Final Blog: Reflection (Part 3)

The course has taught me a great deal of knowledge about the nature of technology and how to use them particularly in the effort to improve the quality of teaching and learning process. I learnt how to use SMART board applications better than I ever was by integrating soothing music, dynamic animations, and linking the board with interactive online games found in the internet. All of these learning have made me aware of the various methods that I never knew existed. This has also reduce the time needed for me to prepare tedious and complex teaching aids since I can simply utilize the ones I found in the internet with ease like through http://educational-freeware.com/ and http://www.vitaminix.tv/eng/educative.html.

Frankly speaking I did not expect to learn all of these by myself since the lecturer told us to do every learning including the steps, finding websites and completing our tasks and assignments all by ourselves. It is true that this will help us become independent knowledge seeker, but I would also hoped that the lecturer would give us at least some examples and steps on how to acquire knowledge not only from the internet alone but also from other sources as well because in terms of using and developing resources, we should always practice becoming resourcefulness and flexible at all times. To emphasize, if we were to be sent to a remote area for teaching practices, then all the learning in this course would be impossible to be practiced since everything regulates around the use of internet alone. That is why I question the aim of this course, “Are we really using and developing only one form of resource for teaching? Or should there be a more diverse and flexible way to implement the use of resources that are available to use like the simple newspaper or textbook?” This issue arise since I believe as teachers, I have the expectation that we should practice resourcefulness with the things that are around us, and not only confined by the use of latest technologies. Therefore, I regret for not being taught the ways to develop other resources aside from the ones that is computer-based. I expect a more flexible way of learning on how to brilliantly use the things available to us in the classroom as teaching aids since not every school has internet connection or even computers for that matter. My hope is that the lecturer could open her heart and view my suggestions and comments constructively and positively since I feel it is my duty to improve the quality of teachings of mine and others as well.

Final Blog: Reflection (Part 2)

Throughout the course and from the process of blogging, I have learnt a lot of things. In terms of critical thinking, I remembered a desperate situation where a friend of mine asked me about how to upload a PowerPoint slide into his blog. This was a very unfamiliar problem to me and it made me think deeply as the slides were actually important supporting teaching aids which that reinforce his reflection for his blog. I went through an hour of trial and error experimenting with the limited knowledge I have using the PowerPoint application and blogging options until finally, the solution became clear to me. It was actually a matter of setting the directory of the slides location to be in harmony that blogging options in order for the slides to make operate smoothly. To clarify, his misery was actually an opportunity for me to learn something new and beneficial so that I will know how to deal with similar problems in the future.

In terms of entrepreneurship skills, I learnt about the importance of arousing people’s attention towards reading my blog. In order to attract them, I went into a period of experimentation with various numbers of websites found in the internet like MyNiceSpace.com to add colourful and fascinating GIFs and animations. Thankfully, even though I only managed to raise a fair number of people to visit my blog, the knowledge I gained now might be helpful for me when I am tasked to design a website for my school in the future.

As much as I like blogging and the ways I learnt new medium of knowledge, there are some factors that prevented me from doing so. Apparently, I have been accused of negatively commenting some people in my blog. This has somewhat made me feel demotivated to continue writing a good piece of work. I believe that such accusation was made purely on a mixture of unnecessary feelings of anger and hatred which at the end does not reflect a sense of professionalism of such people. If a person who would read my blog from the beginning until the end, it will be impossible for him or her to find any name of people being criticized. Every page of blog that I wrote was the exact documentation of the learning process that was conducted in each class and the events that occurred during the period. I stated all that I find important so that people would take some time to reflect and avoid repeating the same mistakes again in the future. I even suggested some ways of how the learning experience could be made clearer, focused and enjoyable. Regrettably, some people still view my hard effort as a medium for criticizing them. I always held on to the belief that no one is perfect and that each human is never far away from making mistakes. That is why we have other people around us such as friends, who could help us see our ‘loopholes’ and weaknesses that are invisible to us. I believe that as an educator, we must always be fair and equal when marking each of our learners’ hard work. There must not be any mixture of feelings involved so that our judgements can be made professional. This is crucial because if we do not practice it in such a way, we will have to answer to ALLAH for being unfair. 

