Learning Challenges

Finally... about the learning challenges...

What role did the supervisor play?
In this case, Alex did a great job facilitating our online tutorial sessions. Many a times, during these sessions, there were numerous period of total silence - :-) - especially whenever Alex (after doing a long elaboration of a point) suddenly asks a question, all of us will just keep quiet. It wasn't due to the fact we purposely did that, but really, at times, I don't even know where to start or how to answer because my brains will be still processing on what he was saying earlier and not on answering the question (wakarimas-ka? I think those of you who were in my group, you'll understand what I'm trying to say here).

I do like the online tutorial sessions and thought that it was a cool idea to conduct tutorials through skype. Because of this, I'm thinking of incorporating this in my lectures next time round. I particularly like the fact that our blogs are read by not only our set members, but are also diligently read and commented on by Alex. THANKS! I really love getting comments and feedback. At least it makes all the efforts of writing and updating our blog worthwhile.

So, Alex, THANKS for being always patient, helpful and full of suggestions. I believe I will also miss your "questions". :-)

What have I learnt from people's comments and feedback?
I've learnt so much from my set members' feedback and comments that they left in my blog. At the same time, I've learnt a lot from my set members' blogs. A good example is when Seok Binn posted her daughter's keyboard recital through You Tube, really inspired me to do one myself too. There was a time when I forgot how to use certain things, I managed to get the answers from my set members' blogs. I like Melinda's blogs because she really takes the time to list out everything step-by-step on what she had done. This helps "lazy" people like me a lot. :-)

THANKS fellow set-members for making your blogs another resource for me to use during this course of e-learning programme. I truly appreciate it.

Usage of numerous web based technologies

Well, I have to admit, prior to this Learning to eLearn module, I only use the internet to get into my yahoo account, google search for images/contents when I prepare my training materials, use the usual microsoft office programmes... only just recently explored on facebook and blog (this was because I wanted to document my numerous travel experiences somewhere). So this particular module was definitely an eye-opener. I've learnt that the internet provides us with limitless avenues of seeking knowledge and information.

YOU TUBE - a personal favourite. I now use lots of You Tube clips to add value into my training materials so that my training will become more interesting and participants will be able to understand certain concepts better. A take home lesson from this would be when I was inspired by Seok Binn to do a video taping of myself reading out part of our Mission Code Name presentation slide. Actually did not have any knowledge on how to do it. Had to learn through trial and error as well as managed to get a step-by-step instruction on how to do so in You Tube.

How To Make a Video for YouTube Uploading Videos on YouTube.flv
(don't know why the You Tube clip couldn't be downloaded despite trying to do so for more than 8 hours. So I guess you'll have to search for it yourself, while I figure out what happened later)

So what I did was looked at the above video, followed it to the "T". Checked out other information, found out that I had to download ImTOOMP4Video Converter so that I can convert .MOV to MPEG-4. Tried twice using .MOV (which is direct from the my digital camera) to upload into You Tube but after nearly 2 hours, each time, an error message will pop up. As I was unable to upload with .MOV, that's why I tried to convert the file into MPEG-4. Before that, I also checked on the length of the video (thinking that it could be a reason why I couldn't upload) but found out that my video was less than 10 minutes and the size was definitely less than 100MB. So, why couldn't it be uploaded??? It was quite frustrating. However, through sheer perserverance, I tried and tried and tried and guess what, finally, I could upload the YOU TUBE and everything turned out fine. HOORAY!!

Another useful site is SLIDESHARE. The contributors to slideshare are real gems. I've also found a slideshare (refer to earlier posting) that shows very clearly on how to share slides and upload into the blog.

MINDMEISTER - A great tool to use when brainstorming as it captures all ideas and team members can use Mind Meister simultaneously. Our ALS has used this rather effectively. The only concern is that the trial period expires pretty quickly and our mindmaps will not be accessible after that. One thing that we could do is to save it in another file and work from there.

ELGG - I know this was like a "monster" experience for some... but for me, ELGG worked fine. I love the idea that one can post up questions up on the discussion board and other members could comment on them. That way, learning takes place. I know I can use this in one of my existing classes... but the very thought of getting them to sign up and use ELGG faithfully is another matter. I know ELGG has many functions that we haven't truly explored yet.

WIKIS - sad to say, I haven't really been using this, but I think this comes in handy especially when one wants to capture important words/concepts that could be easily accessed.

