Lecture 7_Today I Learn, Today I Question!

Today I feel light, the heavy clouds of doubt hanging overhead seem to be dissipating and I see a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel. Huey Zher and Yee Hui shared how to plan and get the most of Wikispaces and this really helps. At least we have some  inkling of how to get about completing our work. We also had about 30 minutes to discuss and ask our course mates some technical questions- which was great since we find it quite hard to meet up. Pheeeewwww!

 This song keeps playing in my mind because the lyrics include "...light at the end of the tunnel" =)


The presentation today is about “Designing of a web-based environment for learning & Usability”. When I read the notes for this week I noticed that to fully justify learning all that, and as Yee Hui mentioned, we need to know about E learning.


Essentially, as stated in Wikipedia, “E-learning comprises all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. The information and communication systems, whether networked learning or not, serve as specific media to implement the learning process. The term will still most likely be utilized to reference out-of-classroom and in-classroom educational experiences via technology, even as advances continue in regard to devices and curriculum.

E-learning is essentially the computer and network-enabled transfer of skills and knowledge. E-learning applications and processes include Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual education opportunities and digital collaboration. Content is delivered via the Internet, intranet/extranet, audio or video tape, satellite TV, and CD-ROM. It can be self-paced or instructor-led and includes media in the form of text, image, animation, streaming video and audio.” (Please forgive the cut and paste- I feel that the idea must be read in its entirety and not some watered down summary by me ;D)

To read more about E-learning, go to this link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-learning

Lecture 6_Today I Learn, Today I Question!

As usual, lecture is action-packed, filled with new information, new ideas, new concepts that I never would have known existed had I not signed up for this class. About 3/4 of the class also take PXGT6111 so the combined effects of both classes, one on Friday afternoon and one on Saturday morning leave us, or at least me dazed, with adrenaline surges to get started on research on whatever it is we’d learned for the day, to work on our projects and assignments, to explore the new technologies introduced. but all these come accompanied by fear, or at least jitters, of “I don’t have enough time to explore all these”, “what if I can’t handle the new technologies?” “why is my thinking so shallow compared to others?'” These fears aside, I don’t think I would have given up on any of the two courses even with all the hard work involved. I feel that I’ve learned a lot, even though it’s only been 6 weeks since we started.
Today’s presentation is on PLE- Personalised Learning. Before the presentation by Pearl, Huey Zher asked everyone to post on Spectrum what PLE means to us. Since she has given us some articles to read(which we only had time to finish half), we had some idea what it is, but how to conceptualize something that is half learned? ARGHHHHH. We try our best to describe what we understand in our own ways. Dee gave the best summary of it, here it is, (copied and pasted for future reference ;P) “it is the learner's autonomy to create his/her own learning ground”
After Pearl’s presentation on PLE, which was simple and clear, we had a bit of discussion about whether we had, in our own ways, incorporated this concept into our lessons in school. It seems that most of us had, at some point or other, or even quite frequently for some though we had no idea what we had done was termed as PLE. These are some of the activities that we have carried out:

• movies shown to students – students create and present own plays
• journal writing
• students create and present powerpoint
• debates
• students create magazines for NIE projects in groups
• students watch movies (must have appropriate content) then write reviews and carry out discussion about the issue e.g racism
• post links to activities and information on Facebook Group for students to respond and take learning out of the classroom
• students look up a recipe of choice, practise at home then give a demonstration in class (ERT room)

If these activities are PLE then to some extent we have carried out PLE in our lessons. However, the number of teachers who actually use the PLE concept is far and few between. Some quote the lack of initiative due to heavy workload, lack of facilities, not being comfortable with technology. As long as all these concerns are not addressed, PLE will not be fully adapted by the teaching community.

To conclude, personalised learning means a learning environment where the main focus is on the students themself where they are expected to get the most out of what they want to learn and had learned. Students will be the one who are responsible for their learning most of the time but with teachers to facilitate and help.

                               

Lecture 5_Today I Learn, Today I Question

This week’s lecture comprises a number of presentations. It’s quite different from our normal lectures where Huey Zher would lead some of the discussions. Sailor started off with his presentation on TPACK –Technological, Pedagogical And Content Knowledge. His slide show was very informative and I enjoyed looking at and relearning what we’ve learnt about TPACK. The slides were easy to understand. However, when I reviewed them later I realised that there was a point that I did not fully understand, which is, “the situated nature of learning”. I checked it out and found this explanation: “situated or anchored learning,  presumes that most learning is context-dependent, so that cognitive experiences are situated in authentic activities such as project-based learning”. Is this what you mean, Sailor?

