la palace

ROW UR BOAT GENTLY DOWN D STREAM...

2006-12-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

ROW, ROW, ROW ur boat,
Gently down d stream,
If U SEE A CROCODILE,
DON'T FORGET TO SCREAM: "AHHHHH!!!"

We didn't forget to try our hands on rowing a sampan while taking a ride across d Sarawak river- free of charge!No, not d boat ride but d posing for picture taking pretending we were aunties dat row sampans...

My frens gleefully had their pictures taken- nicely smiling while d uncle n d rest of d gang awaited 4 dis whole quite embarassing affair 2 b over as soon as possible.

Nevertheless, d uncle d professional sampan will look d best in d photos as he had years at experience of ang-mos (Caucasian tourists) taking his picture from d rear-end.

Kch city looked so awesome from d sampan, with d waters just few inches away from us.

N now it's my turn 2 row-well i'm faking it for d sake og photo-taking of course. But i never thought it could b dis scary, for me.

During my pose:
Me: Aiyo...d boat can move 1 leh...Pakcik kena pengang mana punya?(D whole sampan was rocking)
Uncle, d sampan rower: Pegang itulah...
Me: Ini kayu ah...Aiyo...kalau nanti sampan gerak sampai air sana macam mana oh?Takut eh...macam mana...pakcik jangan goyang sampan la!
Uncle: Memang sampan bergerak atas air bah...
Jiawen: Look here look here take photo...

Me: (Forcing a smile while beads of perspiration flowed down my forehead) Hehehe...I dun wan d la i scared la...Okok done done...
Jiawen: U din smile nicely in d photo juzt now la...
D rest of d sampan passengers: *thinking* wad la, take a photo oso so hard ah...Banyak lama oui!

REOPENIN~~KCH here i COME

2006-12-06T20:00:00.001-08:00

After about a month staying away from blogging- coz i've other tonnes to do such as eat, sleep, get up, eat, sleep, tv time, watchin Korean drama, HongKong soap operas and go over the cycle reciprocately...i 've decided not to let la palace in becoming a palace infested wid cobwebs of ancient posts.

So here is d reopening of la palace, which its existence used 2 b 2 make up my assignment marks, n now here will b d platform 4 people 2 read bout matters swirling around my life. Dun worry, as u read along dis line, u r officially a member of d kepo club a.k.a: busybody-always-love-to-noe-bout-people's-life-but-dun-even-care-bout-d-life-o-death-of-
ur-pet-dog-o-siblings-alike club.

Somewhere in November 2006, I've finally talked my frens into visiting Kuching for d very 1st time.

Kuching is not a bored-u-to-death place after all, as i've always categorized it. Look at their happy faces: Yuan, Woon, Wen n Ju. Me d cutest 1 infront.

On the very 1st day in Kuching, we decided to visit one of the famous landmark in Kch, the Fort Magherita. We paid 30cent per person 2 get d sampan 2 go 2 d fort, which is unbelievably cheap. The way up to the fort from d jetty where we stopped was not as pleasant as we'd thought. Some sort of like jungle trekking all d way up to d hill where d fort was located. Most of us suffered from itchiness as a result of unknown insects bite.

I didn't have d chance 2 visit d fort during my primary 6 graduation trip though, which made dis my very 1st blunder journey here- was wearing my hot pants n red slippers dat day. My legs r very attractively accessorized wid red spots all over when i reached home.

Halfway up the hill...
Ju: Woi! Very gatai leh!

Woon: Got mosquito la!

Jiawen: Ya lo! Careful ah!

Yuan: -LOST IN TRANSLATION- a.k.a blur...

Me:@#$%&*...kanasai stupid mosquitoes...@#$&*@@#

Ju:GOT SHAKY BRIDGE IN FRONT!!!

Despite all the fuss n noise dat we'd caused, we reached d fort safely. 1st impression, d fort looked like some abandoned 18th century building, haunted. Not a soul was inside, but later on we'd found some kids playing in d fort who were stayin in d kampung just nearby.

We had some fun visiting d fort despite its scary aura- such as poking fun at d 'butt-naked' soldier n for god sakes we did not tear n rape d soldier.

Doing some weird poses at the reali kinda high outlook point.

From d fort, one can c d breath-taking scenery of d Kch city, rite across d Sarawak river.

N heyy, I can c PJ Section 17 from here...

EVERYBODY getting tips…

2006-10-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

HEAD wise…
As I was writing this post, a muscle on my neck connecting to the back of my head is constantly twitching. I was generously spreading the Indonesian “Balsam Gosok” on to my neck and now I smelt like my grandma: camphor-ish. Towards the end of the semester my health: body, soul and mind usually suffer due to heavy work load. My vitality and creative juices were running dry. I recalled back to my previous posts such as “Sounds kinda fishy in here” and I was surprised that the post actually had a lot of energy in there: wittiness and critical appraisal. I was desperately in need of long holidays and I could hang out at Sematan Beach swimming and jelly-fish kayaking (meaning one could kayak while watching jelly fish floating nearby…SWEET~) by the sea. I was looking forward to my dear friends’ visit to Kuching in November (Sin Yuan, Mei Ju, Jia Wen, Hooi Woon and her friend). Can’t wait! Woo-hoo!

With the coming holidays as motivation, writing this post seemed to be an ease. However, I lost my whole file half-way writing the post and this was my second draft re-writing the whole thing. No worries, I would still write no matter what. Never say die attitude (what a terrorist).

Like a superstar…
Ms. Sarah from the previous class called me while I was taking my evening nap. I was too exhausted trying to finish up my work and therefore fell asleep. I tried getting up earlier as there was too much to do but I just could not. Sarah’s call served as a wake up call for me and I appreciate it so much (and this evening I had my mum to give me a wake up call. I wonder who’s calling me tomorrow evening…hmm…). Sarah wished to interview me the next morning regarding the integration of blog into teaching and to tell the truth I was not used to people making appointments with me and interviewing me. I felt even greater that Sarah actually printed out the copy of my blog for the interview. Thanks for your support! She asked me a few questions that I had never thought of before like why did I put certain pictures in the particular parts and why did I include a smiley in the middle of the post. Erm…for decorations? To express myself better pictorially? Anyways, it had been a pleasure talking to her. Sarah was an ex-St. Theresan (famous all-girl school in Kuching) and she reminded me of my best mate who was also an ex-St. Theresan studying in Russia.

Sarah’s friend who was also a teacher doing post grad studies came up to me after class and giving me a hand-shake. She told me that she enjoyed reading lapalace. A gush of wind blew my face and I imagined myself having photo shoot for the November 2006 issue of Vogue magazine. Like a superstar…Or was I thinking too much? Hahaha…joking only lah…

SERIOUS business…
Perhaps for the PKEY3101 class, the major concern for students was regarding the up-coming test next week (well, besides the assignment). The Prof. was indirectly giving tips to us for the test during class. Her advice was answer straight to the questions and treats the test as fun (Quite hard for me. I would be shaking and sweating tremendously during the test. Can’t really focus on treating the test as fun).