AUDACITY - lovely tool to record conversations, discussions, recording of singing, etc. I definitely will experiment this and learn more details on how to do editing on the recording. Now that would be my next challenge. I need to know this so that when I develop new training materials for my English programme, I can use Audacity to develop listening recordings/scripts.

GMAIL - never realised how useful GMAIL is. It's better than YAHOO, with more functions. However, we were wondering whether is it true that shared documents cannot be amended simultaneously by different set members? If not, functions of shared calendar, shared documents, online chats, etc. really come in handy.

I believe there are more web based technologies... but the above are the ones that I used and will continue to use in future.

The learning process...

Found this really great learning cycle which I can relate too. It's simple, to the point and succint. Not too sure who came out with this diagram but found it in one of the websites - http://www.interconnections.co.uk/Market/PCFG/learning.htm

Why I prefer this to KOLB's Reflective Learning Cycle is that the above learning cycle is less complicated. The cycle talks about 4 stages - doing, reflecting, linking and planning.

DOING - most of the time, that's how adults learn best. You need to be directly involved in the practical/hands-on part for learning to take place. In our ALS, we do this all the time.

REFLECTING - in our case, this can be seen through our personal blogs that provides us with an outlet for self-reflection as well as for others to comment on our reflections and learn from them. I know I've learnt a lot from the personal blogs of our set members. It not only makes interesting reads, but sometimes, really inspires you to check something out or try something new yourself.

LINKING - we have been doing this all the time throughout the 6 weeks. A lot of the learning process is through linking where we "make connections between experience and ideas" and how these are linked/connected to certain concepts or models.

PLANNING - as learning is an ongoing process, this stage "enables us to modify our actions by deciding how we will do them differently the next time round". Personally, I would have tried updating my blog on a daily basis so as to capture all the essence or immediate reactions/feelings during the learning process. Maybe, I would have practiced more using Mind Meister as when the set members were using it during our Skype online discussion, I couldn't access it and did it together with them.

Traditionally, learning has been associated with reading books, attending
courses and lectures, etc. However, real learning is not just about acquiring
information, but about engaging with it and integrating it so that it affects
not only your thinking but also your behaviour. It has been shown that there are
many different ways to learn, some more suitable to than others.

It's Now or Never... a personal take

I was telling myself, it's now or never. GET down to updating your blog and get it over and done with. Wish I had more time so that I can really have an on-time updating of the blog and that would make it more meaningful. Oh well, will just have to try to make the best of the whole situation.

Ok...I guess the best way to start would be "Let's start from the very beginning... [tune sung by Maria in the Sound of Music]

Actually joined the Learning to eLearn programme because a) wanted to understand the module so that I can promote it better the next time round b) to make up the small number of participants. Came into the class with zero expectation, but then was thrown into the deep end by Alex when he asked us to reflect and come up with a long list of questions. That triggered a lot of other questions that popped into my head. Of course, we had to also get used to our group members which I had 2 from DISTED and Melinda who was new to me then. So a bit apprehensive on the whole thing and how the whole day would turn out to be.

Alex covered quite a lot during the 2-day workshop session. I thought it would have been better if we could really get hands-on experience rather than just listening to him in class. That way, we could follow-through together with his explanation, hence making learning eaasier. But maybe that couldn't be carried out due to our IT facilities - not too sure about it. On Day 2, some of us brought our own laptops. Felt that helped a fair bit because we could really test out the things Alex pointed out. However, lost him half way through Day 2 as I ran into some problems getting into Mind Meister as well as using the Whiteboard. To make matters worse, had to also decide immediately whether to take the easy way out and just join the workshop (for the fun of it) or to take it seriously and join the full module. That means I'd have to committ at least 6 weeks of my time spent learning on this module. In the end, thought, "why not... might as well take up the challenge and see what happens". Towards the end of Day 2, I had to gulp down 2 Panadols due to a raging headache. :-)

TAKE HOME LESSON:
1. Nothing is impossible if one has the passion to learn new things, willingness to try and explore, not shy to ask for help when needed, most are also in the same boat as you.
[How true. Based on personal experience, I don't think I would've survived this module if I didn't promise myself that whatever happens, I will give it my all and try my best to learn as much as I can. I also liked the way Alex played the "hands-off" role - with the exception during the online tutorials - as this enables us to learn independantly and really explore/discover our latent abilities. This is so different from classroom teaching where students expect teachers to spoon-feed every time. A quote from Lao Tzu very aptly sums this feeling "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Thank you, Alex for doing just that. I really appreciate the whole learning process.]

