eLearning .....? I've had E-Nough!!

Lesson 1b - Understand Quran & Salah the Easy Way [English]

2012-01-15T10:30:00.000+08:00

How can Moodle change a school (Part 1)

2012-01-15T03:41:00.000+08:00

federer wins atp wtf11

2011-11-29T03:05:00.000+08:00

federer wins atp wtf11

eASiA 2011

2011-10-28T01:20:00.000+08:00

eASiA 2011

Grey's Anatomy: Twitter Madness

2011-02-13T11:48:00.000+08:00

OERs: the good, the bad and the ugly

2011-02-09T23:37:00.000+08:00

OERs: the good, the bad and the ugly

Tom Chatfield: 7 ways games reward the brain | Video on TED.com

2010-12-20T02:34:00.000+08:00

Tom Chatfield: 7 ways games reward the brain | Video on TED.com

Powering Potential And Kilimanjaro Education Foundation Install Solar Energy System For Computer Network At Noonkodin School in Tanzania

2010-12-14T08:49:00.000+08:00

Powering Potential And Kilimanjaro Education Foundation Install Solar Energy System For Computer Network At Noonkodin School in Tanzania

Did You Know 4.0

2010-11-20T00:07:00.000+08:00

eLearn: Feature Article - How Government Policy Drives e-Learning

2010-11-03T07:41:00.000+08:00

eLearn: Feature Article - How Government Policy Drives e-Learning

100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner

2010-04-05T09:30:00.000+08:00

100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner

NST Online Learning via SMS

2009-12-20T23:47:00.000+08:00

NST Online Learning via SMS

Free Online Textbooks ..

2009-08-12T23:30:00.003+08:00

Online textbooks offered free to students - Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

08-11) 17:45 PDT -- When California math and science teachers return to their classrooms this month, they'll have 10 free online textbooks at their fingertips to help them teach everything from calculus to chemistry.

Each of the books meets the state's math and science standards, giving California teachers a high-tech, no-cost tool during tough economic times, the governor announced today.

Free was the key word.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger launched the digital textbook initiative in June, arguing the online books could help shave hundreds of millions of dollars from the state's education budget, an assertion disputed by education officials, who decried a lack of technology in many schools.

The program "gives school districts high-quality, cost-effective options to consider when choosing textbooks for the classroom - not only during these difficult economic times but in the years to come," the governor said in a statement today.

7 Deadly Sins - Believe it or Not ..

2009-08-12T23:05:00.004+08:00

Humph .. this is impossible. Got this from the August 2009 issue of Richard Elliot's eLearning Watch, citing an article from the new Australian FlexiLearnng Framework.

The 'seven deadly sins' of elearning was presented by Dr Karen Becker, a lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology with a PhD in ‘Unlearning in the Workplace’; many people need to unlearn past behaviours before they can accept that e-learning is a powerful teaching and learning tool.

One of the biggest issues with introducing e-learning in education and training is the manner in which it is debated, applied and evaluated within the learning environment. Here, Dr Becker tells us how to avoid committing the ‘seven deadly sins of e-learning’.

1. Old wine, new bottles

Repackaging. It’s a no-fuss way to put your learning content online and the easiest way to alienate an e-learner. Having your learners read through their entire course content uploaded on your website does not embrace the essence of e-learning or stimulate creativity. Instead of repackaging think about using e-learning in an engaging, imaginative and flexible way where learners can benefit from interactive tools such as video, blogging and online discussion.

2. All the bells and whistles

3. Unhealthy (and unnecessary) competition

4. Jack of all trades

5. Misuse of expert power

6. Because I said so

7. This won’t hurt a bit

Read all about the seven deadly sins .. try and analyse these from your own context and see if these are true ..

Bridging Digital Divide 2009

2009-03-21T08:08:00.001+08:00

The

Educational Technologies (EDUTE'09)

2009-03-13T17:27:00.004+08:00

The 5th International Conference on Educational Technologies (EDUTE'09) is organised by the World Scientific and Engineering Academy (WSEAS). Conference will be held from 1-3 July 2009. I will be presenting the 2nd Plenary Lecture with the title, Learner Continuum Technology Enhanced Learning Model via Technogogy.

Technogogy 2.0

2009-03-12T00:49:00.004+08:00

I have finally done it. I have been wanting to this for a long, long time.
I have set up Technogogy 2.0 on Ning with the intention of highlighting the application and operationalisation of the concept of technogogy.

Colleagues have contacted me to say that the concept of technogogy is applicable to the learning activities that they are developing. I have been convinced of this for some time, and that this has been manifested under different names such as personalisation and the individual learning environment.

