Reflection
Posted by siti14 on October 16, 2008
Reflection on E-learning class
One reason why I enrolled in E-learning class is to get introduced to the use of ICT in education setting, an area that I personally have not had the experience to actually apply. Sitting in the first session and knowing that the tasks and assignments would be all internet-based brought my anxiety and intention to withdraw from the class. However, I decided to take the challenge as this is the only time I can have the chance and experience to get exposed to this ‘cyber world’ of education, one thing that I might not be able to get in Indonesia since this type of subject is only offered in IT schools for fulltime students. Being through the sessions of the class and to actually practice and experience some Web.2 application has brought me some exciting and meaningful practice and experiences.
Setting up my own blog moderated by Edublog was the very first exciting experience with ICT. I have always wanted to be a writer and have had some of my pieces of writing published in the school news. However, to actually have them published took very long process and work. Besides, the audience was also limited to the people in my campus. This edublog webpage is really a milestone to my personal goal as to become a writer. This blog really gives me chance and experience to have simple and convenient publication of my writings, to share my thoughts and ideas with large number of audience. These blogging ideas also have widened up my perspective and deepen my knowledge in its use in EFL setting especially in relation to writing skills, my compulsory teaching subject. I plan to use this technology in my teaching of writing to promote independent, on-going and life-long learning of EFL writing.
Another significant experience is to actually set up my e-portfolio by using SeaMonkey. This was the most thrilling part of the class for me since I have little experience with webpage and for this e-portfolio task I relied much on the user guide, which was unfortunately a bit hard for a digital immigrant like me to actually understand and apply. I had to consult Vijay several times before my e-portfolio worked and could be uploaded on the webpage. However, this practice really gave me opportunity to actually know how several types of hyperlinks work, one thing that I had always wondered when I accessed internet resources with hyperlinks on them. On top of that, the experience of collating my learning artefacts and some of my works provides me with a convenient way of storing my personal and professional data. Academic and professional portfolios are the two major data sources used as the assessment indicators for promotion in my workplace and this e-portfolio thing would be a smart data storage for me. I will keep updating my eportfolio for the benefit of my future career.
I also find Delicious bookmark as another very important thing I learn from this E-learning class. Before having a Delicious account very often I lost important internet resources. This Delicious account is just what I need to keep record of my research and enable me to easily reaccess the resources. But the most fascinating feature of this bookmark for me is that we can share our bookmarks with others and this makes researching much easier.
Some other applications we have tried in this E-learning class such as virtual class with Elluminate, pod casting, wiki, as well as a simple application like subscribing to a mailing list also bring me another stimulating experience. Virtual classes, one in this e-learning class and some others in my TESOL class, were really engaging for me because they gave me more chance to participate in class not only orally but also through writing. I often find it hard to get the right time to start talking in classroom but with this virtual class I could easily put my ideas across anytime I wanted during the class.
Meanwhile with pod casting, I do feel that this application would better cater the need of our big number of students in Indonesia. With our heavy load of curriculum and big classes (with at least around 40 students in each class), the teachers often find it hard to facilitate the students with student-friendly material delivery. What we do so far is giving much homework with a hope that the students could learn more by doing their homework. Some schools even have extra hours to cope with the delivery of “heaps’ of learning material. This pod casting would give other time and space for the teacher to deliver the material and for the students to access and learn the material in their convenient time and place. However, at the time being and possibly next five to ten years, this pod casting would still hard for us to apply due to not only the unreadiness of the education system and institution but also the students who are very used to learning in teacher-prescribed way rather than independently.
The possible application for our education in Indonesia, I think, would be blog, wiki, and mailing list since technically and financially these asynchronous tools are affordable and acessable. With these three asynchronous tools our students would be able to work both independently and collaboratively. They would be able to independently reflect on their learning and at the same time work together and reflect on their peers learning. By reflecting their learning on blogs, doing collaborative tasks on wikis, and share ideas through mailing lists, they would have the space for their need for being in “learning community” and would at the same time learn to work independently.
With these three applications I personally am most familiar with mailing list because so far I have already subscribed to six mailing lists, all of which are community mailing lists. Subscribing to FLTEACH as a task for E-learning class is honestly my first time getting in touch with a foreign language teaching mailing list and I have found that I am really benefited from this subscription. I can get much information and teaching resources as well as can have shared experience in foreign language teaching with many foreign language teachers throughout the world.
