Collaboration, Virtualisation, Conceptualisation, and Engagement

The interviewee name is Mr. S, a secondary teacher. He teaches Science and Chemistry in international schools abroad. He also taught mathematics in middle school, grade 6 to 10. He has been teaching national and international curriculum, and International Baccalaureate curriculum for the past 15 years. The interview took place in school on Sunday 21^st January 2018 at 1pm.

Collaboration

Mr.S presented projects-based learning as an important aspect of his science lessons. It was interesting to hear how he assimilates learning to collaborating with others, solving complex problems, critical thinking, developing different form of communication, and improving motivation. He uses technology every day in his classes, through online resources, apps, and Google to enhance collaboration. He finds that Google in particular makes everything easier, because everything is connected – multiple people can edit on one document, Google Classroom can be used to post and collect assignments, notes can be taken much more quickly and shared. He uses technology to help his students developing practical skills such as creating presentations, learning to differentiate reliable from unreliable source on information, and writing emails. In his opinion, these are very important skills that can be developed in any classroom and that enhance collaboration. Mr.S does a lot of group projects in his lessons; he presented collaboration as essential to effectively and efficiently complete any assigned task. He uses technology to transform the learning experience providing his students with the opportunity to enhance the interaction with their peers.

Virtualisation

Some topics and phenomenon in science are abstract in nature, he said. In such a way that sometimes, detailed descriptions in books or through verbal explanation do not always guaranty a correct understanding of the concept. He finds that students usually fail to make connections with their own life because they developed a faulty mental representation. When technology is available, he uses digital tool to enhance visualisation and make the topic more accessible to the students. He presented ‘molecular structure’ as an example of topic in science where simulation is very useful to visualise in three dimensions how molecules change as reactions occur. Also, he emphasised the importance of simulation for some experiments that cannot be physically conducted because elements are either too tiny or dangerous to be handled. I believes that Virtual reality technology combined with traditional classroom teaching instruction enhance the learning experience and create new opportunities for learning.

Conceptualisation

Mr.S finds that technology in classroom is an effective way to connect with students of all learning styles. Students do not always conceptualise or proceed information the same way. Because some topics in science are abstract in nature, technology has helped Mr.S to make some topics more accessible to students. In fact, he uses technology to give students access to incredible amount of new opportunities that facilitate understanding through simulation in virtual reality. For him, this helps to deepen understanding as the students make authentic connections between the concepts they are learning, their environment, and their life.

Engagement

When technology is integrated into his lessons, Mr.S finds that students are more interested in what they study. Technology provides him different opportunities to make learning more fun and enjoyable in terms of teaching same things in new ways. For instance, Mr.S believes that teaching through gamification, competition, taking students on virtual trips and using other online resources encourage more active participation in the learning process. Which that can be hard to achieve through a traditional lecture environment.  When the students are engaged and interested in things they are studying, it increases their knowledge retention.