I was invited by Gilly Salmon from the Beyond Distance Research Alliance (BDRA) at the University of Leicester as a speaker at the Learning Future's Festival on the 8th of January 2009. Naturally I presented technogogy with an extension to the creation of a repository and a directory of learning objects. The presentation was kind of reviewed in a blog by Nitin Parmar who attended my session.

Anyone keen on exploring Technogogy can join Ning or get in touch wth me for further discussion.

Technology is here to stay ..

2009-03-12T00:43:00.002+08:00

Wow, how time flies ..didn't realise I left this blog for that long. I will just summarise the year 2008 in very simple terms. Basically it will be in terms of what I discovered by attending several eLearning Seminars and Conferences. What I discovered left me rather puzzled .. what has happened along the way, I ask myself?

2ND INTERNATIONAL MALAYSIAN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY CONVENTION

2008-09-03T00:34:00.005+08:00

2^ND INTERNATIONAL MALAYSIAN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY CONVENTION - IMETC2008

The Malaysian Educational Technology Association (META) is organising their 2nd International Malaysian Educational Technology Convention which will be held in Kuantan, Pahang from 4-7 November 2008.

Please visit: http://www.freewebs.com/ptpm2008 for more details and download the registration form and the brochure.

eLearning Grid Interview

2008-04-17T23:26:00.003+08:00

Expert Speak (eLearning Grid)

Rozhan Mohammed Idrus,Ph.D

Professor of Open & Distance Learning (ODL)
School of Distance Education
Universiti Sains Malaysia
11800 USM, Penang, MALAYSIA

1. e-Learning is increasingly becoming popular, both in academic and corporate environments. However, learners do not fall into a homogeneous group. What can you do to ensure that all learners of a group are nearly at the same level of understanding / assimilation when the e-Learning course is predominantly asynchronous?

Even before the popularity of e-Learning, mostly brought by the influx of modern information and communication technology capabilities in the form of the Internet, the learners in a conventional classroom in a school or university or corporate setting were also inhomogeneous. This inhomogeneity will be accentuated if we consider a global setting. That has always been a major consideration in teaching and learning practices. e-Learning can now do what could not be done before, not for the lack of knowledge but for the constraints within a conventional setting. It is now possible to design an e-Learning course in many different ways (the buffet approach) that conform to the learning style, preferences and modalities of the learner. Although
e-Learning courses are predominantly asynchronous, a very transparent and detailed blueprint and lesson plan of a course will ascertain the learning objectives at set intervals. This should include activities that would recall prior learning so that the learners know what they should have known at that point in a particular course. This will inject a level of uniformity or prerequisites that has to be adhered to by the learners. Mechanisms of pre-test (with feedback and recommendations) will further be a yardstick in determining that the learners are the same level of understanding.

2. Blended learning is one of the new mantras to overcome some of the drawbacks of asynchronous e-Learning. Is there a ready-made prescription for blending a course given a learning outcome, using variations of online & offline, synchronous & asynchronous, media elements, learning processes and any others?

I beg to differ insofar as blended learning is concerned. There has always been a blend in our teaching and learning practices. Even from before, the blend involves a planned combination of approaches and options for blended learning go beyond the classroom. It is a matter of old media, new media, little media and big media, and the ensuing pedagogies that come with it. Also, the blend can be formal and informal, technology- and people-based, independent and convivial, and directive- and discovery-oriented. As far as I am concerned, there should not be any drawbacks of asynchronous e-Learning as any blended course must be constructed with a purpose. So, in ones blended course; What are the key features of the blend? In which situations is the blend adopted? What blended techniques are adopted to enhance learning? Who is the blend designed for? In a nutshell, the prescribed blend must be constructed for a prescribed learner. However, we may reach a 'ready-made' mode when we have enough repositories of blends that we can easily prescribe and we may have to create a new blend if what we have do not fit the need of the learner and the type of learning to be delivered.

3. One size does not fit all. However, it is very expensive to create custom courseware without sighting a clear segment and hence most courses are designed to be pretty generic. What are some of the steps to follow to customize a generic course for a specific target audience based on demographic parameters such as age, sex, education or job role?

