Last post for EDC 3100!!

Mission accomplished!! After this post, which will mean 3 posts for each week, out of the 4 weeks as required by course examiner, David Jones, for my BECH (Bachelor Degree in Early Childhood) course with the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, subject EDC 3100, ICT and Pedagogy.
Although I've gotten an extension for my assignment as I'll only be finishing my prac at the end of June, thought I'll just finished up my learning paths and blog as would like to concentrate on my prac.

                               

Class Dojo

First time I've heard of this Class Dojo, classroom tool that helps teachers improve behavior in their classrooms quickly and easily. KayYi posted this up in her blog the other day. Really interesting!! A new tool to use! The benefits stated are:
For teachers: in some classrooms, more than 50% of class time is spent managing behavior rather than delivering instruction; ClassDojo aims to greatly reduce this so teachers can do more teaching and less crowd control! In addition, for the first time, teachers have a painless way to focus on developing positive behavior over time, rather than just logging referrals once it is too late to intervene.
For students: research suggests the shorter the time period between an action and feedback for that action, the greater is the effect of the reinforcement. Specific positive reinforcement helps students develop a sense of purpose in the classroom, enhancing intrinsic motivation over time. By giving students visibility and data on their own behavior, ClassDojo makes class less disruptive and creates a more positive learning environment.
For parents: ClassDojo makes it easy to engage parents in their child's development, by allowing teachers to provide them with realtime data from the classroom - with just one click.
How cool is that! Can even use it for my own kids!!

           


source: classdojo (2012). Student Introduction to ClassDojo. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaeNSYJvrn0

Weekly Reflection - wk 15

Started my prac last week (FINALLY!!), when everyone else has either finished or is half way through prac :( but then again has also finished my resignation notice of 30 days from work (YAAY!!), which means I have more time to concentrate on my studies.

                           

So, now that I've loads of time in my hand, I've been reading more fellow course mates blogs when I came upon this Google Glass when I was reading Jia Lerk's blog on this cool eye wear.
Check this out!!

                                       
         
source: madhaval (2013).  How It Feels through Glass - Google Glass Official Promo 20/02/2013. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BTCoT8ajbI

This is how advanced technology is getting!!

Is there such thing as creativity in Malaysian schools?

I was reading through my fellow course mate Jo's (pronounced as Joe!!) interesting blog (except for that slimy Hermit the frog!!), when I came across this 'Please don’t kill my creativity' on Sir Ken Robinson's 'Schools kill creativity'.
Well, not sure about schools in other countries but am certainly sure that national schools in Malaysia do kill the students' creativity!! I've read an article 'Unschool Me Today!' and it's stated that "The general feeling, from the teachers and parents interviewed in the article and from students in class is that we should just have better teachers. So what makes a better teacher? It’s true that with better teachers you might not even need a standardized curriculum after all – only the most incompetent teachers or the most elementary of students need a textbook to lean on." , which I personally feel it's so true!!


                   
source: englishforasians (2009). Do Schools Kill Creativity. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOOeMXOBhFE


Reference: englishforasians (2010) Unschool Me Today!. Retrieved from http://englishforasians.wordpress.com/tag/malaysian-education-system/

Funny experiment with the help of technology!!

I came across this article the other day, 'Dutch television hosts Dennis Storm and Valerio Zeno decided to experience simulated labor contractions in order to know what women feel during birth. The two men yelled, cried and clutched at pillows for over two hours of the artificial "labor" ordeal.

The video clip shows Storm and Zeno, hosts of the popular Dutch-language show "Guinea Pigs," explaining why they were taking on the challenge. They said that because labor pains are the worst possible and because men cannot experience real-life labor they agreed to be subjected to electro-stimulation that simulate the contractions of labor and give an experience of the distress of birth pangs'.

 And I thought that wouldn't it be great if all men tried this experiment to understand the pain their mothers or wives go through when giving birth to them or their children!! Now, where's that husband of mine?? (Haha!!!)