Final blog: Reflection (Part 1)

Initially, my experience of engaging with technology began with the introduction of computer when I was in primary school. During that time, the computer was merely seen to me as a virtually rig where I can play video games and enjoy the fun of doing it. But as time progresses, I began to realize that technology was more than to be used as entertainment purposes only. In the completion of assignments and task, technology has proven itself to be a reliable and almost infinite source of information. This awareness was materialized with the advent of internet and along with other basic software found in the market. The internet provides me with a variety of websites established by techno-savvy and experienced group of people around the world and from there I began to acknowledge that information trading and sharing are actually a universal exchange; a crucial understanding that as a user of technology, my responsibility does not limit to only downloading important information from the internet, but also upload useful ones as a form of contribution so that the idea of symbiosis is present and everyone benefits from process. So in order to fill my part of the bargain, blogging has become my primary source of sharing information regarding my teaching and learning experience as an undergraduate student and also as a future teacher.

The part that I adore about the blog writing assignment was about the reflecting process that I have to be engaged in each time writing a blog. The process made me think very carefully and deeply about the things I have gained throughout each class and how much input has contributed to my overall maturity of thoughts. I believed that I have become a better evaluator of learning situation and that this is a crucial skill for me to adopt when I become a teacher in the future; particularly on judging my pupils learning style and their assumptions towards the idea of making learning a fun and interactive process. Blogging has allowed me to take into consideration the ways on how I could improve my reflections, frankly through consulting my friends and sharing our views about a particular topic learnt. I have also learnt to communicate with people around the world through active participation in online forums. Through TechForum.com for example, I got the chance to interact with countless of techno-savvy people through the cyber world in real time. This is particularly important since I am still a newbie in this vast technologically advanced age. In addition, there was also opportunity to converse with them in real time using application like Yahoo Messanger for example. Though it may seem awkward and made me feel anxious to talk to people from the other side of the world, it was a good way of improving my fluency and accuracy of using the English language purposely. Hence, I learnt a lot from the communication process with wise people and have developed a sense of confidence to use technology for that matter as well.

Week 14th Reflection: Devastated...

There is no lecture today but instead, an examination was held. Frankly saying, not only I, but also the whole 78 people of the cohort were in panic due to the lack of information regarding the topics which could be present in the examination. Previously, we tried many times over to contact the lecturer regarding the topics which we need to put more focus on but as usual, our efforts ended up in vain. She did not answer our assistants call and there were very small chances to meet her in private due to our limited time and also her busy schedule. Therefore, all of us relied on the ADeC system in order to get connected with her online and voice up all our doubts about not only regarding the examination, but moreover about the mind-boggling portfolio assignment. To make things worse and to our dismay, the lecturer did not reply our questions and we really felt like lost as we do not know to whom we should consult our problem...this was undeniably the worst learning experience that we have faced so far... We really thought that our lecturer could at least tell us the reason for her to not even get online with the ADeC system even after Raya holidays were over. Sad to say, she has not been online from week 11 until week 14...

                Being left behind and unguided, I started to question the reason why we were treated in such a bad way. As far as I know, we have done every single assignment given to us and managed to handle them to her without delay. We have done so many things she asked for even though the instructions given to us were many times unclear. So I question myself, ‘’Are we considered bad students after we have followed all her order?’’. Regardless of her reason for behaving in such manner, at the end we are the victims. Due to not being informed about which to focus on, we are actually doing the examination blindfolded. Though the lecturer did say the questions in the examination only required short and simple answers, we were still reluctant to act in the same manner she told us. This is due to the fact that each question in the paper were allocated with 10 marks, hence a short and simple response will not be sufficient to completely assure we get better chances of scoring higher marks. What makes us devastated that while the examination was carried out; we were told to answer the questions in complete assay forms. This announcement undeniably contradicts her prior instruction of us having to only answer the question with short and simple answers... Confused, sad and felt betrayed, I tried my best to keep my emotions at bay and continue to answer the questions as best as I could. I felt so devastated...because we really put our trust and faith towards her previous instruction of how to answer the questions... To make things worse, one of the examination questions like the one about storyboard was unclear and confusing. I was told that a lot of my friends asked her to clarify the misunderstanding. But what I was do not understand is if a lot of people already faced the same problem of not understanding the question, then why won't she make an announcement and rectify the so problem aloud so that everyone's misunderstanding would be cleared in one shot. I believe that this is a better way to solve if not all, a small part of our predicament.

Probably I will be criticized again for writing this blog but I have my reason for doing so. This is because I believe that the reason why we were tasked to write blogs at the first place was due to the fact that we need to reflect on the learning process, what the learning situation was, and become totally honest in voicing out our predicament and problems so that at the end I can remind myself not to repeat the same mistakes. My true intention was never about attacking anyone directly or making false remarks. But I merely state my honest opinion about what really happened during the learning process in the classroom and ALLAH as my witness, I did not lie a single thing about it. I did all this in hopes that there will be improvements in the future; an advice not only for me but also to everyone else because I hold absolute believe that as humans, it is our nature to make mistakes but it is just fair that we learn something from that mistake so history will not repeat itself. Hence, making us adapt to a higher dgree of thought, judgement and maturity. I am merely completing the objectives and purposes of writing the blog assignment.

