Final Lecture - Mock Test + Needs Assessment

Its finally the end of the semester.
A little reflection on the entire module throughout the semester.
I never expected to take up the e-learning course, and i only did so after dropping a SE3224 module.. so i basically only joined the class during the 3rd week.

I had my doubts from the start.
With the complicated readings and numerous theories we were introduced to, i felt as though i was going to be in for a tough ride.

My breakthrough in NM3204 only came when Mr Low attended one of our tutorial classes and started explaining the module to us...
And thankfully for Elmie and Alfred... i somewhat managed to clarify all my burning questions and confusion during tutorial classes...

Although up till now.i'm still rather worried like everyone else who's taking this module i believe...
Lets just cross our fingers and hope for the best...

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Today's lecture...
In order to prepare us for the exams, Mr Low came up with a mock test for us to do.

I've got to say that, despite reading up a little the day before, i struggled at the MCQs because of the nature of how it was set.
I only got 3 marks out of 10!

Onto the needs assessment...
I clarified a few doubts when i consulted Mr Low together with my friend Charlotte after lectures today...

Just time to blog out my thoughts in case i forget:

A Needs Assessment...
Identifies and prioritizes gaps (what is versus what should be) in performance.

Week 11 - Webquest presentations + Visit by African exchange students!

Okay, i just had to type something out here about this wk's lecture because in a way i was quite ashamed to be called a Singaporean during lecture just now.

NOT MEANT TO OFFEND ANYONE THOUGH! (if anyone's reading this)

1. Webquest presentations were made by several groups. While i was listening and stuff, i noticed the African exchange students actively participating in the lecture, giving opinoins and commenting on the students who presented their webquest.

It wasn't exactly a surprise for me. But it made me wonder:

WHY ARE SINGAPOREAN STUDENTS SO PASSIVE? (And yes, i include myself)

The african students were like ACTIVE, while the rest of us just sat down like zombies, not daring to voice our opinions.

Then came the fun part, the students kindly requested we sang our national anthem for them.

And what did we do? we YOUTUBED the video and played it. And while the music was being played, NONE OF THE PEOPLE AROUND ME SANG!

i was thinking to myself "omg... what an impression we are creating"

THEN,
the african students VOLUNTARILY sang their anthem, and despite having like probably only 20% of the number of people we had, they sang like 500% louder than us!!!!

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Okay. maybe this has nothing to do with e-learning...

But lets now at least try to link this phenomenon back to education (since its after all an educational module)... There's something flawed with the educational system in Singapore. and that includes NUS...

Students are constantly finding ways to beat the system, when they are supposed to be learning actively. Yet, majority of us are just going for the easiest option out (How do i get an A without studying too much)

or...
(I shall only participate in class because i am going to be awarded 10 for class participation...)
(I shall only go for lectures because attendance is taken and marks will be awarded)

Enough said,
i think today's webquest presentations were great..
I liked the kachang puteh one...

Week 10 - Webquest

Mr Low made use of this lecture to go through doubts on our webquests, as well as to give us more information and examples of webquest designs. It was brought to my attention during this lecture that a simple looking webquest can be so full of information.

As much as how the overall outlook of the webquest is rather important to keep a person captivated, the most important aspect of the webquest has still got to be how well the information is structured and organised into tasks, process, etc.

A WebQuest is a learning activity used by educators. The first part of a WebQuest is the introduction. This describes the WebQuest and gives the purpose of the activity. Next describes what students will do. Then is a list of what to do and how to do it. There are usually a list of links to follow to complete the activity.

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On to describe my feelings about webquests (that i also highlighted during tutorial classes)..

Webquests, as wonderful as it may sound, and as widely used in US as it possibly is, still has several shortcomings in my opinion.

From the most fundamental point of view, what i would like to say and what i have observed is that webquests are not widely used in Singapore. The planning and designing of lessons is common in the teaching profession, but insufficient educators in Singapore are trained to actually properly design an e-learning design/webquest.

As such, i just have to bring in some marketing knowledge into the prospects of the webquest.
Using a BCG portfolio analysis,
i actually believ that if this continues, webquests will end up becoming from a 'question mark' to a 'dog'. Unless more money and effort is made into educating educators about the wonders of e-learning and the webquest projects, the fall of webquests, in my opinoin, is very possible.

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Back to serious business,
OUR WEBQUEST PROJECT!

i'm proud to say that my group's almost done. Eric has put in a lot of effort collating all the information together and putting it into the webquests, while i've contributed by providing whatever knowledge i have on singing for them.

I'm actually quite excited about it.
Cause if this 'how to sing' webquest works out, i may be able to test them on my current choir students and see if they manage to derive anything from our webquest.

