9th Week

Today we received our 2nd module.

It was on Photo Editing.

As i skimmed through the module, one thing caught my attention. It was the Adobe Photoshop CS3. This was something new and exciting. So tried to figure out what it was all about.



Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop. The CS rebranding also resulted in Adobe offering numerous software packages containing multiple Adobe programs for a reduced price. There are two versions of Photoshop: Basic and Extended, with Extended having extra features available. Adobe Photoshop Extended is included in all of Adobe's Creative Suite offerings except Design Standard, which has the Basic version.



The speciality of the CS3 was that new features propagating productivity include streamlined interface, improved Camera Raw, better control over print options, enhanced PDF support, and better management with Adobe Bridge. Editing tools new to CS3 are the Clone Source palette and nondestructive Smart Filters, and other features such as the brightness and contrast adjustment and Vanishing Point module were enhanced. The Black and White adjustment option improves control over manual grayscale conversions with a dialog box similar to that of Channel Mixer. Compositing is assisted with Photoshop's new Quick Selection and Refine Edge tools and improved image stitching technology
CS3 Extended contains all features of CS3 plus tools for editing and importing some 3D graphics file formats, enhancing video, and comprehensive image analysis tools, utilizing MATLAB integration and DICOM file support

7th Week

As mentioned in my earlier post we were given the 1st module.

So, in this class we were to continue working on our module which was helpful as we could finish it up much quickly.

I would like to share one of the skill that i have learned through this model which is 'encoding' Before this i had no idea what it was all about and never would have tried but thanks to the module i did get my chance.

Encoding is the process of putting a sequence of characters (letters, numbers, punctuation, and certain symbols) into a specialized format for efficient transmission or storage. Decoding is the opposite process -- the conversion of an encoded format back into the original sequence of characters. Encoding and decoding are used in data communications, networking, and storage. The term is especially applicable to radio (wireless) communications systems.

6th week

Today we were given our first module.

At first i had no idea what it was all about. Apparently it is detailed steps of using technological tools as a resource in teaching.

The first module was on Computing and Internet skills.

It is pretty basic stuff such as how to search for images and journals from the internet.

Also on how to download songs & videos (which was very useful)

Some of the objectives of the 1st module is to:-

(1) Carry out a search procedure to find pictures, text, software, gifts, images, animations, PDF files, journal articles, online games, as well as songs either for educational or personal use.


(2) Download software, video and audio files as PDF documents from the internet eg.Youtube.


(3) Upload files as attachment to yahoo mail, windows live, pictures to photobucket, flicker and Youtube, share files over media fire, 4 shared and esnips.


(4) Encode, convert audio and video files to be used for educational and personal purposes from various sources.


(5) Store files on various storage facilities such as CD-rom, pendrive, external hardisks, online storing in youtube, 4shared, photobucket, and windows live. They should also learn to Burn CD and DVD’s.

We were supposed to try out all these steps and comment on it if we faced any difficulties and record our progress.

5th Week

Today we were re-introduced to the notion of teaching aids and its importance.

Of course when we were in Institut Perguruan Ilmu Khas we were constantly in pursuit to create new teaching aids for the endless lesson plans for all the subject.

Now, what is a TEACHING AID?

A teaching aid is a tool used by teachers to

- help learners improve reading and other skills
- illustrate or reinforce a skill, fact, or idea, and
- relieve anxiety, fears, or boredom, since many teaching aids are like games.

Some examples of tecahing aids would be:-

The Alphabet Book

Introduction


Alphabet books are sometimes used


* as motivational tools to attract people's attention to books
* as supplements to primers
* to help transfer reading skills from one language to another, or
* to introduce the sounds and letters of an alphabet.

Definition


An alphabet book is a collection of pages that lists and illustrates the entire alphabet.
Features


Here are some features of an alphabet book. An alphabet book usually contains the following for each letter:


* one or more keywords
* an illustration of each keyword, and
* the letter(s) in small and capital letters.


Variations


An alphabet book might include


* all the letters in a language
* only the vowels
* selected vowels and consonants
* sentences using the keywords and letters
* paragraphs or stories featuring the key words or letters
* an entire page of examples of the use of one letter, or
* several letters on each page.



