Week 3 Group Task---HUANG Luyi (Louise)

Task question of week 3
Identify an innovative classroom
Analyse teacher roles in the classroom

In last week's class, we learnt about six dimension of classroom practices identified as most important of  any curriculum implementation using ICT , these six dimension including:

1.  Intended curriculum goals of the innovative practices
2.  Pedagogical roles of the teachers
3.  Role(s) of the students
4.  Nature and sophistication of the ICT used
5.  Connectedness of the classroom
6.  Learning outcomes exhibited by learner during learning

To identify an innovative classroom , first of all , it's important to analyze what's the innovative classroom like in this six dimensions.

1. Intended curriculum goals of the innovative practices
Innovative practices should explicitly identify what intended goals they want to reach.  Different from the traditional classroom ,innovative practices should contain more flexible outcomes and encourage students to reach a higher thinking level . I think most innovative practices should include the following goals.

• master specific learning concepts ,content or skills 
• enhance and develop students collaborative and organizational skill
• motivate students participate and collaborate in their own study , to be an active learner
• develop information skill and ICT skill
• train students the skill of critical thinking ,logical analyze, independent learning
• nurture the skill of evaluate themselves and others and learn the skill of meta-cognition,reflection
• encourage students to create and be innovative

2. Pedagogical roles of the teachers

It should be a greatly transform of teachers roles in the innovative classroom. What kind of teacher's role in the classroom depends how the class be held and changed in a certain way. In my opinion, teachers' pedagogical roles in the innovative room should be multiple. It should be a combination of different roles.

• Facilitator--teacher facilitate the class process and facilitate the students' learning
• Manager--teacher should manage the class ,he or she should be responsible  for some rules and discipline in the class 
• Designer and planner--teachers is the designer of his/her classes,they should design what ICT tools should be used, how many parts included , what activities should the students do etc. 
• Co-learner--teachers can learn from the students, they could participate in the students' activities and be a member of their collaborative learning.
• Encourager or motivator--teachers should give some encouragement to the students and their feedback should tend to be positive instead of negative. That's quite different from the traditional teachers who usually use the punishment. In the innovative practice , students would face to more uncertain problems and being through the tough time to solve the problem, teachers should encourage them and motivate them to think and try a lot, maybe sometimes some suggestions and direction is also need to be provided by the teachers.

3.Role(s) of the students

In traditional learning, students is a positive leaner which is just a container to receive teachers' information. As the change of teachers' role, the students' role is also totally different from the past.Students should become the master of their own learning and be responsible for it.

• Active learner- students have a duty to participate in their own learning, and be a active member of group activities. They shouldn't just a negative learner who sitting there and listen to the teachers. They should think by critical  thinking and they should collaborate with their classmates. Because they have became the master of their study.
• Evaluator- students should have a skill to evaluate other students and evaluate their own study. In the innovative classroom, teachers should not be the only one who responsible for the assessment ,but every students should participate in the evaluation
• Regulator--things would change from the teachers' plan in the innovative classroom, unexpected ideas and situation would happen during the class, students should adjust the flexible situation to solve the problems.
• Contributor--everyone in the innovative class should be unselfish and enjoy to share with others. To contribute their thoughts ,ideas, opinions and teach others skills. Knowledge and skills should taught not only by the teacher but every single student in the class.

4.Nature and sophistication of the ICT used
ICT used is really necessary and important in the innovative classroom. ICT itself is a kind of the innovation of science domain. But how to integrate ICT into the innovative classroom is the question of  education domain. ICT has a lot of applications, softwares, platforms, systems etc. All of this can be used in the education but it need some specific method. So I want to talk about the function of ICT in the innovative classroom

• Present the course content--even though it sounds like a basic function of ICT used, but it can't be denied that ICT as a presentation tool is actually useful and overwhelming. Multimedia software provide multiple sense present for the leaners,which help students to understand more complex concepts. The same, others ICT are used as present tools are really helpful to present contents more clearly and make them easier to comprehen.
• Cognitive tool-- ICT tools can help students better in the cognitive process. Such as the usage of mind map, photo story. The integration of cognitive tool in the classroom can facilitate students' to comprehend.
• Collaborative tool -- many platform are really helpful in the collaborative learning. They create a collaborative learning environment.
• Build up a virtual learning environment -- the successful combination of ICT tools and ICT platforms can create an environment for students to collaborate, self-learning,critical thinking and organize the information and something more. 

5.Connectedness of the classroom
An innovative classroom should be connective. I'm not sure about how to comprehend the word connectedness. According to my own understanding, connectedness of an innovative classroom should have a multiple meaning in different dimensions which including

• Connectedness of students to students--student should have a close connection with other students,which means they share information and ideas with each other, collaborate with each other, construct group thoughts together
• Connectedness of students to teachers--teachers' can teach students, motivate students ,have an interaction with students, students should sent some feedback to the teachers, teachers adjust their teach.
• Connectedness of inside and outside of the classroom--learning shouldn't be restricted in the classroom,what students learn should based on the authentic life outside the classroom , it should also help students to solve the real problem . Student have the iteration with their parents after the class, and the other people in the community.
• Connectedness of schools to schools--teachers from different schools should share their experience and construct the innovative teaching design together.

6.Learning outcomes exhibited by learner during learning

Learning outcomes exhibited by learners during learning should be diverse. The learning in innovative classroom should tend to be more process-oriented instead of just formative. Learners can show their learning outcomes during the learning process. For example, students can show their critical thinking skill during the collaborative activities , students can contribute to their group their information skills by search quickly and correctly from the internet.