Reflection 10 (The Final Remark)

Finally, we have come to the final week of this semester. Everybody in the institute was busy with their final battle. We were the only group who did not sit for the exam but would do so when we're back from the very long holiday later in January.

Though it was the final week for this semester, I didn't feel the complete holiday mood at all. The final assignment which I expected to flow smoothly turned out to be the toughest assignment among all. To make a courseware of e-learning program was indeed a great and meaningful experience. However, I might not say it's easy. It was one of the assignment that really challenged my endurance, courage and determination to learn and apply ICT skills. In terms of content, my group did not face so much problem for we were all working cooperatively and every meeting was indeed fruitful. The tough part was just the process of transforming the content of the lesson to be an interactive lesson by utilizing ICT skills that we possessed as well as the one we need to learn as such to make a video using Windows Movie Maker. I spent almost 4 hours preparing the video and when I was done, something went wrong with the laptop and all my effort doing the video wasted just like that. I lost everything and need to start it all over again. I was nearly to cry but determination overtook every frustration in me.

With the help of my group members, we managed to finish the assignment on time and the most unexpected thing was we turn out to be the first to settle everything despite the average ICT skills that me and my group members possess. Team work was indeed crucial in managing this kind of stuff.

Before I end my words, I would like to dedicate my highest gratitude to our lecturer, Mr. Norsarihan for his endless knowledge sharing with us apart from the support and guidance he gave throughout the semester. Besides, a lot of aprreciation to my fellow coursemates especially my group members for the full cooperation and commitment while managing the assignments given by Mr. Norsarihan. I hope that this kind of team work will continue regardless the time that flies. I wish all the best to everyone for the upcoming final exam. Do the best and make ourselves, family and lecturers proud of our excellence.

Reflection 9

We had so much fun attending events on this week. We attended the institute annual dinner on Friday night which was on the 11 of November 2011, (11.11.11). It was such a special and beautiful date. Besides, the Chinese, they believed that 11.11.11 brings good meanings. In marital life, 11.11.11 was believed to bring happiness and good luck to couples who get married on this date. They believed that number 1 signifies eternal and faithful love. So I reckon that was one of the reasons why there were thousands of couples decided to tie up the knot on that day.

The next Saturday morning, our class was then went for a picnic at Lambir National Park. Everybody really had a good time there. We enjoyed our day very much. We barbeque and swam at the waterfall. It was indeed very calming to spend precious time enjoying and internalizing nature. I personally felt released from the work burden for a moment.

Talking about work,for me this week was rather cool and relax. I have finished almost all of my assignments except for the assignment for Learning Strategies. For Educational Technology, my group has finished doing the article review and Mr Sarihan instructed us to present it on Friday.The presentation went smoothly. But still we have to do some editing for our mentioning points.

Reflection 8

Frankly, this week I felt very relief. A week of hectic holiday was really worthy. I managed to ease almost 80% of my burdens (assignments).  I have done with all the assignments (Linguistics, Teaching Profession, Educational Technology and TITAS) except for Learner Strategies course. I was ready to present the article review for Educational Technology and also TITAS as well.

As what has been told, we were going to present the group article review about Web 2.0 in Education on Monday but since Mr.Sarihan was not around and we had to attend the closing ceremony of Language Month. A professor from UKM was invited to give a talk on "Memartabatkan Bahasa Melayu". He touched on the one hot issue which is now being debated all over Malaysia. That particular issue was the abolishment of teaching and learning Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) which was introduced by the former prime minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. The current Minister of Education, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is the one who responsible for the proposal of abolishing PPSMI and thus reverting the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Melayu. As a result from that, a new policy has been introduced that is MBMMBI (Memartabatkan Bahasa Melayu dan Memperkasakan Bahasa Inggeris). Personally, in my thought, I strongly believe that to continue teaching and learning in Englsih is very crucial as English is an international language and being used worldwide as the language for education, business, political affair as well as communication. By learning those two subjects in English, they can indirectly improve their mastery in English and also they will not face any difficulties when they further their studies for tertiary level either in local universities or overseas for the medium language for most of the offered courses is English. I don't find that the PPSMI will erode the dignity of Bahasa Melayu as the official language. World is now greatly evolving and thus we have to open up our mind. We have to move with the flow and equip ourselves with the best weapons to be able to stand high and stable in the era of modernisation.