An end note.
Yes, anyone can create a webquest because its simple. But to create a good and informative webquest that meets its objectives, require careful, and strategic planning...

Week 9 - Problem solving & Affective learning

Onto the technical stuffs first....

Problem-solving skill is the ability to use previously acquired skills and knowledge in a unique way to solve unfamiliar problems.

To put it in smpler terms, learners have to be able to apply their previous knowledge in a new situation or circumstance in order to rectify a problem

the cognitive requirements for problem-solving learning are
(1) Problem representation,
(2) Solution planning,
(3) Solution implementation and
(4) Solution evaluation.

It was mentioned in the lecture that the steps of attitudinal outcomes are as follows:
Firstly, the learner must be willing to accept and respond to the message being sent out. If the learner accepts the message that is sent out, then the learner should go beyond of what can be accomplished and to develop philosophies which may lead to a change in his attitudes/character.

This can be very much applied to the development of our webquest, and e-learning in general.

Week 8 - Procedure and Principal learning

We learnt during lectures today - the idea of procedure and principal learning.

According to Leshin, Pollock and Reigeluth,
Using a procedure refers to applying an ordered set of actions to achieve a goal.
There is often more than one procedure for achieving a given goal. A procedure is sometimes referred to as a technique, skill, or method.
A procedure can be either a mental process or a physical skill.
Most procedures are a combination of mental and physical activities.

The whole idea of coming up with a design to teach somebody over the internet, or over a programme without physically being there was introduced during lectures today.

Let me try to illustrated my thought process with this little chain:

E-learning --> Many obstacles to overcome include the lack of feedback -->
Alternative solutions --> Webquest -->
Yet webquests have to be really properly designed in order for a learner to really absorb anything out of the webquest -->
So are there other alternatives in this online world? --> Blogs, Twitter (where feedback can be obtained) (Or Twitter, where INSTANT feedback can be obtained) -->
Or is webquest enough?

So how is a student going to be able to communicate effectively with his or her teacher, while at the same time, obtaining valuable feedback that will aid in his learning process?

Methods i've thought of in this virtual world includes:

Webcam; Conferencing;
Blogs; although feedback is not instantaneous
Uploading files on portals such as googledocs; although its goin to be troublesome on the instructor's part to actually log in to edit and give comments on the student's work
Uploading videos; clips (although the issue of privacy is brought up here)

Although there are limitations to the various methods i've thought of, i believe that e-learning is still here to stay. And the pace at which technology is advancing would only mean more alternatives for e-learning to adopt and become more effective in the near future.

Week 7 - Instructional Strategies

Today's lecture was a good break away from all the theories we have been learning for the past few weeks. Mr Low taught and brought in the use of strategies when devising lesson plans today.

Instructional Strategies determine the approach a teacher may take to achieve learning objectives...

As a current conductor, and an ex relief teacher, i've got to say that this process is definitely not an easy one.

After doing some other additional readings on instructional strategies, it has come to my attention that the options that are available for teachers like us are unlimited. The trick here is to implement the correct strategy in the student. I personally feel that the successfulness of the strategy would very much depend on the students, and the conditions in which the strategy is implemented..

When implementing strategies such as games, or debates, or case studies, how much a student absorbs depend on himself. (This can be linked to the previous week's lecture of affective learning).

After doing some research on instructional strategies, it has been brought to my attention that these strategies can be classified into 5 broad spectrums.

Direct Instruction:
where possibilities include simply having lectures, a structured overview, straightforward and direct teaching.

Interactive Instruction:
where we attempt to group people up to discuss topics in the form of activities such as debates, role playing, problem solvings, or have group discussions in tutorial classes (although in the case of Singapore, tutorial classes are usually hardly interactive as compared to the classes i had in international school)

Indirect Instruction:
using strategies such as concept mapping

Experiemental learning:
Using hands on activities such as games, or field trips to allow students to learn

Instructional skills:
explaining, demonstrating, and questioning students

BACK TO WHAT WE'VE LEARNT DURING LECTURES....

Mr Low introduced to us a few tactics that resulted in heated debates with my classmates taking this module.

In particular, the use of Mnemonics to learn..

I personally feel that Mneomics is a perfect way to learn. For example, i used Mnemonics in the past such as the "Four Letter F word" FACE to highlight the importance of intercultural communication during my NM2201 class.

I also used words like SING to let my students remember how to learn the basic techniques of singing.

These techniques, in my opionin, are very useful - although some of my classmates seem to think otherwise..

Nonetheless, i believe these instructional strategies have given me an insight, and a wider range of options for me when i plan my lessons in future for my choir and singing classes..

Week 6 - Domains of Learning

This lecture taught me the various domains of learning - Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor...

