House in the Classroom???

I like House. I know… House is rude… snobbish… ridiculous… unpredictable…he is a complete jerk and anything that people who prefer Heroes or Prison Break want to say about him. And of course, in term of physical qualities, he is nothing compared to Michael Scofield (well…that’s unfair, House is sick and old), and yes…he is addicted to drug too. But, let’s look at his inner beauty… he is cool (I forgive him for wearing Nike sneakers), brilliant and he saves people lives too! So…I like House. I like it/him so much that I felt extremely devastated when I knew that the season 3 is already out in AXN whilst I am so far away from home. Of course, we do have Astro in KUAZ. But, the feeling and pleasure are definitely not the same although some say that sharing is caring. But, my devastating moment has ended now. Thanks to Muhafiz…he downloaded all episodes of Season 3 from the internet. (hye..that’s technology!!!)

Obsessed? I am not! Okay…even if I am obsessed with the series, I don’t see anything wrong with it. They are simply enjoyable! And in fact, I believe that some TV series and movies are potentially powerful in teaching too! Hye…I’m not talking about Desperate Housewives or The Sopranos as teaching tools for children here. Instead, series like Hannah Montana and That’s so Raven or movies like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or I am Sam or Pirates of the Caribbean. I believe that those movies and TV series have the potentials in creating effective and enjoyable learning process. Because I believe, movies are able to provide enjoyment, instil moral values, develop students’ imagination, inspire students’ curiosity and develop insight into human behaviours. Movies are also powerful in students’ language development too! In short, movies are educationally significant! And like Muhafiz, we can get it for free!!! (though it might be illegal)

Since the beginning of time, movies are always regarded as the source of entertainment. Now, with the presence of wide ranges of genres as well as useful softwares, programmes and tools, making movies as a vehicle for educating is absolutely possible. Let’s take Lee’s IWB movie-based lesson as an example, many of us enjoyed his lesson so much and personally, I think that his activity is effective. Some of you may say, “Hye, that’s not a movie, that’s a simple Flash Video File.” Well for me, movie is simply a series of moving picture. Be it, if it is recorded with sound or without sound…as long as they tell stories, they are still movies. For me, even the simplest 30seconds clip that you downloaded from YouTube is a movie and I consider video clips as movies too! Besides Lee, Jahwati also chose to integrate the use of movie in her lesson to teach preposition. Her lesson is effective as students will be able to understand the concept of each preposition taught through the demonstration and modelling shown by the movie clip. And oh, the song in her clip makes her activity even more delightful.

The use of movie through the Notebook Software is however limited only to Flash Video File thus, teachers need to use other programmes such as PowerDVD or Windows Media Player. However, Notebook Software is still useful to be used in designing activities to accompany the movie. For example, using programmes like PowerDVD or Windows Media Player, a teacher can ask students to watch The Lion King. After that, she can ask them to categorize the animals that they can see in the movies into carnivore, herbivore and omnivore by dragging the pictures into tables on the SMART board and, this activity can definitely be developed using the Notebook Software. Anyway, we can still make the link from our Notebook file to the movie file in order to make the lesson runs smoothly and systematically.

I found both Notebook Software as well as SMART board very useful. Notebook Software for instance, is not limited to lesson development purposes only. It can also be used to do simple editing to pictures since it offers friendlier tools and functions compared to Adobe Photoshop or ImageReady. To conclude, here is my humble reflection based on the questions posed in Moodle.

Do you understand the basic knowledge of Notebook function in SMART board? If yes which part that you understand most? If not why you did not understand?
Yes. I do understand the basic knowledge of Notebook functions like modifying and moving object, writing text, functions in the toolbar, grouping, hyperlink, and drawing tools. And I am still learning at inserting music, video, and sound effectively as well as at exporting my notebook file into other types of files.

Do you understand the basic knowledge in using gallery feature and picture attachment in SMART board and incorporate for teaching English vocabulary for standard 4 students?
Yes. Basically, gallery collection offers user thousands of relevant and interesting graphics to be used in teaching and learning activity. Besides, we can also import graphics from other sources to be put into the templates and we can create our own personal template as well. Those contents later can be attached into the slides and they are obviously powerful in introducing new vocabulary to students.

Do you find that SMART board is a useful tool to support teaching and learning? If yes, why is it useful? If not, what is the problem?
Yes, SMART board is absolutely useful. It makes learning process interactive, enjoyable and effective. It saves teachers’ time too. The followings are the functions of the SMART board which I found very useful:
* Interactive presentation for large audience.
* View and navigate the Internet from the whiteboard. Surf and display websites which the entire room will be able to see.

* Students can approach the whiteboard and add their contribution to the presentation by writing directly on the whiteboard.
* Display movie files or DVD's from the PC