I Will Try To Answer…
One of the hint for the test was the questions were mostly derived from our lecture and assignment completion experiences.

My very initial practice on the technological tools possible for teaching was on the creation of my blog: lapalace. In short, I would agree that my blogging experience was rather positive as I could reflect more on the day’s lecture, indirectly; this would imply that I would think more. When I engaged in thinking frequently, I would learn and acquire the knowledge in a faster pace. I could write more (or rather, type more), share my learning experiences, communicate and then ultimately, learn more. Due to the fact that I was actively involve in my own learning process when I explore on my own initiative on the blog, I would gain and develop various skills regarding blogging. My posts would be the best prove that there was actually a gradual development going on in my writing. However, the side effects of blogging perhaps would be plagiarism where students would blindly copy and paste information from other sites. Blogging turned out to be a mere burden to a few due to last minute work and bad time management. Some even looked at blog as time consuming. I disagree as the satisfaction of constantly writing the reflection, being able to actually look at my own’s progress through the posts and most importantly being well-known and having my blog read by the mass are the most rewarding of all.
Integrating blog into the primary classroom will not be impossible: teachers would need a specific aim for the teaching-learning activities to use blogging. For example, the purpose of the blog would be for pupils’ record keeping and laboratory report writing for a group Science project. Sharing of information, development in learning, creativity and freedom in the pupils’ self-learning would be promoted.

Next would be on Yahoo! Group. Briefly, on Yahoo! Group, one would be able to share information no matter night or day, enjoy the convenience of getting connected with others to share files and opinions, downloading useful online contents uploaded by the group members, have fast dissemination of information and experience bias free in acknowledgement of the latest news in the group. However, one should pay attention in the management of files on the Yahoo! Group as without a good management and arrangement of the files, the files and folders would get clustered and mixed up.
Yahoo! Group would very much contribute to active online learning. Anytime and anywhere, the teacher could synchronize learning with the whole class without needing to meet the pupils face-to-face. The possibility of integration to the teaching-learning in the classroom is just limitless.

We also tried our hands on the SeedWiki. Just like the two technological tools mentioned above: Blog and Yahoo! Group, Seedwiki is not developed as especially for teaching purposes. However, it is free to be manipulated into teaching-learning in the classroom. It provides prospects for pupils to personalize learning, to cooperate and collaborate while learning, to improve in many skills such as communicating with each other in the classroom and so on. A more visible skill that teacher could actually observe will be on their writing skill on the SeedWiki but there are also the abstract skills being developed such as intrapersonal skills and even psychomotor skills. Although the current SeedWiki do encountered instability and problems, for instance, flooding on the page, over-writing others’ files and many more, one should not disregard the power of the SeedWiki in aiding teaching.

The Prof. also mentioned about the SmartBoard. Besides amazed over the myriad collections of pictures and flash files available in the SmartBoard Gallery, one should use them in education. There is a latest version of SmartBoard available which is the 9.5 versions. Teachers are encouraged to look out for it and if possible to download it as this version has even more collections in the Gallery.

END oledi Lah…
With that said, I hope I could answer the exam questions. Fingers crossed.

an EDGY daY...

2006-10-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

at the EDGE of my SEAT...
ASSIGNMENTSsss due dates are nearing. TESTSsss are nearing. FINALSsss are nearing. No wonder I was really nervous, jumpy and even grumpy. Grey (or rather, I would call 'silver') hairs are popping on top of my head and I'm only 18++ years of age! Sadly speaking, I do have too much to worry.

CLass?
As we had a major PKEY3101 assignment at hands, we were working on our work in class this very day. I was again annoyed by the disconnection from the net at home. OMG!!! What's wrong with TMNet? Desperately in need of a drastic measures, my housemate, dear Sin Yuan called the TMNet hotline (which is not toll free) and the answering machine talked for almost about nothing except advertisements for almost 10 minutes which the talking time will be charged in our next phone bill(good idea of earning money from the innocents and poor university students).
Returning to the mainstream (which is CLASS), Mrs. Lim went into our class today, bringing in a new face with her, Sarah. Mrs. Lim told me that the three of us actually had a thing in common- me, Mrs. Lim and Sarah were all from lovely Sarawak. And in my head I thought of another commonality among us- Sarawakian ladies have beautiful smile and are gorgeous. AGREED.

About ASSIGNment3
I had taken the effort of planning out for my assignment 3 which I was working with Mei Ju, Sin Yuan and Yoy (Siti Nurul Janah- This was my very first time doing a collaboration with Yoy). The motivation for me was the due date for the assignment was like another 2 weeks and there were tonnes to do. Luckily, I had my cutie and sweety group members to help out and devise the burden. ALL FOR 1 AND 1 FOR ALL everyone!
We met up face to face in class and discussed the details of the assignment again. We found out there were some clarifications need to be made by the Prof. We were blessed as the Prof. was going around checking how much we had done on the assignment. I did felt guilty as to tell the truth, I had not worked much on the assignment yet, besides careful planning and researching on the net.
Upon mentioning this, I would like to send my greatest gratitudes to Mrs. Lim for helping our group to set up a 'previous posts' on our seedwiki page so that we could retrieve the files that were being over-written previously. The seedwiki was functioning properly too as she helped in posting messages to Ken to fix the problem that bugged the whole class last week. I never felt happier!!! Perhaps we could meet up and eat cha kueh tiao at Kenyalang Park if she ever go back to sweet-old Kuching (message me: 0123949598 :]). Now, all I need is get the assignment done. ASAP! By the end of this week.

EDGY...
There is 2 more weeks to go before we are off for the Rayas- which left me very 'kin tio' and 'kan chiong'= nervous in Hokkien and Cantonese; to finish up my unfinish business (4 major assignments in total; hou cham ar~). Just let me finish up my work, and I'll pick up pieces of my life and continue to non-stop writing ;P... Enjoy~~

A LiL cloSER to HOME...

2006-09-28T02:48:00.000-07:00

conFESSION of A SEEDWIKI saboTAGER…
Very first thing before I continue on with this week’s entry: I think I had destroyed the help page on SeedWiki. I was trying to post the problems that the class (and I) were facing. I went on the help page, click on edit page and type in all the problems. All of the sudden the rest of the ‘Help’ messages had gone. I sat at the edge of my seat and sweat. Gosh! At the mean time the server was down and I lost connection to the SeedWiki. Wonder what I should do next. To Ken of SeedWiki, “HELLLLLP MEEEEE!!!”

