Monday, November 15, 2010

Thank you~

Deepest gratitude and great relief that everything is complete
Thanks a million to Pn. Foziah for all your hardwork and teaching.  
Thanks for everything..



Lots of  , 
 

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Final entry~ my reflections..~

1) What do you like about blogging?
I like how blogging allows me to share my feelings, my thoughts, and my opinions to the readers as well as to the rest of the world. Furthermore, I enjoyed decorating my blog to make it pretty and attractive for the viewers.
2) What you do not like about blogging?
When we talk about this academic blogging, I guess that won't really be any problem because the contents are strictly academic. Nevertheless, when it comes to personal blogging, sometimes people bashed on you just because you give a comment on something or you misused a word that can lead to misunderstanding. Words can be charming, words can be harmful too if semantically misunderstood. I do not like that. 
3) What have you gained from blogging eg. Language skills, improved fluency, critical thinking, improved thought processes, technology skills etc. How?
I have gained confidence, improved my technology skills, my writing skills and language proficiency.
First and foremost, through blogging, I have gained confidence in expressing myself. People can see the introvert like me speak up to the “virtual” audience. Other than that, blogging have improved my technology skills (e.g. how to embed photos, tools, videos and applications to enhance my blog), my writing skills become better since blogging has become a practice platform for me. Then, language proficiency (in English specifically) and critical and creative thinking (in giving opinions and thoughts about an issue).

4) What do you like about this course?
I like about the skills that I managed to learn and gain throughout the 14 weeks. Truly valuable! I like how it also taught me that nothing is impossible. The workloads are tremendous and seem ridiculuos to be finished in given time but Alhamdulillah.. in the end, I am succeed to complete everything within the time limit. 
5) What you do not like about this course?
I guess..nothing.

6) What have you learnt from this course?
I have learnt how to use the technology (specifically) to develop the resources and materials for the ESL classrooms. I have learnt how to work cooperatively and sincerely with my team to make sure there are no passengers in the group and everyone contributes something valuable for the group. I also learnt that independent learning is not impossible. Even though we're only provided with tutorials and no real 'teacher' teaching us, I still manage to gain a lot from the tutorial. 
7) What have you learnt from this course that you did not expect to?
I haven’t expected that technology will be emphasized a lot in doing the teaching materials. Nevertheless it was such a wonderful and beneficial experience for me. I will surely utilize the skills and knowledge that I have gained in my future teaching!
8) What have u expected but do not learn from this course?
 My technological skill is now great. I guess I got everything I expected from this course
9) Comments regarding modules:
  1. Internet and computing skills
a. What do you like about this module?
 It really helps those beginners of computer and internet.
It teaches me everything related to web searching. And everything that got to do with the internet. It's a great tutorial for a beginner for computer and using the net.

b. What do you not like about this module?  
Nothing

c. What do you like about the task given for this module? 
Some of the task are really challenging. It's great to challenge myself to work hard and figure out how to complete the tasks.

d. What do you not like about the task given for this module? 
Nothing i guess.

e. What are the specific skills that you learn in this module? 
Many new internet skills like compressing files, converting files. Instead of just downloading, now I know how to upload files. It is such a great knowledge and experience.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?
Well, many sources can be found in the net. I can just download them and adapt them to make them suitable to be used in my class. 
Apart from that, all the internet skills that I learned from this module can help me become a better net user and a better IT teacher that my students can look up to.


  1. Photo Editing
a. What do you like about this module? 
I learnt how to upload pic on certain website like esnips and photobucket. I also learnt how to edit pictures by using different software.

b. What do you not like about this module? 
Nothing. This module gives me many knowledge about photo editing and I love that.

c. What do you like about the task given for this module? 
Editing pictures. I can use variety of photo editing softwares that I never even heard before. It is great

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 make many tricks in a picture. I used the Adobe Photoshop CS3. Apparently there are many items, features and tools in it that are attractive to be explored. I like how we can create many layers and do amazing things on the layers and applied it to the original picture. It is complicated, but when I am succeed in editing something, the feeling of accomplishment is unbelievably awesome. 