Overall reflection of this E-learning class for me is that this unit has given me a really beneficial knowledge, skills and experience in relation to some application of internet tools in education. Most of the application and tools practiced in this unit are new for me but they have brought me to exciting, challenging, and roller coasting experience of working with Web 2 and yet they are really beneficial for both my personal and professional development. The unit also has widened up my perspective on the idea of digital pedagogies which would be a big task for educators in Indonesia to think about, plan, and integrate in our curriculum if we really want to better cater our students with better education. And hopefully I could start this off from my English Education department.
Attachment (My blog entries from week 1 up to week 9)
Siti’s blog on Electronic Learning
The evolution of internet
Posted by siti14 on August 12, 2008
In the first week of the E-Learning class we were discussing the evolution of the internet. It was just amazing to look at some research finding on the fast growing and developing network and features internet has over the last decade. Below is a reflection of some of my readings in relation to the evolution of internet.
The evolution of internet
The presence of internet has been considered as a breakthrough in the information and communication technology. It gives ease to people in giving and getting information as well as communicating with other people throughout the world. With an internet connection people can spread news, access any news, or interact with other people in their convenient time and place. Internet makes the world’s lives timeless and borderless.
In spite of their vast use of the internet people might not fully aware what actually internet is and how it came to exist in their lives. Rowe, D (2000) defines internet in three different ways. The first definition is various ways in which people throughout the world communicate and share information. This definition is then broaden into a communication infrastructure; in this instance is computers and the application software, that enable people to communicate in a fast, effective, and yet cheap way. Another definition suggests that internet is a system of global information in which people can access “high level services layered on the communication. In doing so the system “is logically globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol” capable of supporting communication with the use of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The other definition gives broader ideas in which internet is considered not as a computer network but as a network of networks in which each sub-networks are “owned and administered by different organisations in different places and may use entirely different technologies”.
If traced back from the early development of the internet as a means of information and communication access, Rowe, D (2000) suggests six development stages in the evolution of the internet. The first era is pre-1956 in hard-wire communication devices such as telephone and telex dominate the communication system. During the 1956-1969 eras the communication protocols were introduced and engineered for specific tasks with limited computing power. In this era the networks were still private and closed. In 1956 SAGE released the pioneering system for the air defences in US and then was further applied for making banking and airlines reservation.
Then came the time-sharing network era within 1960-1969 where data formats, software, and standardisation of services put into application although in a very little scope. The resource sharing of computer system for the personal interactive use was also introduced even though the network still remained private and closed. In 1969-mid1970s the ARPANET was introduced with the pioneering network sponsored by the US DoD Advance Research Agency. The ARPANET was responsible for the development of the infrastructure while the user community was given freedom to develop the appropriate applications. In this period the communication network was more open and could serve large community and was not dependent on specific hosts for the operation. The data transport services from the application were also more clearly separated.
In 1974-1982 there was a huge increase in networks in which a great number of packet-switched networks came into use not only in the US but also in other countries. Although the technologies and application of the networks were of little standardization, the purpose of the networking was still similar to ARPANET. It was by the end of 1985 that internetworking through TCP/IP was introduced for the use of interoperation of heterogeneous network. Common internet applications like email were also progressing. The next development in the internet evolution is the 1985-1990 era in which vendors of hardware and software adopt the standards of TCP/IP. This enabled organisations to have their own private networks. The last development of the internet is in the beginning of 1990 up to now where there are big market, use, and access of the internet that enable people to have personal internet connection. There is also a growing number of internet service providers and good acceptance of world wide web by public. Based on another research conducted by Pew Internet Project, certain web site like Google, Yahoo, and MSN/Windows Life Search are the three most popular web sites among others (Goldsborough, R, 2008). This research also shows that 97 to 99 percent adults online in all countries exchange emails. Electronic business also comes into practice; people advertise and do trade through internet shopping and internet banking.
It is obvious that in its current evolution, the internet has become part of everyday lives of most people and organisation in the world. One of the obvious features on the use of the internet is in education. Based on the research conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project (2001), students nowadays often rely on the internet for their school research and use internet as their major source for their school projects. Many schools also set up their own web site to aid the students in their study. Another research conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project (2008) also reveals that with the advancement of ICT, teenagers today tend to write more than before. They are very active in their communication through writing in form of emails or text messaging. Although this fact worries some educators in an essence that these teens might lose their skills in good writing because they tend to use ‘ungrammatical and not correctly punctuated and spelled’ words and sentences, parents are quite optimistic that the presence of internet and the growing use of written communication through internet among teenagers could help these teens with their writing in schools.
