Virtual learning environment as a communicative tool.

Virtual learning environment is a set of teaching and learning tools designed to enhance students learning experiences by including computers and the internet in the learning process. As, we were already exposed to the use of vle, we all know how to use it and the features that are provided in it. Now, I am going to discuss on some of the features we get to explore in vle.

1. Announcement page

It is a page where all the announcement provided by administration to students and teachers appear. It helps to convey the same message to all the students and teachers at the same time.

Fig: this is an announcement made for pre service and in service candidates who have repeat modules to register in a given time which can be seen by everyone and dont have to send the message individually. 

2. My courses
It is a column in which we can get access to our courses/modules of our own semester and year. It is the forum where teachers can upload the notes, term plans, assignment questions and other materials where by student can download the notes, participate in discussion and submit their assignments for grading.

   
                     
Fig 1: different courses.
Fig 2: place to download and upload notes and assignments.

3. Main menu page

It provides us the necessary materials to be used in college.

4. Online journals.

These are the search tools that can help students to have access to different types of research and notes.

Vle forum can provide us to have effective discussion and I want to say that, it really helps me to have cooperative discussion. It seems like every individual gets confidence in raising question in vle forum rather in real classroom.

Fig: discussion taken place in ICT classroom.

Lastly, I want to say that, even though our class was taken online with different communicative tool, vle forum helps me to boost confidence in raising my doubts.

ICT as a co-constructive tool

My understanding on ICT as a co-constructive tool

Co-constructive tool is an approach where it emphasizes on collaboration, partnership working and supports the construction of knowledge through a shared understanding, ideas and additional knowledge from different ideas. For example, we have: google docs, electronic whiteboard, blogs and wikis and discussion forum (vle.pce.edu.bt).

Some examples of co-constructive tools 
1. google doc 

As we were already introduced to google doc, I found it more reliable. It provides many features to chat with friends, uploads assignments and give the right to comments and edit our collaborative assignments which helps us to work as a team to come up with productive work. It is fun to use google doc as we can get to discuss actively with our friends as if we were together. So, as a teacher, I think we must use this kind of facility which can encourage students to communicate with their teams so that it can make learning easier with lots of knowledge and information. 

Follow the video to see the benefits of using google doc.

2. Virtual learning environment 
- This is a student centered web-based platform for the digital aspects courses of study, used within educational institutions. I would say that, this is the best discussion forum between teacher and students.  It helps us to learn collaboratively with the help from our tutors in our own pace and encourages to take responsibility for our own learning. Learning material were accessible for 24 hours. 

  














3. blog 
I was familiar with the word blog, but it is my first time maintaining blog and i found it interesting. we can get to read others work, or their journals and we too have the opportunity to write, create and design our own post.  I should say, a blog is an effective lead generation tool as it helps to showcase ones own talent, abilities, authority and build a brand.  In blog, we can get to share our own understandings, gets additional knowledge as we read the comments of the audiences whereby we get to learn through sharing and working collaboratively. 















fig: blog maintained by me in ICT module. 
For further clarification on blog, please follow the video below. 

Co-constructive tools aids in many important aspects:

1.      Through co-construction, students can explore and share their learning.

2.      Build relationship between their teams to have effective communication and learning.

3.      Get to co-edit the documents from their own places.

4.      Can work cooperatively and construct a shared understanding of new knowledge.  

We as a teacher can integrate this kind of tools in the future in our school by making online discussion among teachers and between teachers to students to aid collaboration.

ICT as a constructive tool

My understanding on ICT as a constructive tool

         Knowledge is not given and it is not transmitted from anywhere; it is built up by interaction among members of a group or culture and prior knowledge impacts the learning process. To build that knowledge, it requires effortful and purposeful activity and ICT is one of the that application which acts as a constructive tool in students learning. ICT helps learners to manipulate information, construct their own knowledge and visualize their understanding, the definition of the constructive tool. The session on constructive tool was convincing and I came to know that it was a constructive approach that helps learners to construct their own meaning of learning, drawing connection between their prior knowledge to the acquired knowledge and gives out the sense about their new discoveries.
       while learning on ICT as a constructive tool, we were made to design a 3 minute simulation advertisement to attract visitors to our locality. so, i made on our festival where i was known to it since my birth and for further information, i had run through internet sources. With the combination of my prior and the new information that i have got from internet, helped me to come with 3 minutes simulation successfully. Not only that, i have learnt a lot on how to use animations to create a video in one slide which was new for me, even though the animations and designs were known to me. 

The link given below will take you through my 3 minute simulation designed on the topic festival which helps me to construct knowledge in making video using power point and our local festival.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yjon308-fhJMetv-37Y8_ngCd-5N9lj1/view?usp=sharing

           Integrating constructive tool is also one of the teaching pedagogy in 21^st century and it would be very beneficial to both the leaner and instructors to integrate the constructive tool in daily teaching and learning. Being a teacher doesn’t mean that we have to teach every little thing that is in the textbook, more than giving instruction and details of curriculum talks, its better to give the opportunity for learners to construct their own meaning of the learning and letting students to discover what they are learning.

As a 21^st century teacher, we should

1.      Focus on exposing our students to a variety of sources to discover new knowledge and to make their learning more students center incorporating technologies.  

2.      Scaffold and encourage students thinking and learning rather than focusing on the completion of syllabus.

3.      Understand students’ level of learning and help them, since learners are the makers of meaning and knowledge.

4.      Focus on helping learners to participate actively in learning using wide range of resources on the net.

Examples of constructive learning that can be used in our daily life as a teacher  to construct knowledge are:
            1. desktop publishing - it is a creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer which generates and produce typographic-quality text and images. It allows every learners to publish wide variety of content. While publishing, students may not be aware of their thought but they constantly keep asking questions to themselves and generating answer to make design decisions.

   

fig: showing how to carry out desktop publishing 

          2. Word, spread sheet and power point - computer features which help the learners to organised, record, manipulate and present their ideas in an attractive manner. 

    3. concept map - helps learners to visualize their learning and understanding resulting in the creation of concepts they learned. for example, if a teachers teaches on ICT information system, students can visualize it in the form of map to see their understanding of relationships among the concept collected.

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fig: showing how students construct their knowledge through concept mapping on the topic ICT as information system.