Blog Links:

Let us look at interesting blog maintained by my friends. Since we share the same ship there are lots of things we can learn together.

1. Sangay Dema: http://demasangay.blogspot.com
2. Phub Dem:  http://phubchun.blogspot.com
3. Sonam Choden : http://sonamc56.blogspot.com  
4. Karma Wangmo : http://kartshesonob.blogspot.com
5.  Sonam Wangdi: http://sowandee.blogspot.com   
6. Tashi Zangmo:  http://tzamsompey.blogspot.com   

Day III 7th July 2015

The lesson began with the introduction of “Web Search” whereby participants were familiarized with its benefits and how to go about web searching and what is all about Web search.

My understanding as per our tutors presentation on web search was looking for information on internet that helps us in particular use. He also explained that among many search engines most popular search engines used today are  Google, Bing and Yahoo. The results displayed are typically prioritized by relevance, so those who search the Web can quickly find material that is relevant to their needs. Without a search engine, finding information and resources on the Internet is very difficult, especially when specific servers and domains containing desired information are unknown.

What is internet?

Search engines are programs that search documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. A search engine is really a general class of programs, however, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google, Bing and Yahoo! Search that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web.

Since different search engines use different methods to search for the result we were, therefore, introduced with different kinds of “Operators” they were;

• Use of Boolean Operators

• Using AND operator

• Truncation

• Wildcards

• File type

• Site

Boolean Operators 

They are simple words (AND, OR, NOT or AND NOT) used as conjunctions to combine or exclude keywords in a search, resulting in more focused and productive results. This should save time and effort by eliminating inappropriate hits that must be scanned before discarding.

Using AND operators The AND & OR operators are used to filter records based on more than one condition. The AND operator displays a record if both the first condition AND the second condition are true.

Truncation

Truncation, also called stemming, is a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings. To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end. Examples: 

child* = child, childs, children, childrens, childhood

genetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically

Truncation symbols may vary by database; common symbols include: *, !, ?, or #

Wildcards:

Similar to truncation, wildcards substitute a symbol for one letter of a word. This is useful if a word is spelled in different ways, but still has the same meaning.

Examples: 

wom!n = woman, women

colo?r = color, colour

Restricting your search using site operators

We can search within a site or a domain by adding the site: operator followed by a site’s domain name to your query. For example, you could search for archaeology site: www.une.edu.au.

To conduct a comprehensive search of all of the associated sub domains of a domain, omit the www and instead specify only the main domain. For example, a search for site:bbs.com would encompass not just www.bbs.com, but also news.bbs.com, sports.bbs.com, and so forth. The site: search operator works even when just the domain extension (like .com, .org, .gov, or .co.uk) is specified. Thus, we can restrict our search to .com sites with site:com, to .gov sites with site:gov, or to .org.bt.  

Restricting your search by format  

we can restrict our search to Word documents, to Excel documents, to PDF files, or to PowerPoint files by adding filetype:doc, filetype:xls, filetype:pdf, or filetype:ppt, respectively, to your search query. If we want a  PowerPoint presentation on How to integrate ICT in subject  Simply query Google for “integrate ICT in Mathematics filetype:ppt”

Towards the end of today’s lesson we were briefed on the benefits of using Google books and google help centre. Google Books is a Google service that makes discovering book content easier for us on the web. It started way back in 2004 and since then its mission has been to digitally scan and archive tons of book.

Google Help centre Help Forums. 

While surfing the nets we often get different result, in order to get the exact information, making a thorough search with multiple search engine is must. Having learnt the use of the search operators I am now able to work much faster  and smarter and carry out online activities smoothly than before.   

As a part of exercises we were assigned with home assignment which consisted of searching Educational web sites. Implementing all the techniques and methods I was able to search more than 10 educational web sites and submit it on time.

Thanks 

Day II 6th July 2015

ICT in Education 

The class began with the video clip on "What does it mean to teach in the 21^st century". The message actually states on how we can be a Teacher in the 21st Century Classroom. The teachers in the classes still  use what can best be described as ‘Lecture’ method of teaching. Our teaching however loud enough, children turn off the teacher broadcasting channel and the  valuable educational ideas are lost as a result of it.
Since we live in this 21^st century world, expectation of two way communication are less. People are expected to find their own solution, but we still have same old aged teaching strategies that confuses us on engaging our digital native children more naturally.  We  are witnessing vast and rapid change in how our children want to learn these days. Technology had not only changed the world around us but also the mindset of children’s educational needs. As a teacher we now (if we want our bread and butter) have to ensure that the learning in the class is fun, used updated interactive strategies to cater to our individual learners no matter where they come from.To keep up the pace and built up our stamina we were therefore introduced  to the following;

ICT as a informative tools.What does it mean?

