The first year Soil Science course will be selected as this
module brings together mathematics, biology, chemistry and Soil Science
principles. Students have a problem to
apply the principles to do the necessary calculation. Calculations are for the determination of the
current water content and water movement in the soil. These principles are required in an
irrigation and drainage subject that follows this soil science.
The activity that will be develop is twofold viz the determination
of the student’s knowledge of mathematics, biology and soil science principles
and to teach the application of these principles in the calculation of water
content and movement. The tablet will be
used to transfer the knowledge in a lecture room and the http://elsenburg1styears.blogspot.com
will be used to determine the embedded knowledge as well as follow-ups after
lecturing with the tablet. This course
has ± 170 students and it becomes extremely difficult and time consuming to
address the problems of all students with regards to the subject matter.
With the blog, students can post their problems about the
embedded knowledge and it can be done in their own time and anonymously. Other students with similar problems will
have access to it and can learn from it.
In class the students can follow the steps in the calculations and the
file from the tablet with the live narration from class will be published on
the blog. The normal PowerPoint files
with the theoretical information will be converted to Windows Media Video file
and also published on the blog. We are a
governmental institute and have numerous limitations and restrictions with
internet access.
ALL social media, video files and streaming content is
blocked for students and staff. The
institute has no learner/learning management system and on campus (dedicated
student network drive) is the only site where students can actually access any
material from the lecturer. This blog gives
the student an opportunity to remotely access the study material from their
cell phone or computers and respond whenever something is unclear. The calculation section of the course relies
heavily on mathematical, biological and soil science principles which should be
embedded knowledge. This is, however,
not always in place as the entrance criteria allow students without these
school subjects. The student can
therefore access the information in his/her own time so that contact time is
used for the actual curriculum. In class
the students can follow the steps in the calculations and understand how to
apply it. During revision or preparation
for a test students can refer to the blog with the class content.
Dear Aatika! interesting ideas...maybe a bit too many :) for this exercise I would focus on one learning problem, e.g. you have identified as a problem the management of students questions...and as a possible solution you mention a blog to faciliate students' discussions...I am not convinced that a blog is necessarily the best tool for this. It is not that easy to manage questions and answers with a blog...Ideally you would set up a closed discussion group for this on a LMS...a discussion forum has the affordances you need for such a discussion...you would be able to create something like a FAQ list from there...a forum gives you the opportunity to set up different disucssion foras for different topics...and group all answers that belong to a specific topic in there...since you do not have access to such a tool I would either use a web-based learning environment such as Edmodo to facilitate and contain these discussions or use a tool that is easily accessible through students' mobile phones, such as Facebook groups or Mxit groups...in your case it is crucial that you chose the technology that is easiest accessible both on and off campus for your students...why dont you involve them in the selection of the appropriate tool?
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