Technical Experience

Thursday, November, 8th, 2007

Mr. Munair explained for us the basic skills of using the Intelliboard. I believed that the teacher should consider many things before using the Intelliboard or other technology. I thought the teacher should plan when and which technology she would use for the lesson. Then, it was important to arrange the classroom to make the classroom layout suitable for using the technology. I learnt that I had to be prepared before the lesson. For instance, I had to login to the computer and switch on the intelliboard and the Multimedia projector before the class begun to save time during the classroom. One of the disadvantages of using technology was that it’s took time to be prepared so the teacher had to be organizer and well prepared. In addition, it was very important to check that the Intelliboard was clear for the students who sat on the corner or the back of the classroom. I enjoyed using the Intelliboard by adding shapes, changing colors, editing fonts and using the keyboard.
Moreover, Mr. Mohammed explained for us how to use Robotel and Dyned courseware. I liked the way that the teacher could control the students for example she could use the individual or group mode. As a result, that gave a chance for the shy students to work in pairs or groups by the computers. Also, I was interested to see that the teacher could reset audio or video for the students, check the students work and what they did.. I noticed that the Robotel facilitated the interaction between the teacher and the students. For instance, if any students wanted to ask the teacher, he would click on the sign on the Robotel. Then, a red sign would appear on the teacher’s computer and the teacher would reset an audio conversation between her and the students to know what he wanted without interrupting the others. I think that the teacher would control the students well and avoid any behaviour problems because they were busy working and she was checking them all the time. Also, if she had a big number of the students she would have difficulty to check their work in one period. So, this software would ease that job for the teacher. I think using this hardware and software was very significant for the teacher because it was a good tool of communication and collaboration between the students and the teacher. I noticed that one Arabic teacher attended with us because they trained the teacher how to use these software and hardware in their lesson. In my opinion, it was very important to train teacher how to use the hardware and software resources which were available in the schools.