2. Always generate questions in the beginning so that at the end, you can check whether all those questions have been answered by yourself.
[Initially I really detested this part. Each time we speak to Alex, or even during the online discussion board in ELGG, he will always generate questions from our answers. I feel as if my head is being squeezed like an orange whenever I try to answer his questions. What's worse, you really have to think through his questions in order to answer them. And answer them in such a way that Alex cannot ask any further questions from it... really tiring. Come to think of it, this is also part of an auditing process to really get into the core of something. If the person can answer all the "why's" then we know that person has really understood the question/process.]

3. Never underestimate your own potential
[How true this is. Initially, Melinda was the one that keeps on saying "Aiyo, so hard... don't know whether can do it or not..." but in the end, I believe she has explored into many new areas that even I myself haven't done so e.g. the very cool Mr VOKI, Camtasia, etc. Also, Hazel was also sharing about her hearing difficulties and lack of IT skills... but in the end, WOW... she really pulled her weight in the team and was one of our major contributers. Of course, I must not forget I Ling and Seok Binn as well - I Ling, came already equipped with the IT skills (I believe she has the most experience in IT skills) and Seok Binn - I was really impressed with how she managed to video tape her daughter playing the keyboard and downloading that into her blog. It was because of her, that I also decided to explore on how to do it and GUESS WHAT... I also managed to do a video tape, downloaded into the blog. What a great sense of achievement after going through it.]

That's it for now...

Okey dokey... that's it for now. Time's already nearly 11pm. Need to get up early for tomorrow's TREASURE-WALK-HUNT. Imagine, we'll be walking for 4 hours around town area, deciphiring cryptic clues in order to answer the questions asked.

Stay tune for new posts on my learning experience... will try to update as soon as I can, ok... be patient.... Bye and nite-nite.

FAQs on Summary Proposal

The group decided to prepare a list of FAQs based on the Summary Proposal. This is in lined with what Alex shared with us in Day 1 - that is in order to gain insights, we need to question the questions... hope that the FAQs would be able to answer any unanswered questions arising from the proposal presentation this afternoon.

FAQs on SUMMARY PROPOSAL:
1. How much will this cost the government to implement?
A: If the goverment had started the hardware and software aplication, the learning will be FREE

2. What initial investment will be needed in the technology?
A: The hardware, computer/ laptop, able to access internet, headset/microphones

3. What training would be needed for staff to start to E learn?
A: Preferably Action Learning, basic computer skill, how to do internet searches, install sofware, upload and download file, sharing file, email, basic Microsoft skills

4. What speed of internet services would be required throughout Penang?
A: Wi-fi or land line would do

5. Will the government staff be ready for E learning? What are the skills needed?
A: In this globalization world with rapid changing in electronic technologies, I believe your staff be more or less ready, moreover human workforce need to equip with the skills in technology application to keep up-to-date

6. Do the government need to change a new set of server to cater for your e-learning?
A: No, preferable with internet accessible.

7. Will the staff need to go for long training - please specify the days of training so that we can plan to bring in backup staff.
A: No, just 2 days of briefing on Action Learning set and introduction of internet application.

8. Can you send me the text manual before hand and let me go through?
A: There are no text manuals, but everything is from online resources.

9. You mentioned so many software applications, if the government decided to purchase will it not be very costly?
A: Most of the mentioned software application are free online.

10. When can the staff reach their skills competency?
A: When the staff is able to collaborate, to share their ideas, and use the technologies wisely, they are deemed competent. Each individuals have their own learning pace and the learning of skills depends on the competency, knowledge and skills obtained by individuals.

11. How to implement it? Which government department to kick off first?
A: Immediately after the briefing, and any government department can choose to go first.

Summary Proposal to the State Government

Thought everyone might appreciate being able to read our 2-page summary proposal to the State Government on the benefits of action learning/elearning.

*********************************************************

I'm sure you would like to know how E Learning could benefit the Government.
The benefits are as follows:

1. It's flexible and accessible for your workers –
Most of our action learning/e-learning courses can be done on-line, so your people wouldn't have to be grouped together in the same place at the same time. They can access e-learning at any time and anywhere.

2. It's inexpensive –
Formerly a lot of money has been spent on engaging outsource/independent multimedia course supplier companies to provide with the training. This is different.

