Week 3 - Andrea Chicco

GEMS

It was excellent to have the opportunity to contact Mrs M and her Year 2 GEMS via Skype. It is nice to see the concepts we learn in ICT and Pedagogy can actually be implemented into a classroom. When the GEMS were interviewed by the ICT and Pedagogy Uni Students, they were responding with terminologies such as "blogging" as a second nature to them. I was just learning these terminologies myself!

PRAC - Lead in Day 1

Well Well Well. I have been allocated to a school that implements a lot of ICT in the classroom. How did I get so lucky, especially whilst being enrolled in ICT and Pedagogy. The first ICT device I was exposed to and I was very curious about were devices that were sitting on the teacher’s chest attached to a lanyard. At first as I had not seen them in practice, I assumed it had something to do with a student who may have been a diabetic. Shortly after settling into my year 4 class, I realised this device is actually a microphone, which is has been integrated into each classroom of the school to deliver clear and concise lessons. The microphone looks like large USBs type devices.

The teachers I had informally spoken to about the microphones LOVE them as they do not have to raise their voice to ensure every student can hear. Additionally, when using the microphone in a teacher led lesson, during a whole class discussion, the teacher issues a student with the microphone to speak into to deliver their response.

Other ICT devices or programs the school implement that I had been exposed to on my first lead in day were; Interactive White Board (IWB), laptops per student (hired out from library, see below image) and instead of using a bell to distinguish break or class times, they utilise popular music through the sound system.