it is my responsibility to appreciate a teacher !!!

Thank you, 

Pn. Foziah.

15th entry : Time for a SELF-REFLECTION of the whole 14 stops !!! (part 7)

5. Software for ELT

a.      What do you like about this module?

Making a magazine, flyer and advertisement.

b.      What do you not like about this module?

Advertisement as I think photo editing softwares perform the best to make this.

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

Everything as I learn a lot. 

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

Nothing.

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

How to use the software ad manipulate it for future use.

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 to produce a flyer or a newsletter for a reading lesson.

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

Maybe, we can learn more to produce more materials to be used later in our teaching practicum. Anyway, good modules and I learn a lot !!!

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

Before: 3

After : 8

15th entry : Time for a SELF-REFLECTION of the whole 14 stops !!! (part 6)

4. Video Editing Skills

 

a.      What do you like about this module?

Windows Movie Maker is a user-friendly software. 

b.      What do you not like about this module?

 Sony Vegas Pro 9. The software is 191.08 MB. How big !!! so big and plus difficult to install.

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

Everything. 

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

Nothing.

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

How to create a video, cut a video clip and paste and reproduce our own with a more quality. 

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

Video certainly will enhance learning and I learn how to produce a good story book with a video. 

15th entry : Time for a SELF-REFLECTION of the whole 14 stops !!! (part 5)

3. Audio Editing Skills

a.      What do you like about this module?

Audacity.

b.      What do you not like about this module?

  Nothing.

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

How to remove noise and I know this is so important to produce a dood listening recording for one of the important skills in an ESL classroom. For sure: IT'S LISTENING !!! 

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

Nothing.

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

Producing a better audio product that has more quality.

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

This skills assists me to produce a better podcast and recording for a listening lesson.

15th entry : Time for a SELF-REFLECTION of the whole 14 stops !!! (part 4)

2. Photo Editing

a.      What do you like about this module?

Adobe Photoshop CS3.

 

b.      What do you not like about this module?

iPhoto because it is too difficult to install.

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

I like knowing that when we edit photos, we are actually trying to conve a meaning through the edited photos which we might not e able to find inside the raw image.  Pn. Foziah informed us about that.

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

Nothing.

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

To produce an advertisement using photo editing softwares.

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

We choose anything and we edit (add, crop, recolour, insert text) and make it looks more representable and reliable. More good in quality. 

15th entry : Time for a SELF-REFLECTION of the whole 14 stops !!! (part 3)

1. Internet and computing skills

a.      What do you like about this module?

The steps are clear and it is the basis and a good start. 

 

b.      What do you not like about this module?

Nothing.

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

They are group and pair works and we can mingle around with other or friends of different backgrounds. ONE MALAYSIA !!!

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

Nothing. 

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

Converting files.I never know that we can do this. Marvelous !!! 

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

This skill helps to learn about scanning and how to scan images which is so important to produce teaching aids.

15th entry : Time for a SELF-REFLECTION of the whole 14 stops !!! (part 2)

What have you expected but do not learn from this course?

Nothing as I learn so many things that I only need to bring my laptop to my future classroom and make learning happens in a very exciting and interesting manner. LEARNING IS FUN and we TEACHERS make it happen. 

 

15th entry : Time for a SELF-REFLECTION of the whole 14 stops !!!

1.What do you like about blogging?

I like it because I can give my own views and opinions about the syllabus and the lessons learned. It makes myself heard.

  

2.What you do not like about blogging?

One thing I don't like about blogging because it's too difficult to upload a video. Google sites serve as a better platform to reflect and uploading videos. Uploading is faster and easier in Google sites as it is one type of wikis (web 2.0 tool).

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

I learn how to improve my fluency in writing and how to play with words. This has also improved my efficiency in using technology effectively.

  

What do you like about this course?

I like the fact that I learn so much of skills and this is a priceless experience for me. Thank you, Pn. Foziah for all the modules.

  

What you do not like about this course?

Perhaps, I don't have anything that I don't like within the course. Everything is an eye-opener for me. Just FUN discovering the reality of TECHNOLOGY.

  

What have you learnt from this course?

