Final

Finally, the semester is almost ends. I really cannot wait for the semester to end and start having my semester break after this. Overall the course, I could say that, there is so much that I have learned throughout the semester. From downloading, encoding, editing, storing, burning and even searching.

1. What they like about blogging.

From my opinion, blogging enable us to share the information and knowledge that we have with others.In the world nowadays, blogging allows anyone to post their thoughts so that it can be shared with others. In educational purposes like this case, blogging is like a journal for all of us to record and reflect what we have learned so far. Moreover, it also shows our progress towards the topics that has been taught within the course. Student's life in the university is rather different from the life that we once had back in college. Although we are all in the same class, but it seems that we do not have the time to sit and talk about things related anymore. Thus, blogging is one of the solution to keep all of us to interact with each other.

2. What they do not like about blogging.

Blogging requires us to publish our written work and thoughts online. So, of course we have to be careful in what we want to post. The most important thing to be aware when posting blog is the language use in writing the blog. Besides that, we also need to be aware that the blog that we post is free from any element of bias and hatred. This is because blog is open to be read by anyone on the net. So, blogging requires us to be careful in what we wanted to say.

3. What have they gained from blogging eg. Language skills, improved fluency, critical thinking, improved thought processes, technology skills etc.

The most important thing that I learned from blogging how to create a blog account and how to post and edit my blog account. In term of the language skill, as i have mentioned earlier, blogging requires us to be careful in using the language whether it is grammatical error free or free from bias. Moreover, it is undeniable that blogging improve my fluency because blogging is like a journal that record and reflects the progress throughout the course. I remembered that my teacher used to assign us to write on our journal for at least every week when I was schooling. So, I guess blogging functions as journal years ago.

4. How?

Blogging improve my technology skill because creating and managing a blog account is already a new experience to me. Next, blogging improve my language skill because it allows me to practice the target language in all my posts. Besides, blogging is like a self reflections for myself towards the course that i am having. Thus, blogging record and reflects what i have learned throughout the semester.

5. what they like about the course

This course has opened up my eyes about the use of technology. I used to be someone who is not a techno savvy, but now, i guess, i have to admit that technology is not an option anymore, but it is a need in the world nowadays.

6. what they do not like about the course

Honestly, there are too many task to be done. Though i know and it is undeniable that I have learned a lot from this course, but sometimes i feel burden by the task given. However, since i am an optimistic, so i prefer to look things in a positive way.

7. what they have learnt from the course

All i can say is that I have learned so much skills from this course. From downloading, encoding, storing, burning, searching and editing. As i mentioned that I used to be someone who is not a techno savvy once, but now, this course has made me realize that technology is important nowadays.

8. what they do not expect but have learnt from the course


Obviously, editing the "So you think you can dance" video. I never expect that we will learn downloading streaming file from 8tv, encoding, editing, extracting, and combining the video. I have to admit that it is a lot of work, but now i can say that it is such an experience to me.

9. what they expect but have not learnt from the course.

Developing the non-technological resources. We were given the book, but it seems that we did not talk so much about the non-technological resources.

10. if they can change anything about the course, state what it is and explain.

First of all, i think we should be given the opportunity to stick to the same group when it comes to group work. This is in order to avoid us to be confuse for having so many groups and different group members. I think the content is all right, but perhaps we could decrease the quantity of tasks that we need to be completed. This is because, we can focus more on quality than the quantity. For example, if a task requires us to work in group of four, and the task is designing four lesson plans, so, perhaps each person can only design a lesson plan.

However, i am glad that i have gone through it all now. For me, it really takes a lot of courage to complete this whole course. Though i have faced all the hard work, but i consider it as an experience to be learned. As the saying goes "no pain, no gain".

Examination fever

Although this course does not have the final paper, but we still need to sit for the final test. I guess it does not make any different at all. perhaps the different is just that is is done weeks earlier that the real examination week. I have to admit that, this is the time when i look back and really study the notes that Pn. Foziah once gave us long time ago.

I guess I have done my best for the examination. I hope the result would not be so bad for all of us, since I guess we all have worked so hard for this course. Though the examination is over for this course, but there are some other assignments to be completed after this which is portfolio. I think I better get going and start working on my portfolio.

Children's software

By the time this task is assigned to us, I remembered the time that i once work in a children learning centre somewhere in Shah Alam. The learning centre includes computer class as a part of their curriculum there and according to one of the teachers there, the children learn computer skills by using selected children's software. One of the challenges when getting pupils in the computer labotary is that the teacher's ability to control the children. But, What I can say about this school is, they make the class smaller so that it is easier to control them.

