Week 15: The Finale

1. What do you like about blogging?

Blogging can be viewed as a continuum since I always believe in life-long learning. I think that I have created a platform for taking control of my personal knowledge management. At the moment, I think that I am equipping myself with knowledge by reflecting on what I have learned. Reflection is a process of learning. Plus, I receive constructive feedback from my friends. We learn from many things but we never realize how much we learn from each other. At this moment, I am dealing with personal development.

2. What you do not like about blogging?

Blogging involves a lot of time to update and post entry on the blog site. I need to keep it constantly updated or otherwise I (maybe) lose potential readers. And for me, it is easy to start blogging but then to maintain it, well, it depends on the blogger.

3. What have you gained from blogging e.g. Language skills, improved fluency, critical thinking, improved thought processes, technology skills etc. How?

Critical thinking and problem solving are promoted by the implementations of the blogging as reflection. In reflection, we have to think deep and reflect well. We need to be critical in the way we think and write. Sometimes, the task given also tests our problem solving skill. It helps us approach problems in new and innovative ways, in a sense that conceptualizing problems are different. It involves understanding your position in relation to any particular situation in a way you’d never thought of before.

4. What do you like about this course?

I like the way it gives me an edge in my lesson planning. This course has opened up my eyes that teachers too need to be equipped with IT skills because this would open up so many more doors to various resources available out there. With skills in IT, teachers can create their own teaching aids when nothing in the book or in the market could cater to their students' needs.

5. What you do not like about this course?

Workload. Still, I think that it is not a bad thing. Along the way, we learn many new things.

6. What have you learnt from this course?

Technological skills and soft skills like communication, leadership, team work, and etc.

7. What have you learnt from this course that you did not expect to?

Life long learning. My weekly reflections demonstrate a history of my development and growth.

8. What have u expected but do not learn from this course?

Nothing. At the beginning, I really did not know what I will learn. But then, after 14 weeks, I know what this course is all about.

9. Comments regarding modules:

1. Internet and computing skills

a. What do you like about this module?

Nothing. Except for the fact that I will improve my skills.

b. What do you not like about this module?

Completing unnecessary tutorials.

c. What do you like about the task given for this module?

Developing teaching aids.

d. What do you not like about the task given for this module?

Nothing.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?

From the internet skills, I can make use some of the materials in internet as my teaching aids such as pictures, videos and also articles that are really suitable with the learners’ proficiency.

2. Photo Editing

a. What do you like about this module?

Editing photos.

b. What do you not like about this module?

Nothing. I love it.

c. What do you like about the task given for this module?

I like it very much because editing pictures is one of my hobbies!

d. What do you not like about the task given for this module?

Nothing.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?

Editing and making pictures become more meaningful can make the teaching and learning process become more interesting.

3. Audio Editing Skills

a. What do you like about this module?

Editing audio files. I never tried that before. My knowledge was zero.

b. What do you not like about this module?

It requires lot of time. For example, if we want to increase and decrease the sound of the audio, we need to hear the sound from the very beginning, identify which part that we want to edit.

c. What do you like about the task given for this module?

Edit a song (fade it and fade out) and making a ringtone!

d. What do you not like about the task given for this module?

Remix 2 songs together! It was hard because I need to make sure that the two songs incorporate with each other or else it will sound weird.

e. What are the specific skills that you learn in this module?

I have now learnt how to use and the function of audio software like Audacity, Sony Pro Vegas and so on.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?

It helps me in choosing the right and suitable songs for the use of teaching.

4. Video Editing Skills

a. What do you like about this module?

Editing and creating videos.

b. What do you not like about this module?

Nothing.

c. What do you like about the task given for this module?

Help me in giving information on how to extract pictures and audio form a video. And I love the pair task which is making a video!

d. What do you not like about the task given for this module?

I need to convert the video into a type that use smaller size like AVI because it really irritates me when I want to send it through emails. Emails cannot send a big file as it has its limit.

e. What are the specific skills that you learn in this module?

I learn on how to extract the pictures, audio from the video and it really helps to enhance my skill in editing the video and make it to become more interesting.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?

From a video, I can actually use it for many purposes. For example, I can use the same pictures and audio inside the video as teaching aids too.

5. Software for ELT

a. What do you like about this module?

Using Microsoft Publisher we can create many things easily.

b. What do you not like about this module?

It is less fun compared to the editing.

c. What do you like about the task given for this module?

I can explore many things and learn about something new

d. What do you not like about the task given for this module?

The tasks given requires a lot of time to finish it

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?

I can come out with many things once I mastered doing all the tutorials given.

10. If you can change anything about this course, state what is and elaborate?

1. Do not repeat the same tutorials in one module

2. Simple tutorials that should be removed from the module

3. Make the task more simple and not too much

On a scale of 1 – 10, please rate your computing and technological skills for both before and after undergoing the course.

Before – 5

After – 8

Week 14: Outcome

This course has also opened up my eyes that teachers too need to be equipped with IT skills because this would open up so many more doors to various resources available out there. With skills in IT, teachers can create their own teaching aids when nothing in the book or in the market could cater to their students' needs. This would give an edge to the teachers as they can be creative and plan more interesting lessons for their students.