         

source: ProefkonijnenBNN (2013 Dennis en Valerio krijgen weeën (with English subtitles).  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZlsPXpR2ORU


Reference: Didymus, J.T., (2013). Watch male TV hosts undergo simulated birth labor contractions. Digital Journal. Retrieved from http://digitaljournal.com/article/341670



Weekly Reflection - wk 11

As I was reading some of my fellow course mates blogs, I came across Chai Hung's blog on the advantages vs disadvantages of ICT. This reminded me of the scenario at work when there's no internet connection or when the interactive whiteboard (IWB) decide to go on strike!! Are we too dependent on technology? Well, as for me, I can live without the computer or internet (unless when assignments are due soon, then I'll probably freak out if there's no internet connection!!) but bot without my mobile phone!! As a mother of four, that's the most crucial technology that I must have all the time and wherever I am.
As stated by Tom Chatfield in his article When Smart is not so Smart, "Are we becoming too reliant on technology and what happens if it is suddenly taken away from us?"
This is definitely something for us to think about!!.

                                   Clip Art Image                                       
source: All free original clipart. Retrieved from http://www.clipart-graphics.net/animations/computers/comp25.html


Reference: Chatfield, T., (2013). When smart is not so smart. BBC Future. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130201-when-smart-is-not-so-smart/all

Schema

Read the following paragraph and fill in the blanks. If you’re really keen add a comment below with what you got. Actually, gathering a collection of responses from a range of people would be really interesting.


The questions that p________ face as they raise ch________ from in_________ to adult are not easy to an _________. Both f______ and m________ can become concerned when health problems such as co_________ arise anytime after the e____ stage to later life. Experts recommend that young ch____ should have plenty of s________ and nutritious food for healthy growth. B___ and g____ should not share the same b______ or even be in the same r______. They may be afraid of the d_____.

Click below for the original version of the paragraph.
Original version of this paragraph

What is Schema?
Piaget called the schema the basic building block of intelligent behavior – a way of organizing knowledge. 

While reading a course mate, Kat Goh's blog on schema, she wrote about the experiment that our course examiner, David made us do (refer to paragraph above). You can also read his post on schemata and the source of dissonance?
And if you are a visual person like me, for a better understanding of schema, watch this clip below!




                 
source: Kay C. Wood, Harlan Smith, Daurice Grossniklaus, at the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia. (2012).  Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development. (at http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/ind...).

Reference: McLeod, S. A. (2009). Jean Piaget | Cognitive Theory - Simply Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html

Life-changing advances in technology

As I reading through Teresa Morgan's blog, I came upon "How Much Changes in Ten Years?" Really interesting and it sort of prompted me to think about the technologies that I DEFINITELY CAN'T live without!!

Wi-Fi 

Gone are those nasty dial-up days of plugging 56k modems into shaky phone lines and hoping for the best; or precariously balancing laptops while avoiding pulling the plug on the internet connection.
Wi-Fi's 802.11 standard was first mooted in the late 90s, but has now come of age, with many homes now running wireless networks to cope with multiple devices requiring internet connections.
Free hotspots are dotted around major cities, meaning you no longer need to go far to check email.

iPod

 Sure, it's not the only MP3 player out there, but when Apple's iPod first made its debut in 2001, no one could have predicted the mammoth success that it has become - racking up 173 million unit sales by September 2008. It's come a long way from the humble, mono-screened beginnings, evolving from a hard drive spinner to flash-memory packing devices that range from the near-pointless Shuffle to the video-capable Nano and the flagship Touch, which connects to Wi-Fi networks to let users surf the net as well as play games and play with GoogleMaps. Then there's the so-called 'Jesus phone' - the iPhone 3G, which adds a cellphone and next-gen internet capability to the Touch.