Week 13 Reflection: Tweaking software for children!

This week’s class was rather interesting as we were introduced with children software in the form of CDs. The software were integrated with games which I find to be fascinating and captivating, especially through the eyes of young learners.

Our task was to analyze the games from certain points of view like the colour and audio qualities and whether it was appropriate for achieving certain objectives in lessons. From my opinion, the games are rich with a brilliant mixture of colours which are also accompanied with soothing and light music. The games that we used for example allows children to explore a variety of sound effects of various musical instruments and I believe that this is important for training pupils to learn through one of their five senses which is channeling auditory input through their hearing. This on the other hand is a more soothing way of teaching pupils (aside from the traditional chalk and talk) to identify different sound patters, thus sharpening their listening skills holistically.

Since young learners have the tendency to always wanting to play around, the implementation of healthy learning-oriented games were necessary in order to mold children interest towards the aim of ‘playing while learning’. I believe that incorporating learning-based games are crucial for changing the perspective that children can also acquire skills necessary for them to function in society while in the process of playing games. The idea was that in order for pupils to open their hearts to learning was that first they need some sort of stimulation to them interested and prepare their mind for the framework of learning of the day. Games that reflect the life a child in schools are bound to be meaningful and familiar, for example like the game Freddy Fish where the characters are school children trying to solve daily problems in their life. Thus, such game serves as a guide to educate pupils on what should a child do in order not to get trouble, for example in Freddy Fish, the game gives a choice on whether to become honest to their parents or the otherwise, and consequences of each action children take will be displayed. By analyzing for themselves the consequences, children can learn which action to be taken later on in real life. This analyzing attempts promote children CCTS (critical and creative thinking skills) as according to Skinner’s Behaviourism theory, children tend to learn primarily from ‘cause and effect’ scenarios. In addition, the characters are very cute and colourful which I believe will be a good source of motivation for children to be indulged in the lesson, hence allowing them to become active explorers of knowledge. 

Week 12 Reflection: Mind boggling!

Though the Raya holidays have left us behind and the Raya mood is still intact in our hearts and minds, the struggle for supremacy over laziness rages on. Everyone still wanted to relax and take a rest but the abundant assignments we left behind during the holidays will not be completed by itself. I reset my mind back towards accomplishing what I need to do. Luckily, the class was allocated by the lecturer as our assignment-doing period and we were given the opportunity to clarify our misunderstandings or consult valuable advices which could enrich our assignments and tasks qualities.

The third assignment proves to be the lion or the king of the jungle as it was a huge challenge to ‘tame’ it. Producing four lesson plans at once was no piece of cake. I cracked my head day and night looking for creative and innovative ideas which could make my lesson plans great. The challenge doubles as we are to integrate our lesson plans with all the technologies we have learnt throughout the course like photo editing, audio, video and so forth. At first glance it might be too much for me to handle but I try to think it positively by reminding myself that this is a valuable opportunities to create quality work that will not only sharpen my creative and critical thinking skills but also use the lesson plans later when I become a teacher. Therefore, the assignment allows me to kill two birds with one stone and I am becoming more acceptable and patient in handling the task so far.

To me, crafting effective lesson plans should take in depth consideration the target audience, and in this case, they are young learners. So it is my duty to recall back the schemata I learnt about the characteristics of young learners and how to manipulate my lesson plans to serve the purpose and objectives of the lesson plans. Since young learners are very observant to the actions done by objects and what they see around them (according to Eric Erikson), the teaching aids used must be modified as to contain only the favored or intended good learning qualities that we want the child to acquire. To put it clearer; the internet is a host to countless number of pictures, videos and so forth. Each item that we believe has teaching potentials must be rid of negative qualities such as inappropriate words, improper pictures, violence, and so on. Therefore, this is where I can train myself to practice all the necessary technology skills I learnt towards transforming raw materials into wonderful teaching aids, so that they could be used later in the lesson plans. So it becomes clear to me that as future teachers, we should become aware of the needs of our young learners and filter the appropriate knowledge they should acquire while at the same time turning the lesson into an exciting and memorable learning experience. I learnt a lot from all the hard work trying to complete the assignment.

