Resources Class Reflection

For the final week, there were some questions posted for us to be answered as a reflection of the whole class.

1. What do you like about blogging?

I like blogging. Blogging helps me to think critically and look at things from different perspectives. It helped me to exercise my thinking and memorization skills as I need to think about the lesson and remember the views and what i have learnt.

2. What you do not like about blogging?
I do not like it as we need to have internet connection in order to update the blog.

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

I have gained a lot as I started blogging. Not only did my language writing skills improved, I realized that I spoke more fluently as well. This is because I can think more and plan first now before I speak. Besides, I can think more critically. I am slowly acquiring mature thought process. Most importantly, I have learnt some very useful technological skills through blogging. I have learnt how to attach pictures and change the design template of the blog.

4. What do you like about this course?

This course has brought me through a great and challenging journey of learning new skills which are very useful to me.

5. What you do not like about this course?
I think I am giving more concern and time to this course than the other courses. It had made me to try my best to set a balance between all courses.

6. What have you learnt from this course?

I have learnt how to make various technological resources for teaching primary schools pupils. I have learnt how to download documents, photos, songs and software from the internet. I learnt the steps of converting different types of files to various form. I have learnt how to edit photos, sounds and videos. Besides, I have learnt more things that Microsoft Publisher can do.

7. What have you learnt from this course that you did not expect to?
I have learnt how to edit sounds. This is something I did not expect to learn.

8. What have you expected but do not learn from this course?
I expected to learn more on the various criteria that teachers should look into before designing or choosing a teacher aids.

9. Comments regarding modules:

1. Internet and computing skills

a. What do you like about this module?

It has taught me how to download so many things from the internet.

b. What do you not like about this module?

At some part, I felt like not respecting the composer for the songs which I downloaded asI did not pay anything.

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

I could apply what I have learnt from the module and strengthen this skill that I just acquired.

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

I think the task should just focus more on group work as it is better to work in group as we can learn more from each other and develop our skills.

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

I learnt the skill of converting files to another format and also encoding music or video files to various format.

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

With these skills, I can now produce free technological teaching aids by just downloading the pictures, video or song I need from the Internet and convert them to suitable format.


2. Photo Editing

a. What do you like about this module?
It taught me some new programme to edit pictures.

b. What do you not like about this module?
There are some missing steps in this module.

c. What do you like about the task given for this module?
It gave me chance to edit pictures to be used as teaching aids.

d. What do you not like about the task given for this module?
I think photo editing should focus more on individual task so that everyone can learn mer as they discover the functions of photo editing software themselves.

e. What are the specific skills that you learn in this module?
I learnt the skills of editing photos using softwares such as Photoshop CS3, PhotoBucket and PhotoScape.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?
I can now easily edit pictures that I have so that it can be used in class.

3. Audio Editing Skills

a. What do you like about this module?

I personally like music. So I like audio editing. It exposed me to some very useful audio editing software.

b. What do you not like about this module?

Some of the steps are not very clear.

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

It is not so difficult compared to video editing and downloading.

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

I think more time should be given to complete the tasks.

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

I have learnt how to edit audio files to make it fade in, fade out and less noise.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?
I can now add another genre of teaching aids that I know - edited audio. Songs can now be edited to suit the lesson.

4. Video Editing Skills

a. What do you like about this module?
I can be a director of my own video clip.

b. What do you not like about this module?
It requires a lot of focus and strength to edit the videos.

c. What do you like about the task given for this module?
The task given go hand in hand with the objective of this module, which is to see video editing skills acquired.

d. What do you not like about the task given for this module?
I think it is a bit challenging and lots of attention need to be given for the tasks.

e. What are the specific skills that you learn in this module?
I learnt how to drag pictures into the timeline, add text, and slide transition effect to a video.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?
I can now make my own video for my class. I can now make sure that the videos shown are suitable for achieving the learning objectives and local context.

5. Software for ELT

a. What do you like about this module?

It taught me how to use Microsoft Publisher to its fullest potential.

b. What do you not like about this module?

It requires a lot of adjustment and small details to be filled in to make it better.

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

It really test our ability to use different template provided in Microsoft Publisher.

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

There is somehow slight repetition between individual and group task.

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

I have learnt that many things like invitation and business card can actually be self-made.

f. How the skills learnt in this module can help in the making and choosing of teaching aids for the ELT classroom?
I can now used my own designed paper work or cards to teach children. I can save cost by not buying the commercial paper works and cards.

10. If you can change anything about this course, state what is and elaborate?
Perhaps the quantity of the module and its tasks can be lessened a bit. This might help students to really do all the steps in the modules properly and have time to discover other things in the softwares taught rather than rushing through all the steps and might not acquired all the skills in it.