3. Membership of a global learning community would connect Penang to the rest of the world -
Government workers would become students of internationally recognised standards. They would interface with other students from around the world and have access to the learning resources that comes along with such a population. This would help to keep standards in Penang up to date.

4. It offers a different approach in the learning environment –
Your people would be learning in different ways eg. Reading, listening or watching (mostly online courses, e-learning classroom, workshop, etc). In addition, they also can log into forum groups to communicate via SKYPE or Messenger to receive/updates of the latest information about relevant fields.

5. It engages interaction through problem solving and learning –
Your people would interact with other set-members in seeking answers, problem solving and end result learning. through collaborative work in problem solving such as using mind maps and group discussions. They would brainstorm and collect various pieces of information to solve problems abstractly.

6. It offers Informal learning –
Your people would be managing their own personal learning by searching and accessing all kinds of resources: videos, podcasts, blogs, wikis, mindmeisters etc. You would see them creating their own resources and storing them for easy retrieval, idea sharing and social networking to share good solutions and ideas.

7. This approach encourages collaboration –
You would see your people make connections with other set-members with whom they can communicate and share ideas, resources, experiences and so on. They would use new tools to self-organise, to collaborate and co-create content and generally work and learn together. This would create a model for teamwork to help the workforce to create a collaborative work ethic.

8. Progress records would help you overview learning-
The learning process of all students can be recorded and monitored and the information could be used to identify appropriate future leadership candidates. It could also be used to help identify areas of need within public services where further professional development or input from specialists might be required.

9. This creates a win-win environment –
This would ensure that your people would become more participative, social and collaborative. This will develop a collaborative culture in the workplace – people will be supporting each other to learn at their own levels.

10. You would have the formation of long term skilled work force -
The newly skilled worforce will be able to share their skills and train others to work in this way, so the skilled workforce will become regenerative, with a ripple effect.

Some of the benefits to individual workers would be as follows:

1. Workers will become tecnologically competent in use of areas such as online tutorials, blog, networking, and most important of all collaborating together.
2. They will be able to select appropriate tools to use online.
3. They will learn to work together, reading, listening, watching, sharing and connecting with others.
4. Individuals will learn to work independently or collaboratively and to to work to achieve expected outcomes

So in conclusion - we hope we have impressed you with the multi level benefits of E learning and would value your feedback when you have had some time to review the proposal at length.

Invitation to an English Tea Reception...

Welcome, welcome... after the "stressful" presentation to YB Saudara Lim Guan Eng and his exco members, everyone adjourned to the tea reception. :-)

All enjoyed a sumptuous tea comprising of English scones, strawberry jam, yummy pastries, chocolate cake topped off with hot piping tea... Gave hugs and kisses to everyone, we shared a few heartfelt parting words.

Seriously, guys, I couldn't have asked for better ALS members. Each and everyone of you were great. As each of us had our strengths and weaknesses, I think we all supported each other really well and towards the end, we managed to complete our mission - YAY! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Now, onto concentrating on updating our personal journal and reflect on our learning process... thank heavens we still have 1 more week to go.

Tea Reception

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Tea Reception

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Mission Code Name: ACT 09

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Mission Code Name: ACT 09

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Final Presentation - Mission Code Name: ACT 09

3pm, 3pm, 3pm... please come soon. I just wanted to get the presentation over and done with so that I can get on with my blog, submit it hence completing the whole CPPD eLearn full module.

Boy oh boy, what a night last night. Stayed up until 3am 'cos had to prepare for today's presentation of the CPPD eLearn proposal as well as preparing training materials for a group of 170 teachers on a topic (would you believe it) ~ Stress Management. As if I don't have enough stress on my plate. The irony of it all was that, I was supposed to share with the teachers on how to manage and control their stress level, and here I am, so stressed out with conducting the training and at the same time, so stressed about the 3pm presentation. Rushed back after training at about 2pm, took a quick bite, then logged onto Skype. Quite apprehensive about the whole thing, but the good news was that Alex won't be in the presentation (Praise God!... no offence, Alex... but your presence would've really added more stress to the group).

Everything went as per planned, I did the presentation on the slides, Hazel covered the summary proposal, Seok Binn and Melinda did the audio and video taping, I Ling provided technical support. Priscilla was invited as well and she joined in for a short while. Had quite nice comments from her,

All in all, I thought everyone did a great job. Ended up - I enjoyed the session and everyone heaved a huge sigh of relief when all was over. As I had prepared a digital English Tea Reception after the presentation (refer to the following posts), we adjourned the session on a rather high note. EXCELLENT WORK, EVERYONE!!!

