Cheung Pui Man, Emily

Theoretical Discussion About My Interactive Representation

2007-05-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

1. Introduction
At the beginning, Mandy and Maria should be in a group for doing this final assignment. However, both of them were fully occupied with their personal matters. They were unable to come out to do this assignment with me. Therefore, I did this interactive visual representation alone.
I am a primary teacher. I have to teach lower-class students English Language. For enhancing my teaching work and my students' learning motivation more effectively, I cannot use the traditional method to teach them English Language again. According to the English Language Handbook and the Education and Manpower Bureau (Curriculum Development Council, 1990), they suggested teachers teach younger students English Language through activities, for examples: playing games, singing songs and so on. In this circumstance, students will learn the best because they not only feel happily, but also have opportunities to participate in learning activities (Lillian, 2005). For achieving the above-mentioned goals, I decided to design an interactive visual representation, which is included these types of elements to offer my students for learning English in an enjoyable way.

2. Explain how my interactive visual representation can be used
According to the English Language Handbook of the Education and Manpower Bureau, Primary Two students have to learn some domestic animals which relate to their daily lives, for examples: cat, cow, hen, duck, horse and pig. I chose this topic of “On the Farm” for my final project because it belongs to one of the instructional unit - “Animal World”. In my visual display, there are some elements consisting of games and songs. I selected these elements in my interactive visual representation according to Peter and Iona' s ideas (1959). They suggested children loves listening to songs and enjoy singing songs. In fact, songs are good materials for providing children to communicate and express their emotion. For assisting my students in obtaining a better effect of learning, I chose a song of “Old MacDonald had a farm” because this song not only is matched to my project's theme; it is also melodious and easy to follow. For the above reasons, I think my interactive representation can be used to teach my students English Language in an enjoyable way and help them learn the English Language's sentence pattern through a song (The Education and Manpower Bureau, 1998), for example: Subject + Verb + Object.
I designed four parts in my project. My students can learn six animals' names in the first part. In the second part, they can learn animals' noises. Students can learn a new version of "Old Macdonald has a farm". The last part is offered to students' parents to play some activities (songs and games)with their children. They can sing two different versions of “Old Macdonald had a farm” and play “Animals' Noises” games with their kids at home. In the first part, user need to push the mouse to the animals, then he/she will be able to see the animals' pictures and their names. In the second part, user moves the slider. After that, he/she will be able to see the animals' noises. In the third part, user will be able to see the lyrics of the new version of "Old Macdonald has a farm" after pushing the mouse to the animals. Students will be able to sing the song with their classmates. After reading Daniel's suggestion, I know I have to demonstrate more pictures to be drawn by me and I have to avoid infringing upon the original lyrics of “Old Macdonald had a farm”, I needed to create a new version of words of the song. The following content is the new one of “Old Macdonald has a farm”.

The Song of “Old Macdonald has a farm”

Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
And on this farm he has some pigs. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
Pigs say, “Oink-oink here. Oink-oink there”.
Here oink-oink. There oink-oink.
Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!

Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
And on this farm he has some cows. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
Cows say, “Moo-moo here. Moo-moo there”.
Here moo-moo. There moo-moo.
Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!

Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
And on this farm he has some horses. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
Horses say, “Neigh-neigh here. Neigh-neigh there”.
Here neigh-neigh. There neigh-neigh.
Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!

Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
And on this farm he has some cats. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
Cats say, “Miaow-miaow here. Miaow-miaow there”.
Here miaow-miaow. There miaow-miaow.
Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!

Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
And on this farm he has some ducks. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
Ducks say, “Quack-quack here. Quack-quack there”.
Here quack-quack. There quack-quack.
Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!

Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
And on this farm he has some hens. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!
Hens say, “Cluck-cluck here. Cluck-cluck”.
Here cluck-cluck. There cluck-cluck.
Old Macdonald has a farm. Eh-I, eh-I, oh!

Besides, I wrote a Lesson Plan for teaching my students this topic step by step. My interactive visual representation will be offered my students to learn by themselves after completing the unit of “Animal World – Farm Animals” (See Appendix I – "Lesson Plan", Part B, No.8 and Part D, No.4).

For being convenient to my students to learn my interactive visual representation, I will save this visual display in the school intranet so that they will be able to read it in the School Central Library, Computer Laboratory, Self-study Corner and their classrooms. In addition, I will ask my school information-technician to save it in the school website so that students' parents will be able to sing the songs and play the games with their children for learning English at home.