Another interesting thing in relation to the evolution of internet is the idea that internet is considered as an organic entity in a divine sphere since internet itself is a collection of human mind (Kruger, O, 2007). Kruger relates the emergence of internet with religion in a way that religious contents and spiritual interpretation emerging in this virtual media is seen as ‘the first step of the realisation of a divine entity consisting the collective human mind” (2007). This shows that the evolution of internet has greatly influenced every single aspect of most people’ lives, not only in their personal and professional lives but also in their religious lives, the very personal and principal core of most people in the world nowadays.
If the influence of the internet is so greatly these days, what about in the future? In 2005 Pew reported that technology experts predict that in the next ten years; ie in around 2015, there would be possible network infrastructure attacks, meaning that there is a possibility that assaults on the internet infrastructure becomes common things in everyday lives (Fox, S, Anderson, JQ, Rainie, L, 2005). Internet would also becomes greatly integrated with physical lives with proliferation in broadband access and bring greater change in news and publishing world. Researching and studying the evolution of internet is really interesting especially because we ourselves are part of its evolution. What internet would really look like in the future? Let it flow and let us go with it to see what might happen next.
References
Goldsborough, R 2008, Evolution of internet has international flavour, survey shows, Technology Today, 7 April 2008, p. 39, accessed 04/08/2008, retrieved from Academic Search Premier
Kruger, O 2007, Gaia, God, and the internet: the history of evolution and the utopia of community in media society, Numen 54, 138-173, accessed 3/08/2008, < http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/num/2007/00000054/00000002/art00002;jsessionid=1vatbjlxdsg2i.alexandra>
Lenhart, A, Simon, M, Graziano, M 2001, The internet and education: findings of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, accessed 4/08/2008,
< http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=39>
Lenhart, A, Arafeh, S, Smith, A, and Macgill, AR 2008, Writing, technology, and teens, Pew Internet & American Life Project, accessed 04/08/2008,
< http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Writing_Report_FINAL3.pdf >
Rowe, D 2000, Evolution of the internet, accessed 3/08/2008,
<http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/see/research/cdma/Presentations/Rowe%20Internet.pdf>
Am I a digital native
Posted by siti14 on August 12, 2008
Reading the article by Marc Prensky entitled “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” is really interesting. He compares those who are born in information technology era and those who happen to be born before the era. It is just provoking to read the idea that education today should be able to cater the younger generation ; who he called as digital natives, with their digitally managed teaching and learning communicated through digital language. Reflecting the article to my own digital condition, what is my degree of ‘digitallity’?
Am I a Digital Native?
The answer to the above question would be obviously ‘No” since I was born, raised, and educated in the era in which information and computer technology was only accessible to professionals of the discipline. Furthermore, the country from which I come from also have limited resources and access to information and computer technology even until the present time. Although when I was in higher education in 1990s, I started to get used to using computers on my work, it is not until recently that I get familiar with mobile phone, MP3 player, and internet. It was just less than two years ago that I have my email address, get used to researching and surfing in the internet, get familiar with search engines and databases. All of which were because I got my job as a junior lecturer in an Islamic Institute in Indonesia in which the work load and the limited resources availability require me to really get up to date and work with my computer and internet. Also, I needed to really well prepare myself for my study in Australia, a far more ICT literate country compared to my own.
In spite of all that I mentioned above and the fact that I am a digital immigrant, it came to my surprise that my university students, the younger generation who were born in digital era and should be of digital natives, were not even better than me in regard to ICT. Many of them are even not ICT literate and I did really need to introduce them to the ICT, guided them in how to find resources in the internet, and showed them the vast resources they could access in the borderless and timeless virtual world of the internet. It is just interesting, and at the same time I feel pity to them, to see them get excited on what they can access and get through the internet. They just got very excited and happily told me they got interesting articles for their assignments. The department in which I work is also not much better. It was just last year that the department has internet access. And it was just last two semesters that all the academic matters are done through computer and the department have academic database that enable students to check their study progress independently through computers provided in the department. Before that time, only the main library and the rectorate office have the internet access and all the academic matters like enrolment and semester academic result were done in hand writing and electric typewriter. The department does have computers but the staffs can only use them in Microsoft office operation to make letters or tabulation of data entry. My first few months in the department was a really hard time because I had to be well-prepared myself for my teaching and at the same time I had to help my students with their ICT skills. To make things worse, I also had extra work load of helping some of my co-workers with their ICT so that they can improve my work. It came into my wonder that my limited ICT skills is still much better to these people who study and work in the central area of Surabaya, the second biggest city in Indonesia, and yet they have very limited skill of ICT in spite of the booming of internet shops in the area. However, I am also very lucky that in the department I have a very close friend who is very keen and good in ICT; Anna (Hi, Anna in Indonesia. Thank you for helping me with ICT). She is four years younger than I am and she is of digital native, I suppose. She has done a lot for me, the department, and the students in relation to ICT dan digital matters.