Let’s Chill…
I thought I should take my mind off the SeedWiki problems for awhile. Therefore, during the last one hour class of PKEY3101, I resolved to reflecting on the Prof.’s teachings (more relaxing this way, I guess ). “From Sarawak with Love” was on the SmartBoard with the picture of cute Sarawakians children making ‘V’ signs and cheery smile. Kind of getting homesick for a minute. Although I’m not a pure Sarawakian: actually I’m a Sabahan but my parents and relatives all live in Kuching, Sarawak, I have been missing home for quite awhile. I miss home, I miss my daddy, mummy, brothery (even though he’s a pain in the neck for me, well, vice versa :p), my doggy Coco, my lovely Sarawak Laksa… To my dismay, my mom just called me few days before telling me that I don’t have to go back home as my family is planning to visit KL (for the don’t know how many times already, I have lost count) AGAIN. Why! Why! Nevermind, I plan to go back home no matter what, right after the finals, I will be back home! Yippie! But maybe I need to sponsor my own air ticket. Sponsors perhaps? Please mail me: kylin11@hotmail.com Hehehe…

To Sarawak with L.O.V.E
The land of the Hornbills. The city of cats. The land of vast greeneries and long-winding rivers. With crocodiles mostly. Sarawak.
And the Prof. was in peaceful Sarawak last week. Therefore, this week we were going to talk about SARAWAK! She shared with us the pictures that she had taken of the schools that she had gone to. Unfortunately, I had not been to any of the schools that she had mentioned. I thought that the schools were located ‘in the heart of Sarawak’. To tell the truth, I have never been to a ‘rumah panjang’ (is the museum of Sarawak counted as a rumah panjang? It looks like one…) and I have never been to the famous Sarawak river express boats (I boarded a sampan before at the WaterFront in Kuching…only 30cents!). So, if I were posted to the schools that the Prof. was talking about, I never did mind.
The Prof. was telling her experience visiting schools in Sarawak. Her stories sounded like great adventures: aboarding the weird-looking express boat, crusing on the wide and murky Rajang river (got Crocs or not…) some for about 3 hours and some even up to 7 hours ride, walking through the wobbly some-sort-like-London-bridge hanging bridge and so forth. There were places that I never knew were in Sarawak: Kuala Mani (crooked thought provoking name, now the name was changed into Pangkalan Manis), Selangau, Dalat, and Nan Kiang School. There was also a place that the Prof. adventure team dreaded and left out from their trip: Sungai Arau, as one need to travel up to 7 hours on speed boat and climb a hill in order to get there (sounds very much like Indiana Jones!).

Should Curriculum Drive the Technology or Should Technology Drive the Curriculum?
The Prof. threw a new question to us. The good thing was, I could add this enquiry in my writing. The bad thing was, my mind blurred again as I figure out what it actually meant (perhaps due to brain malfunction again~).

As I thought back, perhaps the idea of driving a car can best illustrate the question. Imagine a brand new BMW M5 sporty car fully equipped with iPod which has the technology of locating your position on a map through satellite transmition. Imagine that the car is yours. Of course as the driver, you would drive the car and travel to places you wish to go. You perhaps would not like the idea of letting the car take you to places that you do not want to go. The car does not have human intelligence. What the car needs is a person to operate and utilize it. Without the driver, the car would be nothing, not even if it is BMW with iPod. The same goes to educational technology. What are the significance of PPSMI, CDI, My-CD, E-bahan, LCD and even notebooks provided by the MOE (Ministry of Education) and schools if they are being treated as holy scripts that were supposed to be hidden and locked in the tower of a palace?

As I had noticed from the Prof., those teachers that got her praises for utilizing technology in the classroom (during her observations in schools in Sarawak) more or less had put much effort in previewing, preparing, presenting, practicing and post-testing (the 5 Ps) the integration of technology in a classroom. The ‘backstage’ preparation and planning for a teacher before ‘presenting an act’ of teaching for the pupils ‘on the stage’ of the classroom was essential.

anCORE...
As I talked about Sarawak this week, I tried eating Sarawakian food at Millenium Court in the evening. I was so joyful to see a stall selling what they claimed to be Sarawak Kolo Mee (Sarawakian Syaiful also knew what is Kolo Mee). Sadly to say, the mee was not even close to the taste of the real, authentic thing. Anyway, I'm looking forward to be back again in Kuching...in November, that is :)

HEADACHE...

2006-09-21T02:02:00.000-07:00

Closer to life…
Got quite frustrated lately. It seems that there has been problem with the local area connections (which is TMnet) for the past 2 weeks. My frustration got very close to calling up the company and forwarding my dissatisfaction. With loads of work to do and assignments due, the disconnection does not help at all. At the moment I was working offline as well, composing my work on the very reliable Microsoft Work (I am not working under Bill Gates and am not involved in any of his promotional campaign).

Prof. was not around…LaLaLa
Relaxation was in mind as the Prof. was not in class today. She was off with official matters and I was waiting for her return next week anticipating what she would share with the class again that she got from her trip. Souvenirs maybe?

We carried on with our work on the Seedwiki while chirping away with my course mates. I heard from Ming Keat that there had been some trouble with Seedwiki for about a week already. He tried to upload his files to his group’s page. He then saved his work but the next day his files did not appear on the page.

I talked to Mrs. Lim in class about this matter. She suggested that we could post our problem to the Seedwiki administration. I tried to do it but unfortunately there was no connection at the moment.

Before I got any closer to banging my head to the window, I better take some time off my old companion, the trusty but quite heavy hp lap top.
CHILL...

sPongeBob SquarE PanTs vs. PaTrick THE StarFish

2006-09-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

THE PRE...
VIRUS ATTACK!!!Literally, I mean, or biologically, on my low-immunity body. Have been coughing all the while as I write this week's entry. Gosh, and I have lost my appetite! Observe, in class, that all I can eat is this packet of sweet-sour orange peels which I share with my friends (and Mr. Sam!).
Throughout the past few weeks, I have been trying to discover whether there is any possible way to upload a video clip here itself, on lapalace. Answer is, not possible, unless one knows and understands CSS coding or even html or java scripting, and perhaps there will be still some degree of possibility to have video clips on the blogs. My next plan? Maybe trying to find a coding expert. I know my limitations, just got a headache after reading some java related scripting. I need the professionals!
I would like to dedicate this week's post to all the readers of lapalace, some maybe by a fluke happen to click on lapalace and also to some who have always been keeping up with my writings. Much gratitude to the Prof. who has never failed to mention lapalace and blissful life @ emily_chim.blogspot.com in the class for giving credits on these constant and with updated reflections blogs. I am just doing my work wholeheartedly and never willingly to compromise with procastination. I never wish to return to my lazy self.

THE WHILE...
It was a Wednesday. I have always loved Wednesday since the start of the semester as I feel Wednesday always ended so fast. Perhaps it is because I have PKEY 3101 class. And this week's Wednesday Mr. Sam had to hurry me out of MK2 as I was still glued to my seat in front of my flat-screen computer.
For those of you who have watched the popular (and my favourite, and also Justin Timberlake of ex-NSYNC member) Spongebob Square Pants, have you ever wonder why Patrick the starfish (who is also Spongebob's best pal) is always so silly or even brainless? Well, as one of my friend pointed out, real-life starfish are brainless. They have no brains! Perhaps there is some truth in this but I do not think sponges have brains, too. So, why does Spongebob always the more sensible and creative one? Again, I wonder...

