'A Picture is Worth a Thousand Word'

‘A Picture is Worth a Thousand Word’. That was what we basically learned in today’s class, which was PHOTO EDITING. Based on my previous knowledge, photo editing is a process where we edit the brightness, sharpness, redeye and blemishes on the photo using a software such as ACDSee Pro and Adobe Photoshop CS2. Our resourceful lecturer, Puan Foziah had advised us to use software that is easy and user-friendly in editing photos. Actually, I am not really good in editing photos but I just learned and explored using the photo editing software last night. It was fun and I enjoyed it. After all, we can do many wonderful things using the software. Then I realized that I began to love this course as it introduced me with new knowledge especially in using technology which I had superficial knowledge on =)

Unfortunately, we received another group assignment which was Assignment 3. For this assignment, we need work with new group members which were selected by draw lots. I love this idea of grouping instead of we, doing it online (that was a bit chaotic). Then, we need to prepare teaching aids for teaching primary classroom,i.e:

· E-book
· Interactive storybook
· Windows movie maker and power point videoclips
· Dialogue using bubbles in pictures, cartoons
· Photo viewer


Here are the steps that we need to do for this assignment:
1. choose a group
2. choose a topic
3. prepare a storyboard
4. search for pictures
5. prepare the materials

The other part of today’s lecture was conducted with presentations by every group on different subtopics after a lecture delivered by our lecturer earlier. Each group had to simplify their topic and present it to class. I love this kind of learning as it makes things easier and simple for us to absorb.

Overall, from today’s class, I had learned that children are concrete learners, imaginative and they love learning through exploration and demonstration. So, teachers need to be creative to design interesting and interactive teaching aids to be used in classroom so that conducive and meaningful learning environment can be established.

Here are some websites that I would recommend for photo editing:

>>www.webshots.com
>>www.pdictionary.com
>>http://wigflip.com/saywhat

Another 'Lucky' Day

Today’s class was not as interesting as before. The lecture was good but registering group for our assignment was quite chaotic. This was because we did not have enough computers for all of us to assess the internet. Plus, some of the computers were not in a good condition. In my opinion, it would be a good idea if wireless internet with router is used in the computer laboratory so that those who did not manage to get a computer in the laboratory can bring their own laptop and assess the internet easily. Another suggestion is that, the class should be divided into two classes that will be held at MK1 and MK2. This enables all of us to assess the internet on our own without sharing computers with others. As for me, sharing computers for doing practical activities is not effective in learning. This is because we need to have hands-on experience of operating the computers in learning this course that mainly requires us to ‘play’ with the technology. It would be difficult for some of us who are not really good in using the technology as they do not have the opportunity to use the computer. However, I did learn something new from today’s class such as storing, encoding, saving and downloading.

1) downloading- keepvid, save2pc, video downloader, real player II, limewire,
flashget, orbit downloader, ares, download accelerator plus,
internet download manager.
2) encoding - viva encoder, flv converter, super converter, transcoding tool,
daemon tool, alcohol 120%
3) saving - hard disk, thumb drive and external disk
4) storing - CD, DVD.

Unluckily, the sad part of today’s class was when I was being yelled by someone. I wrongly joined the particular group that the person wanted to join for our group assignment. I believed that it was quite rude to yell at someone like that for the mistake I have done. Plus, we already knew each other for four years and the person should talk to me personally for the mistake that I have done…Moreover, I am a tolerate person and I can accept if the person talked to me personally about the problem. Luckily, I managed to join the other group and I was grateful that my group members were very supportive and most importantly, accepting me as their group member =) I hope my group can produce a good product for our assignment later =) Wish me luck.

Colour up Your Teaching with Own Designed Resources

PBEY 3101. Using and Developing Resources for the ESL Classroom. At first, I thought this course is about using and developing resources such as story books, songs, posters, brochure, etc for the ESL classroom. Using technology to design own resources has never came across my mind before I entered this class for the first time. I gained a lot of knowledge about technology in this class. For instance, websites that can be used to download movie, songs and converting files which some of them I don’t know before.

After listening to the lecture delivered by our lecturer, Puan Foziah Mahmood about using technology to design our own resources for ESL classroom, I realized that we can do many things by using technology. We can be creative to design our own resources which I find very interesting ; for example, audio editing to create a minus one, using movie maker, editing picture and others as our teaching aids for ESL classroom. I love it and began to think that this course is really exciting. Even though I am not so-called ‘techno savvy’, I bet I will learn many practical things in this course especially in using technology.

I agree that teachers need to be inovative, proactive and creative enough to colour up their teaching and learning activities in ESL classroom in order to make learning more fun and attractive.

Our lecturer, Puan Foziah Mahmood is simple, straightforward and she is very technology literate. Even I, myself does not know the largest composition of the latest pendrive in the market compared to her. That was quite embarrassing.
I can’t wait to attend the next class and hope to learn and gain more valuable knowledge all along the way.