This is not an easy one to respond to. Firstly, who is designing the courseware? If it is a commercial design, I would not be surprised to the generic production. I always wonder if the commercial courseware had the necessary academic input from subject matter expert from a university, say, the curriculum set by each course in any institution (unless tailor-made for a specific cohort) has already taken into account the age range, entry requirement as well as discipline specific content (job role, that is ..). We should be gender free unless we are saying there is a different management course for males and females. In fact my question would be (my apologies for answering a question with a question), why should the course design be generic at all .. since we have already determined the curriculum at each level of a course. A certain amount of overlap should be acceptable to keep the relevance and flow, or self-directedness of the learning materials. Courses have also been configured to reflect the job roles or areas of specialization. Then it is the role of the learner to undertake the study of that course that has been designed .. learning, un-learning and re-Learning along the way. The customisation is towards the learning style and preferential learning needs of the learners, not to customise the course per se .

4. How important is it to understand the psychographic profile of learners to get an excellent Instructional Design?

To me, this question answers itself. Instructional design relates directly to learning theories and these learning theories are directly related to the learners. So depending on the learners and circumstance, different learning theories may apply. In this case an excellent instructional design would mean that the most appropriate strategy based on learner characteristics was optimized for the learning experience of the learner. In order to obtain an excellent instructional design, the designer must be very knowledgeable as the best design decisions are most certainly based on the knowledge of learning theories. The psychographic profile of learners is crucial as that knowledge open our eyes to their possibilities and ways of seeing the world. So we need to know why they are learning, their motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic), what keep them going and getting feedback from them. Of course, perfect matches are impossible as we have to leave a certain degree to the act of learning (as their profile can, and will change) and utilizing the human mind and from a pragmatic viewpoint; instructional designer's toolbox contains an ever changing and increasing number of theoretical applications, physical possibilities and educational technology capabilities to figure out what works and to use it.

5. In today's fast changing world, the time available for Instructional Design is coming down. A large number of courses are now based on Rapid Instructional Design, wherein a number of shortcuts are used. In your opinion, is there a substantial drop in quality or learning outcomes between such courses and those that are based on traditional Instructional Design?

Firstly, even traditional instructional design has been guilty of insisting that all students should be responsible for learning the same things at the same age. The potential cognitive differences among human individuals are staggering. Despite the lip service paid to individual differences, traditional education has failed to move away from the group mentality that has driven it for so many years. The very language of education, which separates students into grades, classes, honors, average, even learning 'styles,' forces the mind into perceiving groups, not individuals. That was the state even in traditional instructional design. Rapid instructional design has no focus on the learners at all. It is more about the schedule, the stake holder needs and the production turn-time by the consultant .. and we have the audacity to naively swallow that cheaper and faster instructional design are by some miracle related with better learning effects. Call me a traditionalist, but there are only two major areas that require speed in its context of outcomes; entertainment and business. We want to get information, sales facts, stocks and to be able to wheel and deal almost simultaneously across the globe. We want to watch live football and be witness to the launch of a new music album at the same time with everybody on the planet. It is NOT the same with education. In education it is about the quality of the content, not the speed of delivery .. well you have to deliver it on time, but given the whole content, the learner will need to go trough it according to the teaching and learning schedules, learn the content, do their activities, participate in forums and discussions, attend to their assignment, get feedback and learn a 'chunk' of knowledge before moving to the next. The major complain is that traditional instructional design is too slow .. too slow for whom? How slow is slow? Another excuse put forward is that the course, if produced too slowly will be out of date. How often does a curriculum change? There is a big difference between sales talk and the actual teaching and learning practices. Even traditional instructional design has some way to go to address the needs of the learner, let alone a rapidly produced one. We have not even touched quality yet. A quick reminder; e-Learning's early promise was most often reflected in three basic beliefs, each of which turned out to be wrong [Please refer to Why the e-Learning Boom Went Bust by Zemsky and Massy (2004)]

6. Most e-Learning design is at cognitive levels, given the paucity of budgets or lack of suitable Instructional Design and processes. What can we do to bring in an element of Constructivism into e-Learning thereby dramatically improving the learning outcomes?

If the constructivist approach has been adopted in the e-Learning design from the beginning, I believe this can solve the problem. We have a tendency to 'buy' an e-Learning system, and then try to build in the relevant features. This is more like building a house without the necessary or relevant design and then start to add in the wiring, piping, windows and major renovations. That may even cost more than the actual house in the first place. I believe e-Learning systems must be designed for a purpose, not an afterthought. This is basic instructional design in the consideration of introducing a new educational technology delivery mechanism. I have asked many teachers, 'why do want to use the Internet?' Mostly, they wanted the students to surf the Internet. Then, my next question would be, why you want them to surf the net. Naturally the answer would be to search for information. What information would you like them to find? This was the end of their response. This shows that they did not have a purpose for the students to surf the Internet.. The question is, why was the
e-Learning designed at cognitive levels? We can interject any design we want, constructivism, cognitivism as well as behaviourism. For an effective learning outcome there must be synergy between pedagogy, content and technology, a convergence which I called technogogy, a convergence that will produce a learning object conforming to an outcome. e-Learning is a delivery system that we can use to serve our purpose in the teaching and learning process. So we need to design in a purposeful context for a relevant and cost-effective e-Learning design.

