Ministry of Education in Bahrain is getting a step further towards improving education in Bahrain. These changes starts from shifting from teacher directed style to student centered learning. To achieve this goal my role as a teacher is to utilize the means that enforce the student centered learning in my lesson such as using games or simulations, Web Quest, Inquiry Based Learning and Mind Mapping. All these means support our schools to be a Learning Organization and support our students to be lifelong learners without neglecting the importance of the cyber safety to ensure the optimal utilization of the technology. In addition,   shifting to student centered learning   can be implemented after improving the curriculum and our students' assessments methods to reach to the desired point. But the question is, how can we accomplish all these thoughts without motivating the teachers in order to be energized towards these changes?



Game, Simulation & Virtual Reality

Educational games present the complex realities of simultaneous interactive processes more accurately and effectively than serial processes such as lecturing and reading. Objectives of educational gaming are to motivate students by presenting relevant and realistic problems and to induce more efficient and active understanding of information. Games are efficient learning devices because they allow three levels of learning to occur simultaneously without ability grouping of students. These levels are (1) efficient learning of facts, (2) learning of cause and effect relationships by substituting gaming for personal experience, and (3) learning of strategic thinking concepts by considering results of alternative courses of action. Games focus on reality but are combinations of skill, chance, reality, and fantasy.

These links consist of  online examples of games & simulations:

v  http://www.youdagames.com/online-simulation-games/

(Virtual Professions)

This website has a lot of online simulation games. Those games enable you to act in  a virtual life some of real life professions such as Farmers , Waitress , Barber..etc.

v  http://www.download-free-games.com/pc/euro_truck_simulator.htm

(Driving a truck)

v  http://www.ecafaros.com/

( Driving car/ plane Simulation)

This is a very easy to understand/learn type of game. There are plenty of challenges, while overall remaining a fun game. If you like driving simulations (not racing/destroying cities) then you’ll love this game. And the graphics are outstanding. And to show the realism .

v  http://www.download-free-games.com/simulation/deer_hunter_2005.htm

( Hunting Game)

With any hunting simulation game, one of the most important aspects to success is a good AI to drive the behavior of the animals. Just like in real life, they have extremely keen senses of sight and smell. If you're not careful, they hear you and escape long before you can see them. If you approach from the wrong direction, they catch your scent on the wind and bolt.

v  http://www.download-free-games.com/pc/life_quest.htm

            ( Life Quest)

Earn life skills by enjoying simple pleasures such as eating and resting, but don't forget to pay the bills. Design your own unique character, clothing, and home in this fun and exciting game as you race to the finish.





Mind Mapping is the process of visually depicting a central concept with a highly effective diagramming method illustrates thoughts, concepts, relationships, associations, and consequences all connected to a central hub representing the main idea. Mind maps show an idea in its totality. The branches and where they spring from the central hub are more or less arbitrary. The main goal being a complete visual representation of all facets contained within the main idea.

Mind Mapping is a useful technique that improves the way you take notes, and supports and enhances your creative problem solving. By using Mind Maps, you can quickly identify and understand the structure of a subject, and the way that pieces of information fit together, as well as recording the raw contained in normal note as mentioned in the following video.

                                            

This is a link to a web page that explains more deeply about the Mind Mapping:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Creative/Mindmap/

 

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet.The goal of developing this model  is to bring the internet into classes by enforcing students to engage in colaborative work that creates a need for group's discussion and applying higher level of thinking.Also , it supports different types of student centered skills and they are social skills,thinking skills and meta-cognitive skills.All these skills achieved when the student go through the WebQuest phases , starting from introduction,  then tasks ,after that the process  then ending with evaluation and conclusion .But , the challenges that teacher should considered when she/he design a WebQuest is how to make it faster and easier for the learners and the teachers.

Before joining the BTC , I did not use a WebQuest  and even observed it during my teaching parctice week.It seems to me as a new technique that serve  my educational philosophy of preparing students for labor life with higher level of thinking that keeps pace with the technological development.

Here are some effective Web Quest sites that I really enjoid:
http://www.zunal.com/

http://getworksheets.com/samples/webquests/cells.html

http://www.lauriefowler.com/dinoshow.html

   

Inquiry based learning and cybersafety

Inquiry base learning is defined as seeking information by questioning. The process of inquiring begins with asking the students a question from real life problems then continue that process with gathering information and data by the students through applying different type of approaches such as critical thinking ,searching,  reflecting and integrating the collected information to be refined by the students. Activities in Inquiry approach are more student centered and that is essential for professional's achievements because it requires reflection and knowing " How" things can be solved , which is the backbone of professional growth and that is one of the new roles for schools in  21^st century learning. All these issues require a cyber safety role on what students searched for and that role comes from the teacher as a facilitator of the learning process.

Our students have a quite potential abilities of using technology for doing researches and in some schools as I observed the teachers trying to shift from the traditional learning style to the student centred style with applying some cyber safety roles on the content and communication but we still far of that due to the acceleration of the technological development comparing with what we own.  

  

   



Student-Centered Learning

 This educational approach focusing on the needs of the students and putting students first. It requires understanding student's abilities, interests and learning styles. In teacher-centered learning the students are passive but in this approach they are active and the role of the teacher is a facilitator.

But the question is what do we need to apply this approach?

Teachers should have a general expectation of their students then they should collect information about their students and the possibility of applying this style in a successful manner, once the knowledge available you can start.

When I was teaching in a primary school, I used this technique for grade four because the impossibility of applying this technique on the first and second grade because of the lack of adequate skills for self-reliance and they have only one class per week. And this way have succeeded for several reasons, the most important of the number of students for fourth grade (16 students per class) where the division of students into two groups, each group taught the computer for a semester only and the other reason is the nature of the material being taught, where depends on the practical applications .I relied in this way on peers works to insure that each student could get assessment from his colleague without neglecting the  importance of the differentiation of their abilities and of course teacher's assessment .

I noticed that the information proved in student's minds better than the traditional method, but they needed more time especially for teacher's feedback.



The Computer in School:Tutor,Tool,Tutee

Computers are efficient classroom tools that can enhance education if used to benefit student learning and achievement. Integrating technology and education provides students with a global approach to learning and communicating.

The numerous tools available for use on computers, such as word processors, spreadsheets, and graphic creation software, will not only help students in any future career they pursue, but will also help them get there by being organized and able to work more efficiently than their counterparts who do not have computer abilities.

As well as the usefulness, if you enjoy solving problems and maybe creating something to help someone else solve their problems, then you're probably going to enjoy programming. Computer as a tutor increases the needs of learning some programming skills that helps educators to develop their ability to problem solving and decision making.Computers can act somehow as a teacher at schools by checking a paper’s spelling and grammar, giving a grade to students, telling stories to children with pictures and sounds, telling a student that his or her answer is wrong and explaining lessons with interactive media. It can do many amazing things when their designers and programmers tell them how. But a question arises; do we use this level of technology in education in Bahrain?

Ministry of education in Bahrain have focused on providing schools with computers and smart boards for the development of education in Bahrain, and in spite of that there is a significant lack of the necessary equipment in some schools, especially primary and intermediate schools where the shortage has led to the inability of teachers to improve their teaching styles using the technology.

However, computers have been used as a powerful tool in education. Most of the School's works depends on using computer's software especially Microsoft Office programs such as designing different  types of plans , recording students grades, designing classroom activities even students projects and researches but we still far of enabling students to practice programming in the educational field In order to enrich the educational process with useful educational software.