Trying to create something creative from scratch is no easy job. It requires tremendous thinking and intricate step by step evaluation before it could be carried out successfully in the classroom. One would think that after all the hard work done, each lesson plan we gave birth carries the signs of our tears and hard labor. Therefore it would be a catastrophic sadness to us all if someone were to simply use our masterpieces as their own, intended for self-gain and needs without first explicitly acquiring our permission. It should be remembered that as Muslims, every act and actions we take upon others will have its consequences. This is especially important for educators, not just teachers, because it is our responsibility to evaluate each of our students equally and fairly without the intervention of feelings or hatred towards a certain student which might cloud our professional judgments. I speak not because this is what I feel, but because we are Muslim who abide by the rules and teachings of the holy Quran. If your position is as an educator, then treat and judge all your students fairly, because if you don’t, you will have to answer that to ALLAH himself.

Week 11 Reflection: Search & Scan

This week was another fabulous week as yet another task was allocated to us. To me, the task was rather unfamiliar as we had to seek out two research materials relevant to the use of teaching aids in the primary classroom. To make things more complex, we had to analyze every bits and details of each research materials we find but that would only be possible if the materials we found are accepted by the lecturer. Thus, the search begins!

Through the countless attempt of browsing the internet, like a pirate of the sea in search of hidden treasures, I reminded myself that learning is just another part of life that makes become more mature and allows opportunities to practice patience and wisdom. And like all sailors of the sea, our mind grows with experience we encounter throughout our journey. Like a wild horse, I managed to tame and open my heart to read all the materials I could lay my hands upon in this ‘cyber sea’. Reading experience has taught me that the purpose many researchers had in mind when publishing their research were that to help future teachers like me to become well aware of the enormous and unpredictable learning benefits teaching materials could offer, especially for young learners. In addition, I learned that teaching aids are exceptional assistant which could turn around the overall mood of learning of a child, for instance, by playing a simple yet catchy song, children may eventually find themselves indulged in the learning process as such teaching aids allows them to ‘see’ that learning in the classroom is actually a fun and enjoyable thing to do. Such conversion of a child thought towards the idea of learning from boring to exciting is of most importance to me as from my observation of prior teaching experience along with reading examples found in books and researches, I have realized that children in the Malaysian context have about 5 minutes attention span before they ‘switch’ into their own activity of making noise at the back. Therefore, adding suitable teaching aids are essential for prolonging their attention span along with the right interest towards positive learning attitudes and also help reduce disciplinary problem in return.

While it is good to know that teaching aids are good tools for improving the learning effectiveness, knowing how to use them into your favor is another thing. According to current research done in schools lately, teachers have been found to still implement the ‘chalk and talk’ approach as a daily teaching mode. They admitted the idea of using teaching aids is great and beneficial but they argued that they lack the abilities to download or convert the application as they are not very techno-savvy themselves. As a result they are forced to attend seminars for acquiring the necessary knowledge to do so. But this consumes a lot of effort and time; something they cannot afford to lose. That is why I am grateful that the TESL course that I took integrates the teachings of utilizing technology towards the betterment of learning experience for future learners. Thus, the task of seeking research materials and analyzing them for further comprehension of current times’ issues regarding teaching aids and the teaching environment as a whole, are crucial for me to progress both in maturity and wisdom as future teachers to come.

Reflection Week 10 (Cont.)

The countless number of assignments and tasks we received along the progression period of this course were pretty heavy and took a hefty toll on us all in the sense that we suffered internal and external pressure cracking our heads to come up with creative and innovative ideas. We hoped that our hard work of manufacturing all these tedious and neck-breaking assignments will not be used by other people for their self gain, particularly manipulating our masterpiece as their own for furthering their studies for the title of professor or doctor for example. Plagiarism or a deliberate act of misusing other’s work is a sinful and unethical conduct to perform by anyone regardless of their status as students or educators and I may have to resolve to file a police report if I sniffed out any trace of such malevolent and blasphemous idea. As students, we should know our rights and search for ways to protect our original products.

Check this out for more info:

http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf

Week 10 Reflection

This week was the submission of our second assignment which was done in pairs. The second assignment gave us an insight on how to better learners as we managed to incorporate cooperative learning, dividing task for seeking new information on the internet and engage in several virtual discussions. Since we are limited by the distance barrier between us, the use of technology for making real-time discussions were imperative to keep track of our findings and to configure a smooth progression of our assignment. Application like the simple yet reliable and user-friendly Yahoo Messenger really made a difference in making sure that our ideas are properly delivered and understood. This was better than using the common handphone for communicating in a distance because we could not only send compressed files, but also gain better comprehension of each other through facial expressions and gestures via the use of the webcamera. As we learnt in before, the effectiveness of communication between two individuals can greatly be reinforced with the presence of visual assistance, particularly in providing facial expression and gestures to convey their meanings more clearly and accurately. The awareness to use such a technology was deemed essential for us students due to the fact that the service comes with no need for us to spend a penny; it’s absolutely FREE! The process and procedure that we went through really taught us to become resourceful in making the right choices to suit our current needs of seeking information related to teachings and so forth.