3. Explain the educational or communicative value of my interactive representation
According to the Education and Manpower Bureau's instruction (2002), teachers not only have to teach subjects' knowledge to students, but also teach them generic skills at the same time, for examples: communication skills, collaboration skills, critical thinking skills, creativity and so on. Besides, the Education and Manpower Bureau supposes teachers are key persons to help students build up the ability of “Learning to Learn” for reaching the final educational goal (Curriculum Development Council, 2001). For achieving the above-mentioned goal, I would like to assist students in developing independent learning abilities through Key Learning Areas, which are consisted of Moral and Civic Education, Reading to Learn, Project-based Learning, and Information Technology for interactive learning (Curriculum Development Council, 2001). The four key learning tasks are inter-connected. Although I am an English teacher, I also have to use information technology to design some interactive visual representations for attracting my students to learn English through activities for building up the ability of independent learning step by step. In 21st Century, teachers are not fact tellers again, they are collaborators, sometimes are learners too (CUHK, 1998). Like me, I have to learn how to make interactive representations with Flash for promoting my students' learning motivation and interest. On the contrary, students are not listeners; they are collaborators in today's learning situation (CUHK, 1998). Due to the above reasons, teachers have to offer students an active environment to develop independent learning (CUHK, 1998).
For providing the active learning environment to my students, I designed the interactive visual representation of “On the Farm” to them for learning English. In the first part, when my students read my interactive visual representation, they will be able to learn six vocabularies, including: cat, cow, duck, hen, horse and pig. In the second part, students will be able to have an opportunity for distinguishing the characteristics of animals' noises. After that, they will be able to imitate different kinds of animals' noises. In addition, they can play a game with their classmates, for example: one student imitates one kind of animals' noises; the other one speak out the animal's name according to his/her classmate's imitation noise. When my students read the third part, they will be able to sing the song with their classmates together. In the last part, students will be able to sing the songs and play the games of animals' noises with their parents at home.
Finally, they will be encouraged to discuss with their classmates about those animals' eating habits and behaviors.
According to the above activities, students will be able to develop collaboration and communication skills. Additionally, they will be able to develop their critical thinking skill in order to play the games of “On the Farm”.

4. Conclusion
For achieving to help my students build up the ability of “Learning to Learn”, I offer a funny and active learning environment to my students. My students will be able to develop their communication skills, collaboration skills, critical thinking skills and creativity through the interactive activities in my final product. After trying to sing this song in my lesson, I observed my students love listening this song and singing it with me. For getting this experience, I agreed that “Sing to Learn, Learn to Sing” can increase my students’ learning experience happily.

In conclusion, I believe that interactive visual representations as educational context can be used to assist my students in building up the ability of “Learning to learn”.

5. Time-table of my contribution to this project

In the part of Introduction, I explained why I did this interactive visual representation alone. In here, I just would like to tell all of you how to complete this visual displaystep by step.

Date:

March 20, 2007
1. Start doing this interactive visual representation
April 1, 2007
1. Choose the topic of “On the Farm” for making my interactive representation.
2. Write an introduction of the interactive representation

http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Storyboard.doc
3. Make the storyboard of the interactive visual representation
http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Animalfarm.ppt#2

April 16,2007
1. Make the storyboard by using PowerPoint
http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/AFarm.ppt
April 17, 2007
1. Search all pictures of animals for doing this project.
April 28, 2007
1. Make the prototype of the interactive representation http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Prototype.doc
April 29, 2007
1. First Draft: Make the interactive visual representation with Flash MX. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Draftofourproduct1.swf
May 2, 2007
1. Second Draft: Insert music to the interactive visual representation with Flash MX. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Draftofourproduct2.swf
May 5, 2007
1. Third Draft: Add speech bubbles to our visual display with Flash MX after reading our classmates' comments. http://iln .cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Draftofourproduct3.swf
May 7, 2007
1. Write the reflections to my classmates' feedback.
May 18, 2007
1. Write the draft of Lesson Plan for teaching “On the Farm”.
May 19, 2007
1. Explain how my interactive representation can be used and
educational values.
May 20, 2007
1. Revise the music part of our interactive representation with Flash MX.
May 21, 2007
1. According to Daniel's email (24th May, 2007), he reminded me to pay attention on the matters of copying issues (pictures and songs). For avoiding infringing of the original copyright, I have to design the new version of my interactive visual representation immediately.

May 24, 2007 to May 27, 2007
1. Search pictures from the following websites

1.1 http://office.microsoft.com/zh-hk/clipart/default.aspx

1.2 http://mud.mm-a2.yimg.com/image/2369516661

1.3 http://mud.mm-a4.yimg.com/image/2904043095
1.4 http://mud.mm-a4.yimg.com/image/3047443281
1.5 http://mud.mm-a2.yimg.com/image/2307103406
1.6 http://mud.mm-a7.yimg.com/image/3875730061
1.7 http://mud.mm-a3.yimg.com/image/2712188733
2. Re-design my interactive visual representation
2.1 Animals' Name
2.2 Animals' Noises
2.3 Songs
2.4 Activities

3. Make this interactive visual representation.

May 27, 2007
1. Complete the whole of the interactive visual representation with Flash MX.

Lesson Plan (Appendix I)
Target Group: Primary 2
Topic of this project: On the Farm
Instructional Unit: Animal World – Farm AnimalsCurriculum Unit: English Language

Previous knowledge:
1. Students learnt the names of some animals, for examples: bird, fish.
2. Students can use indefinite article correctly, for examples: a bird, a fish.
3. Students can ask ‘what’ question to find out the name of an object, for example: What is it?
Teaching Objectives:
1. Students will be able to name farm animals’ names, such as cat, cow, duck, hen, horse and pig.
2. Students will be able to use animals’ names to identify farm animals’ noises.
3. Students will be able to imitate animal’s noise when shown a picture of a farm animal, for example: Cow – Moo-moo.
4. Students will be able to distinguish between the singular and plural form of nouns, for examples: a cat – cats, a dog – dogs.
5. Students will be able to use pronouns to refer to express facts, for example: It is a cat.

Materials: Storybooks, Computer, projector, PowerPoint software, worksheet.

Methods/Procedures:
(A) Pre-Visit Activities:

1. Let students watch a movie about farm animals;

2. Some books about farms will be read to the class, including:
(a) Animal Farm: a fairy story by Orwell George; or (b) A guide to Animal Farm by McGregor, Iona; and (c) On the Farm by Richard Scarry.
3. The class will construct a construction paper mural showing how they think Richard Scarry’s Farm will look.

