Reflections: Session Four (E-learning Week).

Mon, 1 Sep 2008
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Following on from my comment on Dr Tan’s blog, I feel very fulfilled after completing the readings and tasks, but I wonder if it is possible to split the tasks into separate weeks.

In my opinion, knowledge is infinite, so no matter how much one is able to absorb and learn (n, if the amount can be quantified in algebraic terms), there will always be a bit more information to absorb and learn – in other words, n + 1.

For the purposes of classroom lessons, however, time is finite – there are only two hours in a teaching period, and 168 hours in a week. This means that teaching and learning time must be used as effectively as possible to ensure learners learn at an optimal capacity.

Nevertheless, ‘optimal’ is always a grey area because of its inherent subjectivity; one person’s bread may well be another person’s poison, so what may be just the right amount of assignments for one person may be too little for another.

Then again, this could also mean that if a student finds the workload too ‘slack’, s/he could very well engage on independent research or learning in order to add-on to what s/he already has learnt.

Thus, Dr Tan could consider either working on my suggestion or aggregating the feedback he has received and will receive from various students in terms of the e-learning workload so as to find the right balance for everyone.

In any case, it’s a win/win situation for all 🙂

To sum up my reflections for this week, I think I better understand the need for this portion of the module: when I was younger, way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth (LOL), my secondary school was part of the pilot programme to test out IT infrastructure in Singapore schools.

Back then, the only form of Cyberwellness we had came in the guise of “DON’T TOUCH THE DAMN THING, THE DAMN THING CAN’T WORK. OKAY?” – when our teacher tried to gently explain to us that he had kindly locked our keyboards and mice using a centralised system while he went through the finer points of ourl very boring lesson package, so that we wouldn’t surf the net and be led astray by unsavoury influences.

Because it was the year 1996, and the Internet was a new and exciting thing that no one really knew much about. Thankfully, though, we weren’t led astray but nevertheless, I think there could’ve been a better way to guide us along our learning journey.

Hence, I do agree that it is necessary for teachers to be educated on the issues that arise from ICT-mediated lessons, either face-to-face or online, along with the strategies to cope with said issues if they do occur.

With that, here’s looking to tomorrow’s class, where we share with everyone why Google Reader rocks!

Food for thought.

Fri, 15 Aug 2008
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Currently, our students do acquire values, as a result of being in school. In fact, this is an inevitable process. But the values that they truly acquire are not the ones that the teachers deliberately teach, as part of a formal plan like National Education.

Instead the values that the students truly acquire are simply a consequence of their personal experiences and observations, in school. And it is mostly an unconscious, automatic, ongoing process.

I thought this was quite an interesting post, and something that all of us, as educators, should include as part of our reflection process – are we meeting the needs of students, or are we merely trying to make numbers work?

EN3271: Advanced Playwriting

Wed, 9 Apr 2008
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Because I know there will be people who will Google for more info on EN3271: Advanced Playwriting, I thought I’d do a blog post on it too, in order to:

  1. Help sell the module – it’s really good! – and
  2. Tell people more about what I do in school.

Huzir Sulaiman is mentoring us for this module; he has also mentored us for the pre-requisite module to EN3271 i.e. EN2271: Introduction to Playwriting, and it has been a really great experience all the way.

We had a play reading last year which provided many networking and career-building opportunities for me, not to mention two very fun-filled days of laughter and entertainment from the talented actors who worked on our scripts.

The writing in this module has become more focused; from shorter pieces focusing on different areas, we have finished a two-act play and are in the process of completing another.

What I really like about this class is that because it’s a small class size, it’s not unwieldy and we can have some fun times hanging out together as well.

We usually have lunch together after class, and here are some pics of us at Holland Village when we went to Da Paolo’s for very nice pizza.


Lucas.


Cheryl and Mel.


Karthik.

So if you’re contemplating taking either EN2271 or EN3271, don’t hesitate – just do it. But do your best while doing it, so you get the most out of the experience. (Which I guess should go without saying for most things in life anyway?)