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?
 We can make a picture more meaningful and outstanding. Especially to be used in a lesson, we cannot just picked a random picture. It would be useless and unrelated to the lesson. Hence, by editing, a very raw picture could turn up to be so extraordinary if we know how to edit the picture. And the beauty part, we got lots of choices on which software to be used to edit pictures.

  1. Audio Editing Skills
a. What do you like about this module?
 It introduces me to a few software for audio editing.

b. What do you not like about this module?
 Several softwares introduced are harmful to my laptop. It makes my laptop runs slow right after I downloaded the software.

c. What do you like about the task given for this module?
 Creating a mp3 ringtone. It was cool. Now, i am able to create many ringtones of songs that i like.

d. What do you not like about the task given for this module?
The task of removing the noise from the song 'Dua Insan Bercinta' by M. Nasir and Dato' Siti. It was difficult and i almost given up. I have tried many things since the noise in the song is intact to the voices of the singers. If we simply use 'remove the noise', the voices of the singers would also affected. Hence I played with its frequency and try to make the singer voice louder so that even when the noise is removed, their singing is still clear

e. What are the specific skills that you learn in this module? 
Perhaps how to cut one part of a song and make it as ringtone. I also learned how to make a great starting and ending of the song using fade in and fade out. I also learned how to mash up songs without messing with the amazing melodies of the two songs. The listeners won't even really realize that the song is changing.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?
 Since in classroom teachers did not have much time, so, we could still use songs which the duration is 4-5 mins but we just have to cut parts of it. Make it like ringtone. Just choose the important verse from the song.
Teacher could also record the students voice using audacity. Maybe when they are singing a song or reciting a poem. Then teacher can play it again and improve on the students' pronunciation. It definitely can make teaching and learning more beautiful.


  1. Video Editing Skills
a. What do you like about this module?
It tells me everything that I can do with a video. I can still image, extract song and videos. 
 

b. What do you not like about this module?
 The most difficult module compared to the rest. Making a video is definitely not simple. Many things need to be done to complete the video task. It required lots of time.

c. What do you like about the task given for this module?
Producing the video. It has been a great experience where my patience, skills and efforts are really put into test. It is not easy to make a video. To make it meaningful and catchy to the eyes in the same time. Luckily my partner Bahak, is a good actor. He definitely can act well and show the emotions and actions that I need for the video.

d. What do you not like about the task given for this module?
 Not really a problem. It just that I need time to really edit the video. My laptop hanged after a few times I tried to publish my video. I nearly lost everything that I work for.

e. What are the specific skills that you learn in this module? 
Creating video and inserting songs and pictures to it, animating it and makes every transitions look perfect. Then make sure that the ending of the video is perfect in terms of the audio. It was a great experience.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom? 
By making a video, it is the best way to attract my students. Kids love watching rather than reading and writing. So, i could prepare a video for the suitable topics. I could just gather some pictures and insert audio to it. It would be interesting and useful as the set induction or the introduction part of my teaching.

  1. Software for ELT
a. What do you like about this module? 
It is so useful for me as future teacher. I learnt many things especially from the Microsoft Publisher. Only by doing this module I am actually exploring the whole Microsoft Publisher. I only used it to make pamphlet before. Apparently, there are many other things that can be done using Microsoft Publisher.

b. What do you not like about this module? 
Nothing.

c. What do you like about the task given for this module? 
Making a pamphlet or brochure.

d. What do you not like about the task given? 
Nothing because the task is quite straight forward.

e. What are the specific skills that you learn in this module?
 The skills of making a full use of Microsoft Publisher.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT Classroom?
 I can ask my students to create a greeting card, brochure for some activities in the lesson. This is the best way to engage them with the technology. I would also makes many kinds of materials to be used in class. Like brochure, greeting cards as a stimulus for my students to write or talk about. Maybe the brochure is about a holiday package to Pulau Langkawi, hence, I can get my students to write and talk about Pulau Langkawi.
 