That story is about what happen to surprise me in my own country, but what surprises me even more is the fact that some of my classmates in Australia, who are Australians, are not even better than me. Some of them are not very good in ICT skills and I dare say that my ICT skills are much better. At the first time I recognised this, I was very surprised that in this modern country where internet access is very easy and vast and computer is affordable to almost everyone and yet there are Australians who do not feel comfortable with computers. Even a university staff happened to tell me that she does not even know how to search resources through databases available in the library. These facts just shocked me but then I realise that these people are just the same as me, fall into the category of Digital Immigrants who have to learn a lot and try to catch up with those Digital Natives in ICT. And I can be very sure that this is a really hard work to do since once we get familiar with an ICT feature, the newer and more advanced features keep appearing and coming like flood. However, like it or not we have to take it, otherwise we will get far more behind and alien to the other fast growing world, the virtual world of internet that has become another big world created in the universe.
Blog in education
Posted by siti14 on August 18, 2008
Blog in education
Blog or weblog, a form of personal publishing through internet, was the the focus of the classroom discussion in the third week of our E-learning class. We also practiced making our own blogs for the purpose of class practice and as a medium to post our subject tasks and assignments. For me personally, it was just interesting to have such experience to put myself and opinion on the internet, to share my thoughts with others and get comments. More than that, this blogging practice will also help me improve my English writing, especially with my critical thinking.With the comments I get, I will be able to broaden my perspectives and see issues through other people’s perspectives as well.
As with blogging, it also came into my mind to use the idea of blogging as a medium for my teaching later in Indonesia. My friend Anna (whom I already mentioned earlier in my previous posting) and I already discussed the idea of using blogging as a medium of our teaching in our department last year but at that time I just did not know how to administer it. Anna already started with her reading class but since I have to go to Australia for my study I haven’t got the chance to try to use blogging in my writing class. Reading on Steve Outing’s idea on several types and uses of blog (http://www.poynter.org/dg.lts/id.6617/content.content_view.htm), I am interested in setting up a topic blog and use it in my writing class just as I already mentioned earlier. I think through blog I would be able to better cater my writing class with a more interesting and interactive medium for their language learning. As some people have pointed out that as blog provides interactivity and gives resources and reading practice, and serves as a medium to write journal (Williams, JB and Jacobs, J, 2004, Downes, S, 2004, Sevelj, M, 2006, Campbell, AP, 2003 ), I suppose my students’ writing tasks and practices would be better facilitated with topic and class blogs.
The idea of using blog in second or foreign language learning, especially in writing skill which I focus on, blog could serve as just the right medium for collaborative learning and peer involvement. These two ideas have been proved to be effective ways of improving language learners writing skill (Gaies, SJ, 1985, Murray, DE, 1992). As writing cannot be seen as solitary activities people engage with in their social lives, writing happens to take place in communities and is for communities (Murray, 1995). Murray also pointed further that as in real practice writing occurs to be a social act in which people often collaborate with others, either orally or through papers, in creating a piece of writing, ESL writing learners need to be facilitated to get the experience of collaborative writing and be prepared for their writing practice outside classroom. One way to do this is through blog which obviously brings collaboration in writing practices. Through blog, students can collaborate with others, share ideas, and get the opportunity for peer involvement which proves to be beneficial in language learning. Peer involvement brings increased individualisation, opportunities for communication, motivation, intensified drill practice and strengthened cross-cultural understanding (Gaises, SJ 1985). As blogs brings the possibilities for social interaction in virtual sphere, these need for collaboration and peer involvement in language learning can just be best catered by blogs. Besides, as blog writing is now considered as another genre of writing (Campbell, AP ,2003 and Lenhart, A, Arafeh, S, Smith, A, and Macgill, AR , 2008), ESL learners need to be exposed to it as well.
In a broader perspective, blogging as a medium in education practices has been a focus of discussion of internet and education experts. In spite of the criticism on trivial writings students post when blogging is part of the classroom task and the potential risk of conflict between the blog writer and the teacher and institution (Downes, S, 2004), some others are quite optimistic that blogging can serve as an effective ways of conducting classes. Interactivity, development of reading, writing, critical thinking skills and information literacy, as well as ease in organising classes are some of the advantages of using blogging in education (Williams, JB and Jacobs, J, 2004, Downes, S, 2004, Sevelj, M, 2006, Campbell, AP, 2003). There is also a greater possibility for students and teachers and peers engagement and higher autonomy and flexibility of the interaction (Williams, JB and Jacobs, J, 2004). And more than that is that, as Sevelj, M (2006) pointed out and which I personally think to be a very important reason for using blogging in education, blogging ‘promotes the development of learning communities’. This idea, I think, is just right because education is all about learning and because of its flexibility, interactivity, and broad range of accessibility, blogging makes the learning happens in community.
