Personal Learning Environment

This is my topic and I should be well-versed about it but instead of becoming the expert on PLE, I, myself got confused over and over again in the process of figuring it while munching on the articles given and some web-searched information. Although I’d done my PPT slides and sort of gotten myself ready, but when it comes to think about the question, “What is PLE?” posted by Mdm. Ng in the beginning of the class, everything  regarding PLE appeared to be still vague. Seems like Mdm. Ng knows that I wasn’t ready, that’s why all my classmates got to answer the questions for me to do some last-minute revision before presenting on PLE. =)

PLE is a potential approach to meet future educational needs & may provide new alternatives that foster learning capacity among individual learners (Bentley and Miller, 2004). Whereas Good & Brophy (1990) stated that PLE consider the individual pupil's interest, needs and abilities and finding out the best learning style for each pupil. From these, PLE seems to be the perfect way to produce productive and skilful workers to meet the demand in the future working world. Through PLE, students learn based on their own pace, ability and interest thus producing human assets who are aware of their strengths and abilities. Therefore, it is crucial that teachers become aware of the needs and interest of their students in order to identify and incorporate suitable teaching and learning methods to achieve the intended learning outcome.

Most of the time, being a teacher, I’ll tend to take up the role of a dictator while the students are passive learner where they just merely follow the teacher’s instructions. This prohibits them from taking responsibilities in their learning and also actively involve in the teaching and learning process as they feel that education is something done on them and the things that they are learning has nothing to do with them. By this, students will not be interested and will not want to engaged in the teaching and learning process.

As teacher, we need to identify and become aware of the activities that will lead to PLE. Having a clear knowledge and understanding regarding PLE will allow the teacher to fully incorporate the activities in the teaching and learning to help the students to achieve the intended learning outcome. So, the mission now is I need to identify the activities that will encourage PLE to be carried out in my lessons and I believe, with the help of technologies, each student will be able to utilize the instructional/ Internet tools in a productive manner which is beneficial to themselves and their peers and further leading them to become a life-long learner.

The 2nd - Today I Learn… Today I Question…

I was hoping to learn bits and pieces about Wikispaces and Webnodes from Yee Hui and Te. Both of them did great. Te introduced the Webnode and the stuffs we can do with Webnode. I hope to use Webnode as a platform for me to put in all my notes which are in Power Point form so that my students can access to them. While for Wikispace, Yee Hui did a great job in showing us the real life example on her Wikispace she created for her teaching and learning. I didn’t know Wikispace can be so cool coz I didn’t manage to produce something useable when I tried to create one the other time and then I abandoned it for quite sometime. =/

Regarding the article “Engaging the Online Faculty: Effective Modelling Strategies for Success”, I was a bit excited coz it was a short one. While reading it, I tried to identify the aim, problem statement, sample and some other stuffs that I normally find in research articles but of no avail and I finally decided that it is a report for sharing experiences and giving suggestions on effective modelling strategies. =) When everybody is trying to include technology into teaching and learning process, how many actually realize the important element of a successful online course is the development of a learning community of engaged participants. Teachers are actually playing a very significant role in designing the instruction when technology is included in the teaching and learning process.

I’m glad that Mdm. Ng shared on the four phases of the Engagement Model where I came to realize that we still and should practice behaviourist theory in our teaching and learning process before achieving to cooperation and collaboration. Therefore, it is not out-dated when we apply behaviourist theory. =) I believe by realizing these four phases,the interest of the students toward  the subject will be maintained and there will be more engagement and thus leading to effective learning. So, the problem at hand is, how should I design the instruction for my lesson in order to fulfil the phases of the Engagement Model to engage students in the subject that they are learning.

Today I Learn, Today I Question

From the first presentation, Evolution of Instructional Technology History and Development of the Internet in Teaching and Learning, I came to realize that Instructional Technology is not just merely a tool or device invented to enhance deliverance of instruction or information but it is a problem analysis, solution design, development, implementation, management and evaluation of instructional processes and resources to improve learning and performance in education and at work (Robert Reiser, 2001). This is so much more about instructional technology and I only know bits and pieces about it. How shameful!!! =/

With the advancement in technology, all sorts of Internet tools for teaching and learning are so available and the devices are getting more and more portable where we can get connected anytime, anywhere. So, as teachers, we need to be updated with the advancement in technology so that we can select the appropriate tools for effective teaching and learning process. I do need to know how to repurpose some of the popular tools like Facebook, blogs, YouTube etc for educational use in order to extend the learning process to outside school hours.

However, there are some controversial issues in instructional technology where Robert Kozma stated that, “Media plays a significant role in supporting the positive change in teaching and learning.” while Richard Clark made a statement, “It is neither media nor attributes of media that causes learning but rather the instructional method”. There  is the interrelationship between the elements technology, pedagogy, content and knowledge. Teachers having the pedagogy, content and knowledge should be able to choose the suitable technology to be incorporated into their teaching and learning to achieve their intended learning outcome. With the current emphasis on active learning where students are encourage to construct, collaborate and cooperate with their classmates and teachers to build new knowledge, I do hope to learn how to use the suitable instructional tools to encourage this process among my students.

October - The First

Woke up to a lazy morning… I miss my bed… so I add another 15 minutes to my sleep time after my alarm rang =)

I was the first among my fellow course mates to reach the class… The moment I stepped into the room, I notice there was this huge board standing next to my usual place and soon found out that it’s the smart board. Mdm Ng used the smart board throughout the lecture and I find the board really cool and that was actually the first time I’d seen someone operating the board coz all the while the board is just like a white elephant standing at one corner in the room.

The class was fun as Mdm Ng did a switch in the way we carry out our discussion. Instead of sitting around and start getting someone to be a volunteer, she get us all into the chat room in spectrum and do our discussion online. We had fun throughout  the whole 30 minutes discussion where there was giggling, laughter along the process. I think this is the trend now-a-days where people prefer to type then face-to-face communication.

In the discussion, we were asked to list 2 types of technologies which are significant to our teaching and learning experience based on the article written by McGreat and Elliot. We started off with YouTube, Webnodes, Wikispaces, Googlesites, Facebook etc. Each one of us have our own opinion and thoughts. In the end, we managed to identify 2 experts from among ourselves to give us more light regarding the use of Wikispaces and Webnodes in the coming classes. I do wish to learn more about Wikispaces and Webnodes so that I can apply them into my teaching and learning process.