Back to the task given, we are required to evaluate the software in a group. However since my group cannot open the software, so we decided to look up for another children's software from the internet. I have to admit that for this task, we really need to sit and analyse the software based on the evaluation sheet given. Not only that, downloading the software is another problem to me, since I guess my notebook's memory is almost full. I don't think that I will delete those unwanted software that i'm done with.

Let me share with you my experience when i delete one of the software that I am no longer use once. I accidently uninstall the DVD driver setup for my notebook while i was so eager deleting those unwanted software. Ever since then, I wouln't dare to uninstall anything from my notebook, and i guess i only will when I have submitted everything at the end of the semester. It such a long way to go.

Assignment 3: Designing Teaching Aids For Primary Schools

This assignment is to be done in group. Though it is a group work, but all of us are required to do our own weekly plans for listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The topic that i need to work on is "Fit as A Fiddle". In order to start drafting the lesson, of course i need to refer to the textbook what are the subtopics that cover the topic "Fit as A Fiddle". It is undeniable that some of us even bought the textbook just to do this assignment. For this assignment, we are required to plan three 30 minutes lesson plans and an one hour lesson plan. To begin begin working on this assignment, I search for as many videos, songs, pictures and other materials as i can. I think, this is just in order to make it easier for me to develop the lesson plan once I have draft the ideas and search for the materials. Another reason is, because it is the raining season, so the internet connection at my house will not function well due to the current weather lately. As the saying goes, "save it for the rainy days".

Another task is MS publisher. Until this task is assigned to us, I just knew that I do not have MS Publisher in my notebook. And now i know that MS publisher is one of the programs in MS Office. To be frank, this task is supposed to be done few weeks ago. But since I do not have the MS Publisher window, so I decided to work on some other tasks and assignment first. I only fix this problem once I got back to my hometown for "Raya". Well, at least it is on my mother's bill. Luckily, this task does not require me to crack my head, so I guess I do not have so much troubles in finishing the task during my "Raya" holidays in my mother's crib. Since this is a pair work, I would definitely refer to my partner Kamal for the confusions in completing the task. This is what I like about working in pairs. You don't need to worry so much other people's work, but a partner is enough for me to ask for some advices and opinions when you are looking for the solutions. Life is a lot more easier then.

Working on assignment 2

Assignment 2 in progress

Finally, I have chosen a video for this assignment which i found from the "British Council" website. It takes times for me to pick a video and plan a rough idea on how i am going to use the video in the ESL lesson. In general, the video is about "Lisa the lemur" who lost her tree house due to deforestation by the irresponsible, insensitive and reckless human being. I chose the video because it is not only interesting but also contain moral values in it. Well, I have to admit that, it really takes a lot of courage in developing a lesson from the video. This is because, it requires me to edit the video, capture pictures from the video and also extract sounds from the video. Converting the SWF file to AVI is already a matter to me. Now I know, SWF file is a type of flash files. Little did i realized, I have learned a lot from this assignment from encoding, downloading, extracting and editing.

Manipulating and developing materials

This assignment is to be done in pairs where me and my partner Kamal have already decided to work together again. I guess this is much easier for both of us since we both feel comfortable to work together. For assignment 2, we are required to develop the teaching materials from the video given which is "The Earth Song" by Michael Jackson. Instead of that, we are required to find another educational video that can be manipulated and developed as the teaching materials in the ESL classroom. Since there are two videos that we need to work on, so we have decided to do one each. Though, we did not really sit and work on the assignment togeteher, but we still keep in touch via "Yahoo Messanger" and e-mail to exchange ideas and opinions regarding to the videos that we have chosen to work on with. Well, this is what we call it as 'the world is just a mouse click away'. I guess, both me and Kamal has really make use of technology to the maximum. I think I better get started to search for the second video for this assegnment.

Four Language skills

I guess that i had any other choice now. By hook or crook I need to finish this "Four Language Skills" task before the holidays start. This is because, there are lots of task and assignments coming and of course, all of them need to be submitted after "Raya". All I can say is that, "I better get working". For this task, i decided to use e-book as the teaching aids. this is because, I chose to do a writing activity, thus, i guess e-book is more suitable to be used to develop a writing activity. Besides, I think e-book is practical to be used since we can include text, pictures as well as sounds clips in the e-book. Besides, I use e-book to compile all the ideas that I have came out with for the activity for that particular stage that i have chosen. From downloading, recording and photo editing, e-book requires me to use almost all the skills that I have learned. I guess, i better get working on the task now. Time to go...