Cognitive domain:
The cognitive domain refers to the manipulation of the learner by the teacher. The authoratative figure shapes his protege/student/child in whatever way he deems is correct. A youth football coach for example, plans his training methods in a way whereby it would mould the young footballer into the best player in the world in future. How much the young kid learns depends on all the various methods used by the coach.

Famous footballers and basketballers, such as players like David Beckham or Michael Jordan, have all attributed their success to proper coaching since young.

I beleive this cognitive domain of learning is extremely impotant especially when applying it to the younger generaion. As we all know, a lot of kids learn cognitively when they are young. i.e. We learn how to sing in a choir because of the training we receive during choir practices, or we lern how to act because of drama lessons.

How much a person learns, hugely depends on how well the authoratative figure (in this case, the coach or instructor) structures his lessons...



Affective domain:
The learner can make his own choices to pick what he wishes to learn and what he doesn't want to learn. In some way, this way seems to be the case in most of education systems here. I can attend a lecture, the lecturer can put in 110% effort into planning the lesson and teaching me, but whatever i learn depends on how much effort i put in into listening, and revising, and learning.

I personally teach in a choir during the periods of time when i am not studying in NUS. And what i have noticed is that this affective domain of learning can be applied and is very common amongst the students in my school. I devised lesson plans, played them youtube videos, structured games and activities, in a bid for them to learn their notes and learn the proper ways of singing.

Yet, i still find my progress and effectiveness of lessons depending very much on the students themselves. On days when they actually put in effort and time to learn, they learn very quickly. But on other days when they choose to 'switch off', my lessons become rather useless.

One blur area i see here would be how it overlaps with my football example above in the cognitive domain. Because, how much the young player learns also depends on how much he practices. The coach can only do so much for him, and the rest is up to him.

Psychomotor domain:

This refers to learning via observation. In psychomotor learning research, attention is given to the learning of coordinated activity involving the arms, hands, fingers, and feet, while verbal processes are not emphasized.

I developed an interest in music and singing after observing family members singing and dancing to music when i was younger. Subsequently, i was introduced to piano and i never looked back since then. The coordination of my right and left hands and my feet for the pedal can somewhat be seen like a psychomotor learning process... or can it?

the other example i can think of would be rollerblading, or cycling...

Week 5 - Needs Assesment

I crawled out of bed to attend this lecture today. Thanks to the sweets and the Mamee titbits did i somewhat managed to stay alert...

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The lecture today talked about conducting a needs assessment, and to determine whether or not a need for instruction should be developed.

The discrepancy model offers a pragmatic , systematic approach to a wide variety of evaluation needs. It emphasizes on self evaluation and a systematic programe improvement.

We have to first analyze a situation carefully in order to determine what can be carried out to improve or support the learning process.

i.e. The two case situations that were given to us during lectures today... the taxi driver case...

In this scenario, we have to first make use of the 3-face model to first ask ourselves if the problem faced by the taxi companies are caused by a lack of learning. If it is caused by a lack of learning, then we have to ask ourselves if there are instructions already given.

If instructions HAVE been given and the problem still persists, then we will make use of the discrepancy model to do a self evaluation and find out what the gaps are, and how we can close the gaps to rectify the problem.

One particular example i can think of would be with regards to Starhub's customer service. I had friends working there as telephone operators during the semester break last year. AND basically , they are given a whole set of instructions as to what to do, and how to react towards ridiculous customers, what not to say, and what to say, etc.

One day, i decided to call up Starhub because they have over charged me on my mobile bills. Instead of being polite like every customer service operator should be, the girl on the phone started being horribly rude and seemed to indirectly put the blame on me for the extra charges. I insisted on speaking to her superior after that and he confirmed that further action would be taken against that new staff.

In this case, we can make use of the discrepancy model to evaluate why this is happening.

1. Instructions have been given. Why is this problem still happening?
2. Is the onus on the customer service operator or was it also the customer's fault?
3. If it is the customer service operator's fault, then what can be done to rectify the problem?
4. Should the learning process be redesigned?

I'm not sure if i'm correct by using this example. So if anyone's reading this and you think there's a problem, do let me know :)

Week 4 Lectures - Learning Design

The learning design is a very crucial component of e-learning.

In the reading, "Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design", a number of pedagogies and approaches were quoted. I have learnt that a better articulation and mapping of different pedagogical processes, tools and techniques, will provide an approach that is more reflexive and consistent with practitioner's theoretical perspectives on learning and teaching.

As i've learnt from the lecture, the learning objectives and the e-leanring tools are supposed to work hand in hand, with the learning design playing a complementary role towards the specific learning objectives.

I personally feel that with this whole idea of having a learning design seem to over complicate the whole idea of learning. It is difficult to design one programme that can fulfill everyone's standard of learning. In the first place, isn't learning supposed to be the responsibility of the student?