(B) Teach the text book's content in English Language Lesson.
In the session, teacher will teach some of farm animals to our students according to the text's content – Farm Animals.
Procedures:
1. Students revise the names of some small animals with the help of pictures,
for examples: bird, fish.
2. Teacher shows the slides of different animals, such as a cat, a cow, a hen, a duck, a horse and a pig.
3. Students read the words loudly along with the teacher.
4. Students are required to give answers for the exercises, e.g. What is it? It is a cat.
5. Teacher shows the slides of different animals’ sound, for example: Cow –Moo-moo.
6. With the help of slides, students learn to distinguish between the singular and plural form of nouns, for examples: a cat – cats, a dog – dogs.
7. Students are required to imitate different animals’ noises.
8. Students are required to follow teacher singing a new version song of “Old MacDonald has a farm”.

(C) On-Site Activity: After finishing teaching the content of the text book about “Farm Animals”. We shall plan to carry my students to visit a farm. I shall invite students' parents to participate in this activity. Each parent guide will be responsible for four children. The guides will have a map highlighting the different areas of the farm their group should visit and they will bring a camera to take photographs for the children. At a specified time, all groups will meet at the barn to help milk the cow, and then watch the calf drink its bottle. All groups will meet again at the visitors' barn for lunch. After lunch, the whole class will help the farmer turn corn on the cob into chicken food and feed the chickens.

(D) Follow-Up Activities:

1. Teacher will prepare magnetic tapes and put them on the several series of pictures.
This will enable the children to sequence events on the magnetic chalkboard which they observed at Richard Scarry's Farm.For examples: Picture 1 - children were grinding corn into grits. Picture 2 - children were carrying the pail of grits to the chicken coop. Picture 3 - children were feeding the chickens.
2. The class will look at the photographs of animal at Richard Scarry's Farm and brainstorm a list of attributes such as furry, friendly and brown-eyed for each animal. The lists will assist students in using descriptive words in their creative writing.
3. Every student will be given three pieces of experience paper. On the first piece of paper, students will write the beginning of their farm story. On the second piece of information, they will write the middle of their story and on the third piece will be used by them to complete the end of their story.
4. For promoting students self-learning, teacher lets them freely explore more contents from the interactive visual representation of “On the Farm”, for example: the sentence structure – Subject + Verb + Object. I shall save my project in the school intranet. Students will be able to read this visual display in the Computer Laboratory, School Central Library, Self-study Corner and their
classroom.
5. Finally, the students will be encouraged to search more information about other animals from the Internet and library for their self-learning.
* Due to my students who are too young to search information for self-learning, I shall provide some appropriate websites to their parents for assisting them to learn more different kinds of animals after English class.
For examples:
(a) Farm Animals

http://www.kidsfarm.com/farm.htm
(b) All about Farm Animals
http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm/
(c) Farm Animals/Farm Life
http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/farmanim.html
(d) The Farm Animals
http://www.magickeys.com/books/
(e) Animals
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/inv_button_animal.ppt#12

I do the above actions for expecting my students to achieve EMB's goal and my teaching objective.

Remarks: The following link is about the above-mentioned theoretical discussion about my interactive visual representation.

http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/MLIM6323IndependentWork.doc

Bibliography:
1. Activity for ESL Students. (Study material for students of English as a Second Language) Retrieved April 23, 2007 from http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/s/
2. Animals.
Retrieved April 24, 2007 from http://resources.emb.gov.hk/project_work/animals.htm
3. At the Zoo.
Retrieved April 24, 2007 from http://www.hkedcity.net/resources/common/general/preview.phtml?res_cntr_id=24906
4. BBC school online (4-11 years).
Retrieved April 22, 2007 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/schools/4-11/index.html
5. Education and Manpower Bureau (2004). Information Technology in Education – Way
Forward. Hong Kong: The Government Logistics Department.
6. Education and Manpower Bureau (1998). Information technology for learning in a new era: Five-year strategy 1998/99 – 2002/03. Hong Kong: Government Printing Office.
7. English Resource (free teaching and revision resource).
Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.englishresource.co.uk
8. Garden Farm.
Retrieved April 24, 2007 from http://www.hkgardenfarm.org/
9. Internet Basic for teaching and learning: An Introduction.
Retrieved April 26, 2007 from http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~cmc/netbasics/intro/intro.htm 10.Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden.
Retrieved April 24, 2007 from http://ihouse.hkedcity.net/~hm1203/eco-activities/farm-hk-kadoorie.htm
11. Learn to sing; sing to learn (1990). Retrieved April 23, 2007 from http://www.emb.gov.hk/FileManager/EN/Content_2804/learn_to_sing.pdf
12. Looking for a pet.
Retrieved April 24, 2007 from http://res.hkedcity.net/general/0003/63/61/re_1397354293.ppt
13. McGregor, Iona. A guide to Animal Farm, 1998.
14. National Research Center on English Learning & Achievement.
Retrieved April 24, 2007 from http://cela.albany.edu
15. Orwell George. Animal Farm: a fairy story, 1995.
16. Resource for Students Learning English as a Second Language.
Retrieved April 20, 2007 from http://members.aol.com/adrmoser/esl.html
17. Scarry, Richard (1976). On the Farm. USA: Golden.
18. School-based curriculum Adaptation at Primary Level (1999)Retrieved April 24, 2007 from
http://www.emb.gov.hk/FileManager/EN/Content_2804/curr_adpt.pdf
19. The American Language Centre in Taiwan.
Retrieved April 24, 2007 from http://www.alctaiwan.com
20. The Curriculum Development Council (2001). Learning to Learn – The Way Forward in
Curriculum Development. The Curriculum Development Council, HKSAR.
21. The Curriculum Development Council (2002). Quality Learning and Teaching Resources
and School Library Development – Bringing about Effective Learning. Hong Kong：The
Curriculum Development Council.
22. The Curriculum Development Council (2002). Basic Education Curriculum Guide – Building on Strengths (Primary 1 – Secondary 3). Hong Kong: The Curriculum Development Council.
23. The Internet TESL Journal (For Teachers of English as a Second Language).
Retrieved April 19, 2007 from http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/
24. The Perfect Pet. Retrieved April 24, 2007 from
http://www.storyplace.org/preschool/activities/petsonstory.asp?themeid=13