This idea of using blogging in education, however, should also be well supported with compatible hardware and software and administered and organised by digital natives or ‘nearly native digital immigrants’ to get the best intended result. Although my the students, I myself, and people whom I work with in my department is not of that category, there is not something impossible if we keep on working and trying, and the idea of this blogging in education is just ‘worth doing’.
References:
Campbell, AP 2003, Weblogs for use with ESL classes, The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IX, No. 2, February, accessed 13/08/2008,< http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell-Weblogs.html>
Downes, S 2004, Educational Blogging, EDUCAUSE Review, Vol 39, No. 5 (Septermber/October), pp. 14-26, accessed 13/108.2008, <http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/EducationalBlogging/40493?time=1219110736>
Gaies, SJ 1985, Peer involvement in language learning, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc, Florida
Lenhart, A, Arafeh, S, Smith, A, and Macgill, AR 2008, Writing, technology, and teens, Pew Internet & American Life Project, accessed 04/08/2008, < www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Writing_Report_FINAL3.pdf >
Murray, DE 1992, Collabortive writing as a literacy event: implications for ESL instruction in Nunan, D (ed), Collaborative language learning and teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Outing, S 2000, Weblogs: put them to work in your newsroom, accessed 13/08/2008, <http://www.poynter.org/dg.lts/id.6617/content.content_view.htm>
Sevelj, M 2006, Weblogs as dynamic learning spaces. All learning in the same basket? Challenging a social construction ‘fit for all’. Paper presented at the distance education association of New Zealane Biennial Conference, 3-5 July, Auckland University of Technology(AUT), Auckland, New Zealand, accessed through WebCT at 13/03/2008, <https://ce6.vu.edu.au/webct/urw/lc9140001.tp0/cobaltMainFramedowebct>
Williams, JB and Jacobs, J 2004, Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector, Australian Journal of Education Technology, 20(2), pp. 232-247, accessed through WebCT at 13/08/2008,<http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet20/williams.html>
E-portfolio
Posted by siti14 on August 25, 2008
E-Portfolio
E-portfolio or electronic portfolio has put itself in cyber community as a handy, convenient, and easily-accessible portfolio replacing the manual or physical portfolio. For those who are convenient with information technology, e-portfolio serves as a good folder for keeping not only personal but also professional records. As the name implies, e-portfolio is a portfolio in an electronic form, which is an electronic organisation of works (Batson, T, 2002). A more thorough definition is given by Ittelson, J and Lorenzo, G (2005) who describe an e-portfolio as “digitized collection of artefacts”. The artefacts might represent personal, group, or even institutional demonstration, achievement, or resources in form of text, graphic, multimedia, archive, or even website. Adding to two definitions above, Miers, J, 2005 further defines an e-portfolio as “purposeful collection of work and information”. Purposeful means that the e-portfolio is driven by goal and based on performance in which it serve as an indication of personal effort, progress, and knowledge, skill, and attitudes achievement evidence. The e-portfolio is also aimed to be a medium for self reflection and means for “lifelong learning and career development.”
With its collection and purposes, there are several functions e-portfolio serve. Some e-portfolios contain blogs in the feature serves as a tool for self reflection. Some examples of e-portfolio we saw in class also contain blogs in which the owners of the e-portfolio write, share, and reflects their ideas, thought, and experience. As for career development, some people who have e-portfolios also use them as a personal professional ads through which they show their qualification, academic works, some trainings and work experiences. These enable others who need new staffs to look at and study the profile and if the profile suits the position they can contact the owner of the e-portfolio. In relation to the education sector, Ittelson, J and Lorenzo, G (2005) state that student and teaching e-portfolio can be a good tool to record students’ works and progress in their study, development of their skill and knowledge as well as , for the teaching e-portfolio, a means to share ideology and philosophy in teaching and learning, sharing the experience in teaching practices and other issues related to teaching. In institutional level, an e-portfolio provides records on a broad range of program and department.
Related to this e-portfolio topic, we are given task to create and produce our own e-portfolio. Vijay has facilitated us with examples and program download and we are to install and design our e-portfolio. I have tried to do my best to cope with this ‘new feature and technology’ but again as a digital immigrant I several times lose the track and cannot get to the destination. Darvian has tried to do his best to give a hand by giving guidance through his email and phone call (thanks a heap, mate) but again I still cannot make it. Until I post this I am still struggling to get through it and hope I can manage it.