Most importantly, whatever plans the teacher has for his student often does not end up the perfect way he pictures it.

My experience relief teaching had given me a brand new insight on designing a perfect learning design to facilitate learning. No doubt i had put in lots of effort planing my classes and attempting to make lessons interesting, but like the more senior teachers put it, the students simply do not appreciate it.

And the benefits you picture that comes with your lesson plan, in most cases, do not happen.

It isn't easy being a teacher is it?

Week 3

Goal: to appreciate the theories of Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Socialculturalism.

Objectives: at the end of the lecture, student should be able to: State the essence of each theory in terms of:
Key assumptions on learners.
Key assumptions on learning.
A representation of the process of learning.

Critique the theory's usefulness to different types of problems. Comment on theory's usefulness for the development of 21st century skills.

Assignment: Blog your reflections on the three theories and on their application to the different types problems. Respond to one and read at least three other students' blog.

Learning theories are vital in the field of e-learning as they provide a general explanation for observations madeand can also be altered as time goes by to suit the current state.
The 3 major learning theories that was taught during lectures are behaviourism, cognitivism and socioculturalism.

Behaviourism

Wortham explained how learning for behaviorism involves shaping the learner’s behavior to obtain an outcome that the teacher wants to have happen. At the same time, reinforcements towards that behaviour is vital so that the person does it again (if what he did was correct). And also, punishments (if he or she did something incorrect) so that the person doesn’t do it again

Such behaviour has been prevalent since our younger days in primary school. Teachers often allow students to make mistakes, and when they do, punish them by writing the same phrase a hundred times. At the same time, correct behaviour was always rewarded with stickers or pretty chops at the back of the exercise book..

One thing to probably note is if such a learning method can be applied to modern times. Children nowadays think and behave differently from us (just like how we behave differently from the older generation). Their mindset may deem such a method ineffective in education.


Cognitivism

The second theory cognitivism is based on a person's own internal perception or representation of things. Learning is done when people build new representations as they make sense of the world. The assumption for this theory is that an individual’s memory is the key to process and retain information and prior knowledge and experiences plays a huge role in learning.

However, people often have varying perceptions and they form conflicting ideas for one similar object. I may see situation A as positive, but another person may see it as a negative scenario. As such, the theory of cognitivism cannot be applied to every single person.

Sociocultural

This refers to the collective system as a whole, rather than the individual learner being the focus. It is suggested that learning must be understood as a process that is not solely in the mind of the learner.

In this case, learning is derived from the tools drawn from the environment as well, and language, being an important social tool. We are placed in a situation whereby we perform our best in dealing with the problems.

Commented on:

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Read:

http://sid3204.blogspot.com/

http://jac3204.blogspot.com/

Lecture 2 Reflection

thanks to the twisties that were distributed across lectures, i managed to successfully concentrate during lectures instead of dozing off. it certainly is tough attending such an early lecture.

the videos that were played during lectures were informative.

i personally feel however that the lecture theatre is too big and spaced out.
with such huge gaps and empty spaces in the theatre, a lot of us tend to just zonk out and space out midway during lectures. one suggestion could be to concentrate everyone in the middle of the theatre.

the videos, though informative, were also a bit draggy in the end.
the information that entered my brain was basically only during the first few minutes of the video, out of which i spaced out after that.

NM3204 - Week 1

I JUST got this module allocated to me on 19th January so i haven't attended the first lecture or whatsoever. So i'm basically still pretty confused as to what i'm supposed to do weekly and what the expectations are of this module.

However, i'm still going to try my best to pen a reflection towards my understanding of what e-learning is all about based on the readings that i have read so far.

E-learning to me has become a very vital component towards many fields of occupations - be it students, doctors, small companies, etc. It refers to the use of technology to facilitate and conduct various activities electronically or via the internet.

E-learning was never that prevalent in Singapore when i was in primary school. I vaguely remember entering the computer lab once a week to engage in learning via bright and colourful illustrations on the computers. But, that itself, happened very rarely. BUT we are now seeing the rise of e-learning - from primary schools, all the way to unversities.

I'm a believer that e-learning facilitates alot of activities, but it does not REPLACE activities. As much as having e-learning is an important and efficient way to conduct various lectures, nothing still beats the idea of face to face communication.

Things such as webcasts for example, are only useful if they serve as a reference, and not as a complete substitute for real lectures.

On the other hand, this point of view is still debatable as the digital world we are living in now emphasizes on connectivity and interactivity and speed. Traditional means of learning and communication are slightly slower and less efficient.

As such, e-learning is something that i feel we can look forward to in the future.

Speaking of which, i'll probably get a better understanding of e-learning during my first lecture this coming wednesday.