Besides attending that ceremony, we also attended a talk from Biro Tatanegara on Wednesday and another talk from Bank Simpanan Nasional on Friday. After the talk, we went through the longest contact hour ever that was the TITAS class. We started at 3 in the afternoon and finished at 9 p.m. It was the longest, the most tiring but indeed very informative, fun and beneficial.

At this moment, i would like to address my highest gratitude and appreciation towards Dr. Aminuddin, our beloved TITAS lecturer for all the knowledge that he has shared with us. Besides, I really salute his endurance to stand the long hour TITAS class with us. Thanks so much and hope to see you in UKM main campus in 2013.

Reflection 7

Wow! It's holiday again. A week break is given to us in conjunction with the Deepavali celebration. Some of us went back to our hometowns to spend the holiday peacefully at home with the other family members. But some was spending the whole holiday in Miri only. I was not back to Kuching as well. I just spent the entire week at my sister's home here in Miri.

The break was too short I think. With just a few blinks, it was over. Perhaps we felt that way because we didn't have the chance to spend the holiday full with enjoyment and having enough rest. We were showered with tons of assignments to be done. There were more or less about 6 assignments altogether. Fortunately none of the assignments is an individual assignment. They were all to be done in groups and pairs.

For Educational Technologies, we continued with our final assignment that was to do an article review. There were five of us in a group; Haziq, Halil, Azrul, Barbara and I. Our topic was about Web 2.0 in Education. This topic was not a new thing to me for I have done most of my assignments on this topic during our Computer in Education course last semester. It was an interesting topic to be explored for a lot of controversial issues has been raised up related to this topic.

Since it was holiday and everybody was apart, our group divided the task fairly. Each one of us were to find two articles and do a review based on the two articles. After we have done with our reviews, we sent it to each other and for this I would like to thank Barbara for kindly help to do the compilation does edit the text to make it coherent. Besides, a big thanks also to other members; Azrul, Halil and Haziq for their full cooperation in completing their reviews.

Before I end my words for this time reflection, I would like to dedicate my warmest Happy Deepavali greetings to our beloved classmate, Ilanggo and Doris as well as our juniors, Shanu Preeya and Ravi. Have a blessed one friends.

Reflection 6

Every new dawn on Monday marks a new chapter of my journey here. After we have successfully completed the Drama Workshop, I felt like a huge burden flew off my shoulder. There are no more external activity to be worried about and busy with other than focusing fully on our assignments. But don't judge yet. The assignments assigned were not just two or three but we are having like five to six assignments in hand now. That sounds unpleasant but I am hoping that everything would be fine since all of them are group assignments.


For Educational Technology, I felt very relieved the moment we have done with our Assure Model Lesson Plan and video presentation. We have gone through a hard time to prepare the lesson plan and the video. Frankly speaking, it was not as easy as we ever imagined. To start off with the lesson plan was not a problem for us since we have done a few in other classes before. But one thing that really messed up our heads and chocked our breath was how to make the video flow smoothly with the designed lesson plan. We realised that the video was not only meant as audio visual aids though it was actually one of it. We realised that it was actually as the medium for teaching.


So, the first step that we made was to choose a theme for our lesson. Each and everyone of us in the group agree upon the People theme. When we had a theme to be focused on, the vision for further steps become clearer. We managed to design a lesson plan of double period lesson (80 minutes). After we have done with the lesson plan, we then started to come out with our video. We made the flow of the video exactly like the flow of a real teaching. We had the set induction, pre-speaking, while-speaking, post speaking, activities and closure arranged in sequence in the video. Besides, we include other aids such as songs and videos in the video. That was what we called as a video within a video.


This assignment really meaningful to me personally. I learnt a lot about utilizing ICT in teaching specifically, language teaching. The lesson plan design and video making made me become richer in experience. I learnt a lot and i gained a lot as well. Ideas and skill sharing are always beneficial as we worked in groups. Thus, I would like to take this opportunity to dedicate credits to our lecturer, Mr. Norsarihan for guiding and supporting us throughout the process of doing the assignment. Besides, credits to my group members,Barbara Kath, Ahmad Azrul Afeze, Halil bin Siri and Ilanggo for your endless and awesome cooperation. Lastly, thanks to other classmates for the sharing of knowledge, skills, materials and sources.

Reflection 5

This week was not that good for me and I don’t think it’s off beam to say that it was not good for everyone in the class too. We were too busy with classes, assignments and also the biggest event for this semester, the Drama Workshop. Everything was cramped to less than one month time.