Once I can make it I would like to develop my personal professional e-portfolio. I think it would be a good way of collecting both my personal experience and self reflection and my professional life. In my workplace, all teaching staffs are regularly assessed to get an accreditation in the teaching area that can be used to have a promotion. The assessment is based on the professional portfolio that we have. This includes our instructional materials or media we have produced, syllabus designs and lesson plan, any form of supervision we have given to students in their projects, training, seminar, and workshop certificates, articles and research. So far, we have to submit our paper-based (physical) portfolio and very often we lose some of important document because we are not good in organising them. This e-portfolio I think will be a good way of keeping my record and when the assessors require the physical evidence I can just reproduce them. I think it would be fantastic to have one and when I go back to Indonesia I plan to help my colleagues set up their e-portfolio for the purpose of keeping the important record and documents that we always need to give to the assessor in every two years. But again of course I have to first be successful with my e-portfolio exercise and assignment in this e-learning class.
Reference
Batson, T 2002, The electronic portfolio boom, what’s it all about?, accessed 20/08/2008, < http://campustechnology.com/articles/39299_2/>
Ittelson, J and Lorenzo, G 2005, An overview of e-portfolio, Diana Oblinger (ed), ELI Paper 1, July, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, accessed 20/08/2008, <http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3001.pdf>
Miers, J 2005, Professional e-portfolio in education, accessed 20/08/2008, <http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jmresources/ePortfolio.htm
Wiki in Digital Writing
Posted by siti14 on August 28, 2008
Wiki for Digital Writing
Another possible media for electronic learning that we were discussing in class in the fifth meeting is wiki. Different from blog, wiki is more open and more collaborative in a way that wiki enables the people who access the source to edit the content provided they have the account to that particular wiki. Although both wiki and blog are of asynchronous type, this writing and editing collaboration is not existent in blog because blog only gives chance for comment and not for editing.
As an alternative learning tool in education, wiki serves as a versatile tool for teaching and learning. Through wiki not only teacher, but also students and institution can build a collaborative knowledge building. Teachers can work collaboratively with others in designing lesson plan, constructing instructional material, as well as exercise and assessment test. At the same time the teachers can model the students on how to work together in shared-knowledge community. Wiki also enables students to improve their literacy, teamwork, and be engaged in learning communities both inside and outside the class (Grant, L, 2006).
Inspite of some emerging issues on the area of intellectual property, respect, plagiarism, and originality, I personally think that using wiki in education is worth trying and doing in education and in the near future I probably would try it out with my writing class and see how it works with our teaching and learning. I think in conjunction with blog, wiki would enable my students to practice their English writing as well as developing their critical thinking skill. Through working collaboratively in wiki and with some reflection and comment through blog, I hope they would be able to have some on going and continuous practice of using their language knowledge in more productive output as writing itself is more to the process of doing rather than the final piece. The only challenge that might appear in using this wiki and blog would be the affordability of internet access since although our main library has computer resource and internet access, they are of limited number. However, through coordination with the main library and good organisation of computer booking, we would be able to work it out.
Among several wikis that I have researched in the area of teaching writing, the Digital Writing wiki (http://digitalwriting.pbwiki.com/UsingDigitalWriting) appears to be the most interesting and useful one. This wiki was created to support the book, Teaching writing Using Blogs, Wikis, and other Digital Tools which is going to be published in October 2008 by Christopher-Gordon Publisher, Inc. The book itself are written by Richard Beach, Chris Anson, Lee-Ann Breuch, and Thom Swiss of the University of Minnesota. This wiki is really visitor friendly because the page is design in such away that the visitors do not need to do much scrolling down because the information is presented through links. On the side bars is lists of the chapters of the book and the visitors can just click on the link that will take them to the many links of massive information on various area of digital writing ranging from the background of digital writing to the tools, application, design of the teaching and learning, the resources, and evaluation for digital writing. I find this wiki just amazing. Beside this wiki seems to be spam free, the visitors also can easily contribute to the wiki because the password is openly provided by the creator. The contribution can be not only editing the content but also to the broader and more technical feature such as creating a new page in the wiki as well as uploading file in form of images, audio and video files. If you are interested in the teaching of writing and how to do it on line and you want to share your ideas and contribute to this knowledge society, this wiki is worth visiting.
