloquy.

it's a 4.4 MB download.

Show notes:
- Introducing Chantelle Lee
- Preventing genocide
- The Holocaust Centre 'Beth Shalom'
- What is 'memory'?
- Working with stakeholders in the community
- Rehabilitation work
- Love thy neighbour
- Outreach
- Behold the white knight

microteaching discussion #2 - karst and faulting, Sec 3 (Express) (part II)

here's the second half of today's two-hour discussion.

it weighs in at 13.4 MB.

in this part of the discussion, we narrow our focus to discussing the particular issues which arose during the two microteaching sessions.

Show notes:
- Teacher A's opening remarks
- Observer A's opening remarks
- Giving timeframes in advance
- The voice of a teacher
- The teacher's own learning modalities
- Capturing student input
- Perspective and clarity in diagrams
- The social construction of knowledge
- The laser pointer
- Teacher B's opening remarks
- Revisiting perspective and clarity
- Observer B's opening remarks
- The importance of a strong start
- The teacher's control of energy levels
- Using models in class
- Behaviourism works both ways
- Distributing one's questions equitably
- Addressing students by name

Technorati Tags: behaviourism, cognition, constructivism, education, geography, learning, microteaching, podcast, Singapore

microteaching discussion #2 - karst and faulting, Sec 3 (Express) (part I)

this fourteenth episode of ventriloquy is the second in a series which records the conversations that my students and i have in class, around the microteaching sessions that i've designed to be part of their postgraduate teacher-training course.

this episode is two hours in duration, so i've split it into two files of around an hour each.

the first part is 13.2 MB in size, and follows-up on some very good points that the teacher-trainees raised in their blogs, after having participated as 'fourteen- and fifteen-year-old students' in the microteaching.

(by the way, today i also sent the revised chapters of my thesis to my supervisor)

Show notes:
- Sleeping, breaks and early dismissals
- Confiscation
- Behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism
- Precision and conciseness
- Expert and novice knowledge
- Pavlov's puppies
- Know when to escalate

Technorati Tags: behaviourism, cognition, constructivism, education, expert, learning, memory, microteaching, podcast, Singapore

feedback at last

woohoo :-)

after a span of six months' i've finally gotten some feedback that i can chew on from my supervisors :-)

it's only pertaining to the first three chapters, but something is better than nothing :-)

basically, i have to tighten up the writing and make the whole thing more congruent with my research objectives.

it's not surprising that this portion - especially Chapter One - needs tidying up, for these chapters contain paragraphs which can be traced to the earliest drafts of my thesis, when it was but a mere research proposal :-)

one very obvious change in my thinking (from those early days) is that i've moved significantly away from the emphasis on social software itself, to attempting to understand how space and place are organised in the adolescent mind.

i'll get to work on it right away!