Google Classroom

After joining in this educational college, I knew our life is blind and incomplete without ICT in this modern era. Among several topics that I have learned in the ICT classes, I found Google classroom is vital for us as an upcoming teacher. I refined Google classroom is a free collaboration tool for students and teachers where teachers can create an online classroom, invite students to the class and then discuss the topic taught or want to teach through online. In this classroom teacher and students can deliberate about the assignments topic and teacher can guide students in the right manner. I learned that firstly school must register for a free Google Apps for education account to use classroom, then only everyone can access to Google classroom if they have created an email account.

I learned that Google classroom is an App which worked with educators across the country to create a classroom where teachers manage coursework, distribute assignments, grade and send feedback, and see everything in one place. Educators can track student progress to know where and when to give extra feedback in the right place. Moreover, it motivates our learners to learn using the technology which saves their time, done their works faster and easier. I found Google classroom is useful for both the students and teachers since they can access google classroom from anywhere there is an internet connection. By using this google classroom, they can work from anywhere, anytime and on any device with access to the internet.

Interestingly, under Google classroom app, I found students and teachers are getting a chance to access so many features which are not found in personal Google accounts. For instance, in Forms, teachers can add images to questions or as multiple choice answers. It also has features like a teacher can upload reading materials, videos, games or other important notes by creating a link that is related to the topics. Furthermore, the classroom tool lets tutors organize the class stream by adding topics to posts, and teachers and students can filter the stream for specific topics. It also motivates parents participation where teachers can invite parents to the Google Classroom to share summaries of student work and to receive the class announcements.

In brief, I learned Google Classroom features like connects teachers with individual students, makes it easy to create a class and invite learners, helps instructors to distribute assignments and facilitates communications between instructors and students. It also allows teachers to create, review and mark assignments, allows students to see assignments on assignment forum, documents and class materials in one place and clarify their doubts and post questions. Therefore I can say that Google classroom makes both students and teachers task a simpler and easier one since they may not need to carry a bagful of books to carry if Google classroom is present.

Exploring Microsoft Excel

In this 21^st century, from the time waking up and the step we take, we learn new things. After joining this college, I have learned many things about the usage of technology. When I was in the first year, I learned a module FIT. From this module, I have learned a new thing which was not aware of before. I am somewhat familiar with the use of excel, excel can quickly make different columns with number’s and colour coding and organizing data. Now I am going to share my experience in learning Microsoft Excel.

I must say that it was a motivating experience for me. I have only used excel to organized data, but not really manipulate it. I learned how to format in excel and how to arrange the data according to different factors. I also learned how to find the average values and apply formulas to specific parts of the data. Being a forthcoming teacher, knowing Excel is an extra bonus for me. Furthermore, this knowledge truly aided me during my teaching practice in making result and consolidation sheet.

It is vital for us to know about handling Excel. Excel will make easy to see the students data and

manipulate it to easily see how each student is doing in a different content area. Through Microsoft Excel, we can do anything like linking a bar graph or any type of graph which helps in the presentation. Good presentation leads to good teaching and under stable to the students where learning takes place through excel. So, Microsoft Excel is the one which helps both teachers and students to have an effective transformation of knowledge from each other.

In the process of learning about Excel, I faced some major problem like not knowing which formula to use for certain computations. In order to resolve this type of problem, the supervision of my tutor is helpful. Additionally, the excel website was the most supportive tool to address or give direction to solve this formula issue. The website worked the best owing to it includes both steps and equation. So, Microsoft Excel allows us to manage and analyze data. Therefore, I learned that Microsoft Excel is the right tools to enable us to accomplish all the teaching and learning needs.

Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship is accepting and upholding of the norms of applicable, accountable behavior with

aspect to the practice of digital technologies. As I live in this digital world, I need to apprehend about considering people, places, and spaces with respect and if I abuse other identities beyond what they expect me to then it’s opposing other self-esteem and then I may be sue. I must be safe and I need to know my rights and foremost I need to respect other privacy. Within this authoritative, I am supposed to advocate and exercise safe, legal and responsible use of information and technology by exhibiting a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration and productive learning. I, we can become a responsible citizen by following 9 elements of digital citizenship.

Digital Access: Every one of us deserves an equal opportunity to access technology. I as a future teacher and a parent, I will allow my children to access technology meanwhile I will dredge the learner's different needs and guide them accordingly by giving an opportunity to use technology effectively and successfully. Digital Commerce: Digital commerce is the trading of goods and services utilizing the Internet, mobile networks and commerce infrastructure in which I can easily access or order the goods through online where I don’t have to step each and every shop. Digital communication: Digital

communication has become one of the principal core features of technology and the impact is immeasurable. We can communicate with our parents, friends, relatives and so using different apps: Wechat, Whatsapp. Facebook, Mail, Messenger, Instagram, etc. within a second.