Reference:
Grant, L 2006, Using wiki in schools: a case study, http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/discussion_papers/Wikis_in_Schools.pdf
http://digitalwriting.pbwiki.com/UsingDigitalWriting
It’s cool, it’s delicious
Posted by siti14 on September 3, 2008
It’s cool, it’s delicious
It is not until after last week virtual class on online bookmarking that I know I can save important links from my online research electronically. Before today, I always recorded my links in written form; i.e. I wrote the titles, the writers, and the complete URL in research cards or books but very often when it was assignments due time and I need to put the URL in the reference, I could not find my cards. In other case, I very often forgot to record the link addresses and got very panic when I could not re-accessed them.
Now, all those worries and bad experience of losing records of links because of my high digital immigrant degree are no longer with me. With this delicious electronic bookmark I will be no longer worried of losing the data and reference of my research. I have tried to create one and it just excites me that I can do it. This delicious bookmarking is really useful for me especially and other people who are really keen in special interests and want to keep record of their research.
Another amazing feature of this delicious bookmarking is that we can share our bookmarks with others. I think this is just great for collaborative learning. Take for an example, a friend of mine at the moment is taking Cambridge Certificate in TESOL in IALF Bali. Sometimes ago she asked me if I could help her with some resources she needed to finish the assignment. I usually showed her some links or attach them to emails. Now, with this delicious bookmark devise I would be able to share my bookmark with her and we can share articles in a more convenient and easy ways. After several trial and error finally I could work it out on how to create network with my classmates’ delicious account and having a delicious account really gives me a relief.
Digital divide in education
Posted by siti14 on September 14, 2008
The notion of digital pedagogies has put forward the idea of using ICT in education. However, accessibility and affordability of ICT for students which then form digital divide has become the main concern of some research. Warschauer et al (2004) in their article ”Technology and Equity in Schooling: Deconstructing Digital Divide”, presented their research on new technology availability, accessibility, and use in some California’s low and high-socioeconomic schools. The research compared the high and low socioeconomic school in terms of their ways in using ICT to improve their students’ academic preparation in various socioeconomic contexts.
The findings reveal that in low socioeconomic schools, the focus of ICT was more to the mastery of the program software such as PowerPoint presentation or “remedial literacy and numeracy and computer basis” (Warschauer et al, 2004) because the teacher were worried that most of the students did not have computer access at home and so this software mastery should become the main concern (Warschauer et al, 2004). Meanwhile, the use of ICT in high socioeconomic schools was more for scholarly research and enquiry purposes.
The findings of this research confirm idea presented in the article Dividing Lines in Education Week (Warschauer et al, 2004) that it is not the access to the computer that become the core issue of digital divide but the ways in which computers are used to educate children. These findings of the research by Warschauer et al (2004) also agree with a research conducted in Australia by Angus et al in 2002. The research evaluated an alliance program between The Australian Council of Trade Union, Virtual Communities which is a computer and software distributor, and Primus, an internet provider. This alliance program was conducted in late 1999 and aimed at bringing technology affordable for all Australians, to bring balance of the information rich and information poor groups. This research by Angus et al (2002) tried to find out the ICT engagement of three families participating in alliance program and research by Angus et al and the formal and informal use of ICT in both schools and home setting. The findings of this research show that in spite of their access to ICT, these participating families were not significantly advantaged by their access to ICT. This means that access to ICT does not automatically reduce the digital and social divide. Differences in cultural background, education, literacy, opportunity, and social power along with other socio-political aspect of ICT access and use might contribute to this existing divide.
These two articles bring to my understanding that the availability and accessibility of ICT does not necessarily have direct correlation with reducing digital divide existing in schools. There are some other aspects that contribute to the success of using ICT to enhance teaching and learning and to reduce the digital divide in education. The hard work of the teachers and parents who are lucky enough to be able to provide ICT to their children would be developing the research, critical thinking and analysis skills that would enable students to independently use ICT in a ‘proper ways’ for the sake of researching information relevant to their studies in order to enhance their learning.
References
Angus, L, Snyder, I, Smith, WS 2000, ICT and educational (dis) advantage: families, computers, and contemporary social and educational inequalities, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol 25, No.1, February, accessed from Victoria University webCT
Warschauer, M, Knobel, M and Stone, L 2004, Technology and equity in schooling: deconstructing the digital divide, Educational Policy, Vol. 18, No. 4, September, accessed from Victoria University webCT
E-learning and teaching and learning styles
Posted by siti14 on September 21, 2008
Designing and Creating E-learning
I am really interested in e-learning and online class although it might be very hard for me to set up one in my department due to lack of technical and financial support. However, having the knowledge on how to set up an e-learning class will be a great advantage as a basic foundation if in the future my department could get any sponsor or funding body to support one.