My Final Project - Interactive Visual Representation

2007-05-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

1. General description of my final project

1.1 The aim of this project:

(A) Students will be able to learn six farm animals' names;

(B) Students will be able to learn six farm animals' noises;

1.2 Teaching Subject: English Language

1.3 Teaching Level: Primary Two

1.4 Topic of this project: On the Farm

1.5 Software used: Flash MX (Chinese Version)

1.6 Designer: Cheung Pui Man, Emily

2. My contribution to this project

At the beginning, Mandy and Maria should be in this group. However, both of them were fully occupied with their personal matters. They were unable to come out to do this project with me. Therefore, I did this interactive visual representation alone.

3. How to use my interactive visual representation

I designed four parts in my final project.

3.1 The first part: To offer this visual display to my students for learning animals' names.

3.2 The second part: To provide this representation to my students for learning animals' noises.

3.3 The third part: This part is a song of “Old Macdonald has a farm”. Let students explore English sentence pattern from this song.

3.4 The fourth part: To provide some activities (songs and games) to students' parents so that they will be able to enjoy these activities with their children.

Remark: For avoiding infringing upon the original lyrics of “Old Macdonald had a farm”, I created a new version.

4. The educational value and communicative value of my interactive visual representation

According to the Education and Manpower Bureau's instruction (2002), teachers should provide an active learning environment to students for building up "Learning to Learn". For providing the active learning environment to my students, I designed this interactive visual representation "On the Farm" for them to learn English Language. My students can develop their communication skills, collaboration skills and critical thinking through playing the games and singing the song with their classmates and their parents.

5. URL of my interactive visual representation

5.1 http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/FinalProject070528.swf

5.2 http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/FinalProject070528.html

6. Source-code of my final project

http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/FinalProject070528.fla

Thank you !!!

2007-05-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

Today, I completed my final project. In here, I want to say "Thank You" to Daniel and my classmates because they gave me many useful suggestions to improve my interactive representation. For expressing "Thank You" to them, I made below visual display to them. Please click the following links to read it. Thanks a lot!!!

Thank You Card:
1. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Conclusion.swf

2. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Conclusion.html

A Lesson Plan will be used for Teaching Our Representation

2007-05-20T03:25:00.000-07:00

For achieving a better effect of using our interactive visual representation, I write a lesson plan to offer our group members for a reference. The following content is our lesson plan. If your want to read it clearly, you will be able to click the following link to read our plan for teaching our visual display.

The Draft of A Lesson Plan:

http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Draftoflessonplan.doc

Subject: English

Level: Primary Two
Topic of this project: On the Farm
Instructional Unit: Animal World - Farm Animals
Time duration: 35 minutes

Previous knowledge:
1. Students learnt the names of some animals, for examples: bird, fish.

2. Students can use indefinite article correctly, for examples: a bird, a fish.

3. Students can ask ‘what’ question to find out the name of an object, for example: What is it?

Teaching objectives:
1. Students will be able to name farm animals' names, such as cat, cow, duck, hen, horse and pig.

2. Students will be able to use animals' names to identify farm animals' noises.

3. Students will be able to imitate animal's noises when shown a picture of a farm animal, for example: Cow – Moo-moo.

4. Students will be able to distinguish between the singular and plural form of nouns, for examples: a cat – cats, a dog – dogs.

5. Students will be able to use pronouns to refer to express facts, for example: It is a cat.

Materials: Storybooks, Computer, projector, PowerPoint software, worksheet.

Procedures:
1. Students revise the names of some small animals with the help of pictures, for examples: bird, fish.

2. Teacher shows the slides of different animals, such as a cat, a hen, a duck.

3. Students read the words loudly along with the teacher.

4. Students are required to give answers for the exercises, e.g. What is it? It is a cat.

5. Teacher shows the slides of different animals' noise, for example: Cow –Moo-moo.

6. With the help of slides, students learn to distinguish between the singular and plural form of nouns, for examples: a cat – cats, a dog – dogs.

7. Students are required to imitate different animals' noises.

8. Students are required to follow teacher singing a song of “Old MacDonald has a farm”.

The text of this "Old MacDonald has a farm"was created a new version becasue I must avoid

infringing copyright.