On a scale of 1 – 10, please rate your computing and technological skills for both before and after undergoing the course.
Before undergoing the course, it would be 5. After undergoing the course, it is around 8.

Week 15

Test and Module 5

The test was quite tough for me because I need to come out with suitable and creative teaching to be used to teach children in the given test time. Thanks to all the module tasks that I have done, it served as a "backbone" of ideas during the test. It had helped me by giving me lots of inspiration in designing suitable and technological resources for teaching.

Moreover, we were given a list of things to do during the upcoming study break. The things are:

- Finish Module 5, print all the modules and compile them.
- Finish tasks for Module 5 and print them.
- Finish all the blog entries and print them.

A great training for me to face the working world in the future. Let's face it positively. All the best everyone!

Week 14

Video Editing Part 2 and Test Preparation

The last studying week for this semester. Wow! I have really learnt so much! New ideas has been emerging in my head from time to time about how to create new resources in classroom. I have learnt how to download photos, videos and music.

A few tips on editing videos for teaching purposes were given to us. We have to create a video based with a theme. Then, I discussed with my partner Flora and we decided to create a video based on the theme family love. We focused on a father and son relationship.

We chose this theme because we want to emphasise that a father is also an important figure in the family as he is the breadwinner. In the world today, mother is always being praised for being a great sacrifice and concern for family and children. However, that is not a true fact. Fathers show their concern and sacrifice to the family too, only in a different way.

We brought in the local context by focusing on the Chinese culture. This is to bring a message that father and son relationship is also being focused in the Chinese culture.

Besides, we added two songs to the video; one by Keith Urban entitled "Song for Dad" and the other by Josh Groban entitled "You Raise Me Up". These two songs went hand in hand with our theme of this video.

Frankly speaking, it is a great challenge and we need to be very precise in making this video as with every added photo, the timeline and its text shifts. A lot of careful adjustment need to be done and it is very time confusing. It is a very difficult skill to be acquired and lots of practice is required.

As I am making the video, I started to learn so much more about the possibility that Windows Movie Makers can bring in video editing and making.

I think that is all for this week. All the best for the test everyone!

Week 13

Video Editing - Part 1

It's now week 13. The second last week for this semester. We passed up our Module 2 and also E-Book and Lesson Plans.

Module 4 was given last week. I have started doing it but it is very challenging. Personally, it is harder than photo editing as it involves editing animation and movement. I started to learn how to use Windows Movie Maker. It is a very user-friendly programme to create and edit videos. One can add sound clips, slide transition effects and cut and crop different parts of a video using that software.

So that is all for week 13. This course is getting more and more challenging and exciting.

Week 12

Week 12! How fast! Few more weeks to go and we will finish this semester!

For week 12, we were taught on how to create e-book. E-book is an electronic book were no papers are used. Plot, setting, characters, picture and animation should be included. We were to do this in pair and I got Flora to pair up with me. We decided to make an e-book based on her literature work entitled "A Beautiful Swan". It is a story quite similar to Ugly Duckling. The main message that this story wants convey is

that true beauty is in the character of a person. It is not based on the person's outward appearance.

Here are some snapshots of the E-Book!

Week 11

Photo Editing Show Time

The class began by a showcase of some great examples of edited pictures. I consider that for these people, photo editing must be really their "cup of tea". These people did it so well. I think tehy really enjoyed doing it! For some pictures, I cannot really tell that the original picture is what I saw. It looked very different and so much more beautiful and meaningful!

Photoshop and Photobucket were then being introduced to us. We were then asked to edit our own selected picture using Photoshop or other photo editing programme and make it more beautiful and meaningful.

This is the picture that I have chosen:

This is the edited picture:

I made the picture looked nostalgic to show that music can bring people back to the past. The star was added to the finger playing the piano to show that music can bring me to the future.

Then, we were asked to upload the before and after editing photos to Pn Foziah's account in Photobucket. After that, we started discussing the two tasks for Module 2. Looks like mroe work is coming but I believe that it is going to be a fun and challenging experience!

Week 10

It is now week 10! It has turned to a 2 digit week! So fast!

For this week, no new modules were given but we were asked to finish up our Module 2. I was still half-way through. So it was a mercy and precious time for me to finish up the module.

Editing photos is fun! We can create a mood and send out a message through a picture in a more effective way if we edit it. For example, a picture of someone looking to the sky can be edited by adding text like, "Do not be afraid of the future, worry about what you can do today!" This will turn the picture into a motivational picture and tell people a message that we should not worry about our future but worry first about today. Besides, edited pictures can be used as teaching aids as well. We can cut out the faces in the original photo and put our own pictures in it to create fun in classroom!

Other than that, Photoshop CS3 and PhotoScape are 2 very useful softwares. It had answered all my curiosity of how people can change and edit a simple picture to an interesting and more colourful one.