From http://tls.vu.edu.au/eLearning/CreatingOnlineUnits_Review.html, the process of setting up and administering an e-learning class comprises the following six steps.
- Need analysis, in which the expected learning outcomes, students’ learning needs, as well as the readiness of the organisation and the unit, the instructor, and the students are all assessed and characterised.
- Design, this includes the conceptual design where the instructional design (learning outcomes, activities, assessment, and resource) is planned and created along with the interface design and bling (the interactivity that engage learners).
- Production, in which good collaboration among the instructor as the administrator and executor of the unit, the IT and software specialists and good critical friends really influence the product, that is an online unit.
- Deployment; a good design and product should suit the aim, purposes, and the ways in which they are applied. The deployment of the design and products could be through webCT, blackboard, website, and other platforms.
- Evaluation, a stage where the administered e-class evaluated based on criteria developed by the development team, or through usability testing, and constructive feedback from friends and learners.
- Review. This stage enable the developer of the unit to review the stakeholder’s needs, improve the design and the interface, review the assessment and activities as well as the awareness of the preferred styles of the learners.
Having the knowledge about the process of designing and creating e-learning would not be enough to enable me to actually set up one on line unit. I need to know my potential for this type of teaching and learning. Being through self evaluation ‘Is online teaching for me?’ I found out that with 88% score I am just suitable enough to be an online instructor, something I could not really believe since I have no single experience of conducting an online class. This score might be because I have a bit of knowledge and skills in ICT, some experience in participating in online classes, and time flexibility. This potential, I think, just well match with my teaching style which is more to delegator approach (based on teaching styles self evaluation ) where I give more flexibility to the learners for their self discipline, self development, and self assessment to enhance their learning. This learning style is just what I usually apply with my classes. This is probably very much influenced by my prior education. When I was taking bachelor in English education, most of my lecturers set up high expectation for their students and we were trained to develop, improve, and evaluate our own learning, giving us more choices and flexibility in our learning to meet the expected outcomes.
My visual type of learning (assessed through learning styles self evaluation) I think would also support e-learning and teaching since I am a kind of person who would learn more through reading, pictures, graphs, and other images and communicate more comfortably through writing and e-learning could facilitate these needs of reading, images, and written communication.
Podcasting
Posted by siti14 on September 28, 2008
The idea of podcasting discussed in class and to actually experience the process of creating our class podcast (but not with the uploading part) and podcatch really excite me. It is something I have never experienced before and makes me realise that our education system in Indonesia is very far behind the advancement of technology.
This podcasting idea actually would be able to cater the need of Indonesian students. With big class and heavy load of curriculum, this podcast would enable the students to reaccess, relisten, and review the in-class material. The teachers would also be able to deliver the material that they probably could not deliver or finish in class. Therefore, the delivery of material would be easier, which would be a great relieve for the teachers. However, if we really want to apply this podcasting technology in our education, we certainly do have problens to really consider.
At the first place is the readiness of the students. Our students are so used to listening to in-class lecture, mostly learn in teacher-prescribed ways. There is no guarantee, not to undermine those students who might already familiar with this technology, that when they are given chance to individually learn from the podcast, they would actually do that.To independently learn from an audio-video material would bring anxiety. This podcathing would not enable them to directly ask what they do not understand.
Coping with the technology would also be another big problem for schools, teachers, and students. To produce a podcast, the teacher would need extra preparation for the material design and delivery modes, extra time for the production, and extra ICT skills, and these are just very difficult with their already “heavy work load”. If this podcast is really to be produced and used, the schools need to consult an IT specialist and allocate more fund for extra time and effort the teachers have to do and this is just almost improbable (not to say impossible) since most schools are still struggling with the funding. Also, to be able to podcatch, the students need to go through several stages, downloading the podcast files then put them in their ipod or player, before they can actually listen or watch them. So far our students are already familiar with researching resources from internet but most of them are not yet on this stage of downloading and saving such files.
On top of the above problems, we also have problems with affordability and accessibility of the IT and gadget. Computer and internet are still something “very special” that only limited number of people are lucky enough to get access to. There are schools that have computers lab with internet access but not many schools do. There are also internet cafes that would enable students to get internet access from but still it is very costly. Moreover, the iPod or even the oldest type of MP3 players are still very expensive for most of us.
So in short, the idea of this podcasting for our Indonesian schools is that it would be fantastic and excellent for our students and education but is till to far to reach. There are still several big problems that I think really hard for us to cope with if want to apply this technology.
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