ICT as Co- constructive tool

ICT as a co-constructive tool highlights on teamwork, and collaboration working. Using the co-constructive tool children can interact with one another learns from the colleagues to develop their knowledge. The use of collaborative technology in an educational context increases students' engagement with course content enriches the learning process and enhances active participation through content creation. The co- constructive tool engages both teacher and the students to come up with an efficient product.

Through the co-constructive tool it serves benefits like to exploration and sharing of views in term of learning. Children can develop strong and efficient relationship with the teacher and the society for effective learning. Students can co-edit and help each other with the best ideas. It also have advantages on higher order thinking level as students need to reason out when they write something, provide explanations and negotiate among themselves to finalize the information shared.

During the session, we were introduced to what is a co-constructive tool and what are its benefits. From various examples we used Google docs as a collaborative tool and it was quite an interesting tool to be used. Google Docs is a free, web-based word processing, presentations and spreadsheets program. Unlike desktop software, Google Docs lets people create web-based documents, presentations and spreadsheets that anyone in the group can update from his/her own computer, even at the same time.

Preparing lesson plan in the groups of three using Google Docs

It had benefits like providing each other valuable feedback and discussions. When I used Google Docs I was able to read and comment almost as soon as my friends shared their work with me. With the comment section, I found myself giving more supplements and feedback and also contribute to the discussion than I usually do on regular basis. This provides everyone with more individualized instruction and gives us valuable formative comments that will help improve the quality of the work. Google Docs helps us to improve group assignments, allowing us to interact and collaborate online, thus enhancing our learning experience.

 

Comment section to provide feedback and create discussion thread.

use of Camtasia

Camtasia is a tool for creating narrated lectures and PowerPoint presentations. It allows to record the screen presentation and at the same time record audio explaining the presentations. It is also a tool to make learning fun. This is because it is a complete turnover from the traditional teaching. Children can see colorful pictures and songs which will enhance comprehension and information can be retained for a longer period of time.

Video tutorial using Camtasia

We were asked to make a video tutorial using Camtasia. Such tutorial videos are getting popular and gaining attention from the people as children can view their teacher’s presentation via screencast containing specific content. What I have realized is that finding a video that fits a specific lesson can be time consuming. Creating one own video that aligns with the lesson objectives can be rewarding experience as well as we can reuse them for future classes. 

Creating one was fun but it was also difficult at the same time. As this is the first time that I am operating this tool, I had hard time figuring out the functions of different features. Camtasia falls under constructive tool and it really helped me explore new features. I came across new ideas which helped me get updated on such technologies. Even if it was quite difficult to me to create a video, it was actually fun and there was a full involvement.

In the 21^st teaching technology, it is very important that children get more exposure to such kind of videos. Transition from traditional teaching will be more fun when such video tutorials are involved. As it has been gaining popularity among people it will be more effective if teachers are encouraged to make it for their classroom teaching.