Reference:
1. National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement
http://cela.albany.edu/
2. Resource for Students Learning English as a Second Language
http://members.aol.com/adrmoser/esl.html
3. The American Language Centre in Taiwan
http://www.alctaiwan.com/
4. BBC School Online (4-11 years)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/schools/4-11/index.html
5. English Resource (Free teaching and revision resource)
http://www.englishresource.co.uk/
6. Activity for ESL Students
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/s/
7. The Internet TESL Journal (For Teachers of English as a Second Language)
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/

Reflections on Session Ten

2007-05-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

Time passes very fast. Tonight is the last lesson of this course. For this reason, I would like to write something about my reflections on what changes in my thinking and my knowledge in this module.

Before this course, I was a dummy for using the software of Flash MX and Photo Story 3. In the period of this course, I spent a lot of energy and time to learn these types of knowledge. After studying hard, I learnt the basic concept of the above-mentioned software. However, I believe that it will be useful for my future study and my work. The following content will be mentioned about what changes in my thinking and my knowledge in this module.

On October 7, 1997, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR announced “The Five Year IT Education Strategy of Hong Kong”. At that moment, I realized “Information Technology” can be used to enhance teaching and learning across the curriculum. Simultaneously, I understood the role of teacher would be changed from fact teller to collaborator (Sandholtz, 1997). For strengthening teaching skills and techniques in the classroom, I learnt PowerPoint at once after reading the document of “The Five Year IT Education Strategy of Hong Kong”.

At the beginning of this course, I thought PowerPoint would effectively contribute to teaching and learning. When Daniel asked us to design a visual story about ourselves in one PowerPoint slide, I felt it was an easy task. In fact, this concept was not right. In the Session Two, as Daniel explained to us how to express information more effectively to our audience, he showed me it was a difficult job. In the past, I used PowerPoint as a Teleprompter. I always wrote many words on each slide and then read my slides word for word in my class. After that lesson, I changed my idea. For teaching shape our students' future in the 21st Century, I should use the PowerPoint slides as a visual communication aid (CUHK, 1997).

After reading the articles of Tufte and Lester, I learnt “Visuals can communicate complex ideas with clarity, precision, efficiency and convey the most knowledge in the shortest time in the small space” and “Visuals are instruments that help people to reason information” (Tufte, 1983). I believe that “Visual Language” is very important for communicating with our audience. For enabling my audience to remember what I am going to tell them in my presentation, I must improve my visual language. According to Lester (2000), he said, “Analyzing image makes you take long careful look. First image becomes part of your general knowledge. The more you know the more you see”. For enhancing analysis and creation of my own vision, I have to learn how to visualize new visual language in this century. According to Daniel’s handout, we shall be able to insert photorealistic images, paintings, drawings, caricatures, cartoons, abstract art, maps of territories, symbols, icons, diagrams, charts, mindmaps and 3-dimensions to our PowerPoint. The above-mentioned technology tools are very useful for me to improve my teaching job.

After Session Three, I understood PowerPoint is a powerful tool to develop visual objects for teachers, but there are some excellent professional tools which can be used to design better interactive visual representation. Especially, as Daniel demonstrated different kinds of interesting visual displays in the class, such as Minard's Map, Flash slideshow and so on. After that, I made sure that it is an effective strategy for using interactive and visual representations in contexts of teaching and learning. Why did I say that? On 8th April, 2007, I made one interactive visual display with Flash. After Easter Holiday, I offered the following visual display to my lower-class students for learning three colors. The website is http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Colour.html .
When my students were playing this visual object, I observed that they liked playing this game and could identify these three colors very fast. After that, I understood“ People can learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone”(Mayer, 2005). Especially, it is very important to my students with mentally-handicapped.

After Session Three, I tried to design a falling raindrop by using Flash. But, the effect of that product was very bad in comparison with my classmates. I remembered that I was annoyed at the beginning of learning Flash. For learning this knowledge, I spent the whole Easter Holiday to read books for learning how to use the software of Flash. When I practised to use it, I met many difficult problems in designing interactive representation. For solving my problems, I asked my classmates to give me suggestions to improve my products. After that holiday, I launched to familiar with Flash. Really, I felt very happy at that moment.

After teaching some uses of Flash, Daniel started to introduce us how to design a digital photostory by using the software of Photo Story 3. This software is very user-friendly; we just need to spend around 15 minutes that we shall be able to complete an interesting learning object. Besides, the software has many functions to make the effect of visual display better. Finally, I want to talk about the functions of “Blog”, which is a kind of reflective journal and platform for sharing ideas and information with other people. I think that it is an effective way for assisting learners in building up the ability of “Learning to Learn”. The ability of “Learning to Learn” is very vital in this century for future study and work, even for survival in this world.

In conclusion, I learnt a lot of information technology knowledge in this module. I make sure that this knowledge will be very useful for promoting my future study and my work. The above-mentioned professional tools can be used to design interactive and visual representation for affording uses in different educational contexts. These representations as aids can assist learners not only in constructing knowledge; they also help them attain higher achievement at the last. Finally, I think that the most important thing is to offer an active learning environment to the learners for their self-study new information.

Bibliography:
1. CUHK (1997). Internet Basics for Teaching and Learning in the Chinese Context: An Introduction. Retrieved 5th May, 2007 from http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~cmc/ms.html

2. Education and Manpower Bureau (1998). Information technology for learning in a new era: Five-year strategy 1998/99 – 2002/03. Hong Kong: Government Printing Office.