Google

 Need to know anything? Google it. A late arrival to the lucrative world of internet search, Google was the result of Larry Page and Sergey Brin's research project at Stamford in 1996. The company launched two years later and is currently the king of all things search, with a market share of 62.9 per cent and handling up to five billion searches each month. The company has managed to expand into many different tech spaces with projects like its open source Android mobile phone operating system and the Chrome internet browser and voyeur's delight Street View, all released in 2008.
Digital cameras

 Digital cameras have come a long, long way in the past decade. In 1999, a 2.7 megapixel digital SLR would set you back in the region of $25,000 - and that was just for the body. The staggering pricing of these early digitals made them strictly pro-only. Times have certainly changed, and while high-end DSLRs like Nikon's D3X and Canon's D1 Mk3 will set you back close to $10,000; point-and-click, zoom-capable eight megapixel compact digital cameras cost less than $400. Most cellphones feature a built-in camera these days, but there really is no substitute for a stand-alone camera for ease of use and quality of results. Bundled software has improved alongside price, and now anyone with half a brain can tackle simple photo-editing.

Facebook

 By far the biggest success story of the Web 2.0 world, Facebook took on New Corp's MySpace in 2004 and started to change the way we run our lives online. It was started by baby-faced Mark Zuckerberg. Microsoft bought a small stake in Facebook, which is now estimated to be worth US$15 billion (NZ$27bn). Part of the Facebook appeal is the ability to add applications to your profile - the most high-profile being Scrabulous, a Scrabble knock off that had half a million users playing every day. It also allows people from past lives to suddenly pop up, wanting to be your friend.


Reference: Greenop, M., (2009). Ten years of life-changing advances in technology. New Zealand Herald. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10552897

Weekly Reflection - wk 10

This week has been the most memorable week of my life! I've quit my job and felt really good about it!!

source: anime cat iz overjoyed. Retrieved from https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/3023067136/hEA15E084/

I can now concentrate on my prac and my personal life!! The only thing that I'm going to feel sad about is missing the kids and the some of my super cool and nice colleagues that I love dearly!
But, life goes on!! We need to adapt to changes in order to reach the next level, just like in technology!! But of course, there are certain things in life that we cannot or is better that we do not change too much!!.
Professor Susan Greenfield, has stated in Modern technology is changing the way our brains work that

"Human identity, the idea that defines each and every one of us, could be facing an unprecedented crisis.It is a crisis that would threaten long-held notions of who we are, what we do and how we behave. It goes right to the heart - or the head - of us all. This crisis could reshape how we interact with each other, alter what makes us happy, and modify our capacity for reaching our full potential as individuals.
And it's caused by one simple fact: the human brain, that most sensitive of organs, is under threat from the modern world".


                       

                                                 

source: Images for changes in technology. Retrieved from http://asnailpace.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/tumblr_l62ybp4rOT1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg



Reference: Greenfield, S., (n.d.) Modern technology is changing the way our brains work. MailOnline. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-565207/Modern-technology-changing-way-brains-work-says-neuroscientist.html


Preparing for Prac or So I Thought!!

I was in the mist of preparing for my 15 days prac; application for prac placement done and have gotten my application approved!! It's officially on Sonia!! (Yaay!!) submitted my leave application at work (which has not been approved yet although I've submitted it before Easter!!). Called up the school that I'll be doing prac to make an appointment to meet up with my mentor. Just when I thought I've gotten things under control, I was told that the management at the school that I'm working in would prefer me to do my prac there!! WTF!! Why didn't they tell me earlier! Why must they wait till the last minute to drop the bombshell? Have they considered the hassle that they've put me through by doing this?? Appeal has to be made, if its approved, application for placement to be send again, have to call school that I'm supposed to be doing prac in, to inform them that I would not be doing my prac there (which of course, will make me look like an absolute @#xx#@e!!). Senseless and ridiculous!!

                 
source: stress clipart. Retrieved from http://cf.ltkcdn.net/stress/images/feat-lg/123569-280x190r1-frog.jpg