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Consolidated field notes of observation Arnold Pang

1.1.1. Phase I Session 1 Most of the participants found the Infinity V system useful but difficult to operation. They were satisfied with the system when the trainer demonstrated the various functions of it. However they had some technical problems when they operated the system on their own in the practical part. Most of them found the interface which included many buttons and symbols of teachers! and students! wor"stations was difficult to use. They were confused by the number of elements in the interface. They wondered why most of the functions were not operated by a single clic" on one of the buttons. #or e$ample one said % Denny : "This system is great. It can prevent the students from surfing the internet covertly during the lessons.but, could you show me how to do it in a simpler way?" As some of the operations were not easy for them some of the participants could not operate the system on their own. &ome even lost the motive to try. They stopped practicing and waited for my final demonstration. At the end of the training session they as"ed me to prepare a short'cut user manual for them or otherwise they would not be confident enough to use the system. They e$pected that this manual would include about () most fre*uently used functions with graphical instructions. 1.1.2. Phase I Session 2 All of the participants found the games introduced interesting. &ome of them said that these games were not all new to them as they had played some of them before the training. In fact some of these games had e$isted in internet for several years. +et they thought that the games were not outdated and were still suitable for use in class. &ome of the participants stated that there were many other games in the internet that were also suitable for teaching ,nglish language in the school. They further mentioned that although most of the games in the internet were developed by westerners they believed that there must be some which were suitable for Hong -ong students. They even suggested the ,nglish department head to establish a central storage space to store the similar games collected by every T,&./ teachers. This reflected that the participants agreed with the use of computer games in teaching

,nglish. This could be one of the reasons why they showed their eagerness to try the games during the training session. 1.1.3. Phase I Session 3 The process of games installation was easy for the participants. This reflected that they had basic s"ills in computer operation. Again all of the participants found the games interesting. As compare to the games in the internet they found these stand' alone games better because there would not be any access problem. 0ue to the limited bandwidth and the instable internet lin"age accessing to the internet had long been a problem to teachers in classroom practices. &ome of the participants thought that the instructions in the interfaces of some games were clear enough that they had to try many times before they "new how to play the games. The training session allowed them to get familiar with the games such that they could use them smoothly in the future. &ome participants thought that the games provided similar e$ercises to those in the te$tboo"s that the students were using. They suggested that as long as the games could match with the ,nglish language curriculum they could be used as supplementary e$ercises in everyday practices. The usefulness of the games greatly enhanced their intention to learn in the training session. 1.1.4. Phase II Session 1 Most of the participants found this system very useful but too complicated to start with. ,$cept the two younger participants 12race and Helen 3 who were e$perienced in creating accounts in the internet and had already owned personal accounts in 2oogle 4logger they spent almost 5) minutes to create their own accounts. .nce their accounts were created they could communicate with each other easily. They believed that these tools provided good channels to communicate with youngsters. #or e$ample ,ason said % ason : "!ur students must li"e it. They li"e to use computer more than pen and paper." As these tools were new to some of them they could only use a limited part of the functions provided by the tools. As before at the end of the training session they re*uired me to prepare a short'cut user manual for both teachers and students. They told me that they could do it only if they were guided by a step'by'step user manual before they got used to these tools and that the notes provided in this session involved many academic elements but was not suitable for practical usage.

.ne of the tas"s that they were re*uired to do in the session was to locate a place with 2oogle Map and put the map in their blogs. Therefore 2oogle Map was also introduced in this session. &ome of them had never used 2oogle Map. They found this the most interesting part of the session. 1.1.5. Phase II Session 2 As this was the second time they learnt these tools they could follow all the wor"ing steps of trainer!s demonstration. This was much different from the situations of many previous training where they found the demonstrations too fast to follow. This could be shown by their positive response during my demonstration when I as"ed whether they could follow % Denny : "!#. This time is much better. $t least I "now what is going on. I can even guess what will be done ne%t." However when they did the assignment with the tools on their own they were not as s"illful as they e$pected. &ome of them 1Cindy 0enny and ,ason3 still needed my assistance to finish the blogs. +et they got significant improvement after practicing for many times. All of them were able to do the assignment with the tools. &ome of them 1Cindy and 2race3 even tried other tools 1e.g. #aceboo" and +ouTube3 in the assignment. They became more confident of using these tools in class. 6hile they were doing the assignment as if they were students they found that these tools could provide good channels for the students to practice ,nglish. It seemed that this training session could positively develop their attitudes towards ICT 1perception of usefulness3. 1.1.6. Phase II Session 3 0ue to diversities in learning and using ICT among the participants they performed differently in these co'teaching sessions. Their performance could be classified into two groups according to their ICT competence % 1a3 more competent and 1b3 less competent. Those participants who were more competent in ICT and performed well in the previous training sessions 1#anny 2race and Helen3 could conduct the first two parts 1i.e. introduction and demonstration3 of the lessons smoothly without any assistance from me. In the third part 1i.e. hands'on practice3 of the lessons we shared the teaching wor" rather evenly because we had similar ability in using the 6eb 7.) tools. 6e wal"ed around the classroom to see if any student needed our assistance. ,ither one of us could help solve the problems of the students. #or e$ample in the co'

teaching session with Helen when I as"ed the participant about the effectiveness of these co'teaching lessons during the hands'on practice period in one of these lessons she showed great satisfaction % &elen : "I thin" I am !#. The previous training is very useful. I thin" I can do it even if on my own. 'ut your assistance help relieve my an%iety." This shows that co'teaching helps develop teachers! confidence in using ICT in class even though the teachers could be competent enough to use ICT. Those participants who were less competent in ICT and performed not very well in the previous training sessions 1Cindy 0enny and ,ason3 could also conduct the first two parts of the lessons smoothly as the more competent participants did. .ne of them said % (indy : "I can manage it. I )ust do the same thing as in the training." In the hands'on practice the participants encountered some difficulties when the students raised some *uestions about the operations of the tools that the teachers had never met. They were merely trained to use the tools to do a specific tas" but they had not yet been able to solve the students! problems. At these moments I played the role of assistant teacher to help the students and thus the participants. 0iscomfort stemming from insufficient s"ills "nowledge or e$periences may discourage teachers from using ICT. Here the arrangement of co'teaching helped solve the problem of teachers diversity as teachers could learn from each other for professional development purpose. #or e$ample during the session with 0enny after I helped a student solve his problem of using 2oogle 4logger to insert a movie clip into his blog 0enny stood aside me and said % Denny : "I see. I thin" I can do that, too." The students seemed very interested in using 2oogle 4logger and 2oogle Map. After the 5)'minute hands'on practice some students were selected to demonstrate what they had learnt. Almost all of them were able to use the tools. Maybe partly due to the fact that some of them had already been e$perienced in using the tools before the lessons.

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