3. Lester, P. M. (2000). Visual Communication. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning.

4. Mayer, R.E. (2005). The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

5. Sandholtz, J.H., Ringstaff, C. and Dwyer, D.C. (1997). Teaching with technology: Creating student-centered classrooms. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.

6. Tufte, E. R. (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press.

7. Tufte, E.R. (1990). Envisioning Information. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press.

Reflections on the Feedback

2007-05-07T04:29:00.000-07:00

After getting some feedback from our classmates in order to improve our interactive visual representation, I discussed with my group members to consider how to make our final product better. After discussing the above matter, we shall make the following improvements, including:

1. To make better button for attracting readers to read our interactive visual representation on the first scene, for example: when the button for a cow is clicked, the cow's body will move.

2. To improve the button on the second scene: The users do not need to hold the mouse, they will be able to read the words of the song.

3. To make animals more lovely for attracting readers to learn the song: When singing the song, each animal's mouth can move. For getting the above effect, we shall need to find two pictures of each animal, one is open mouth, the other one is close mouth.

4. To enlarge the words of the song.

5. To add a matching game for making our product more fun and interesting.

If you would like to provide more information to us for improvment our final product, please leave your comments to us. Thank you very much!!!

Task Eleven: Revised Our Interactive Visual Representation

2007-05-05T23:48:00.000-07:00

After presenting the prototype of our interactive representation, one of our classmates suggested us to add some speech bubbles to our visual display for drawing children's attention to follow singing the song "Old Macdonald had a farm". We have added six speech bubbles to our product, including: "Moo-moo", "Neigh-neigh", "Miaow-miaow", "Quack-quack", "Clcuk-cluck", and "Oink-oink". After adding those speech bubbles to our product, we felt the slide is very messy. Please click the following links to see our product and then leave your comment to us. Thank you very much!

1. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Draftofourproduct3.html

2. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Draftofourproduct3.swf

Remarks:
Do you have the same feeling that it is very messy???

Task Ten: Revised Our Interactive Visual Representation

2007-05-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

We completed to insert music to our interactive visual representation, but there is a problem. After we click an animal, the music will appear. But, if we do not hold the mouse, the picture and the content of the song will disappear. If we click the animal one more time, we shall hear the sounds at that moment. Please click the following links to see our problem. After that, please leave some comments to us for improving our product. Thanks a lot!

1. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Draftofourproduct2.html

2. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Draftofourproduct2.swf

Task Nine: Our Group's Interactive Visual Representation

2007-04-29T07:11:00.000-07:00

Our group completed to make some parts of our group project with Flash, including a cover, the background of a farm, an introduction of domestic animals, and the content of a song "Old Macdonald had a farm". In this farm, we shall introduce six animals, which are consisted of a cat, a cow, a duck, a hen, a horse, and a pig. Please click the following links to see it. After that, please leave your comments. Thank a lot !!!

1. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Draftofourproduct1.swf

2. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Draftofourproduct1.html

Right now, we are trying to insert a song "Old Macdonald had a farm" to our interactive visual representation. But, up to this moment, we still cannot be successful. We shall keep on trying our best to do it again. When we accomplish to insert music to our product, we shall upload it to our blog at once. Let all of you see its effect.

Task Eight: Revised the prototype of our representation

2007-04-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

1. Some changes of our interactive representation

Before drafting this latest prototype of our interactive representation, I discussed with my group members for improving the contents of our project, for example: we shall change from the photos of animals to the pictures of animals. It is becasue it will be easy for us to make those animals with movable mouths.

2. The latest prototype of our interactive representation

We completed the latest prototype of our interactive representation. In this time, we use word file to present our prototype of our product. Please click the following link to see it.

http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Prototype.doc

Reflections on Session Nine

2007-04-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

After discussing with our group members about the contents of our project last week, we decided to change the topic's name, which is called “On the Farm” at this moment. We made the above decision for enhancing our lower-class students' learning motivation and their interest. Besides, we hope that this project can be used to teach students to learn English in an enjoyable way, and help them to learn the language structure through a song (The Education and Manpower Bureau, 1990). For achieving our objective, we want to embed a song to our product for helping our students easy to follow, making learning English an enjoyable task. We selected the song “Old Macdonald had a farm” because it is melodious and easy to follow (The Education and Manpower Bureau, 1999). Besides, according to the Education and Manpower Bureau's English Language Syllable, lower-class students have to learn some domestic animals at Primary Level such as cat, cow, duck, hen, pig and so on. For making learning English more fun, we also want to design those animals in motion for drawing our students' attention on singing. In the process of making our product, we met some difficulties, for examples: we cannot embed the above song to our interactive representation and design the animals in motion. On the coming week, we shall try to do it again. We hope to complete the task as soon as possible.

The possible solution of the problem
After presenting our storyboard in our blog, Ryan gave us some good suggestions. He advised us to learn how to insert music to our final product from the following websites.

1. http://www.5sec.com/support/help_document/how_to_import_music_for_your_flash_file.html
2. http://www.flash-template-design.com/insert_music.php

For solving the above-mentioned problems, we shall learn how to insert music firstly. Next, we shall try to insert a song to our product on the coming week. Really, we hope to complete this task as soon as possible so that we shall give all of our classmates an idea what our interactive representation will be look like.