How to upload slideshare presentation into blog?

That was my dilema just now... Initial reaction was to just pick up the phone and call one of the gang for answers... Then I remembered Alex mentioning, how can one get answers independantly and learn from it? That's when I decided to check out slideshare presentation itself and found this really great, simple and clear step-by-step instruction on how to exactly upload slideshare presentation into the blog.

(Note:Another great site for answers would definitely by YOU TUBE.)

Oh, was wondering whether anyone can help answer to my problem - after uploading the slideshare presentation on how to embed slideshare slide into the blog, I decided to edit it a bit and add on my comments to it. After trying numerous times, each time, I edited that particular post, the slideshare slide actually changed to something else. WHY? WHY? WHY? Help... anyone who can solve this mystery?

Embed slideshare into wordpress blog

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Embed slideshare into wordpress blog

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Double, Double, Toil and Trouble...

EXTREMELY true. Was supposed to have our 3rd online discussion yesterday, but don't know what happened, my internet connection went "kaput". The most unfortunate thing was that it happened when I was half way updating my blog. Boy oh boy... I had to really count till 10 to restrain myself from throwing the whole laptop away because I wrote quite a lot of stuff, but in the end, couldn't save it 'cos the internet connection decided to act up. Oh well...

[Apologies... actually what I typed out was partially saved as a draft, which I found out later. So managed to upload it]

Whole of yesterday, I was experimenting on Audacity, how to tape my own "lovely" voice singing one of my favourite songs with a background music. The good news was that I managed to do the taping fine, but when I saved it as .WAV or even MP3, guess what - NO SOUND came out when I played it. I also did a short video taping of myself explaining about the "Establishment of Working Agreement" slide. Tried downloading in You Tube, but after waiting for such a long time, an error message came out. Really, not my day yesterday...

So, to cut the long story short... we had to cancel the 3rd online discussion, I decided to chuck everything aside because nothing went right that day and watched Roger Federer create history instead. :-)

Mini video on Establishing Work Agreement

OK... tested out doing a mini video using the digital camera. Decided to video tape a segment of our presentation slide on "Establishing Work Agreement". Managed to download the video into my computer. Registered in You Tube so that I could download into it and share with others. But don't know why it's taking such a long time... god knows how long it'll take... still keeping my fingers crossed that it'll download fine. GOOD LORD... guess what happened... the minute I typed keeping my fingers crossed... the internet connection went off for a minute and then couldn't come back.

If not, maybe you could view through this blog first:

Please forgive horrible sleepy face, just woke up and bad pronunciation... :-)

After a hectic week

Sorry, guys. I've been really tardy keeping my blog up-to-date as well as keeping to my deadlines for the Mission assignment. Had a really dreadful week... filled with lots of having to conduct trainings, organizing Open Days, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da... I'm sure everyone's experiencing the same as well. Had to work yesterday, conducting training for super small kids... pre-school until Std 4 in a church. Wow! Truly an experience. Imagine having about 50 kids - all hyperactive, running around, screaming on top of their voices... but eventually, I SURVIVED!!! So, that leaves me with today to catch-up on my blog and other blogs, gotta check out ELGG as well... not to mention try to complete my part of the assignment.

Oh ya, forgot. We held our 2nd online discussion last Sunday. Melinda played host this time round. Don't really know what happened, but everyone's internet connection was really bad. Ling was in and out of the conversation due to the bad connection, I experienced lots of static disturbances causing voices to break up... all in all the online discussion did not go as smoothly as the previous one. But, the group pulled through and we managed to get quite a far bit discussed with action items given to everybody.

Am signing off now... hope to be able to catch my breath once next week starts.

Virgin independent online group discussion

Tonight, our group had our first on-line discussion minus our "papa" to guide us. I played host by initiating the conference call. All chipped in and contributed to the discussion. We decided to use Mind Meister as a tool to brainstorm on our answers.

However, I ran into some problems with Mind Meister as it refuses to allow me to open up the MindMap that ILing created for the Mission assignment.

1. I can log into Mind Meister.

2. I can see all the mindmaps including the Mission Code mind map.

3. However when I'm on that page, there is a message "Done. Error on page" at the bottom left hand corner of the page.

4. When I try to click on the Mission Code mind map, the message below pops up.5. I've tried to log out and register under another username, but the same problem happens.