With that, let's lead into today's class. Intelligence vs. creativity. To the extreme, Patrick the starfish would be the best example of a zero-intelligence entity. The squishy starfish (I have one of him hanging and dangling in my car) and his frequent blank stare to the sea floor and stupidity often generates laughter from the young to the old, though. On the other hand, Spongebob would demonstrate the creativity, most obviously, by creating his under the sea house out of a pineapple (I never would have thought of that!). A kid would say:"Spongebob is definitely smarter than Patrick! Patrick lives under a big semi-sphere rock!"

Indubitably, one would need a certain extent of wisdom to have creativity. What knowledge that one would be creative with if one have nil intelligence? The Prof. asked each person in the class to rate ourselves on the scale of 10 of how intelligent or creative we are. Affected by my sense of modesty, I rated myself as 5 on the intelligence and 6 on the creativity. Quite reasonably, as this put me twice as more intlligent than Patrick the starfish, if he was the example of zero intelligence. I do admit that sometimes I may not be that bright, especially on things related to numbers. You may tell me that this number plus this number and minus this number and then divide by two would be the amount that I owe you on lunch, but I would stare at you blankly and go: "Huh? What's the last amount again?" Guess that's my weak point, logical and mathematical intelligence.
Gardner (1989: found in Mok Soon Sang, 2006) explained that every human inherits eight different types of intelligence. He was the guy behind the famous multiple intelligence theory. We tend to focus on the cognitive intelligences such as linguistic intelligence and logical-mathematical intelligence, especially in education nowadays. Non-cognitive intelligences tends to loss emphasis, such as music and kinaesthetic. Thus, teachers should pay attention to the different intelligences of pupils so as to promote an overall development, as being highlighted in the Malaysian National Educational Philosophy (NPE).

David Copperfield? David Blaine? No, it's the Prof.
The Prof. unexpectedly showed us an 'abracadabra' and we were in few minutes bewitched by her few seconds of magic show. She took a book, first flip, and all we saw was blank pages. Second flip, and all we saw was pictures and on the third, we saw all words. How did she do that? The wise Guru Melwindar to the rescue. She revealed the trick that with just the correct cut at the sides of the paper, for instance, by cutting on the top edge of the papers one would be able to flip the pages that show the desired pages, such as only the picture pages. The 'abracadabra' hit me with an idea: to make lessons fun, teachers can learn some trick which in return, the teacher would gain pupils' precious attention in class, as being done by the Prof. Before this the class was in a near chaos and during the magic everyone was intensely watching her in action.
The lecture continued with the class being marketing officers. We need to promote our magical trick book by coming out with an attractive title, one-liner, and a jingle. During the process, each of us indirectly was demonstrating our own unique intelligence. Fatihah was evidently good in her musical aptitude while I could never imagine winning the laughter and applause from the class by standing at the front, miming. That's said, I never would mind any Hollywood directors and producers signing me up for their Hollywood blockbusters. Do email me at kylin11@hotmail.com or even kylinkho@gmail.com just in case my hotmail add got overcrowded (who knows one day I would be that popular!). At the mean time, I think I am going to stick to my future, more prominent prospect as a primary school teacher (and I am proud of it!).

The POST that relates back to THE PRE...
"Xue Ru Ni Shui Xing Zhou, Bu Jing Zhe Tui." (Sorry for not typing this in Chinese, I don't have the Chinese Star Software at the moment.) That's a famous sayings in Chinese that the Prof. flashed on the SmartBoard at the beginning of the lecture. Learning is like rowing a boat upstream, if you don't keep up with learning, you will fall back. Just two days ago, I and my partner Sin Yuan were trying to find related article on our EL subject on Korean culture in the library. For some reasons, we could not find useful resources from the main library and we ended up at the Peringatan Za'ba library. Being first timers to the library, we firstly got lost at the Pengajian Asia library (which we thought quite odd at first why the books are all in Chinese and Tamil not knowing we are not at the right place). Then, when we finally found our way to Za'ba, the librarians at first asked us to go up to first floor while the materials that we needed were actually at the lower ground floor. Once at the correct place, we could not find the correct shelves to where our references were. A thought of giving up flash through my mind. I was so tired and I had a terrible fever few nights before and I was still sick. I clenched my fists and said to myself never was I going to give up! One of the reason was we were very desperate for more information to write the research paper for our EL subject. That was when miracle happened. I saw there were more shelves on the right corner of the library and miraculously I walked to the exact shelf where the book that I was looking was there.

In my own dictionary, the phrase "giving up" shall no more exist.

References:
Mok, Soon Sang, (2006). Education Studies for KPLI (Theme 1): Educational Psychology. Multimedia-ES Resources Sdn Bhd:Selangor.

A BuilD-UP

2006-08-31T19:48:00.000-07:00

Still under construction...

Before I started composing this week's blog, I had risked the possibility of destroying lapace's bluish-polka dotted webpage. Just because of my own curiosity wondering whether I could alter with the codes in the template by pasting a video CSS codes- could turn lapalace into a mess. However, it's a beautiful Friday morning and there would be no other things that I could do better than reflecting on my PKEY3101 class that I had two days ago. Therefore, with heartfelt apologies and regrets, I would announce that lapalace is still under construction of upgrading in order to add in some animations rather than having mere pictures all the time.

Speaking of the class...

Talking about the class, I was not behaving like my usual self. Negativity was dawning on me. I was passive and had not much words to say. Perhaps it was due to the holiday season (and the long list of celebrations- I kept quiet when the Prof. query about the plans for Merdeka Day and HOLIDAY...shy~). Now, I regretted that I did not went up to the Smartboard and try out the coursewares (so did the rest of the class) that were presented by the Prof. She got them from the UK and it would be difficult to get them in our local market. However, I was trying out the activities shown by the Prof. in my head and I personally thought that the Mathematics activity involving the triangles and fractions was interesting. Although I'm minoring in Science Education, I understand that creating a Mathematics activity that integrates the Smartboard could be quite hard. The other activities were actually very simple yet innovative. So, when I stared at the activities shown to us I actually thought that- Hey, I should have thought of that when I was doing my Smartboard assignment. That was what would happen if one thought too much when doing things. As the Chinese saying goes, everything starts from the simple.

Assignment wise...

The jovial Prof. explained to us the details of assigment 3 which would require us to go on seedwiki and jot down our findings and progress (which reminded me that our group's table on seedwiki was still a stunning -blank-). Therefore, I set aside my passiveness (another symptom I got from the holiday mood) and quickly started looking for useful readings on the learning principle's regarding the children's curiosity while the Prof. left us to do our own research. Again I was confused for awhile as the Prof. said that we could complain to the Head of the Department of any disagreement of she leaving the class in an instant - hey, she IS the Head of the Department! Anyways, we got loads of fun work (work suppose to be a positive idea therefore to reinforce there is the addition of "fun") and in my view I was glad she was off the class awhile so that I could end up with something by the end of the class.

I was about to put my hands on the tables of criterion for our group on seedwiki only to realise that I had numerous questions that needed to be cleared off my heads. As a group we discussed but to clarify certain things we asked the Prof. To contradict to my previous view, I was glad she was in class again.