References
1. Learn to sing, sing to learn (1990)
Retrieved 24-4-07 from http://www.emb.gov.hk/FileManager/EN/Content_2804/learn_to_sing.pdf

2. School-based curriculum Adaptation at Primary Level (1999)
Retrieved 24-4-07 from http://www.emb.gov.hk/FileManager/EN/Content_2804/curr_adpt.pdf

Reflections on Session Eight

2007-04-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

1. Before this lesson, my partners and I prepared a PowerPoint-based protoype of our interactive visual representation. Simultaneously, we have uploaded it in our blog.

2. In the process of designing the interactive visual representation, we met a big problem that we don't know how to insert music in our final product.

3. In the Lesson Eight, Daniel helped us solve this problem. Fristly, we have to download a free software of LAME MP3 in our computer. That website is http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ . Secondly, we shall be able to save the song of "Old MacDonald had a farm" in the Flash's Library. After that, it will be easy for us to import that song in our final product.

4. We are planning to do the above matter (No. 3) on this coming weekend. We hope we shall complete the part of inserting music as soon as possible. Next, we shall be able to see the effect of our product.

Presentation -- Our storyboard of A Farm

2007-04-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

This is our storyboard. My partners and I prepared one PowerPoint for tomorrow night's Presentation. If you have spare time, you can see it before the class. I think that you will easily understand what we are ready to plan for doing our final project.

This storyboard is about "A Farm"
1. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/AFarm.ppt

Sharing my visual display with all of you

2007-04-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Dear my classmates,

Today, I made one visual display with Flash. I would like to share it with you. In the process of designing this product, I learnt how to set the timeline properly and use the function of shape to control the picture of heart moving. Please click the following links to see it.

This topic is about "Heart"

1. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Heart.html

2. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Heart.swf

Reflections on Session Seven

2007-04-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

1. Review how to make a digital photo story
Before Lesson Seven, I used the software of Flash MX to make my digital photo story. I did not use the software of Photo Story 3 to complete my assignment because I could not download that software on my computer successfully. In the Lesson Seven, Daniel explained to us how to download this software and how to make a photo story again. After class, I tried to design a personal story, which was called “Summer Vacation” by using Photo Story 3. Because this software is very user-friendly, I just need approximately 15 minutes to complete my task. For the above reason, I strongly recommend all of you to use Photo Story 3 to design your photo story if you have not completed your task yet.

2. Classmates' Presentation
My classmates' storyboards were interesting. They could explain what their project's objective was, but they did not design the main point of their presentation on a single slide as a storyboard. Overall, their presentations did very well. According to the point 3 of Daniel's suggestion, I think that it is very difficult for the lower-class students and mentally-handicapped children. For this reason, I think that teachers must be careful to design their visual and interactive representations for their teaching.

3. Designing a Slider
I learnt how to design two sliders with Flash in the Lesson Seven, one was Number Slider, and the other one was Year Slider. I make sure that they are very useful for teaching, for example: the Year slider can be used for introducing something / someone history. One day ago, I tried to design one slider with this information technology for introducing “History of Victoria Harbour”.

Task Seven: Designing a Slider

2007-04-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

Dear my classmates,
In the seventh lesson, I learnt how to make slider which is very useful, especially for providing teachers to teach Chinese History and History. The following visual display introduces "History of Victoria Harbour". Please click below links to see it.

1. Introduce the history of "Victoria Harbour"
According to the free encyclopledia of Wiki, "Victoria Harbour" is the harbour between the Kowloon Peninsula and the Hong Kong Island of Hong Kong, China. With an area of about 41.88 km² as at 2004, its natural depth and sheltered location enticed the British to occupy the island of Hong Kong during the First Opium War, and subsequently established the colony as a trading post. The harbour is famous for its spectacular panoramic views, and is in itself a top tourism attraction. It is a natural focal point of the territory, and considered a crucial natural geographical element for city dwellers. This sense of geographical attachment is most notably demonstrated in recent years, when the Government's efforts to undertake reclamation project in the harbour were met with widespread popular protests, despite reclamation work having taken place in the harbour for the past one and a half centuries.

2. This topic is about "History of Victoria Harbour"
2.1 http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Vicatoriaharbour.html
2.2 http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Vicatoriaharbour.swf

3. References
3.1 The meaning of Victoria Habour
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Harbour,_Hong_Kong
3.2 The pictures of Victoria Habour
3.2.1 http://lostseouls.com/blog.php?date=may-05
3.2.2 http://www.unrealhongkong.com/hong-kong-historical-pictures.html
3.2.3 http://www.treeofknowledge.com/hongkong.htm
3.2.4 http://www.ibiblio.org/hkpa/scenic/by-year/en/1972_1986.html

Task Six (2): Digital Photostory

2007-04-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

Dear my classmates,
Several days ago, I used the softeware of Flash MX to design one digital photostory. When I made that one, I had to spend a lot of time on designing it. Today, I completed one more digital photostory by using the software of Photo Story 3. I just needed apploximately 15 minutes to complete this task. After finishing this job, I felt easil y to learn the software of Photo Story 3 comparing with the software of Flash MX. For this reason, I strongly recommend all of you to use this software to make your photostory. I make sure that you will be able to complete your assignment within 15 minutes.

