Final Thoughts

This course was rich by having different and diverse topics which most was useful for me as a teacher. Starting with the computer as tool, tutor and tutee which I have learned that learning without the computers is inefficient, it make sure to me that the computers should be interfere with all subjects.

Coming to the student centered learning and topics related to it “Inquiry based learning & Web quest”, I have aware of the importance of having the student centered learning in our schools since nowadays the teaching are almost traditional and focusing on the teacher role without giving the chance for the students to discover and learn by their own.

Also the games and simulations topic was so valuable because this is what the students need now, they need the lesson to be more real, active, and interesting so they can cooperate with the teacher and get the information faster.

Whole over the course, I had fun time to know simple and effective ways to be used in teaching, the topics were delivered in a very easy and clear way.      



Games and Simulations

Classrooms now a days are active and fun because of the different ways and strategies that the teacher is using for the students. The most important issue these days is to make the students engaged in the lesson, and this will never be done if the class was boring. For this reason they have produce new strategy to be used in the class which is games and simulations.

In our schools we have a simulation rooms which acts like a company and the students are the employees, they have to work there in different departments such as: accounting, marketing, IT…etc

I have found using the games in class makes the lesson more easier, understandable and interesting to my students, so whenever I have a difficult lesson I worked hard to search for a proper game that helps me to deliver the information to the students. Some of the games where flash games that I found them ready from the internet and others where done by me using different programs such as: Microsoft Power point and Visual Basic.    

Mind Mapping

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 facts contained in normal notes.

Both students and teachers are using the mind maps, for the students it help them in revising for the exams and focusing on the main important ideas, for the teachers it help them in summarizing the materials they have and making the information more organized.

Sometimes if the topic is long and complex the teacher asked the students to draw a mind map that simplify the topic for them and I have used this method, the problem was that some of the students were lazy and want everything to be ready for them, another problem was that I wasn’t well-known about the useful software’s that makes the mind map something easy and interesting, they were using the Microsoft Word and PowerPoint which was taking a long time. This course gave me the needful software’s that I will use them in the future with my students.

Inquiry-based Learning

An old state said: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand.", the last statement actually is the Inquiry-based learning. Inquiry-based learning is the involvement in learning, it implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit you to seek resolutions to questions and issues while you construct new knowledge.

Today’s subjects does not need memorizing, that’s why they came up with the inquiry-based learning strategy that allows the students to discover the information needed by themselves so it will be stick in their minds and difficult to be forgotten.

I believe that this is an effective way to be used especially in the IT subjects because we need the students to investigate and learn how to answer the questions without referring to the teacher, since in IT subjects most of the topics are practical so the students have to try it by themselves not just receiving the information from the teacher.

I have used this method with my students when I have asked them some questions regarding our lesson and let them search the Internet to find the answer and they were interested in searching and choosing the right answer from the different choices they have, this let my students to be self-reliance.