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.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
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.
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.]
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.]
Saturday, June 20, 2009
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.
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.
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.
*********************************************************
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.
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
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Tea Reception
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Mission Code Name: ACT 09
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Mission Code Name: ACT 09
View more OpenOffice presentations from JoChan9928.
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!!!
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?
(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?
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
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. :-)
[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. :-)
Sunday, June 7, 2009
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:
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.
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.
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