1. The Background of my digital photostory
I love Australia very much because my home is there. This digital photostory is a personal
story. It was mentioned one of our summer vacation. Firstly, I would like to introduce
"Australia".
According to the free encyclopedia of Wiki, Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the world's smallest continent. The mainland of Australia has been inhabited for more than 42,000 years by Indigenous Australians. After sporadic visits by fishermen from the north and by European explorers and merchants starting in the seventeenth century, the eastern half of the mainland was claimed by the British in 1770 and officially settled through penal transportation as the colony of New South Wales on 26 January, 1788. As the population grew and new areas were explored, another five largely self-governing Crown Colonies were successively established over the course of the 19th Century. On 1 January 1901, the six colonies became a Federation, and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Since federation. Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and remains a Commonweath Realm. The capital city is Canberra. The current national population is approximately 20.8 million people. Australia is concentrated mainly in the large coastal cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
My family members and I live in Sydney. If you want to know what the local Chinese people do in their summer vacation, click the following link to see it that you will know the actual situation.

2. The Link of My Digital Photostory
http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/SummerVacation.wmv

3. References:
3.1 Australia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia

Sharing my visual display with all of you

2007-04-10T00:41:00.000-07:00

Dear my classmates,

I made one interactive map today. I would like to introduce Taiwan's Attraction. Did you visit this country? If no, you must click the following links to see it. Make sure you will expect to go there for travelling after seeing this map's content.

1. This topic of the interactive map is about "Taiwan（Republic of China）"

1. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Interactivemap.html

2. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Interactivemap.swf

2. References:

1. Tainan

http://www.tainan.gov.tw/eng/index.aspx

2.Taipei City

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei

3. Taitung City

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taitung_County

4. Taiwan

4.1 http://www.skyscrapers.cn/data/skymark/tw_ti_tilol.htm

4.2 http://www.taiwanfun.com/north/taipei/articles/0201/020/CovershiLinTw.htm

4.3 http://www.taiwan.net.tw/lan/cht/index/index.asp.

5. 台灣觀光

http://travel.network.com.tw/main/travel

Remark:

Did you discover this visual display made more beautiful than the past ones? ^-^!!!

Sharing my visual display with all of you

2007-04-08T02:34:00.000-07:00

Dear my classmates,
Today, I designed one interactive representation with Flash as a teaching aid. After completing this task, I learnt some skills, for examples: how to make buttons and insert sound. Right now, I would like to share it with you. Please click the following links to see it. After reading it, please leave your comment. Thank you very much.

This topic is about "Colour".
1. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Colour.html
2. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/Colour.swf

Reference:

1. The picture of "Hello Kitty"

http://xogij.blogs.com/xogij/2004/09/copycat.html

Sharing my visual display with all of you

2007-04-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

Hi, Happy Easter!!!

Dear my classmates,

I want to say "Happy Easter" to all of you. Yesterday, I spent several hours on making a game with Flash. After completing that task, I learnt how to make different kinds of buttons. Please click the following links to read it. After that, please leave your comment. Thank you very much.

Links of A Game:

1. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/EasterHoliday.html

2. http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/EasterHoliday.swf

Reflections on Session Six

2007-04-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

Session Six is an online lesson. In this week, I learnt what digital storytelling is. According the free encyclopedia of Wikipedia, digital storytelling refers to using new digital tools to help ordinary people to tell their own real-life stories. In schools, teachers and students can use this kind of information technology to make photo stories, videos stories and interactive multimedia projects. Thus, as teacher / student plan and develop a digital story, teacher becomes digital story designer; student becomes designer. Teachers and students can use camera, scanner, imaging software, and mobile handheld technologies to develop a digital story. Digital storytelling can support students' engagement, creativity, multimodal thinking and expression, collaboration, project work and so on. Actually, we can download Microsoft Photo story 3.0 to make a digital story. We can design educationally effective digital stories with user-friendly technologies. When we are ready to design a digital story, we must know the following seven steps for developing our digital story.

They are included:
1. Select Topic
2. Conduct Research
3. Design Storyboards
4. Collect material
5. Develop Story
6. Export Video
7. Deliver Story

References:
1. http://www.learnactivity.com/ds/

2. http://www.learnactivity.com/ds/DigitalStorytelling.ppt#3

3. The meaning of digital storytelling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_storytelling

4. Photo Story 3 for Windows http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

Task Six (1): Digital Photostory

2007-04-03T23:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Classmates:
Before / On 10th April, 2007, we have to submit a digital photostory to our blog. Actually, it is very difficult for me to complete this task. For finishing this assignment, I spent two days on reading books about making a digital photo story with Flash. Finally, I can complete this task. ^_^ !!! Please click the following links to see it.

1. Background of this Personal Story
When I was a little child, I lived with my family in Macau. In that period, I felt very happy because the local people were very friendly, especially, my neighbours and my friends. They were very nice to my family and me. I love Macau very much. When I was six, my family and I had to move to Hong Kong because my father came here for doing his business. Therefore, we followed my father to stay in here. After that, I did not go back to Macau again. Last year, my elder sister came to Hong Kong from USA. For memorising our past life in Macau, my sister and I wanted to revisit Macau. In this trip, my sister and I were very happy because we met our old friends in St. Peter Church.

2. Links of My Personal Story
2.1 http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/PhotoSlideshow.html
2.2 http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/pmcheung2/PhotoSlideshow.swf

3. References
3.1 Video Photo-tutorials or Video Storytelling Projects made with Microsoft Photo Story
http://drscavanaugh.org/digitalcamera/photostorytelling/storytelling_PhotoStory.htm

3.2 Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
http://netmail.netvigator.com/netvigator/dashboard/goto_netmail_c.html

3.3 王緒溢(2002). Flash MX. 台灣：碁峰資訊。