After listening to the Prof.'s explanation and advise on having no fear in carrying on with our ideas, I continued my search on children's curiosity. While the cat's curiosity would kill itself, the children's curiosity would instead act as a springboard along the way in their learning. Thus, leading us to the basis of Assignment 3 - how to meaningfully address the children's curious nature and instill a love of learning. At the moment, my group was still researching on the first topic for the group that was regarding "Curiosity in Children". My group did posted some related articles and if you were also as curious as me do go find out: www.pkey3101.seedwiki.com and click on my group: Group 1.

Old granny's doings...

As I sat on a rocking chair in front of my beautiful lapalace, I reflected back on all these while writing and stating my thoughts lines after lines after lines of words. It had been half a semester since the my very first post and I slowly evolve from the mildly technology-resisting girl into a not-at-all technology-resisting girl (yes, I'm still a girl- not lady, not woman). However, I'm still the girl who is quite afraid of getting my hands to do assignments- scary~.

Many happy readings-doings-thinkings-writings-typings everyone.

Happy holidays!

sOme 1 GeTTin enGaGed?

2006-08-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

Beforehand...

First of all, special thanks to everyone who have been keeping an eye exclusively to Lapalace. Although this might mean that I would feel greater pressure in producing my future writings, by being consciously aware that there are people out there interested in what I put in writing would keep me inspired to write and write and write...
Earlier on, before I scribbled anything on this week's blog, I had experimented with blogspot on whether it was possible to upload video and animated graphics on Lapalace. I found out that one would need the CSS codes of the videos and graphics and paste these codes in the template. Confused? Well, for now I have not successfully done it yet. I'm looking forward to share it here. So look out for up coming posts y'all!

Going inside my head...
It was another Wednesday, and there I was mingling with familiar faces. However, today my head felt so heavy because of the late night assignment completing the night before. As a post-result of the previous class, I wonder what the Prof. would bring to class today. New toy?Spongebob soft toys rather than toy fish? Nope. She brought along Mdm. Lim and Mdm. Foo to class this time. Realize the Prof. never fail to bring in surprises and something new into class each week? And the way she did it seem to be so effortless! I'm way too impressed. Anyway, let's wonder back to the main discussion.

As I was yawning away before the class started, Mdm. Lim came up to me and asked whether I was Siaw Hui. Hey, how did she know my name? I thought she was giving me a free lunch later in the cafe for having the "Best Yawn in B.Ed(TESL) Class" (my apologies: I Didn't mean to be so drowsy.) To my dismay, it was not about free food. Yet, it was about something more rewarding than a free lunch that I may find very useful in everyday work in the near future. It was about WIKI.

Taking In Something New...

A Wiki? Immediately I was thinking about Wikipedia. Almost everyone would be familiar to Wikipedia (it's the most frequently visited site when I'm doing my assignments. Nope. I DID NOT COPY from there :P). Mdm. Lim was kind and generous enough to explain to me and Mr. Sam about the fuctions of a Wiki and where we can create our very own wiki. It was very unexpected that it was actually very simple and free. You could just go www.seedwiki.com to generate a wiki that belongs to you. Sounds very much like constructing a website or a blog? One thing unique about Wiki is that anyone could edit the posts being uploaded by different authors.

I was still in confused state because this was my very first time being exposed to Wiki. However, I tried to think of the possibilities of Wiki to be used in my daily life. As Mdm. Lim mentioned, I could start my discussion page with my group members and anytime I could upload my files or messages. Thus, there will be no such a need to wait up to hours for my group members to get online so that they could send to my e-mail the required files or to have discussion through MSN messenger.

So, how about in education? In the future undertaking, my work in teaching should be the centre of my life and therefore I wonder what Wiki could be applied in education. I did a reading on the files that the Prof. had uploaded on yahoo!groups and found that Wikis had been used successfully in education (Collaborative Software Lab, 2000; Guzdial, 1999). www.profetic.org:16080/dossiers/dossier_imprimer.php3?id_rubrique=110 There are many cases that Wiki had been integrated in classroom teaching and teachers had yield positive results, for example, by doing classroom projects and as a Q&A site so that teachers and students could access on the Wiki itself. Another great thing about Wiki is that there are lesson plans that have merged the usage of Wiki which could be retrieved online for others to refer to and adapt into teaching.

As I listened intently to Mdm. Lim, the Prof. started her lecturer for the day. By now, I was wide awake because I realised that I had gained something new and useful and could not wait to try out the wiki. The class started as the Prof. began with pictures of students being engaged. Therefore, this is the premise for the title of this week's post - someone getting engaged? Not in terms of the pre-marriage thing that most young and madly in-love couples do. Instead, it was students engagement in the lesson in class that the Prof. was talking about. Seriously speaking, there were students who went through the whole primary school education and still could not read nor write. In my perspective, perhaps students' engagement was the problem. Students came in to class, stared at the board for few hours as the teacher scribbles things only she could comprehend and then went back home. Have teachers ever wondered the stares of students to the front of the class really meant that the learning processes were taking place? So, what the teachers should do to ensure students are really engaged to the lesson? Grab a student and shake him real hard while screaming: "C'mon! Engagement! Engagement!"

Perhaps one of the way had been cleverly demonstrated by the Prof. on this week's lecture. She showed us some classroom pictures during the start of the class and we were trying to figure out what was her message through these pictures (Nevertheless, I was also identifying Mr. Sam's pictures that the Prof. have included on the slides). The class was engaged to her lecture, we did stare on the Smartboard but there were mental processes going on in our heads!

Another thing that I managed to take in during the lecture while I was exploring the Wiki was this poem:

If you seeIT,
Then you'll knowIT
And you'll poeIT.

OR RATHER,
If you poeIT,
Then you'll seeIT,
And you'll knowIT.

Anyway around, the poem means that teachers should take into account the students' needs, level of proficiency etc. in order to use the appropriate pedagogy of ICT teaching. Therefore, ICT in education will not only be the icing on the cake but rather a powerful resource that all children could enjoy and be engaged to. In relation to this, I could predict that there would be an assignment coming our way regarding how to use ICT in teaching while supporting the learning principles. As I predicted (well, actually the Prof. had been mentioning about the assignment since last week and no I do not have six sense), we had a new assignment now. The good thing is, I can have some fun using the newly acquired skills on functioning a Wiki on www.pkey3101.seedwiki.com while doing my assigned work.

Happy Working y'all!

References:

Fountain, Renee. (n.d.) Wiki Pedagogy. Retrieved August 24, 2006 from www.profetic.org:16080/dossiers/dossier_imprimer.php3?id_rubrique=330

sounDs kinDa' fiShy in heRe...

2006-08-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

What I noticed...
Mr. Sam, the Prof's assistant walked into the computer lab with a posh, biege-coloured, square-shaped, ladies' shoulder handbag and looked quite peculiar. I was curious about the contents of the handbag. Something was kind of funny today. Squeaking sound came out of the bag as the assistant's hands went into the bag. Next thing I knew, the Prof was throwing toy fish around the classroom and I was giggling away while trying my best to avoid being a target - being hit means u need to answer questions!

Inside my head...