SO MANY THINGS that I can't write as it will be a long list. But, all the 5 modules are so beneficial and they are so good indeed.

  

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

Audio editing and Video editing which provide me with a good experience to share something in a social platform such as YOUTUBE. This is my first time, that's why it's so important for me. 

 What have you expected but do not learn from this course?

Nothing as I learn so many things that I only need to bring my laptop to my future classroom and make learning happens in a very exciting and interesting manner. LEARNING IS FUN and we TEACHERS make it happen. 

14th week : Make your own video !!!

It's Module 4 and it's all about Video Editing skills. This time around, we blend ourselves into video editing softwares such as Sony Vegas Pro 9, Windows Movie Maker, Ulead video, etc.There are 3 tasks at the end of the module. The first task is a pairwork, the second is an individual work and the third task is a group work. The pairwork task requires me and my partner (Mahalingam) to produce a video with a theme: NATURE.This is the video produced and to watch the video, you may click on the link below. You will be directed to the video in YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXn4cTRk-8I

The rational of this task is actually a good idea of Pn. Foziah in order to encourage us to produce something using our own creativity. Thus, I like the video as the song and the images used have sentimental values and a sense of peace.

This is another video of mine produced for the group task as one of the teaching resources. It is a story book and it looks more interesting as children will tend to like. They might be interested and excited reading the story as they will imagine as if they are watching a television.

13th week : Please Submit Module 2 !!!

Editing photos and images give me an opportunity to be as creative as I want to be. I gives me a freer choice of producing my own materials. It is also good to make a clear flashcard such as the image below. There's no need to spend too much of buying the flashcards to teach a simple spelling lesson of vegetables, fruits, foods, transportation, things, plants, etc. Thus, we don't have to spend too much of our time, writing with markers pens as we are busy teachers and we are digital citizens, that is something for sure.

We can also change the mood of a picture by recolour it.

Photo editing skills are one of the magnificent skills and I am impressed with the capability of the softwares designed. The designers might be the real genius as they can really expand the usage of technology and produce something that can't be imagined by a logic mind. 

12th Week : Technology adds excitement to a simple story book !!!

This is how the equation goes:

Technology (Photo editing + Audio Editing + Power point ) + Simple story = e-Book.

We were taught on how to produce an e-Book. Basically an e-book is called as an e-book because it is controlled by electronic device such as computer and it is designed in a way that integrates some other elements rather than mere words. Those elements are sounds such as songs, animation, Gif images which can move, etc. An e-Book is a good resource to encourage primary school pupils to read. Reading, as we know, used to be said boring and tough by children will be easier and as they are motivated by the additional criteria offered by e-Book. 

This is a pair work and I'm working with Mahalingam and our story is Four Blind Men and An Elephant.

Puan Foziah informed us about all these features. There must be:

1) a theme to the story.
2) setting (time and place)
3) plot that shows the conflict, climax and resolution
4) characterization
5) navigational tools to make sure the slides can work properly (can go to next slide and previous slide)
6) pictures must be clear cut and colourful, no different shades or shadows.
7) sound to accompany the e-book reading.

 

All in all, it was a very good experience as we learn a lot to use technology at its maximum to enhance teaching and learning. TECHNOLOGICAL resources such as e-Book will certainly made life as a busy teacher easier and cool. 

11th week : Edit and mean it !!!

We are to edit a photo and make it looks more meaningful to be seen. When people view the edited photo, they must be able to see the message that is trying to be conveyed by the image.

I have chosen to edit a photo of a car. 'BENTLEY'

Some changes that I have done is:

- Inserting some words

- Recolouring the image and the background colour.

This is one of the beautiful cars and the figure impresses me. This reminded me that we can create an advertisements using these software. I have used Adobe Photoshop to create an ad for my elective courses and this is the product.

10th Week : Photoediting skills

It's module 2 and it's all about editing photos.

This is what we call the wonders of technology. All we need is to just snap a photo. No need to worry whether it looks good or not because we can edit it later.

So, some of the photo editing software are:

1)  iphoto

2) Adobe Photoshop CS3

3) photoscape

4) Photobucket

5) ACDsee

These softwares are so flexible. All we need to have is just an image. It helps us to add text to the image, crop the image, change the message in the image and everything.