I am so grateful that we finally manage to end our Drama Workshop with triumph. Everybody was so tired. We spent two days working at the hall together with the juniors as the participants. As participants, maybe the tiredness was there too but frankly it could not beat the tiredness of the 20 of us in the class as the organizer as well as facilitators. From the starting point till the end, we worked together as a team. It was tiring but really fun.

I reckon, everybody did gained a lot during the workshop. There was a lot of sharing of ideas, opinions, knowledge and skills. Besides, all of us indeed had fun regulating the activities planned by the 20 of us. During the activities such as vocal tapestry, fashion show, drama presentation, choral speaking and beat the rhythm, we could see that all of the participants are very talented in art work. They are indeed creative and innovative.

Despite the hectic time planning and managing the drama workshop, we didn’t forget about the assignment that we are going to present to class for evaluation on this Tuesday. It is video presentation of teaching and learning English as a second language using multimedia.

Besides, we also have another nearly 10 tasks in the list which are to be done within these two weeks time. Although we will not sit for our exam in a short time, the assignments given are super a lot. I just feel that how good life is if we are to be given extra time to make done all the tasks. Life is indeed can be disappointing at times.

Reflection 4

Finally the most hectic life for everybody in the institute is over. Lecturers and students were equally busy and I reckon the lecturers were more exhausted with everything that was going on in the institute especially the auditing. Besides the auditing, a big event was held at Dewan Muhibah for three days in a row. It was the "Pertandingan Drama Piala Ketua Menteri". All the teacher training institute in Sarawak took part in the competition.

Back to business, for Educational technology class, I could say that it was cool. We were not burden by too much work. Mr. Norsarihan simply knew how to put down the igniting flame. He knew that everybody was busy so he did not want to add in some more of it. On Tuesday, we presented our first individual assignment that was our personal blog. Personally, I was really amazed by most of the blogs that were being presented. They were just awesome.

What do I have for my personal blog are firstly my reflection. Then, I put on links to my Facebook account, my blog profile, my Flickr, and my podcast. Besides that, I did added in "chatbox" to provide a platform for visitors and followers to leave comments or ask questions. Apart from that, I put on "Health Tip of The Day" as an additional point. People nowadays seem to enjoy their life so much till they forget about their health. So, if anybody visit my blog, at least the tips will indirectly remind them to take care of their health. Also, I have education quotes in my blog.

After we were done with our blog presentation, he gave us a new task. We were asked to work in groups of 5 people and prepare power point slides for each of the topics assigned. This task will be presented next week and the the other week to come. Since it is a group work, I don't see any excuse for us to not making it done satisfyingly.

Reflection 3

Days by days, weeks by weeks passed me by and that marked new beginning each time dawn meeting the dusk. I could never escape from learning new things and encountering new challenges. Almost every lecture would surely be accompanied by numbers of tasks.

For this week, the Educational Technology class was fully occupied and we had being given numbers of task to be done. On Monday, we were presenting our video and to our surprise, that was actually the first part of our group assignment. Mr. Norsarihan was rather satisfied with our work but he would be glad to see better videos during the real video presentation for evaluation later.   

Besides the video presentation, we also learnt about Instructional Models. One of the examples of the Instructional Models that we are focusing on is ASSURE Model. ASSURE model is an effective model to be used to design lesson plans for more attractive, interesting, meaningful and workable lesson plan for teaching heterogeneous classrooms. As an add-on point, the corporation of teacher aids based on media and technology, the lesson will surely be more fun and attractive. Students’ attentions are drawn to the lesson and thus will make the objectives for the day are successfully achieved. However, despite its brilliant points, we should realize that technologies can disappoint us anytime and anywhere. So, as teachers, we should be ready with few back-up plans. Beautiful and animated slides, attractive videos and songs for set induction mean nothing when the electricity fails out of sudden. So, besides preparing all the fun and interesting stuffs in the notebook, we as teachers should prepare the hard copies for everything. Apart from that, we can still utilize our handphone or radio with batteries to play the song we intend to use for our set induction. Thus, at least things don’t go zero at all.

Last but not least, Mr. Norsarihan also reminded us to keep on updating and customizing our personal blog as he wanted to see us presenting it on this coming Monday. It is of course merely for fun. It is our first individual assignment. So, friends, if you have forgotten about that and you are reading this post, please do update your reflection and customize your blog as attractive as you can. Please kindly be noted everyone!