"The Day I saw fish flying, I found a better way to live and learn in school." (fish!philosophy)

I decide to do an online searching about the fish philosophy which was mentioned by the Prof. I figured out that it should be something outstanding as it is the reason the Prof. decided that this week there would not be any heavy assignments after we had hand-in our Smartboard lessons. The Prof. was in a vivacious mood today as she let us had some fun by throwing fish around the class, she wore her smile everywhere she went, answered our questions if we had any and lastly, no assignments for the week! How blissful life can get than this? Therefore, the fish philosophy had to be something.

The fact was, the fish philosophy came up from the Pike Place Fish Market which was very popular. Yes, the fish market, a place where they sold fish. Just in case if you were as lagging behind from the talk of the town like me, Pike Place Fish Market was the fish market which adopted the culture of throwing fish around and having fun with the customers which in turn helped tremendously in their fish sales. There were many sites on the internet that talked about the place and the awesome services that it provided to the customers and many brought their philosophy into their work place. One more thing, it even had its own websites where customers could order and buy fish online! This should be on Ripley's Believe it, or not!

I realized that the Prof. was imitating the fish mongers of Pike Place Fish Market. She threw fish around the lab and we were tempted to unleash our childlike innocence by having fun throwing fish to each other. So much fun, attention (despite those who were lost in their own world staring at their screen at the back of the lab), and laughters were generated. However, we felt a bit awkward as sadly, perhaps, it had been so long that we had any fun during lectures. All the class did was glued to the individual places and copy every single word the Prof. said like there was no tomorrow.

If only we could have that much of energy, enthusiasm, passion and fun in the classroom, everyday will be so looked-forward to and memorable for the students and teachers. Students will be unwilling to leave school at the end of their schooling and truancy will be put to nil. I was put into deep thought as the Prof. asked the class: "Could you remember any teacher who was always there for you, who had left a deep impression on you that till now you couldn't forget?" Honestly and sadly speaking, none. When I go to school, I do not wish that I will be the spare entity to be forgotten by students, the one that the students can do without. How sad and hurtful could it be to hear from your students: "Huh? You used to be my teacher?"

The four tenets of fish philosophy:
1. Play: Have fun!
2. Make their day: make people happy!
3. Be there: not necessary physically, mentally is good enough.
4. Choose your attitude: Be nice, don't be a pain in the neck for others.

Notice that the Prof. had accomodated the above points into today's lecture and she had definitely had my heart for her future lessons. In my thoughts, in life as well, one should have the fish philosophy in them. From being a 'toxic' person who always be malancholy, negative, take things too seriously, and practise extreme sarcasm, one should evolve into a 'nourishing' being. Here, being 'nourishing' does not mean that you provide milk for a person till they feel their skin is soft and supple. 'Nourishing' refers to positivity, have fun, take things seriously but do not go overboard, and practise giving motivating remarks. Another observation that I would like to bring in is how niggardly Malaysians can get in giving positive remarks. When someone wears a brand new G-branded dress all they can say was: "New one ar?Where you buy?" or when someone finally got promoted all they will say was: "Finally. I thought you will never got promoted."
Back to the discussion. To me, the fish philosophy is like the carpediam attitude that most English women had during and post World War II in Europe. They lived life to the fullest as they did not know when it was going to end. Live life to the fullest by injecting fun elements into your daily life. When we have the appropriate mindset to do things, things can be done without us knowing it as we have enjoyed so much along the process of completion.

So, start being 'fishy' today. Adopt the fish philosophy into your life as I promise I will in anything I do.

References:
Work that's fun gets done. (n.d.). Retrieved August 15, 2006 from www.grand-blanc.k12.mi.us/qip/fish!%20philosophy.htm

NoT sO orDinary dAy iN MK2

2006-08-10T05:18:00.000-07:00

Thoughts...
After a few weeks of preparing my teaching slides, finally, today was the day to show the rest my creations. I went in MK2 with the swarm of coursemates and successfully got a place at the end of the class. To my disappointment, it was a 'hanging' computer (meaning it hangs when I try to open my files in my pendrive). Nevermind, I will share the computer with my friends sitting in front.

The Prof. gave us an informative lecture and talked about her experience last week observing primary school teachers integrating technology in their teaching. These teachers had attended for technology courses before hand. However, the Prof. pointed out the mistakes or rather irony that happened in the classroom. Although there was the convenience of a lap top and projector for the teachers to use in their teaching, they still use the chalk and board to write their notes for the students. They could type in what they wanted to students to copy down in their exercise books or even prepare powerpoint presentations but perhaps they still could not kick off the habit of writing on the black board. Chalk and talk has been in our teaching culture for decades. It does need a little bit more time or effort to have technology as our main medium of teaching. Maybe a new batch of fresh graduate teachers like me can make a difference in schools? I will try to remember that I should never write with chalk if I have the lap top and have the projector projecting an empty slides as I draw happily on the black board. Never.

Then, it was time for presentations. No volunteers dared to go out first. All of us do not know what to expect from the Prof.

I voluntereed my group after the first group had presented. I had a mixture of feelings as I was quite worried that I would be bombarded with loads of questions (as the first group did) but on the other hand I was eager to know what the Prof. would say about my group's presentation. Me and my group member stand in front thinking bleakly, "Just shoot us!". To our relief, it was not so bad. Just few improvements needed to be made here and there. Phew~

Technology can support a vision but cannot be the vision
As the Prof. wrote these words on the Smartboard, my mind went blank. I got confused for a second. Technology can support a vision but cannot be the vision. Technology can support a vision but cannot be the vision. I repeated several times to get the sense out of it.

The phrase is definitely thought provoking. The development of our country in terms of science and technology has been a rapid one. We are on our way to achieve vision 2020 in which we will be a nation that develops fully economically, politically, socially, spiritually, phsycologically and culturally with the support from the advancement of science and technology. Therefore, in education, technology would support our vision to produce individuals who develop in terms of their physical, emotional, spiritual, social and intellectual. It should not be the vision as whether the technology help promote the overall development of individuals is still a question.

Where would the teachers stand if the technology is the vision in education? Would the teachers be superseded by technology? What happens to their future? Would they be out of job being thrown to the streets? In my opinion, technology in the classroom should be a tool for teaching, just like the text books, black boards, realias and so forth. We would need a professional to manipulate these tools so that information can be transmitted to the students. A professional who has background in learning theories and knows how to fit leaners' learning styles to the appropriate teaching methodology in order to maximize learning is in need. That professional will be a teacher.

Without a teacher, it would be like a very high-tech, brand new hammer without its master - the carpenter. It would be useless.

The future is here, and advances in technology provide unlimited access to learning opportunities never before imagined (Martin D.J., 2006). Teachers should use technology in the classroom to promote the richest education possible for the students and help achieving the vision in education - towards building wholesome Malaysians.

References:
Martin D. J. (2006). Elementary Science Methods: A Constructivist Approach. (4th Edition). Thomson Wadsworth. US.

aN inDESCRIBABLE saTISfacTION...

2006-08-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

Inside my head...

