Some thoughts on ASSURE Model (Systematic Planning for Media Use)

Reflecting on the ASSURE Model process in teaching & learning, I would like to share my thoughts on some common shortcomings of a teacher:

Under the ‘U’component (‘Utilise Media & Materials’), I think that as teachers using electronic equipment in the classroom, we often neglect that hardware can malfunction and fail to have a plan B. It is crucial to make sure that our instructional materials are suitable and working before using it in the classroom.

Under the ‘R’component (‘Require Learner Participation ’), we often spend too much time lecturing students that we fail to listen to them and lose them in the process. We often overlook that students learn best when they are actively involved in learning. The passive learner has more trouble learning whatever we try to pour into his/her brain. Hands-on new media actvities is an excellent way of getting students actively involved in the learning, but we should also encourage more questions and answers, discussions, group work wherever possible.

Under the ‘E’component (‘Evaluate & Revise’), this last stage is often neglected but it is the most important one. Anyone can develop a lesson and deliver it, but really good teachers take time to reflect upon the lesson, the objectives, instructional strategy, instructional materials and assessment and determine if these elements of the lesson were effective or if one or more of them need to be changed the next time the lesson is done. Sometimes a lesson may seem like it would be great on paper but when we actually teach the lesson with a specific set of students, we might discover that it may fall flat of our expectations. Some students may not be tech savvy so how do we help these students cope? We are not bad teachers if a lesson does not work. We are if we don't reflect upon our lessons and work on revising elements of the lesson until our students become successful learners.