Video Presentation

We had a great fun during Educational Technology class today. After spending about a week for the video making, finally today we got to watch every group’s output. It was all interesting and fun and I guess, the videos presentation managed to grasp everybody’s full attention. The first video was done by Doris, Chong Xin Txin, Ting Suk Hua, Leon and Ting Tiew Keng.  The 8 minutes video was about Poetry Recital. They prepared slides on the ways and tips for good poetry recital. Besides, they also presented the crucial aspects that the persona have to have such as body language, eye contact, body posture and voice tone in presenting a poem excellently. Personally, I think that their video was very interesting with beautiful and colorful slides as well as sweet and clear background voices. 

            The second group on the other hand has come out with something very different from the first group. This group was presented by Aileen Tiong, Abang Joharizal, Rachel Chin, Tie Yin Yin and Ilanggo Kanan. Their video was apparently about natural disaster. They had pictures and downloaded videos on flashfloods and tsunami. It was so touching to see how people die because of natural disaster. And as an additional point, they utilized soft music that could really touch our heart deeply inside. Thumbs up to the second group for their great job.

            Apart from that, it was not a disappointment from the third group either. They presented an awesome video on adjectives. The third group was presented by Hilman, Nigel, Freddy, Vanessa and Josman. It was very contained, informative and easy to understand. Plus, at the end of the video, they added in a wonderful singing performance by Freddy. It was very entertaining since Freddy has such a very pleasant voice.

            As the third group, my group that was the last group also presented a video on adjectives. It was an accident of course for we did not know each other’s topic to be presented before hand. Though it was the same topic but we came out with different ideas of presenting it. Maybe ours was more precise and I could say that we covered almost every important thing to be known for the topic Adjectives.

            Though every group did a great job for the video making but still there are some areas that need to be polished up. Mr. Norsarihan proposed us to work on the transition of the slides. Like for our group, then transition for some of the slides are rather too fast. Besides that, he also pointed out about the physical features of the slides such as the fonts and size, they have to be clear and readable and also the colours used. Colours should be light and not too striking in order to make sure that the information on the slides are easily being seen and read. Despite commenting on the things to be improved, he was actually satisfied with our work. Our first attempt was not disappointing. We managed to come out with fun, interesting and informative video. I think those video are very reasonable to be employed as teaching materials for secondary school students. The materials included are actually parallel with Form 2 syllabus.

           

Experiences gained are always priceless. There are a lot of things I learnt through this mini video presentation that I am very sure not to hard to be gained in any other venue. From the task, we are actually being exposed to the real teaching world. It is not going to be easy to teach the new breed of students who are mostly well versed in computers and technology. They are expecting much from the teachers. They are hoping to see new fun and interesting teaching and learning materials. Thus, it is very important for us as the teacher trainees to be able to utilize ICT such as video in our teaching.

           

Reflection 2

            The start of this week was rather cool. Mr. Norsarihan gave a lecture on ASSURE model. At first everybody was very blur of what ASSURE model all about. It sounds like a verb but it is not. It is an acronym that carries meaning on its own. ASSURE model stands for Analyse learners, State objectives, Select media and materials, Utilize media and materials, require learner performance and Evaluate and revise. It is a model specially designed to help the teachers to integrate media and technology into their lesson and presentation. This is indirectly to “assure” learning since teaching using traditional; chalk and talk basis is rather boring for students in this era. Students nowadays are not as conservative as students in the olden days. They are very exposed to the advancement of technology. Most of them are very competent in utilizing computers and technology in learning as well as social networking. So, as the new batches of teachers, we should be able to move along with the changes and globalization in order to be able to fulfill the demand in education.   As we all are aware of, today’s education is not solely emphasis on academic itself. In parallel with the boost of ICT in almost every field, education is now putting great emphasis on the mastery of ICT skills.

            For this week task, we were instructed to work in a group of five and create a video as called teacher aids to assist classroom teaching and learning. We were to create a video based on the Form 2 syllabus. We were free to choose whether to teach grammar, literature, speaking, reading, listening or writing as long as we are not diverted away from the English Language. I am in the same group with Barbara, Halil, Ahmad Azrul Afeze and Muhammad Haziq. We have chosen to do a video for teaching adjectives following the Form 2 syllabus.