It was a long day and our lovely Prof. was away for official matters. For a second I thought I could relax, lay back and take time to clear things off my 'crowded' head. The next thing I knew I was staring at the computer screen again like there was no tomorrow after Ms. Chin came in and reminded us that the Prof. needed to see our draft on the assignment next week. We were required to construct at least five slaids on the Smartboard Notebook for educational purposes in the primary classroom. There was no time to waste.

SATISFACTION

As I stared blankly on the screen and my fingers tapping on the desk, suddenly I remembered the Prof. did say before that there were plenty of Smartboard lessons available online ready to be downloaded. Cleverly, I found some useful examples and I did adapt those lessons as my teaching slides. It was as simple as 1,2,3. I was kind of enjoying the adapting and creating my own lessons work when it started to rain so heavily and suddenly the lights went off. Ha!Luckily I did save my work just in time and had successfully avoided the most dreaded thing - after a hard day's work on the computer one did not save his precious work.

As there were no lights and internet connections, it was hard for us to continue doing our work in the computer lab. We left slightly early before 3 with my doubts from the previous class not being answered. I thought of seeking Mr. Sam's advice but he was in the other computer lab. I decided to solve my own problem.

A Couple of DAYS later...

Voila!I did it!It was a lovely Friday. Finally, I knew how to upload my self-recorded video into the Smartboard notebook. Never had I experience such great satisfaction when using the technology. It felt as if the very first time the stoneage man had invented the wheel. Imagine the borderless possibility that I could now use the Smartboard to teach in the classroom. Rea-life images are now possible to be brought in front of the children's eyes for the purpose of learning. Therefore, visual learners will learn better with examples that they no longer need to imagine in their little heads as the teacher could barely explain.

Post satisfaction...

I am still trying to do my teaching slaids. This week will be quite busy as I will be loaded with work. However, I still have this deep feeling of satisfaction :).

A' DAY that was all about TRYING

2006-07-27T05:51:00.000-07:00

In my confused mind...
Finally, for the first time, I was sitting at the first row of the class of MK2 (which was not easy as my gang and I had to come half an hour earlier to the class - I did not mind because the lovely LCD-screen computer was all for myself...hehehe~ shouldn't be so selfish ya'). However, the air condition broke down therefore sitting in front was not as cool as I thought.

What I've learnt today...
The very first thing the lecturer and her assistant (Mr. Sam :) ) asked us to do at the beginning of the class was to demonstrate how to orientate the cursor to the touch of our finger on the Smartboard. To grab every chance to try out the smartboard i went up and did it with my sweaty fingers and embarassing stumbles (oops...phew~).

The lecturer continued on to show us some samples of lesson plan that integrated the use of the Smartboard as the class watched with amazement. After looking at some examples, I started to feel that there really are endless, possible ways to use Smartboard in our teaching. One example that was on my mind at that moment was playing language games using the Smartboard with the pupils, such as word puzzles.

The lecturer showed us one example where the teacher developed two squares of different colours. As we dragged a group of letters or words from one side to the other, the words which were visible in one square could not be seen in the other. I tried bravely in attempt to get these effects on my computer's Smartboard and I did it! The trick is? Voila~ By changing colours of the font of the letters, in accordance to the background colours that a person placed the words in. You want it to be seen - just put a different colour to the font from the background and the reverse if you do not want the words to be seen. Simple as that! One only needs to learn the trick and master it.

It was not as hard as I think to use the Smartboard. As Professor Maznah have said, "It is not difficult to do it, once you get a hang of it." True, through trials and trials and even more trials, I believe I will master the art of using the Smartboard.

Digital Citizen vs. Digital Immigrants
One glance at this topic written by our lecturer on the Smartboard, immediately on my mind I was thinking of the Malaysians and Indonesians living in Malaysia. Malaysian will be the citizens or natives of the country Malaysia whereas the Indonesians in Malaysia will be seen as the immigrants. So, therefore my mind concluded, digital citizen will those born in the digital world and digital immigrants will be those who were not born in the digital world.

Not being too sure myself, I tried to check the meanings of these terms on the internet. According to Prensky (2001), digital citizen (or digital natives to be precise) and digital immigrants are used to describe the generation gap separating today's students (the digital natives) from their teachers (the digital immigrants). The digital natives and the digital immigrants live separate style of culture. The digital natives are used to high-speed information receiving whereas the digital immigrants are usually not born in the digital world and have "digital immigrant accent" which will reveal their non-native status (Prensky, 2001).

I was quite unhappy as being a future teacher I would be classified under a digital immigrant. I was raised in the digital world and used to be updated to the latest innovations on the internet such as using ICQ, IRC and MSN. However, perhaps there really are is a breach between my future pupils and me because there are so many new resources and softwares that one can find each day. Pupils maybe proficient in the use of the web. What I can help as a teacher is to teach pupils to recognise reliable resources on the net as there are a mass of knowledge or ideas which can be quite misleading. In addition, the introduction of the Smartboard is capable of getting more of their attention.

I do not believe students learn from computers or teachers - which has been a traditional assumption of most schooling. Rather, students learn from thinking in meaningful ways. Thinking is engaged by activities, which can be fostered by computers or teachers. (Jonassen, 2000)
In my opinion, what is significant in integrating technology in teaching will be to enhance pupils' thinking. Now, not only the teachers will be the scaffolding, but also the technology such as the Smartboard.

Undeniably, the internet will be the primary medium for the emerging culture of the digital natives as they will search any information on the internet because of its high-speed in information attaining. Thus, digital-immigrant teachers definitely will see the significance to incorporate technologies into their lessons in order to bridge the gap between these two cultures.

Today I've questioned...
We had some time to spare to try out other functions of the Smartboard during the day. I tried to upload a flash file on the Smartboard but till now I still could not get it done. I could upload only the hyperlink to the websites. Nevermind, I would not give up easily. I would never stop trying! Next week would forward my enquiries to the lecturer or to Mr. Sam.

References:

Jonassen, D.H. (2000). Computers and mind tools for schools: Engaging critical thinking. Columbus: OH. Prentice-Hall.

Prensky, M. (2001a, September-October). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the horizon, 9(5), 1-6. Retrieved July 27, 2006, from http://marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf

Vanslyke, T. (2003, May-June). Commentary- Digital natives, digital immigrants: some thoughts from the generation gap. Retrieved July 27, 2006, from http://www.wisc.edu/depd/html/TSarticles/Digital%20Natives.htm

we aRe jusT a TOUCH awAy...

2006-07-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

What's on my mind...
It is my second time in MK2 for class PKEY 3101 Technology in Primary Education. Upon entering the class, my eyes blurred by the many faces in the crowded class. For a second, I thought I was in the wrong class. To add that, the lecturer was a male and never had I seen him before. Then, I saw a hand waving to me. Finally my eyes could focus and it was Dashaini. I sat right beside her and although my eyes had cleared, my mind blurred. I thought I was going to be sick.

Anyways, the new lecturer's warm smile eased my headache. We were learning the basic operations of a Smartboard. Yes, the board which the lecturer had shown on the first day of lecturing as we stared at the board with awe.