As such, felt really frustrated throughout the night as I couldn't join in when the group was updating the mindmap. Tried to contribute by giving some ideas.

Anyone... can help??? SOS???

Flower Power

Managed to register into SlideShare site. Converted some of my Perth travel flower-power photos as slide show in SlideShare. Then, managed to download the slide show into this blog. BINGO! Success... YAY! Quite a nice way to capture the essence and beauty of the flower power from Down Under. However, the below slideshow does not do justice to the actual sight. Enjoy...

Flower Power

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MISSION "IMPOSSIBLE"???

Great! Finally received a rather straightforward message from Alex to check out from ELGG CPPD eLearn Group announcement. Jumped into conclusion too fast when couldn't even find the message on the mission. Out of desperation, thought maybe try to check out gmail. True enough, I weren't the only one who couldn't find the message.

This is where group support came to the rescue in the form of Mel. Thanks, for your guidance in finding the location of the message - turned out to be something so easy, yet so easily overlooked. Was quite excited to find out that we had to decipher the password. This reminded me of the many online treasure hunts that I had joined. Great job, Alex for coming out with this format. Really creates a sense of excitement and makes the mission so real.

I actually searched through the net and found out the hard way the password... but later, found out from Mel that the password could actually be found in Ling's wiki... ka ka ka.

Now, after being warned that we cannot abort the mission, we will have to carry on no matter what happens. Am trying to get everyone's agreement to get into Skype this Thurs (boy, I hope I myself don't forget to log on) so that we can all discuss about the questions and who should be doing what.

Lessons learnt:
1. How to go to ELGG and open the correct group and search the message board.
2. Use shared Google calendar to check on availability of team members for skyping.
3. Never give up that easily... help is always a button away.
4. You get thrown into the deep end (it seemed Alex refused to answer any calls/sms/etc.) and you either sink or swim. I think this forces one to be more resilient in finding the answers and learning in the process.

Special Needs High School

Had an interesting day yesterday. Conducted a training on Effective Counselling Skills and Stress Management training to a group of teachers from a special needs high school. Most of them teach using sign language. Imagine, it's hard enough to just teach the curriculum, but here, the teachers not only teach the curriculum, but have to teach through signing. I really admire them as they face with more teaching challenges compared to other teachers.

I was also wondering, what happens if the special needs students, mostly deaf and dumb, need counselling? How could that be done effectively? Especially if the school counsellor is not an expert in sign language. This might create a lot of confusion between the counsellor and client, right? Either one might not be able to comprehend or convey the correct message.

That's where this thought struck me, "Could using e-counselling help special needs students as well as help the counsellor?" I thought it would be ideal and able to solve the problem of explanation through sign language, the client could write out the problems/issues faced with and the counsellor could reply accordingly. I thought, BINGO! Great idea!

However, when I posed this question to the teachers, most agreed with the idea, but they shared that some of the students can't even write proper sentences, hence, how to write and express their thoughts and feelings? They can't use the phone/video conferencing through Skype as they cannot hear or speak... even if they were to sign through Skype, but, if the receiver is not well versed with signing, it'll defeat its purpose. Am still trying to find an answer to this.

Some intresting signs. Tried using, no one understood what I was trying to say... :-)

1st on-line tutorial

WOW! What an experience of participating in my first teleconferencing attempt. Had to rush back from work to log in on time. Not to mention, I've to miss American Idol finals live.

Anyway, I'm really glad I made the extra effort to join in the 1st online tutorial. Alex was extremely patient with everybody, going through everything step-by-step to ensure no one gets left behind.

Picked up quite a few things - especially now, I'm more confident using ELGG. But still not too sure on the MININOVA thingy as well as the WIKISPACES... gotta explore them and see.

Oh ya... forgot to add that the funniest thing happened. There was a total BLACK-OUT at my housing area directly after Alex ended the teleconferencing. Guess with us using our brain power so much that we overloaded the electricity board and it went KAPOOP! Had power back 1 hour later. :-)

How To Make E Learning Work

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How To Make E Learning Work

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First movie blog

Just testing out whether I can download a recent video clip taken. It's one of the numerous tennis classes that I had to conduct for our engineering students. Part of the engineering syllabus requires students to take up a co-curricular subject. I was "unfortunately" roped into it and had to teach the students both tennis theory and practical. In order for students to be able to see their mistakes, I actually video taped them during practice and play them back during class. Normally it cracks them up to see their "stunts" on court.