7. In what capacity are you engaged with the e-TQM College and how do you see their e-Learning evangelism impact upon the learners in the Middle East?

I have been appointed as the Chief Editor of the International Journal of Excellence in e-Learning. I have browsed through e-TQM College barring that require a password and I am thoroughly impressed with the attention to details, including the Learner Awards. This is a good motivating factor for the students. Perhaps a Dean's list concept can be introduced. The e-library and learning resources for the students are excellent and the electronic facilities for the students are fantastic. I was not able to access any lesson plan to see the design of instruction for the students. We need to assess the learning styles and modalities of the Middle East students to add relevance to the learning objects constructed. I am certain e-TQM College can attain impact in the Middle East when students find engagement, collaboration, enjoyment, encouragement, motivation, relevance, learning in context and acknowledgement while attending their courses. At the end of the day it will be the richness of the teaching and learning process and the effective educational transaction that will be the mainstay of e-Learning and e-TQM College is most definitely heading in the right direction.

Int. J of Excellence in e-Learning

2008-03-27T12:42:00.004+08:00

Calling for contribution to the second issue of the Journal. Calling potential contributors .. got something on e-learning that you can share with the rest of the academic world .. yup .. that's me in the middle .. I was appointed as the Chief Editor in October 2007 and the Journal was launched at the e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East 2008 Forum in January 2008 in Dubai, UAE.

http://www.etqm.ae/journals/online_ver/elearning/issue1/index.aspx

I was also a Keynote Speaker at the Forum, hehehe ...

The disappearing teacher

2008-03-05T01:31:00.003+08:00

Traditional lectures or classroom have a certain ecology and culture. We are all too familiar with this culture through years (until today) of schooling. The ecology is often created by the architecture of the physical setting. There is the front and the back of the classroom, with the teacher in front and students at the back.

The physical settings are no longer the main design as technology has brought down the walls of the classroom/lecture room. As knowledge becomes more accessible to learners, the teacher is no longer the main source of information. They are no longer high up on the pedestal. The teacher is somehow disappearing in the classroom .. perhaps not so much as them physically disappearing .. but because the knowledge space and boundary has gotten bigger, much bigger.

However the presence of the teacher/moderator/facilitator is needed all the same as we have no idea of the teachability and learnability of the information found on the Internet.

Although the teacher is somewhat disappearing in the classroom, they re-appear in many forms in many different media and is almost available anytime, anywhere ... the teachers should start to realise this ... otherwise nothing much will change .. yeehaaa...

New learning paradigm

2008-03-04T01:40:00.004+08:00

Can't quite pinpoint when a major turnaround came about as far as the talk about a new learning paradigm in the education system is concerned.. anyone?? There has been a steady infusion of technology such as the radio, television, the VCR and the use of video cassettes in schools. I am not sure whether computer aided instructions was widespread in schools but there was a strong attempt to create an impact in universities.

Did it work?? .. dunno, at least not in my university .. Of course, we had the usual committees at University level, department level, departmental representatives and the people from the educational technology unit ... BUT, there is always this BUT issue ... but there was no emphasis on teaching and the use of CAI in lectures .... and further, WHO is going to monitor any progress, effectiveness in teaching or any innovation in teaching in using the CAI. There was no concrete structure to the whole endeavour ... this is very typical in a University, mostly on knee-jerk reaction to something new and afetr a while, we are back to the usual grind ..

Everybody was busy and the whole concept of the CAI was interjected with meetings and meetings and it still got nowhere and it just died a natural death ... and we were back to the traditional teaching style ... sounds familiar??

The only thins that I can remember that kind of created a major impact was when the Internet came to town .. that was it .. the Internet .. the all hell broke loose ... you know what I mean .. think it was in the early 90s, or was it very, very late 80s (in Malaysia, that is ..) ...

From then on, and in no particular order, major changes were talked about such as from;

fixed curricula to personal curricula
institutional based to home base learning
knowledge transmission to learning facilitation
front-end education to lifelong learning
classroom study to electronic-based/package

Have we seen any major changes in the learning environment ..?? yeehaaaa ...