Assignment two taught me a lot about crafting the right activity and lesson for the target audience. Apparently, young learners learning abilities differs greatly from that of an adult due to the fact that young learners tendency to comprehend an idea better with the assistance of visual and auditory components. We cannot simply give a child a book and expect them to understand it thoroughly from the beginning until the end. It falls back to us to bolster their still-developed cognitive system by including fascinating and colourful pictures, interactive GIFs, and also catchy sound effects and music, all in the effort to guide their comprehension to our intended learning points or ideas; according to Jean Piaget.

The tenth class was another moment of ‘enjoyment’ because the advent of yet task. Wow, I’m so ‘thrilled’. Another sleepless night for me, just great…hooray... The task required the use of the MSPublisher application in order to construct newsletter, business card, pamphlets, and brochures. It sounds like a lot of work but it actually really is. Another pressure or predicament we face is apparently not everyone has the application installed within their Windows system, unlike the Windows Movie Maker which is integrated along with it. Hence, some of us need to rely on other friends who have the application already installed, download from the internet or buy a new Windows CD. So, a lot of my friends find themselves stuck with the problem. Luckily, I already have mine installed when the first time I formatted my desktop. This is the moment where I learn to share the means of complete our tasks and be thankful to God to be able to work together and help each other during this dire moments.

It seemed that assignment three which should be the final one, has made its maiden appearance. Each of us is required to prepare four full activities and lesson plans, each focusing on different skills depending on the topic we received. I guess this one is really testing our competence skill as a teacher-to-be as we are actually crafting lesson plans for the whole week. But I believe that this is crucial for making us immersed with the experience of a real teacher which will definitely benefit us later on in the future. Feels like practicum already…hmm…I wonder…

Week 9 Reflection

“..Strike your enemy from within..” (The Art Of War)

Life is a battlefield filled with relentless trials and challenges that sometime struck us on the outside and internally as well. Often, we find ourselves engulfed by problems that seemed endless and haut us day and night. But when we lean back and take some time to reflect, the pieces for finding the right solution gradually comes together. As the saying goes, the enemy which hinders us from progressing and completing our responsibility is actually our own self. When the body is crumbled with countless outside pressure, the presence of patience and calmness provide assistance to the soul, helping it to meditate and visualize the core of each problem with ease. Thus, having patience and maintain a cool conscious are a necessity when it comes to deliberate the body and soul from trials of life. I find myself in need of patience as a weapon to deflect and resolve the tasks and assignments bombarded to me virtually every day, 24-7! Moreover, with the advent of fasting season, it also provides me the greatest moment to practice building a good foundation in terms of patience and calmness.

The ninth class had undergone a clarification period regarding our tasks, assignments and so forth. Basically, I find the idea of having a portfolio as a must, regardless of our status as a university student or a primary school learner. This is due to the fact that it carries many positive effects and benefit to the learner later on. Aside from being a formal medium for assessment, the portfolio functions as a black and white evidence that records all the work and tasks done by the learner in a systematic and chorological order, which also indicates the whether a learner has made progress or the other way around. In addition, when learners are presented a clear record of their work, it provides a sense of acknowledgement which in return helps them become more responsible for their own learning. Parents also benefit from this type of evaluation as it opens a channel for them to determine the growth of their children, and also identify a problem and fix it at the heart of its core before too late.

There was another opportunity for me to refine my schemata for today as I was introduced with a new video-related website called the http://www.onetruemedia.com. It is basically similar to the common YouTube.com website that we had been using for some time, in the sense that it was possible to upload or download videos we made or of other’s. The interface looked wonderful with bright brilliant colours filling in the site’s background. I have yet to master using it but one thing for sure is that I have added another source for raw materials to help me pack a punch for my next creative activity for the primary classroom.

It was also the time for us to present last week’s work to our friend in class. Each group took their turn presenting and each one presented with an air of enthusiasm signaling that they have made appropriate preparation before coming to the front. I was amazed with their spirit and calmness when presenting, especially during the challenging fasting month. Their cool personality and ethics are just some of the essential traits that I hope to adopt later on as a teacher of the future.