The video shows students practising their serves...

A funny Skyping experience

Oh ya... just wanted to get this onto the blog. A few days back, Jane and I tested out skyping with one another. I was really proud of myself because I managed to get into Skype, set-up the headset and could call Jane. She couldn't see me as I don't have my webcam, but I could see her fine. Quite interesting to see a person that up close. Voice quality was also good.

Well, the funniest part was that something happened half-way through and we got cut-off. No matter what we tried, it wouldn't work. I can hear the other side ringing, but the other side, no one was picking up and vice versa.

So guess what... we had to use our handphones to communicate while trying to get onto Skype. What a laugh! The "old" technology still works best.

Elgg - new experience

Just now, tried out Elgg. Quite an interesting site. But when tried to check out Sunyata's message board on eLearn module, couldn't see anything there. I think must be something I did not do or don't know what to do.

Currently watching the Sudirman Cup. What a nerve wrecking match between our Datuk Lee and Lin Dan. Crossing my fingers that Chong Wei could turn the table around, but I think to no avail. China should win-la...

Webcam adventure...

I was quite excited to start skyping people - that part was easy 'cos it was something similar with chatting using msn.

I even bought a new headset to test out the sound system. The headset worked fine. An item checked out from the long list of "homework" given... I had to hunt and turned my whole house upside down searching for my webcam. Finally found it, but guess what... I can't install it. Error message keeps popping up saying that something was wrong with the driver.

So, I guess I've gotta spend a bit of money and time to buy a new webcam... not too sure when, but when I do, you guys will surely know as I definitely "ding-dong" you! :-)

6 types of Socratic Questioning

(As promised, refer below for the 6 types of Socratic Questioning. I wasn't supposed to just cut and paste from the internet but I just couldn't help myself because the questioning examples given were really good and useful... Definitely not to be missed. I'll most probably use them in my future counselling sessions.)

CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION QUESTION:
Get them to think more about what exactly they are asking or thinking about. Prove the concepts behind their argument. Basic 'tell me more' questions that get them to go deeper.
Why are you saying that?
What exactly does this mean?
How does this relate to what we have been talking about?
What is the nature of ...?
What do we already know about this?
Can you give me an example?
Are you saying ... or ... ?
Can you rephrase that, please?

(I've used this questioning technique before to great success, not realising that it was part of Socratic Questioning. An example:
Cl: Everyone hates me and I don't have any friends in class.
Co: Why are you saying that?)


PROBING ASSUMPTIONS
Probing of assumptions makes them think about the presuppositions and unquestioned beliefs on which they are founding their argument. This is shaking the bedrock and should get them really going!
What else could we assume?
You seem to be assuming ... ?
How did you choose those assumptions?
Please explain why/how ... ?
How can you verify or disprove that assumption?
What would happen if ... ?
Do you agree or disagree with ... ?

PROBING RATIONALE, REASONS AND EVIDENCE
When they give a rationale for their arguments, dig into that reasoning rather than assuming it is a given. People often use un-thought-through or weakly understood supports for their arguments.
Why is that happening?
How do you know this?
Show me ... ?
Can you give me an example of that?
What do you think causes ... ?
What is the nature of this?
Are these reasons good enough?
Would it stand up in court?
How might it be refuted?
How can I be sure of what you are saying?
Why is ... happening?
Why? (keep asking it -- you'll never get past a few times)
What evidence is there to support what you are saying?
On what authority are you basing your argument?


QUESTIONING VIEWPOINTS AND PERSPECTIVES
Most arguments are given from a particular position. So attack the position. Show that there are other, equally valid, viewpoints.
Another way of looking at this is ..., does this seem reasonable?
What alternative ways of looking at this are there?
Why it is ... necessary?
Who benefits from this?
What is the difference between... and...?
Why is it better than ...?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of...?
How are ... and ... similar?
What would ... say about it?
What if you compared ... and ... ?
How could you look another way at this?


PROBE IMPLICATIONS AND CONSEQUENCES
The argument that they give may have logical implications that can be forecast.
Do these make sense?
Are they desirable?
Then what would happen?
What are the consequences of that assumption?
How could ... be used to ... ?
What are the implications of ... ?
How does ... affect ... ?
How does ... fit with what we learned before?
Why is ... important?
What is the best ... ? Why?

(Cl: I'm definitely going to take revenge on my boyfriend. How could he do this to me?
Co: I understand what you are saying here... but have you thought about the consequences of you doing this? What would happen?)