These are cool as we can change anything that we like and people can't even realise that we have edit the photos. So, I feel the module has helped  me so much in knowing one of the important skills as a future teacher.

As a future teacher, i have to edit photos in order to design teaching resources to cater the needs of my students and their level of proficiency. So, this photo editing skills make things easier for me. Thanks to Pn. Foziah for giving me an opportunity to make an attempt for the task.

Ninth Week : M 3 submission...

It's the ninth week and as the time is moving so fast for us and we got 3 modules to go, so this week around, we really need to submit the 3rd module (AUDIO EDITING skill). 

Audio Editing skills ? 

Some might be wondering what's that? OK... To put in simple words it is a skill to edit any audio file such as songs, sounds and podcast to produce a better version of sound files with quality.This is so cool and beneficial as we learn to remove the noise, how to fade in and fade out. These are important skills to reproduce a better audio file that is appropriate for children in an ESL classroom for a listening lesson. A listening tape, for example must be clear for children to listen and comprehend the words pronounced in the recording. Thus, I think this particular skill simplifies our job to record the best audio product as we can just record anything at anytime and edit the file using 'AUDACITY', 'SONY VEGAS', WAVEPAD SOUND EDITOR, etc. 

I prefer AUDACITY because it is more flexible and it is a free, opensource editor software that offers a fully functional and complete suite of sound editing tools which is more user-friendly for a beginner like me. 

Audacity layout

Why AUDACITY ???

1. AUDACITY is easier, the control is fast and smooth and there are fewer buttons for simplicity. 

2. The audio effects available in AUDACITY 1.2.6  is quite extensive, quality and decent. Some of the Built-In effects are: 

- amplify

- change pitch

- change speed

- change tempo

- click removal

- compressor

- echo

- equalisation

- fade in

- fade out

- noise removal

- cut & paste

- MANY MORE !!!

3. Plus, we can extend the functions of AUDACITY by installing the Plug-ins. 

4. One more thing, AUDACITY has been hailed by PC World as one of the 100 Best Products of 2008. This validates its great usability, features, performance and technology innovation. 

Thus, that's why AUDACITY is the most preferred software to edit any audio files. 

eighth week: Audio Editing skills...HELPING HANDS for future teachers !!

It's the week before the FESTIVAL BREAK (Aidilfitri). 

We are attempting Module 3, and it is not as thick as MODULE 1 as Pn. Foziah said that she did not want to put pressure on us as we have one more assignment to do during the break. 

What is Module 3 is all about ??? 

 

It's about editing sounds. Some new softwares that I discovered are really an eye-opener.I have never utilised all of them as I never know that we can actually be a pro radio editor of we use all these softwares. We would never care if we really have recorded a better recording, but what matters is how to edit it. The skills matter. Thus, Audio Editing skills reveal the extent to which a sound is considered to be quality.

Now, I know that how a song can be recorded in a concert full with a crowd, but still there is no noise and the quality of the song is maintained. So, technology proves its effectiveness and efficiency again. For a future teacher like me, I would want to record a listening tape, but, then there is always an issue to find a really quite place without noise. BUT, now I do learn and know how to remove noise from a recording. So, be it anywhere or anytime, no worries as we need our HELPING HANDS a.k.a AUDIO EDITING SOFTWARES powered by TECHNOLOGY.

seventh week : StIlL iN PrOgReSs...

What's still in progress?? Module 1 is still in progress... I have not completed the module as it was quite thick. Yet, i think the module was a very comprehensive source to be referred to while learning the internet and computing skill. This reminds me of some private computer centers that offer to teach this skill. At the same time, they charged a lot too. So, to be able to learn all the skills, especially the uploading skill makes me feel a little bit excited as I can now share almost anything to anybody at anytime. It's like I've learnt all the things within a short glance and still wondering how the knowledge get stucked into my natural CPU. So,anybody's there who is still wondering how they could learn things easily and quickly (like me) while finishing the module, let me say this to you :

Stop thinking how you learn the skills and start using it. Learning technology is an experience-based period. So, experience is the best teacher ever. When we do something, we know how the feedback like and what are the consequences of the actions taken. So, for Puan Foziah, you have done a very good compilation of knowledge and practice on the 'Internet and Computing Skill'.Why I think the module is good??