The iceberg principle

2008-02-26T12:53:00.008+08:00

I call this next input, the Iceberg Principle ..and what has this got to do with technology .. or educational technology.

Imagine that you have just been to a 2-hour movie, sat comfortably in the cinema armed with the usual fare of popcorns (honey coated of course), perhaps hot dog and the supply of fizzy drinks to wash all of it down.

That 2-hour movie you saw took perhaps 2-years of the directors life to produce, not to mention all other people involved in the production, editing, sound mixing, special effects, costume, lights, dubbing, stunt man, doubles (the ones who got bashed on behalf of the hero) and make-up artists and so on .. this is just off the cuff..

Well ... that 2-year life of those involved is what is not revealed to us. Next time you watch any movie, remember those 'behind' the scenes.

How is this any different from trying to establish an online or computer mediated learning environment. What can we have in a computer mediated format? .. perhaps too many to mention, but the few popular ones such as a video playback, podcast, or audio file .. and power point. Thing is, these things do not fall from the sky .. someone has to produce it. More precisely, it has to be planned, designed, addressing certain needs and recording, editing and upload it.

So when we see a well planned lesson on the Internet, then someone took the trouble to design it as such .. and painstakingly took the trouble to make it student-friendly, pedagogically articulated and loaded with content addressing different learning styles. Is this too much to ask?? Hehehehe ...

So .. who is actually going to do this ?? The lecturers' themselves, whoa .. no way .. I know the answer .. but then again these are the issues not resolved at institutions of higher learning and even in schools. To obtain excellent learning objects require excellent input .. I say it again, garbage in, garbage out.

This is a major missing link in any institution. The transition from chalk and talk to multimedia computing and web based learning is like walking on earth and taking a rocket into outer space ... and for as long as we don't want to accept this, and put the necessary support mechanisms .. all this hype including e-learning will not work ... something will be there, no doubt, scanned notes, power points, drill and practice, quizzes and wonderful graphics and it looks good. ... yeah . we are good at looking good ... any difference in the students performance ?? ..yeehaaaa ..

The paradigm shift

2008-02-20T01:18:00.010+08:00

By golly, time waits for no man (or woman ..) .. been almost two weeks since I last posted. Up to my eyeballs with datelines ... anyway, the saga continues ...

We have kind of tackled technological innovations and its effects on our educational endeavours .. and how we get all excited in keeping up with what next lurk in the corner .. with Hawthorne effect in tow .. and after all the fanfare of launches and pilot projects and a few published papers ... we are back to usual grind....

There are institutions that has taken into the integration of technology in a big way, medium way and perhaps .. no way ..

Those who are willing to commit, put in the bucks, human resource and time will be on their way. Those who want to get of the ground but are buying the cheapest stuff, and asking too few people to do so many things and not putting the right people on the job, are struggling to make an impression, painfully. There are those who are trying to get something from NOTHING, I wish you all the best!!

Shift we must ..even the sand on the shore shift with every stroke of the wave ..

The student are the direct recipient of the changes wrought in by the technological revolution. I can still remember sitting on the floor in my primary school days listening to a music lesson on the radio. Our children or students these days are bombarded with gizmos of the electronic kind, with cyber cafes and interactive technology (such as the Atari and Nintendo) in the living room. Our children have been raised in a world of instant access to knowledge and information, a word of automation and remote controls and simulation capabilities to stimulate the mind.

Although schools are embedded in this technological culture, the education system is largely unchanged. Given the exposure the children experienced in their daily life has resulted in an estrangement of the schools from society, and from the children who live in it. They are caught in an awkward bind as they move toward the future, but the institutions responsible for educating them are locked in the past. In contrast with the technological innovation they are exposed to in the home and society, schools strike them as rigid, uninteresting and ultimately alienating - This was what I said in my Keynote address in Bahrain in 2001 ... it may be different now ... is it really ...

Technology notwithstanding, what has shifted .. Dwyer (1994) talked about the deconstruction of traditional pedagogies, viz,

ACTIVITY	FROM	TO

CLASSROOM ACTIVITY	Instruction	Construction
	Teacher-Centred	Student-Centred
	Didactive	Interactive

TEACHER ROLE	Expert	Facilitator
STUDENT ROLE	Facts & Rote Learning	Active Collaborator

INSTRUCTIONAL EMPHASIS	Passive Listener	Critical Thinking

KNOWLEDGE	Accumulation & Retention of Facts	Transformation of Facts/ Ideas

TEACHING METHOD	Drill & Practice	Collaboration & Interactivity

________________________________________________________

Has anything shifted?... seriously!! ... let's do an honest audit of the above parameters and see whether any shift has occurred. I have five children, of which 2 are still in school. The eldest is already working, the second in university and the third is still waiting for her SPM results. I have seen them go to school and the things they had to do .. and I DARE SAY IT IS STILL THE SAME AS WHEN I WAS IN SCHOOL .. with the exception of using the computer to re-type the frikking text book .. I always say to them, buy another book or photocopy the bloody book and give it to the teacher .. dang what pedagogy is that??

