Muse #11- final post!
This marks the end of our E-Learning journey - now that the lectures and tutorials have ended, the group project is completed and the exam is looming. It is a bitter-sweet end, in my humble opinion.
I was very apprehensive when I first started doing this module because just the name sounded quite intimidating to me (what exactly IS e-learning??! Will all the classes be conducted virtually? Is the project about constructing some Java programming thing? How will exams be tested?). Throughout the whole sem, there were many moments where I enjoyed the classes and did understand some concepts. But generally (*insert sad face and disappointed sigh*), I regret to say that the content of this module is still not quite 100% clear to me as I'd ideally hope. Maybe it's just the nature of the module and my lack of know-how in this field. Hahah.
Oh wells. Let's all study hard and give our best shot in the exams! ALL THE BEST, EVERYONE!
P.S. Thanks to Mr. Alfred Low for trying your best to make our lessons more enjoyable, and to my group mates who made the group project process as fun as it could be. :) Good luck for exams, you all!
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Muse #10
This week we had our WebQuest presentation! Personally, I had mixed feelings about this group project. Why? Well I certainly enjoyed myself creating a website-based learning curriculum thing, brainstorming with my lovely group mates about how to make the WebQuest more interesting/colourful/engaging since it was targetted at lower primary students. We decided to give the WebQuest a name and structure it like some sort of story to make it more exciting than a normal boring "tell them all the facts" to-the-point type. Instead, we decided to get them to solve various activities and tasks in our very own self-created JunkHouse! :D
However the actual process of creating the WebQuest was too heavy and personally I found that the 10% did not justify the amount of effort and time put into it. Especially since this was an entirely new software to all of us, it took us some time to get used to it before we actually managed to start creating the actual thing. Thereafter, minor details here and there turned out to be very troublesome and time consuming to edit, causing many late nights and great frustrations. That's not to say that the project process was entirely unenjoyable. It was definitely an eye-opening experience learning a new software. Perhaps if we had been taught it earlier and given more time to experiment with it, and of course, a higher percentage of the grade allocated to it.
This week we had our WebQuest presentation! Personally, I had mixed feelings about this group project. Why? Well I certainly enjoyed myself creating a website-based learning curriculum thing, brainstorming with my lovely group mates about how to make the WebQuest more interesting/colourful/engaging since it was targetted at lower primary students. We decided to give the WebQuest a name and structure it like some sort of story to make it more exciting than a normal boring "tell them all the facts" to-the-point type. Instead, we decided to get them to solve various activities and tasks in our very own self-created JunkHouse! :D
However the actual process of creating the WebQuest was too heavy and personally I found that the 10% did not justify the amount of effort and time put into it. Especially since this was an entirely new software to all of us, it took us some time to get used to it before we actually managed to start creating the actual thing. Thereafter, minor details here and there turned out to be very troublesome and time consuming to edit, causing many late nights and great frustrations. That's not to say that the project process was entirely unenjoyable. It was definitely an eye-opening experience learning a new software. Perhaps if we had been taught it earlier and given more time to experiment with it, and of course, a higher percentage of the grade allocated to it.
Muse #9
This lecture was dedicated to the WebQuest programme. We learnt the various components that are necessary to making a good WebQuest, namely, Introduction, Task, Process, Evaluation, Conclusion, Teacher's Page, and resources such as website links, case studies, examples, mindmaps etc.
I still remember our first introduction to the WebQuest software during tutorial where we were so amused and fascinated with how clicking on the various functions could create different ways of presenting the information such as True/False questions, Multiple-Choice, Multiple-Select, Case Study etc. (We also kept gushing about the cute pictures attached to each function such as the briefcase for Case Study. HAHAH! Guess we're not that much older than our target audience of lower primary school students. Wahahah)
The WebQuest seems like a useful authoring tool. :)
This lecture was dedicated to the WebQuest programme. We learnt the various components that are necessary to making a good WebQuest, namely, Introduction, Task, Process, Evaluation, Conclusion, Teacher's Page, and resources such as website links, case studies, examples, mindmaps etc.
