What did we learn then?

Today, we had the privilege of listening to our colleages do their presentations in class on the various articles. It was enlightening and an enriching time to hear the work done by the various researchers.
What our group realised was that we must totally wasted our time in our first module on Educational Inquiry I. We agreed that our tutor probably did not provide the conducive learning environment nor provide the necessary teacher support to help us learn. He wanted us to work smart, but never really taught us to learn smart. And I think this has affected our performance somewhat in a module such as MED858. There are so many terms which sound familiar as we did our literature reviews, but are still unfamiliar in understanding. We have such poor foundations which means that we will have to do a lot more to catch up in future... Or is it a problem that we were expecting to be spoon-fed?
In another way, maybe it is for the better that we are forced to learn on our own since when learning is difficult, we are forced to process and learn in the process (Sternberg). So what did I learn today? As teachers, we need to find a balance between providing sufficient teacher support in the learning environment while encouraging independent learning.

Murphy's Law and Me

Technology and me don't go together. Just like stripes and plaids, circles and squares and so many other things that just don't work together.

I haven't logged in because the internet has been funky. The broadband line dropped ever so often and it became so frustrating to do any work online. Hubby called Starhub a gazillion times because of the problems (and the fact that he couldn't play his WOW). When I did log on to wiki, the edit tool was missing (only saw edit tag and tools - don't ask me. problem with the loading?). Even the Edumail kicks me out of the system. Sigh.

The problem I see with an online learning environment is the MAJOR assumption that one has regular access to the internet. But as you can see, I have not been able to log on. Sure I could have visited my parents to use their computer, sure I could have purchased the correct cable (yes. one forgets that the cable used in school is not the same as the broadband cable used at home).
I know I seem to be griping and making excuses. But seriously. These are valid problems which resulted in mega frustration over the weekend. I totally get where my students are coming from when they don't hand in their work on time. See? I learnt something new today.

Baaah.

Feeling a little lost here. Forgot to bring out my mobile this morning. Which meant that I had trouble contacting people, confirming appointments and arranging for a time to meet up with hubby for lunch. How did we ever manage before the advent of the mobile phone? How have we evolved to such a state that we are so dependent on something like a mobile phone? Will this be the same for online learning environments that we become so used to this face-less interaction that we would likewise feel naked if we didn't bring along our laptops? Perhaps I face some resistance because reading lines and lines of text can be rather tiring on the eyes - of course the same can be said for online shopping since it's pictures after pictures - but as technology advances, our laptops have become smaller and smaller, gadgets become more and more intelligent that we can send emails, update fb etc all at the touch of our iphones...

I was also like a little lost sheep again when I realised that I had listened to the wrong podcast for the lesson. Wonder how long I will feel lost. I thought the whole point about this blog is about learning something new every day. So what did I learn? Your mobile. Don't leave home without it.

Podcast newbbie.

Navigating through all the IT admin proved slightly confusing because of the previous abandoned accounts... :P but I have tried to complete the admin matters to concentrate on the tasks at hand...

In any case, was told by Ruzi that we had to listen to a podcast as one of the readings for the first session... I have heard about podcasts, but have never listened to one until now... *pat* *pat* looks like I have already done something new today!

Something new every day

One of our assignment tasks, I understand, is to create a blog for this course and have it count towards our assignment grade. Perhaps stepping out of my comfort zone would help me to learn better and provide some practice to implement some of these ideas into my own lessons. This is I guess why I think I will challenge myself to learn something new every day.

One of my greatest weakness is the lack of follow through and so I begin to wonder how successful I will be at this little blog of mine...