There is a lot of hype of what the computer can do .. we know what the capable of being 'told' to do .. what WHO is telling it?? Who is using it to its fullest capacity, the wonderful multimedia computing waiting to be exploit !!! Let us be honest .. we kind of compile ALL the new tools that is up and coming .. man we are still struggling with **** power point!!

Look, if we are going to build a house, we need tools, definitely, specific tools for specific jobs, special tools, custom made tools, imported tools, or perhaps we have to invent a new one because whatever is available is not good enough to do the job! Basically, ONE tool cannot perform all the necessary building functions ..

Now, change that house to a classroom with 30 students, say .. we keep talking about personal preferences, learning styles and different cognitive levels, bla..bla..bla.. please put your hand on your heart and tell me you know the learning styles and preferences of all the students in your classroom ..Hands up!!

What has shifted .. only the computer has shifted INTO our lives .. we have not shifted any education system .. we will talking abut this 10 years down the road .. same old story .. The Malaysian Smart School is already 10, yes 10 years old .. any impact ... ??Any report of any impact . I have not seen any .. have you .. anyone ??

I am not worried at all about the deluge of new tools .. as I always say in my talks, we hve more technology than we know how to use .. Please do not make the mistake of equating tools and pedagogy .. as if it is one and the same .. a tool is just a tool, it is how it is used and for what purpose makes it a technology ..

[Taken verbatim from: The Intangible Economy] - According to Tom Friedman, The World is Flat. Friedman means that advances in telecommunications and globalization have leveled the playing field so that anyone came compete with anyone else - Indian programmers with Silicon Valley computer jocks; Chinese fashion designers with New York's garment district.

Not so, claims Richard Florida. In forthcoming piece in the Atlantic Monthly - complete with fancy graphics - Florida argues that The World is Spiky.

By almost any measure the international economic landscape is not at all flat. On the contrary, our world is amazingly "spiky." In terms of both sheer economic horsepower and cutting-edge innovation, surprisingly few regions truly matter in today's global economy. What's more, the tallest peaks- the cities and regions that drive the world economy - are growing ever higher, while the valleys mostly languish.

Look at the Spiky world map on Richard Florida's site. Very intriguing and the Econ map ....

Spiky could be more accurate .. just look at the two photos ... 'nuff said ..

The biasness of technology

2008-02-07T01:22:00.001+08:00

You think technology is neutral .. and can assist in all situations. Think again. You think giving a computer will solve all your problems? Think again !! Think having a computer will solve your management and teaching problems?? It may even be the beginning of your problems ....

We have this simplistic view of naively expecting too much from the computer or any technological gadget we input in any scenario ...

We have this simplistic idea that our existing problems, such as reports, class list, data management as well as the pedagogy in our teaching processes can be solve with technology (whatever ...). Prepare a power point presentation from our existing (and old .. ) notes and we think we have moved mountains .. bah ..

Like I said before, all these gadgets can do nothing - unless they are used in the appropriate and innovative way to assist in addressing our problems. This is one of the biggest problem - WHAT IS THE PROBLEM??

When we introduce any new technology, we must be aware that the way we do things will not remain the same. Did the handphone change the way we can do things ... but was there a limitation? Of course, a remote place that has no communication node will render your hand phone useless ...

Here are a few pointers for us to bear in mind when we are dealing with technology;

Every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage
Advantages and disadvantages are never distributed evenly across the population
Embedded is a powerful idea or ideas that posits a philosophy
Technological change is ecological since it changes everything -
The ecology is often created by the architecture of the physical setting. There is the front and the back of the classroom, with the teacher in front and students at the back. The teacher lectures to the students each day about a particular procedures or topic, which the students sit at the desk and listen and take, notes. Class starts and ends at designated times. It is understood that students have out-of-class learning assignments, and in return for their interaction, participation and feedback, the teacher will assess their learning and give them a grade. Sounds familiar doesn’t it.

All of a sudden, with ICT which afforded audio and video teleconferencing capabilities, computer-mediated communications and interactive technology, teaching and learning interactions, as we know it today may never be the same again, or is it?