•  ICT should engage our children meaningfully

• Teach skills in collecting good information

• Teachers are no longer the main source for the students.

• ICT is dominating

• Information: Finding and using information. Choosing, saving, arranging and checking information. Looking at saved work, understanding it and thinking about what could happen if there are mistakes in it.

• Media: Creating videos and flash movies.

• Communication: For example, through displays, posters, emails to friends and family.

• Collaboration: Discussing work to help develop ideas. Talking about how they could improve future work.

• Creativity: Organizing and developing ideas using text, charts, pictures, sound, etc. Planning and carrying out instructions to make things happen and then seeing how well they worked.

• Critical thinking:  Looking at others work and reasoning how the activities were being carried out.

21^st Century skills 

These were some of the points we discussed during the session, the participants of the class were all actually assuming it, if all the schools in our country were accessible with internet and computers. But I was preparing what if all our school children are made available to those technology.   So what would be my role then? It is far more important than just providing the answers to questions. Rather, I need to be able to guide them on how to learn and filter the information so that it is useful and applicable. It will be my job to support my children as they discover their new path to mastering their skills and talents.

What are the skills that can be taught our children through ICT
Some of the points discussed in the class were;
Our curriculum designer are still at work, project like Chigphen Rigphel Project are taking shape, ministry is funding number of IT activities for schools which inspires us for making our children digital entrepreneurs while enhancing learning of science and technology.  ICT are a potentially powerful tool for extending educational opportunities, at our level and at this period we can only introduce basic skills and ideas for their studies and simple class project works.  
Our tutor Mr. Chenga Dorji also gave a brief talk on 21^st century skill, where he mentioned that it is the ability of a person to reason effectively and critically as appropriate to the situation to overcome complex problem based on analyzed and evaluated evidences, arguments claims and beliefs.We being teachers for this century now have to find the way to teach our children how to think critically by being critical thinker and exposing them to critical situation. Find ways to problem solving by presenting our children with problems that they must solve.     

ICT in Education – meaning and definition
ICT stands for Information and Communication Technology. A diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate and to create, disseminate, store and manage information. ICT in education focus on understanding computers and the programs. Introducing ICT in our curriculum would help children to understand how we use computers and networking systems available. Children would learn how to gather and use information, present it and share it with others.  

Towards the end of today’s lesson we were introduced to Teacher’s site which meets the needs of teacher during teaching. It is a place where we can learn collaboratively. The challenge for us is the introduction of computers in the schools are yet to flourish and the strategies we are learning might become outdated, as such it is our personal duty to keep our self updated. To facilitate whatever we have on ICT in education, we need to identify the barriers so that they can be overcome and stay awake.

Day I 3rd July 2015

Introduction to the module

The first lesson  on ICT module was short and brief. Our tutor talked on the overview of the module and its assessment mode. We were also asked what ICT actually mean; ICT stands for information and communication technologies. To me it is a diverse set of technological tools and resources used for communication, to create, to disseminate, to store and to manage information which involves computers and internet  and other technology like cell phones and television.

The main focus of today’s lesson was the familiarization of Digital native students versus Digital immigrants teachers.

Who are digital native and immigrants; Digital native are the generation of people born during or after the rise of digital technology  and natives are people born before the advent of digital and who actually doesn’t have anything to do with technology.

The mindset of digital native children in our country are so different that we teachers, who are digital immigrant have the toughest time catching up with them. Today’s children, actually our present students embrace technology so much that they tend to forget our long preserved customs and culture. Example custom of marriage seldom happens, they get married through the technology, like wechat, facebooking, skype and many more.

Tremendous efforts are being carried to train our old aged teachers and administrators who are immigrant to technology to able to meet the needs of digital native children where usage of technology has become exciting and easier for them.

Despite the above discussion, participant in the class also discussed how we as teachers can make the use of their digital brain into today’s learning and teaching.  Since I am a teacher and not digital native have roles to mold our younger brains to fruitful citizen. With the help of this ICT module I am sure to guide our children in making the best use of available technology in our country.