10) If you can change anything about this course, state what is and elaborate? 
In my opinion, for each module, there should be a limit for the software that should be introduced to us. Perhaps just 5 software for each module. I guess that is more than enough. The important thing is that we could acquire some skills for photo editing. Too many software downloaded in the laptop can really slow everything and even can caused it to hanged or encounter any other problems.
I would also suggest that each software should be checked first. For example, the software iphoto can only been used for Macintosh users. Some other software contains virus and harm the laptop or at least slow it down. 
Apart from that, everything is just fine.

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

Before : 4
After : 9







Tuesday, October 26, 2010

[Week 14] modules~ modules~ modules~ tasks~ tasks~ tasks~

Assalamualaikum WBT and hi everyone~ Here we are in the second last week. Even though the course is already coming to an end, there are still many works need to be finished by Thursday, which is tomorrow. 

These are the items that need to be submitted tomorrow~
Module 4 (video editing)
Task 1, pair (video)
Task 2, individu (split video clips, audio and images)
Task 3, groups (lesson plans on the four skills)

For the video, here is the final project from my partner, Hazwan Benjamin Bahak and I. Hopefully it is good enough to satisfy Pn Foziah. 




For individual task, I have decided to choose video clips entitled Here In My Home - Malaysian Artistes For Unity / Pete Teo. The songs is about the beauty of Malaysia as a multiracial country but we still can live in peace and harmony.  Take it a look at the video clips. I find it meaningful and creative. Kudos to Pete Teo~





Finally, for the group task, we choose year for, Malaysia, my country as our topic. 

Thursday, October 21, 2010

[Week 13] submissions and module 4~

Assalamualaikum and hi everyone. Due to all the abundance of work, I feel time move faster than it should. The more work I do, the more keeps coming in and need to be submitted. PhotobucketHow are you guys coping with the abundance of work? burning the midnight oil is not a problem anymore. My eyes can't even sleep unless it is already 3am. Hello swollen eyes, hello dizziness and hello fatigue..~

Week 13 of the resources class. Without wasting any time, let’s look into the major events of the day. Ok, this week we have submitted 4 things which are: 


1) Module 2 (photo editing)
2) Individual work, hardcopy + softcopy (task 1)
3) Pair work, e-book, hardcopy + softcopy (task 2)
4) Group work, lesson plans, hardcopy + sofcopy (task 3)

Talking about the tasks, it was a good exercise to practice what we have learned in the module. I personally learned a lot about photo editing while doing the tasks rather than doing the module itself. Although software such as photoshop was very difficult for me,Photobucket later I managed to learn it and I applied it in editing pictures for my tasks. I am really happy that now I have learned and able to use various software to edit photos.

Now let's move on to the next agenda. Currently we are working on the module 4 which is the video editing. This module is another good instrument as we can learn about video editing by using software like:
• Any Video Converter
• BS player
• Cyberlink PowerDVD
• FLV to AVI Converter
• Free Studio
• HJ-Split
• Image Grab
• Power Video Cutter
• Prism Video Converter
• Real Player
• Riva FLV Encoder
• SID Video Cutter & Splitter
• VCD Cutter
• Windows Media Player
• Online Downloader

I believe that this module can help me to upgrade my technology skills even though I have zero knowledge on video editing.. It is really fun working on this module because now I am able to make and edit my own videos.
Photobucket Below is the progress so far on my video.



As we all know, each module comes with some tasks. The same goes to module 4. Pn. Foziah asked us to create a story board for the task 2 which is the pair work before the class itself. Pn. Foziah checked the story board and gave some comments on how to improve it. She commented a lot on our currently in progress video. We have plans to improve on it. Chiayyokk! Photobucket