Different technologies also have different biases:

intellectuals and emotional - those who are troubled with learning to use the computer will say that it is not necessary to use it ..
political - now is a good time to ask for computers as the election is coming up ..
sensory
social
content

Next time you want to implement any technological innovation in your institution or place of work, remember all this issues ... it might explain why things are as they are ... So don't be fooled by a tool . ... yeehaaa ..

Information & communication technologies

2008-02-05T22:26:00.000+08:00

Information and communication technologies or popularly mantraed as ICT has a simple enough meaning but can be equally confusing. It just irks me when people simply cite ICT without actually knowing what they are talking about.

What does ICT mean? Simply information and communication technology .. so what does it mean .. ? It carries the connotation that it is about technology that can be a medium for processing and storage of information as well as the ability to be moved from place to the other ..

But when we say, the use of ICT will improve education, what do we mean? I dunno, to me it means nothing!! What do you think .. ICT is a general word. Radio, Television, Video cassette recorders and computers are ALL information and communication technologies.

It looks as though that when we say ICT, we mean the computer, such that ICT=computer=ICT. It is no better than saying that all cows are animals, and all animals are cows!! Dang .. I can't stand it .. why can't we be specific with the ICT that we are talking about ... makes no sense just to say ICT!!

Let us look at examples of information and communication technologies and what they really mean in operational terms ...

Printed materials - print technology that be taken anywhere and easily accessed, requires no electricity, easy to update, can be read with just a candle, multi lingual and can be incorporated with audio and visual components

Radio broadcast – communications transmission in audio. We have sound, intonation, instruction, verbal cues, emotions, motivation, anger, hatred and love

Television broadcast- liberated from static illustration. We can now see colours, movement, live and recorded events , advertising, entertainment, education and many more ..

VCR – Anytime, anywhere –personal location, provided you have the player. What can be viewed can be slowed down , can be speeded up, can be paused, kept still, and watched over and over again ... the VCR is purported to be one of the greatest technological invention .. and how didi we use this in our teaching practices??

Satellite – Immediacy and international access - live football, concerts, breaking news, events ...

Cable & ISDN – cost effective way of reaching one another globally

Computer – convergence of all forms of communication/instructional delivery

Wireless – free from physical links, nothing more, out of range and you're done for ..

A cartoon from a famous Malaysian artist named Lat .. talking about wireless ...

So, after deciphering the real picture behind the technicality of words, we address the operational delivery medium used in instruction in any form of educational setting, in the form of the ..

Printed materials (book or self-instructional)
Audio and visual transmission
Audio & Video Cassettes
Laser discs
Floppy discs
Compact discs
Tele Conferencing (Audio, Audiographics, Video)
Computer Mediated Instruction
World wide Web - Internet
Virtual reality (VR)

..... you can add to the list, no problem .. yeehaaa

Technological advancements

2008-02-03T23:51:00.000+08:00

We talk about advancement or innovations in technology .. but what does it mean for us in education?

Firstly, what can advancement in technology afford us? Just take the hand phone that we carry around nowadays. Wow, it would be unthinkable for people to walk around and having a phone with them .. and probably talking on the phone while walking in a crowded street .. it means that the advancement changes the way we can do things ..

So ...each major transition in communication media, from speech to print to video to electronic forms has resulted in changes in our means to;

create
record
store
distribute
access and
retrieve information

WHAT IT REALLY MEANS IS THAT – There exist a change in the way information is handled – and in EDUCATION, it means that there exist a communication transformation upon a technological breakthrough in education .. communication between the teacher and learner .. no matter what medium is used ..

This is then TRANSLATED into teacher-student interaction !!! We can now do what was thought as NOT possible before .. we have the technology .. in fact, I always say that we have more tools than we know how to use ..

Technology is just a tool and enhancer, an enabler .. which brings us to the million dollar question .. What have you enhanced in your teaching practices?? What have you enabled ?? What (teaching practices) has fundamentally changed ?

or are we doing the same ole' thing .. no matter what new tool you are given??

To put in Dwyer ....

yeehaaaa ...

Technology .. definition of ..

2008-02-03T09:54:00.000+08:00

Let's start the ball rolling with the definition of technology. This would normally be my first question in my presentation .. we need to get our premise and framework accurate and aligned ... not a skewed perception or one based one what is told to you.

Naturally, I have to authenticate the definition, otherwise you won't believe a word I say. So you can find the definition on the Internet in the usual way, by searching for technology (1,2). Yeh, yeh .. people will go about that it is from greek origin bla, bla, bla .. you can check out the given links.. but you have to go beyond the definition and operationalise it ..

