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.]