            It was such a great experience to work on something tough with awesome people; Barbara Kath, Halil, Ahmad Azrul Afeze and Muhammad Haziq. We assisted and taught each other. Sharing of ideas and skills made the working experience richer and the task became interesting. In my opinion, this is a good early exposure to us as the trainee teachers in preparing us for the real world of teaching. Students are expecting something more fun and interesting for lessons especially in learning something dull like language. Teachers should know how to cherish the teaching so that the students are hooked to the lesson. Using ICT is one of the make the language learning more fun and interesting. 

Self Introduction

Hello beloved bloggers and followers. I am a B.Ed TESL student, doing a twinning program between IPG and UKM. Currently, I am studying in IPG Kampus Sarawak and will be moved to the main campus in UKM Bangi nextyear. Im a mix-blooded girl, Chinese and Bidayuh from Kuching. Perhaps that is the reason why some people can't recognize my race from my look. I guess I look both Chinese and Bidayuh, well blended.  

Being a teacher is always my dream. Perhaps, that interest is highly influenced by my social surrounding specifically my family. There are numbers of them who are teachers and working as other staffs in schools. 

A teacher is always to be a role model in the society. They are the source of information and knowledge. They shape a person as the artist decorates a white cloth.And clearly that inspired me to be in this path.

What makes a teacher so special? For me it is because of one big word that is VERSATILE. A teacher does not play a role to teach and educate the students alone but also play some other roles. In schools, teachers are first as the educator. Second, they are the administrator. They are leaders in everything in schools they are in. They are also the nurses, policemen, singers, actors and actresses and many more. Frankly speaking, teachers are the nerves of the society building. 

For the world is endlessly evolving and currently technology is standing high in any fields including education, teachers have to be well equipped with the ICT skills in order to be able to keep in track with the globalization of education. So I guess that is the reason why teacher trainees like us are to take computer and ICT related courses such as Computer in Education and Educational Technologies. Students nowadays are no longer as students in the olden days. We do not have to take a huge age and generation gap. Just take a look at the our own generation and the generation that is 2 or 3 years younger than us. They show so much differences in almost everything. And undeniably, most of them are very competent in computer and technology. Plus, online learning is very popular nowadays. Teaching and learning of chalk and talk basis is outdated, boring and ineffective to students nowadays. For they are so much being exposed to the world of technology, they will be more interested in teaching and learning of technology basis. 

In the nutshell, I hope that this course will help me to be better in technology. I'll do my best to learn as much skills as possible and hope to be able to incorporate them in my teaching in the future. 

Reflection 1

A short Eid holidays was over with just a few blinks. It was just too short to get my mind be freshened and ready for the upcoming courses for the first semester of second year. The diary of hectic routine is now continued. Beforehand, it has come to our knowledge that we would take a pretty similar course as Computer in Education GGGE1155 that we have taken last semester. It is Educational Technology, GGGE2153 and Mr. Norsarihan is in charge of this course. The first week of ours was still holidays for the UKM students in the main campus as the IPG reopen a week earlier than UKM. We had no lecturers in the first week as Mr.Norsarihan was on his sick leave.

However, that honeymoon week was not allowed to be long. He came back to work as usual this week. The first time he entered our class on Tuesday was to brief us the introduction of the course including the assessments. During the briefing, we were acknowledged that we are going to be assessed according to 4 different assignments. The first two were to be done individually whereas the other two were to be done in groups.

On Thursday, Mr.Norsarihan lectured us about technology, its evolution and impacts on the education. Besides that, he also explained to us the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. As what has been told, Web 2.0 is the evolution of Web 1.0. Web 1.0 is the audio visual tools that teachers use to assist their teaching whereas Web 2.0 is an internet allied tools. The instances of Web 2.0 are blog, Facebook, podcast, teacher tube and Yahoo Groups. At the end of the lesson, he gave us a few works that need to be done during weekends. They were to create a personal blog, write reflection and podcast.

From what I have learnt, technology is very beneficial for teaching and learning especially for teachers nowadays in facing the new breed of students who are mostly computer savvy. Some of them are even more skillful in computer and technology than teachers. For they are very incline in learning new things with the assistance of computer and technology, they might not be interested in learning new things in the traditional way which is chalk and talk. So, in order to be able to grasp the students’ attention and interest, teachers should be able to apply computer and technology in their lesson. In conclusion, technology has moved almost everything in the world. Things are evolving and advancing in parallel with the world globalization.