This is the definition that I put up:

TECHNOLOGY is defined as tools, processes, material resources and creative human intelligence applied to the solution of a practical problem

So, next time you want to consider using a technology, test if you can satisfy this definition. We may have the tools, yes ... we do.. , the computer, say .. Then we have the usual processes of setting up and configuration .. we can do that, no problemo ..

Next we need the materials resources .. let' s consider this as the content in a broader sense and this is followed by creative human intelligence .. means how clever we are at utilising that tool .. unless we expect the tool to be cleverer than us .. and believe me, this happens ..

Puhleees, the computer ain't gonna be able to do anything more than you tell it to do .. you can stare at it and it stare at you until the end of time .. and nothing, nothing will happen ..

Finally we need that wonderful tool in the hands of the expert to attack a certain problem .. so that we can solve that problem using that tool. Wonderful!! .. but what is the problem? What is the problem you so eagerly desire to solve when you decided to use that particular tool??

In education, we call it educational technology, which basically means we are using a certain multimedia tool to tackle a problem in the teaching and learning process so that we can enhance the teaching and learning process. Comprende??

I do not have the answer for you .. you have it it you own hands .. why did you want to use the particular educational tool and what is problem you are trying to solve. If you have a concrete rationale, then you have got the appropriate application of that tool .. otherwise ..

This is what happens when I ask teachers on why they want the students to surf the Internet .. the answer is always the same .. to get information .. I will not go any further as to the course of the conversation.

You see, we haven't even maximised the blackboard .. and I can prove it to you .. people always say that classroom teaching is boring .. but I beg to differ .. we made it as such .. why is there only 1 (one) blackboard in the classroom?

Can we have more than one, say 2 or even 3? Can we apply collaborative as well as cooperative learning in the classroom? Can we do group work? Too time consuming? Why not plan for it .. everything has to be planned anyway .. plan to make it interesting .. just look at the photo below ...

What do you see? Three boards, three groups and three different designs on the boards!! Wow .. and this is just using the blackboard .. how about coloured chalks? .. wont' it be colourful and pretty ..? We can even say, minimum technology, maximum activity/efficiency ... sometimes we have maximum technology and minimum activity ... think about it ..

I am going to move away from classroom teaching, but not before I put up something I found a long time ago .. and I cannot find the reference for it now .. I take no credit for it .. and if you know where it came from, let me know. It is entitled as 50 ways to lecture .. see how many have you employed in your classroom teaching .. and who said all you had to do was dictate your notes or ask the students to copy from the board .. or worst still, the teacher is the only one talks .. and this is even true at tertiary level ... no kidding ..

yeehaaaa ....

I can't take it anymore ..

2008-02-02T00:41:00.000+08:00

I can't stand it anymore .. I have to do this. Call me what you like .. but looks like I have to jump on the bandwagon as well ... so here goes another blog about e-learning ..my version, of course.

I have been in open and distance learning for the last 22 years and have been specifically trained as an instructional designer, self-instructional materials (some call it modules) writer as well as the art of story boarding and a few other skills.

I have had the opportunity to apply this since 1986 when self-instructional text was the mainstay (and still is - those who understand the whole concept will agree) in any ODL structure. Then came the incorporation of audio and video cassettes, computer aided instruction (or the many names it is called by ..) and the use of teleconferencing facilities.

Then came the Internet, and all hell broke loose with access to lots of goodies not experienced before ... who cares about teaching using the Internet .. there was too much to salivate on ....

In all, we are just experiencing a change in the medium, just like changing your car from time to time .. or kind of getting a bigger car with more gadgets each time .. to unfortunately carry the same crap ..Ever heard of the expression, "Garbage in, garbage out .." Somehow, by moving to an innovative medium will automatically transform the junk into something new and better ... fat chance ..

Sometimes I find it absolutely comical when I hear people complaining about the 'quality' of education on the Internet, when no one ever bothered to scrutinise the 'quality' of face to face teaching .. We are so bothered whether students actually log online to view our notes when we don't even recognise the 200-odd students in our lecture (face to face) ... such dichotomy .. The funniest thing is that .. it is as though there is someone else to be blamed for what is not working with elearning or whatever learning you care to mention!! Who is to be blamed ?? If a lecture is boring - who made it boring?? If a lecture or teaching experience is captivation, who made it so?? YOU!!

Anyway, enough ramblings for one sitting .. this is my journey into technology and learning that I am going to share with you .. hop on my wagon, and see my views ..yeehaaaa ..