Digital law: Digital law can be defined as the legal rights and restrictions in governing the use of technology. In today's world, users are being irresponsible and become felonious, breaking the law, either aware or unaware of misusing the technology. Digital literacy: Digital literacy means having the skills that are essential to living, learn, and work in a society, where communication

and access to information are progressively through digital technologies like Internet platforms, social media, and mobile devices. I believe it will contribute to digital literacy where the user has recognized the authentic sites to use. Digital etiquette: It is the electronic standards of conduct or procedure while using technology devices. I, as a teacher or parents, the role is to educate children to comprehend what information can be shared and when it is appropriate to do so.

Digital rights and responsibility: We have the right to privacy and freedom in the digital world and

we have a responsibility to use it wisely by respecting the works of others. I know I have a right to express what I feel but it shouldn’t go such an extent that others may get hurt and I have a responsibility to cite works used for resources and researching and also I have a responsibility to keep data/information safe from hackers and not to falsify the identity in any way. Digital health and well being:  Digital health technologies allow the user to track and helps in health care as technology supports in accessing health-related information.  I frequently use Health tap apps to heal the issues of health and I circulate to my friend's phones. Digital security: Digital security is the protection of online identity.  For example, I use Google drive to save my files and it’s secure that no one can access.

     

Technology Accomplish Different Learning Styles

Technology is the application of science to solve any types of learning problems. It help us to caters information to any type of learners like language content, musical content, visual, numerical,etc. in which every learner learns in a different way. Individual learning style refers to the preferential way in which the students absorbs processes, comprehends and retains information. The ICT will cater children's learning needs since we learn best when the teaching meets our learning styles. So the integration of ICT in teaching will enhance learning.

I learned that if a person learns when the information is presented in a visual format such as videos, pictures, diagrams, and symbols, then this person is known as visual learners. If a person is kinesthetic learner, they learn best when they are given an opportunity to learn through hands-on activities such as role play, art project, and experimenting. If a person is musical learner, they learn best when they are given chance to learn through music, songs, and rhyme that are related to the topic and if a person is linguistic learner, they learn best when they are given opportunity to script something or read articles that are related to the topic. Therefore, ICT have facilities to fulfill all the learning needs of different students.

After discussing on different learning styles, I prefer kinesthetic learning style as in this learning;

movement and action replace more passive forms of learning rather than listening to a lecture. It advances memory retention and its lifelong learning. Franklin, B also said that tell me I forget, teach me I remember and involve me I learn so, i think everyone learns best if we try to involve rather than make them watch or listen. I always prefer learning by doing as it helps me to observe, do it by myself and i can learn fast as well as the lesson remains with me forever. Moreover, at the time of checking or own learning style most of us fall under kinesthetic intelligence which seems learning through hands on experiences is the preferable method for learners.

When i was in grade X we have assign task of sorting out degradable and non-degradable things in science, it's a month long assignment. Teacher asks to dig a small pit and dump every waste that we wanted to examine whether degradable or non-degradable. After a month, I have seen many of the things that I dumped has been rotten and only slipper(rubber) and plastics has been left as it. It helps me in understanding that plastic take longer duration to decay and i know how to make manual too. With these experiences, I believe my students will also learnt best by doing. What I have learned in practical I can show to them through video and I can able to cater to different learning style of the students. Therefore, I will be able to teach effectively using different methods to cater my students learning style which will be my greatest strength.

Catering Information using PowerPoint Presentation

In this 21st century, ICT covers almost all the places in the teaching and learning environment. After

joining this college I learned many significant things which are critical for my day to day activities. More prominently, I found integrating ICT in teaching and learning plays a vital role not only to make our work easier but also to get more know-how which is critical for our ongoing career. Using ICT in teaching can be able to cater to the information to all kinds of learners. Among many topics, the most useful one that I learned is designing a slide presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint that can be a highly effective tool to aid learning.

As we all know that Microsoft PowerPoint allows us to create an electronic presentation of slides. As a user, to have an effective presentation I can use multimedia that can help to improve audiences focus such as texts, photos, illustrations, tables, graphs, movies and songs where the audience can go through my presentation proficiently. By adding these things in my slides, I can cater to information as per their learning style since every individual learned differently. For instance, when I was in teaching practice, I met with a boy in class VI. He shared me about his learning style saying that he understands more when I taught him using videos in my presentation related to the topic.

Moreover, in Microsoft PowerPoint to have a more interesting presentation, I learned how to add animations which helps to create quiz, games, short videos or animated videos related to the topic. I learned all types of animation in PowerPoint that can be categorized into four such as entrance,emphasis, motion and path and again sub-divided further. After learning about this particular topic, it helps me in doing assignments or it helps me to have effective presentation and also it helps to have interactive teaching and learning. Additionally, PowerPoint have different types of pre-templates and layouts, in which different templates and layout help us to make beauty of presentation such as how the tittles, graphics and text will be displayed on each slide. I leaned how to edit the wordings on finished slides, delete unwanted slides, add forgotten slides and rearrange the slides in systematic manner.