Other than that posters are also good teaching aids

Introduction


A poster is an informative, often decorative way to attract attention to the information it contains.


Here are some ways to use posters in classroom:


* To advertise events or products
* To display information or instructions
* To teach some kinds of information


Ready-made posters from
o business organizations
o community development organizations
o government offices
o medical companies, or
o tourist agencies.

4th Week

As a teacher our office is the school & our clients are the students...

So how do we work with young learners?



It is important to understand their characteristic before trying to tackle their problems. Some of their characteristic would be:-

- Ability to grasp meaning
Children are not born as a ‘blank slate’ but they are capable to pick up the ‘meaning’ of thing as they progress through experience. So teachers should present their lesson by acknowledging this fact and prepare it in a more inviting way.



- Children’s creative use of limited language resources
children are creative in creating and using limited language resources. Children will simply ‘experiment’ the language that they might familiar when they are talking. Even though sometimes it seems ‘ungrammatically’ correct the way children speak, but, this is a fundamental phenomenon for language development.

- Children’s instinct for play and fun
Teachers should add the elements of fun and games in eliciting knowledge from children. Since children love fun, teacher should conduct a game that they are using English. Thus, this ultimately will make them learn indirectly the intended objectives of the lesson. So, teacher should be creative in exploiting the children instinct so that through games, children are motivated to learn English



- The role of Imagination
Children have no limitation on their creativity in imagination. Knowing this fact, teachers should try to make use of it and trigger their imagination. Make lesson as more than just giving input but something that they would have to think about and ponder.

3rd Week

Being a typical teenager means we are so accustomed to downloading songs, video clips and lyrics that we could sometimes do it with our eyes half closed. But today in the Resources class for the first time ever we were asked not only to find a song and its lyrics and its video clip but we were also asked to make a documentation of it using PowerPoint. It’s as if we are going to use our slides to teach some absolutely technology- deprived young ‘kampong’ teenagers.

It felt great because it was something that we all could relate to and it was easy. I also learned something new which is how to copy a web screen and paste it in a PowerPoint slide and then edit it. I’m sure this would be a useful trick to be used later when I’m preparing my teaching slide as it would make my presentation more interesting and livelier.


We were also introduced to the Moyea Downloader Software. It is a useful tool to download videos faster and utilize it more effectively. This software allows us to convert videos that we have downloaded into any formats that we prefer which means we have more options of playing the video in any player that we have. Another advantage of it is the download rate is much faster than any other youtube downloader.



This class has really shown that no matter how much time we spend on the internet and think that we know all there is about the internet world, there is still something that we can learn everyday and improve ourself.

2nd Week

WORKING WITH YOUNG LANGUAGE LEARNERS

As a teacher there are certain principles that we need to be aware of when dealing with young language learners.



1st is Children's ability to grasp meaning- Children are able to understand what is being said to them even before they understand the individual words. They are able to use intonation, gestures, facial expression to help unravel unknwon words or phrase. Teacher could help to polish this ability by emphasizing on the importance of focusing on the nonverbal communication skill. For example playing games such as Charade.

2nd is Children's creative use of limited language resources- Children have the ability to use creative forms of language to express themselves due to the limited knowledge and vocabulary that they have. Using games in classroom will utilize this skill and creativity especially games that focuses on the need for communication.

3rd is Children's capacity for indirect learning- Acquisition of language takes place best when it is unconcious and indirect. Once again using games in classroom ensures that children will not be intimidated with the learning but rather focused on winning the game and solving the problem in hand, this make sure that learning takes place in an effective yet subtle manner.

4th is Children's instinct for play and fun- It in impossible to seperate children with fun and play. So the best way would be to incoprate those two in the learning. Creating a fun based classroom with lots of games and play and not forgetting the learing content would work miracle in boosting childen's learning.



5th is The role of imagination- Children's sense of imagination is at an outmost capacity. They are able to relive the reality in a fantasy world. Thus using stories such as fairy tales would bring their learning the world they are familiar with. Tecaher's should not hinder on their imagination but rather try to encourage them.


6th is The instict for interaction and talk- Language learning is all based on the ability to interact. It is the most powerful and obvious means of applying the language. It is also the best way in receiving feedback and assessong children's ability.