1. It has a clear, short and easy instructions

2. The steps are so organised and it is appealing for the beginners

3. The subtopics covers multiple needs of using computers and other tools linked to it such as printer, scanner, external drive and camera.

4. It has flexibility as there are choices offered for us to try mastering the skill using either options. So, we can try an error and compare which one is better and easier. For example, using GOOGLE as the main search engine is found to be so popular and effective. 

5. The module is represented in a power point style which makes the step being reflected and counted in the number of the slides for each presentation.

All in all, I'm satisfied with the knowledge gained and this has made me maximise my potential in using the tool efficiently and taking the advantages of internet just for anything.  

WE SHALL NEVER BE LIED IF WE PUT A GREAT EXPECTATION ABOUT WHAT THE VIRTUAL WORLD CAN OFFER US.

Sixth Week: Ready to go!!!

Monday, 16th August 2010..

It's the beginning of the 1st module of 5 in total. So, the project of the course just begins. I guess, I don't have much to say, or perhaps I should not say too much in this entry. Or I won't be having time to complete the task given.

So, in general, the first module is about computing and internet skills. 

Ok... What is computing and internet skills???

Computer operations and concepts, word processing, graphics, multimedia, emails, spreadsheets, databases and downloadable copies. (See all those jargons!!!) Basically, it's about how we understands the basic use of computer. For example, 'How to download pictures?', 'How to download songs?', 'How to search for a journal article via internet and save it in PC to be used later on?', and many more. These skills are essentials for me as I know that practically, I won't be having that much of money to buy resources for teaching. So, I have to know these skills of downloading and exploiting as internet is realistically more affordable. So, this is it... 'BEING SMART !!!'. 

We can use these free softwares to download free songs.

4 shared

 

Limewire

We can use these sites to create free animation and online resources:

Tuxpaint

Glogster.com

We can use these softwares to download and play videos:

Adobe Flash Player

Moyea YouTube Downloader

We can use this software to save pdf file such as online journals. 

Adobe Reader

So... dare yourself to try all these things, the thrill is here... inside this ever virtual world...

Fifth Week: WARNING !!! Future Teachers, start collecting now !!!

Monday, 9th August 2010

  Collecting what??? Your Teaching Aids!!!

As a future primary school teachers, there are lots of preparation need to be done before we teach a lesson. Pupils at this age need something concrete that they can sense through their 5 senses in order to grab new concepts or lesson. So, due to that limitation, we have to be considerate to their needs. Providing colourful pictures, interesting audio recordings and realias are some of the teaching aids that can be used to enhance learning and motivate pupils to focus in classroom.

Now, let's look on the types of teaching aids. How many are there, actually??

1) Worksheets

 

 

2) Textbooks

3) Realia

Look at the pumpkin!!! It's big and it's exploitable. It can be a good teaching resource too!!

4) Multimedia

5) Presentation Tools

Look !!! It's fantastic how the kid is learning in the image above.

6) Administrative Tools 

(some examples are shown as images below)

kids' digital camera

      

These are the 6 major categories of teaching aids that we have. Obviously, there are more to be discovered inside each major category. So, with the presence of these aids, why having a traditional 'chalkboard' as the only teaching aid in your classroom?? Be creative!!! Use and explore new resources from the web. Downloading action songs to teach 'verb', for instance, costs you 'nothing'. It's just need a tablespoon of a teacher's patience to click and explore the invention. 

To shape and bend a tree, it has to be done when the tree is young and supple. A young child's values, attitudes and abilities can be shaped and bent under favourable conditions. Thus, it is good if teachers of primary schools take the roles of shaping students towards embracing a learning by conducting appealing lessons using multiple appropriate resources. They can handle the changes and evolution in education as they are like 'empty cups'

taking in as much information as the outside world  (including schools) can give them. 

So, give the best for something best that we expect from them later on. Give them the latest version of resources, only then we are allowing the entrance of technology in our teaching and learning process. The blend of technology and concrete things applied in teaching is like making the end product to be as ideal as possible.