Other than technological skills, this course has also developed my soft skills.

I always have trouble in communication but I've learned how to communicate my ideas with my group members better. We had a lot of group work and group discussion in this class so there were many different ideas. As a result, I needed to learn how to put my ideas into words in a way that would convince the others. I think good communication skills are really important because as teachers, communicate is what we basically do.

Critical thinking and problem solving are promoted by the implementations of the blogging as reflection. In reflection, we have to think deep and reflect well. We need to be critical in the way we think and write. Sometimes, the task given also tests our problem solving skill. It helps us approach problems in new and innovative ways, in a sense that conceptualizing problems are different. It involves understanding your position in relation to any particular situation in a way you’d never thought of before.

The preparation of the lesson planning and teaching aids has developed my team work skill. We had to work in group and each member was assign to develop a lesson. Despite that, there was a need for a group dynamic. We had to combine our work together and present the kit. I never worked well with other people but in a way, the course shows me what it means to work together and learn from each other.

I may not be the group leader of any task for this course but I believe that in some ways, it has brought about the need to develop the leadership skill in us. It does not matter even if we were not selected as the group leader because at some point, we have need to make a decision and be hold responsible for it.. When I worked with my group members, I had to take control of my personal leadership skill. I strongly believe that everyone is responsible in playing a part as a leader. Not that we need to take control or pull some rank, but there must be some characteristics of a leader in us.

Weekly reflections not only demonstrate a history of personal development, growth, and reflection, but can act as a planning and goal-setting tool as well. My learning space is empowering me to discern and validate pathways to success and enrich learning experiences by making meaningful connections between what I am learning and what my future profession has to offer. It is known as professional development. The knowledge that you have gained is the foundation of your professional growth that is very crucial and essential for your future. Therefore, in a way, this course has shown me the value of ethics and professionalism.

It can be viewed as a continuum since I always believe in life-long learning. I think that I have created a platform for taking control of my personal knowledge management. At the moment, I think that I am equipping myself with knowledge by reflecting on what I have learned. Reflection is a process of learning. Plus, I receive constructive feedback from my friends. We learn from many things but we never realize how much we learn from each other. At this moment, I am dealing with personal development.

Week 13: Video Editing

The module was not as thick as photo editing which I would say...a HUGE relief. It's not that I have something against thick modules but I would have a psychological fight with my mind whether I would be able to finish it in time or not. Most of the time, my initial doubt would be proven wrong but still, psychological war is not something I would be proud to have. So looking at the thin module, I couldn't help but feel happy.

Video auditing covered many aspects including cutting, grabbing, splitting and converting videos to audios. These are all important things that you need to know when talking about video editing. I fact, they are all basic skills when it comes to video editing as I believe there are many more to it.

For this module, we also had three tasks - individual task, pair work and group work. For the individual task, we had to find a video and extract pictures and audio from the video. For the pair work, we had to come up with a video of any theme and post it on the YouTube aka my favorite video hosting!

My partner was Atiqah and we decided to have a video with the theme "Surviving Cancer". It was basically about a boy who suffers from cancer and his inner fight to keep on living. To him, being diagnosed with cancer seems to be a ‘night time’ and he is crawling out of the darkness. The video tells people that night time isn't so scary because in the end, we realize that we aren't all alone. It is an inspiration for cancer patients out there to stand up to cancer, keep fighting, and live.

For the group work, we had to come up lesson plans for the 4 skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) using the resources that we had developed with our video editing skills. We definitely learned a lot from this module as we could see that we have more resources to choose from now.

Week 12: Ebook

This week we were introduced to ebook. I thought it was a really complicated software but it turned out to be pretty easy. Don't be fooled by the word "eBook", it may sound difficult but it is not. And it doesn't require any software. All you need is Microsoft PowerPoint and you'll be good to go. We were told to come out with simple ideas that would be suitable for primary school pupils. The most important thing when designing eBooks for primary school children would be to ensure they are colorful, they have capturing music on the background and the images are sharp. It is a challenge to choose the mosts suitable images and music for the eBook because those are the main elements that would determine if the eBook is interesting enough for kids.

We need to consider some criteria that were essential in creating the E-Book. The criteria were;

1) Theme of the story.

2) The setting (time and place)

3) Plot-conflict, climax and resolution

4) Characterization

5) Navigational tools (Teacher can go to the next and previous slide)

6) Colourful pictures

7) Sound

Luckily for us, Puan Foziah asks us to do the task in pair. That was a relief for me as it would be difficult to do the task alone. My pair was Atiqah. We have chosen the topic story time. So, we created a story entitled 'Alex the Alley Cat'. We began to collect some pictures or any materials that can be used for the E-Book. As I am more experienced in using PowerPoint, my partner prepared the picture and the sound needed, I just need to embed them to the slides. This was not an easy task, the picture must be big and clear enough for students to see. The sound must be loud enough and the timing must be parallel to each other.