Furthermore, PowerPoint is regarded as the most useful, reachable way to create and present visual aids as it is easy to create colorful, nice-looking designs using different templates and themes. I learned that I can present one slides after another by maintaining eye contact with large audience. Instead of using chalk and board to teach, if I do presentation using ICT then Microsoft PowerPoint always help us to boost the interest and grasp the attention of students. It helps teachers to decrease the workload and students to understand clearly. As a result, Microsoft PowerPoint helps for both teachers and students to have efficient teaching and learning.  

Technology in Teaching

In this contemporary world, technology has completely changed the mankind in numerous ways.

Everything we do is somehow connected with technology thus it is becoming a huge part of our day to daily life activities. Technology has variety of scope which mostly focuses to teaching and learning process.  Today, using technology as a supplementary teaching device in the classroom as an instruction is significance in most school since it avail students not only to depend on teachers teaching but also to explore from different reliable sources. Technology should be integrated as a tool to promote and expand students learning basically creativity, problem solving skill, research, collaborate and interact globally.

When people hear the term technology, everybody directly think about computers but we should bear

in mind that there are many other technologies that can be used to improve students’ learning such as ipad, laptop and smart phones. Computers in the classroom help both the teachers and students to make more interactive and it also used to educate the smarter students who easily get bored in a traditional classroom. The use of computer, laptop, mobile phone, projector and other technologies in the classroom helps student’s better understanding and improve in learning language. When I was in teaching practice, every week I took students in the school IT lab in which they can browse internet to get more information related to the topic I taught. From there, they tend to asked many questions related

to the topic which symbolize computer benefit them in learning.

Mobile Phone

Many students find school tiresome and technology gains the attention of students leading to a higher degree of motivation. When student’s daily activities are so repetitive, technology recaptures their interest and pulls them back into learning in a livelier manner. For instance; if a teacher teaches every day in traditional method, then students may feel bored and may bunk from the class whereas if teacher teach using computer then students will definitely boost their interest. If I relate with our present college life, when some

lecturers taught continuously by using chalk and board, we feel bore and when teacher asked to use mobile and browse about the particular topic then everybody became so active.

 

To integrate the computer in the classroom, I designed activity based on collaboration by using the computer and watching a short story of 5-10 minutes. I let my student to watch attentively and then individually they have to write about the story using computer. The students have to listen twice and finish their missing words or the words they could not catch up in the first place. After that, all of them got the opportunity to reorganize the story comparing and organizing among them. This activity not only builds collaboration learning using technology but also they learned about the language, pronunciation and way of writing short story.

ICT in Today’s World

Information and communication technologies have become common place entities in all aspects of life. The use of ICT has fundamentally changed and it was now more of student-centered learning settings. In the 21^st century, there are numerous benefits of technology in the field of education and it is benefited for both teachers and students. As one of the ICT features is to assist in developing education and to share knowledge worldwide. Moreover, through ICT, the work can be done more effectively within a short period of time. It helps the teacher to include all the types of learners using technology. Now a day’s PowerPoint presentation is commonly used by integrating the animations, pictures, music, videos, text, and games. It helps to stimulate the audience or learners and it helps in better comprehension. Unlike past, when I was in school I have never seen a computer neither I experience learning through technology. It was always a lecture method and it was more of teacher-centered.

ICT provides powerful tools to try out in a different design. The works become easier due to the integration of technology. Unlike past, the teacher doesn't have to use like letter as it has been replaced by mail, preparing result is replaced by spreadsheet, maintaining the record, saving documents, etc… So, ICT helps the teacher in maintaining the record of students scoring marks and computing of accurate results within a limited time. ICT has drastically helped in descending the workload of a teacher.

Teaching and learning in today’s century is better than the traditional method as it takes less time and space. Integrating ICT in the classroom makes everything easier. For example, to teach the difficult concept, the teacher needs to plan lots of teaching-learning materials, if ICT is used, a teacher can explain through some effective sources. ICT plays an active role in transferring information in the universe within a second. Whatever we create a new write-up, we can share with another person through ICT. 

For instance, if we want to pass information about the digestive system, then with the help of ICT we can prepare a brochure, PowerPoint slide, documentation, and animation and share the information easily. The information can be shared through Facebook, messenger, chat, WhatsApp, mail, link in and other social media. This is an easier method to spread in a short period. 

ICT provides various ranges of sources to explore the information. I prefer the internet as the source to collect information as it is the fastest and easier way to retrieve the information. It is advanced in resources and it has been used worldwide. The Internet has become undoubtedly a huge part of our lives as it serves information in all the purposes. Unlike past, we don’t have to carry bundles of a book to read the information as now it has been replaced by the internet where we can use from the mobile phone to find the require information.