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE QUESTION
And you can also get reflexive about the whole thing, turning the question in on itself. Use their attack against themselves. Bounce the ball back into their court, etc.
What was the point of asking that question?
Why do you think I asked this question?
What does that mean?

(I use this quite a lot especially when conducting trainings where you might have some smart alecks that will ask a question... "Ms Jo, why did you say that?" and when they do that, I will ask them back, "Well, why do you think I said that?". Most of the time, this type of question comes in handy and students/training participants would normally be able to derive the answers themselves.)

Who is the great SOCRATES?

Socrates was one of the greatest educators who taught by asking questions and thus drawing out (as 'ex duco', meaning to 'lead out', which is the root of 'education') answers from his pupils. Sadly, he martyred himself by drinking hemlock rather than compromise his principles. Bold, but not a good survival strategy. But then he lived very frugally and was known for his eccentricity. His pupils, by the way, include Plato and Aristotle.

Quite distinguished looking, huh? With using so much of his gray cells, he sure does have a lot of hair left... he he he...

Stay tune for the 6 types of questions Socrates asked his pupils.

Questions, questions, questions

My group members comprised of Jane, Mrs A and Melinda. I was caught off-guard when Alex asked us to come out with 10 questions that we would like to ask... ask about what? I was really scratching my head. Found out that it's asking questions about the workshop.

Luckily with the help of the rest of the group members, we came out with 10 questions as follows: (Note: we were then requested to ask to generate further questions from the original questions. Not too sure whether this is what Alex wanted.)

1. What do I want to learn from this?
- What must I learn from it?
- What do I need to learn from it?
- How can I learn it?

2. How can this be applicable to my daily life?
- Why is this applicable to my daily life?
- What will make this applicable to my daily life?

3. What kind of skills are oging to be developed from this?
- Where can you hone the skills learnt?
- How are you going to further develop the skills learnt?
- How many types of skills are going to be taught?
- Who can determine the important skills for this workshop?

4. How can this elearning programme benefit the special needs children?
- What are the benefits of this e-learning programme?
- Why do you think it's beneficial?
- Who will benefit from this elearning programme?
- Will there be any disadvantanges using elearning during counselling?

5. Is the assessment of the special needs children universal or do we tailor to individual needs?
- What assessment are you refering to?
- Why concentrate only on special needs children?
- Who determines the assessment?
- What do you mean by universal needs?
- How do we select the right assessment method?

6. After completing this workshop, will we be further guided?
- What do you mean by further guided?
- Will there be any supervision?
- Who will be conducting the supervision?
- Where can we get assistance if we face a roadblock after the workshop?
- What are the follow-ups carried out by the facilitator?

7. If we wrongly assessed the 'subject' or 'situation' what are the alternative or rescue plan available?
- What assessment are you refering to? is it beginning, middle or end?
- Who decides what is wrong or right?
- What is the criteria used to determine whether the assessment was done correctly or
wrongly?
- Who would you expect the help to come from?
- How do I use therapeutic failures to facilitate change in the helping relationship?

8. What length of time is needed to master the sufficient skill?
- What are considered sufficient skills?
- Who determines it?
- How to master the skills within the timeframe given?

9. Will it be too hard to absorb?
- Why do you say it is too hard?
- How do you know whether it is hard without trying it out first?
- What makes you think it will be hard?
- What's your criteria to determine easy or hard?

10. What is the dateline to submit the assignment or timeframe for each assignment?
- Why do you need a dateline for submission?
- How do we know when to hand up our assignment?
- Where can we get our assignment questions?
- Who will give us the assignment?

Note: based on the 2 groups' questions, I believe the other group's questions probed deeper and had more substance than ours. At times, I found it difficult to ask further questions from the original question as the original question was too superficial. The other thing was that some of our questions were closed ended questions - hence making it difficult to generate other questions from it.

Virgin attempt to blogging

Golly, so many things to learn and ponder on. Wish there were deck chairs, swaying coconut trees, sound of the waves crashing into one another, feel of the gentle breeze, pina colodas… that’s normally the scene for pondering to take place. :-)

Well, here goes for nothing...

An Inspiring Person - Susan Boyle singing "I Have a Dream..."

A YouTube of Susan Boyle. Really inspiring to watch her sing with such an angelic voice. Quite a pity that she has changed so much since then. Hope that fame did not get to her head and change her too much. Enjoy the video clip...