Yin’s presentation was equally awesome and I find myself quickly saving the links she gave so that I could check them out later to see if I could use them for either Assignment 3 or my project paper (*keeping fingers crossed). It was also very good that we had this topic because I've forgotten ALL that I've ever learned about learning theories(studied them over 20 years ago)

Oh yeah, in the midst of all the excitements of today I almost forgot to mention: we have a new addition to the class and member to our group. Her name is Shakirah. After the two individual presentations, came the various groups’ presentation on what their ideas were for Assignment 3. There was not enough time for our group to present (*phew! – the other groups sounded very confident and impressive) hehe.  However, Huey Zher insisted that we follow her out of class to present her our ideas. At first we were quite blur but after a few probing questions and pointers from her, our focus seemed clearer. Not going to divulge anything yet ;P Need to work on it more. The question I kept asking myself was: will we live up to the task?

      Huey Zher pointing the way.
             

                                                              Our group members’ dazed and blur looks

Lecture 4 _Today I learn, today I question

An exciting day it proved to be today. As always I look forward to the Application of the Internet in Instruction class. We started the class with a discussion of Power point Presentations- I know about the outdated idea of having 6 bullet points on each slides but have never thought about the other aspects of attention grabbing slides so today's lecture was an eye-opener. These sites should be helpful as reference points:
1. Garr Reynolds http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html
2. http://www.m62.net/powerpoint-slides/conference-slides/


I’m glad that Huey Zher introduced us to the Phases of Engagement Model coz it’ll be really useful in guiding us in Assignment 3. (reminder to self- maintaining engagement in learning- for the long term) I've always been interested in using technology to teach but did not know how to sustain the activities to the point where students can take ownership of their own learning. this has always been my question which i have not found any answer to until now. I hope that by keeping the Model in mind, I'll be able to take my students further.


Today also is the first time I heard of the term 'Blended Learning'. I googled the term and found this "Many people may be using a form of blended learning in lessons and teaching, but may not realise it or be able to give it an actual name. Blended learning is not a new concept, but may be a new term to many users (why must it be named? a rose by any other name smells just as nice. haha) However," the term blended learning is being used with increasing frequency in both academic and corporate circles. In 2003, the American Society for Training and Development identified blended learning as one of the top ten trends to emerge in the knowledge delivery industry." So, I guess we'll have to use it so that we can keep up with the progress in the teaching world. Some older and more common names for blended learning are "integrative learning", "hybrid learning", "multi-method learning"

Wow, so it seems that I've been trying out this type of teaching but have not known it.
I also found that there are many forms of learning that people consider as blended learning as well. For example, as shown in the diagram below. So, which is the correct one? Or can can they all be considered blended learning?

Lecture 3 Today I Learn, Today I Question

Class today is as information-packed as usual.
First we used chat on Spectrum to discuss what we read in Chapter 5 Technologies of Online Learning as Huey Zher felt that many classmates are not really participating in oral discussions (we can use this method in our own classes as well). She decided to try us on a “moodle chat”. (Am I correct? Please correct me if I’m wrong) At first we started off quite slowly with everyone getting a feel of the chatbox. As soon as everyone warmed up however, we got a whole load of information which I found very informative but a bit overwhelming. The conversation went so fast that I found it quite hard to keep up since I wanted to google the tools mentioned as well. Ooops! Haha. I didn’t say that. However, the chat session proved to be very useful because from there I came to know about many tools that I haven’t heard about before e.g:
1. Webnode,
2. Google Sites(heard of before and tried but gave up since I did not have a need for it then)
3. Wikispaces
4. Not to forget- the chat though I think if we use blogs we can also set up and use a chat box. Then the teacher and students can look at the work posted and comment.
We also discussed the affordances and limitations of each tool which was great since then it will help us to decide which tool to use for assignment 3. Thanks for a great discussion, everyone! You’re all awesome!
(I’m looking forward to learning how to use them)
Then introduction by Huey Zher to some really interesting websites like The Forbidden City- Beyond Space and Time and others. Will really have to find the time to explore them.
Lastly we had Kong Joo’s presentation on the first topic -
History and development of the internet in teaching & learning Evolution of instructional technology
Refering to today’s reflection on ‘Today I learn, Today I Question’, after listening to KJ’s presentation, I felt very excited about the potential of the Internet and also web-based technologies which can only improve. I also felt a bit down cast because what KJ’s said at the end is also very true – if you can find other ways that can be used to teach as effectively, then why use the web which will definitely incur more $$$ in the purchase and setting up of hardware and also time and energy invested in looking for the best tool and suitable content to be put into the tool. We must also spend time in training our students to use the tool we want for T&L. Are all the efforts warranted?