Tech in Ed

Teach With Technology workshop was conducted for the Home Economics teachers and In Service Advisers of the Central Province at the Provincial ICT Education Centre (PICTEC) - 18th and 19th January 2017

Presenting my experience at the event organized by Microsoft Sri Lanka ,Are You TWT? .The event  was held at Hotel Taj Samudra, Colombo , Sri Lanka ,on 8th December 2015.I shared my experience on PBL with ICT tools, Using OneNote Notebook for PBL,Skype in the Classroom and sharing lesson plans with teachers from overseas in order to better learning take place.Sharing experiences of Microsoft Innovative Expert Educators Chamila Bandara,Pradeepika Rupasinghe and Shiroma Weerathunga was done during the presentation.

(Photographs by Microsoft Sri Lanka Facebook Page)

Microsoft Tools in Classroom Teaching-Workshop at Kengalla Maha Vidyalaya

Web Designing Workshop organized by the Nikaweratiya Education Zone,conducted by me 

Java Fundamentals (Oracle Academy) workshops for IT teachers and ISAs  at NIE and Royal College IT lab 

(Work as facilitator from Sri Lanka ,with the Indian lecturers)

Alice is a 3 D Animation Software (Oracle) which is easy to handle by any teacher without a very good knowledge in computer programming.Subjects teachers can use the too for creating animations for their lesson presentations as well as guide students for the lesson targets.Teachers of the Wattegama Education Zone  and Katugasthota Education zone were trained to use software.

Integration of ICT in teaching:

Introducing technology and tools into school has been done through out years.During the implementation level at the schools ,some problems occured.Resistance to change ,time factor,school priority level ,staff confidence and skills are some key factors which affect ICT -based education.The children are digital learners as they are born into a digital world.Hence the traditional ways of teaching ,learning ,assessing and evaluating are to be changed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abstract

This paper explores the effectiveness of learning Java concepts through e-learning. A freely provided learning platform for the Sri Lankan school children was based on the study. The learning platform of the site provides a variety of methods for a student – centered learning process including e-learning materials with videos, online quizzes, tests and discussion forum. This study is focused on secondary students who learn Java programming concepts through e-learning in English medium.  The main purpose is to find the factors that influence effectiveness of learning Java programming concepts through E-learning.

Qualitative research approach is employed with a group of 20 participants of online Java Fundamentals course.  Group discussion, observation of artefacts and questionnaire are used as data collection techniques.  Inductive approach is used to analyse data.

The results have shown that students with positive attitude towards the usefulness of e-learning methods, dedication, inner urge and interest to learn Java programming , confidence and basic skills in using computers for studies, are the main factors that influence the effectiveness of learning Java concepts through e-learning.  The audio – visual materials, videos and the programming environments with object animation features have increased the students’ interest in Java programming. Different learning styles of students have an influence on effectiveness of learning Java, through e-learning mode. And e-learning should be considered as supplement and not replacement to the traditional learning methods.

Key words: e-learning, student-centred learning. Java programming language

(This is the abstract of the research paper done by Champa Rathnayake for the Master of Education Degree )