I still remember our first introduction to the WebQuest software during tutorial where we were so amused and fascinated with how clicking on the various functions could create different ways of presenting the information such as True/False questions, Multiple-Choice, Multiple-Select, Case Study etc. (We also kept gushing about the cute pictures attached to each function such as the briefcase for Case Study. HAHAH! Guess we're not that much older than our target audience of lower primary school students. Wahahah)
The WebQuest seems like a useful authoring tool. :)
Muse #8
Even more types of learning and the possible associated instructional strategies were taught in this week. This time we learnt about Problem-Solving and Affective Learning. For Problem-Solving, there are basically 9 steps involved which range from puzzle problem to story problem to trouble-shooting to issue-based, with many others in between. This is known as Jonassen's Taxonomy of Problems. (Seriously, even 'problems' can be so problematic?! okay, sorry, I'm just being lame. heh)
Affective / Attitude Learning (yay! something more interesting. =p), according to Krathwohl, consists of Receiving, Responding, Valuing, Organisation and Characterisation. In my group's WebQuest project, we utilised the level of Organisation. In our WebQuest designed for lower primary school students, the basic idea was about educating them about the 3Rs - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and enabling them to implement it in their daily lives. Hence the level of Organisation in the Affective Outcome of Learning would be something like the students will accept, appreciate and be committed to the importance and value of environmental consciousness and actively do their part to make a difference.
Even more types of learning and the possible associated instructional strategies were taught in this week. This time we learnt about Problem-Solving and Affective Learning. For Problem-Solving, there are basically 9 steps involved which range from puzzle problem to story problem to trouble-shooting to issue-based, with many others in between. This is known as Jonassen's Taxonomy of Problems. (Seriously, even 'problems' can be so problematic?! okay, sorry, I'm just being lame. heh)
Affective / Attitude Learning (yay! something more interesting. =p), according to Krathwohl, consists of Receiving, Responding, Valuing, Organisation and Characterisation. In my group's WebQuest project, we utilised the level of Organisation. In our WebQuest designed for lower primary school students, the basic idea was about educating them about the 3Rs - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and enabling them to implement it in their daily lives. Hence the level of Organisation in the Affective Outcome of Learning would be something like the students will accept, appreciate and be committed to the importance and value of environmental consciousness and actively do their part to make a difference.
Muse #7
After the previous week's lecture on Fact and Concept Learning, this week we moved onto Procedures and Principles Learning. These two types are considered to be more 'advanced' than Facts and Concepts because Procedures and Principles require more in-depth knowledge and critical thinking.
The fundamental difference between Procedural Knowledge (this week) and Declarative Knowledge (last week) is that for the latter, you simply know that something is thisthisthis whereas in the former, you know exactly how to do it.
When using Photoshop to edit photos, Declarative Knowledge would involve knowing that to edit the colours, the 'adjust colour' function needs to be used, whilst in Procedural Knowledge, the learner will know exactly how to carry out the steps necessary to do the actual adjusting.
With regards to Principle Knowledge, principles are such as Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns (LDMR) in Economics, the Pythagorus Theorem in Mathematics etc.
After the previous week's lecture on Fact and Concept Learning, this week we moved onto Procedures and Principles Learning. These two types are considered to be more 'advanced' than Facts and Concepts because Procedures and Principles require more in-depth knowledge and critical thinking.
The fundamental difference between Procedural Knowledge (this week) and Declarative Knowledge (last week) is that for the latter, you simply know that something is thisthisthis whereas in the former, you know exactly how to do it.
When using Photoshop to edit photos, Declarative Knowledge would involve knowing that to edit the colours, the 'adjust colour' function needs to be used, whilst in Procedural Knowledge, the learner will know exactly how to carry out the steps necessary to do the actual adjusting.
With regards to Principle Knowledge, principles are such as Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns (LDMR) in Economics, the Pythagorus Theorem in Mathematics etc.
Muse #6
Oh no. I have been falling SO behind in my blog! Projects, midterms and more projects. But of course that is no excuse for not blogging. :( Oh well. Here goes..
Week seven's lecture covered instructional strategies for Fact and Concept Learning. Fact Learning aka Declarative Knowledge aka Verbal Information is about "Knowing that.." It is a very basic stage which involves the most fundamental issue about just simply knowing a simple fact. For example, knowing that the mixture of red and yellow paint gives orange! :) Another example is knowing that the capital of Switzerland is BERN! :)
On the other hand, Concept Learning aka Intellectual Skill is more associated with "Knowing the meaning of .." Here, an example could be knowing the meaning of the concept "even numbers".
Oh no. I have been falling SO behind in my blog! Projects, midterms and more projects. But of course that is no excuse for not blogging. :( Oh well. Here goes..
Week seven's lecture covered instructional strategies for Fact and Concept Learning. Fact Learning aka Declarative Knowledge aka Verbal Information is about "Knowing that.." It is a very basic stage which involves the most fundamental issue about just simply knowing a simple fact. For example, knowing that the mixture of red and yellow paint gives orange! :) Another example is knowing that the capital of Switzerland is BERN! :)
On the other hand, Concept Learning aka Intellectual Skill is more associated with "Knowing the meaning of .." Here, an example could be knowing the meaning of the concept "even numbers".
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