What I've learnt today...
I had the chance to touch the Smartboard at last after the lecturer and the temporary consultant Mr. Sam had taught us in detail some of the possible functions of the Smartboard. It was an enlightening class as I felt that I had learned some of the most basic and safe way of handling the Smartboard without destroying it.

Firstly, my doubt about how the Smartboard works was cleared. How can a person write on a board without using any ink? Mualah! The Smartboard, the board itself consists of a front and rear. In between the front and the rear there are air gaps. So, if a person touches on the front of the board, a connection is created to the rear. Thus, a touch can be detected.

Secondly, I learned that Smartboard does not operate by itself. One will need to connect a computer or a lap top to the board using a USB port and to the projector using a VGA. Therefore, by knowing this, I would save myself from embarassment of forgetting to include the projector or laptop when doing presentations using the Smartboard in the near future.

Thirdly, the Smartboard is not just about a board with a touch screen and buttons. One can click, create a page of drawings and writings of his own, choose from the gallery and have vast choices on the background and pictures for the page creations, or even move, save and delete and erase his creations. It is a tool of many possible functions or usage depending on how a person wants to use it.

Therefore, why waste such a great electronic tool? Educators see a great practicality in integrating the Smartboard in teaching.

How would the Smartboard affect my work as a teacher?
In my opinion, my work as a teacher will not be as simple as one would perceive. Especially in the modern era of science and technology. Primary pupils maybe more skilful in using a computer if compared to a teacher. Therefore, integration of technology is seen as vital so that educators will not fall behind in the era of advancement in technologies.
The Smartboard is already being used in teaching in the Western countries. According to one of the survey being carried out in the West, there is a high degree of satisfaction from educational leaders ranging from early elementary to academic settings (Dr. Bell, M.A., 2002).

Children's attention span is getting shorter nowadays with many inventions far more modern than what we have 10 years ago. Computer online games, playstation2, PDAs, handphones, satellite tvs and many more are getting more of their attention. A teacher will need more than a chalk and a black board to attract them into his lesson. Thus, using a brand new Smartboard will be a breath of fresh air in the classroom. It is clean as it does not need any chalks (merit for that!) and it is very attractive even for older students. Moreover, a teacher will no longer need to buy and draw all by himself the characters of a story on a big piece of mahjong paper to prepare for story telling in a class. The Smartboard will be time, money and energy conserving. He can just find for pictures and background on the internet or softwares to suit his teaching and he can even add animations. Indirectly, pupils' different learning styles can be catered to. Pupils who are visual learners will acquire knowledge better if they can actually see the animations. This is especially good for teaching the Science subject on the topics which are more abstract and most pupils find difficult on; for example, the topic of The Earth and the Universe. The teacher can present a 3D-animation on how sun and moon eclipses are formed.

The Smartboard is a kid magnet (Dr.). Pupils are very drawn to it and inhibited pupils can be encouraged to join in to contribute ideas by tapping on the screen or writing. Therefore, they will have more sense of confidence in them which will then elevate their learning.

I had been to a Year 3 class in which the teacher integrate computers in her teaching. Pupils were required to share the computers in pair as there were no enough computers in the laboratory. The pupils were very eager to use the computers. However, problems occur as the pupils' computers were not syncronized with the teacher's. It was hard too control the class because pupils kept wondering off from the page the teacher required the pupils to be. Then, some computers had problems starting and some could not run the software. With the Smartboard, pupils can participate as a group in class discussions. The teacher could control the class better as the attention is to the front of the class where the board will be.

The use of Smartboard in the classroom has required I, as a future teacher, to better equip myself in the knowledge of operating a Smartboard and the application of softwares useful in teaching, such as microsoft word or powerpoint. Every lesson is like a presentation of wonderful creations using the computer.

Hopefully I can learn even more of the Smartboard and the possibilities in teaching that it offers. Therefore during my future lessons, my class will run smoothly when using the Smartboard instead of hearing me shouting: "Hey, pressing this supposed to work (as I press and press even harder on the screen till it nearly creates a hole)!" or even "Oh, God. I should have listen when the lecturer taught me how to use this in UM. Now the Smartboard is really useful. To paste pupils' artwork at the back of the classroom!"

References:
Dr. Bell, M.A. (2002, January). Why Use An Interactive Whiteboard? A Baker's Dozen Reason. Retrieved July 19, 2006, from http://teachers.net/gazette/JAN02/mabell.html

Marilyn, Elias. (2004, May 4th). Short Attention Span Linked to Tv. Retrieved July 20, 2006, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-04-05-tv-bootomstrip_x.htm

Reflection on 1st day's class pkey3101

2006-07-11T22:44:00.000-07:00

Has Technology Really Changed The Way We Do Things?

First glance on the title of what our lecturer needs us to ponder on this week: I could not agree more. From personal communication with loved ones using the internet chatting to doing serious business like registering our courses for the new semester and bidding for softwares on lelong.com, technologies undoubtedly have changed the way we live life from how our ancestors did. Speed is gold nowadays..with the advancement of technologies..we do not need to spend long hours to queue up when paying bills. We are just a click away.

However on 2nd thoughts., for people like me that gets frustrated easily when using the computer, dealing with the computer can seem to be a difficult task. Sometimes for my presentation of my assignments I need extra time to seek help from my fellow coursemates in order to fix up my laptop and the LCD projector as the image suddenly could not be projected at the very last minute. This can be frustrated as technologies are supposed to be used to save time but instead my audience need to wait for almost half an hour for my presentation. Therefore, problems that occur when using technologies can be frustrating and sometimes i would rather stick to the old methods of presentation: the white board.

So, there are people out there who prefer to do certain things the old ways. In one primary school that i've been to to teach and observe experienced teachers teaching, most of them prefer the chalk and talk when teaching as they view that technologies such as integrating laptop or projectors in teaching tend to hav troubleshoots. Then, when they do troubleshoot they need to spend time fixing them in which most of them have not much background in. Pupils' engagement time in learning in the classroom is then shortened.

On the other hand, definitely new technologies still have lots to offer. If a teacher does not learn how to integrate technologies in her teaching, soon pupils will get bored as the teacher only used the orthodox method of teaching. If you are willing to upgrade yourself from knowing the basic such as typing to the complicated such as inserting photos in a word format, you will not be left behind in this modern and technology-emphasized world. Just keep an open mind.

Today I Learn...
To be patient with technologies and realizing that starting up a second blog is not that hard as I've expected...
Adn perhaps in the future i don't have to use the traditional chalk and board when teaching as there's a digital or interactive board available.

Today I Question...
How much IT literate will I get?I hope what I've learnt can be stored in my mind's harddisc so that I can apply them when I'm teaching in schools.
How much does d digital board cost?
I wonder whether the schools that I'm going to have one. Fingers crossed as i don't really like chalks :p.

veRy 1st post on LA PALACE..

2006-07-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

hiaks 2 all...
announcing d birth of my 2nd blog!!
hope dis blog will not b abandoned like my 1st 1 on friendster.blog..hehe
anywayz u can always view my blog at my profile..
at this URL: http://kylin.blogs.friendster.com/kylins_blog/
add me ya
kylin11@hotmail.com
chaus...