Evaluation.

At my 1st post, I mentioned I would have an evaluation to check if my previous thoughts of what elearning is has changed throughout the whole course of NM3204. Well, one thing that really struck me for this module is that E learning is really not as easy and simple that I thought it was! To teach others something, it's not as easy as just getting the materials that you want to teach and just present it to the learner. It really takes alot of effort and time to create a learning and instructional design, going through various tedious steps and stages. Learners should really appreciate the lesson plan that the teachers created for the module. I realised that after creating the webquest project, as our group spent alot of time trying to create the task, processes, evaluations,etc. So, I do hope that if anyone (hopefully someone..~) gets the opportunity to try our webquest, please do appreciate the hard work we put in!
To conclude, I think E learning will be increasingly important in future education. Perhaps one day it will even take over most of traditional classroom setting learning? Not only will it be important in schools, but even in the business industry, where training and skill enhancement is pertinent to do well or survive in the industry.
If I do become a teacher in future, I believe that I can definitely make use of what I have acquired from this module.

reading wk

Its mid of reading week and I think I've finished studying for e learning. The last few readings were really awful, repititive and the words are really small! Had a hard time getting clear the differences between principles and procedures..So I conclude that (1)procedures can be part of a principle, but principles are not part of a procedure. (2) procedures are about knowing how something works, and principles are about knowing why it works that way. (3)procedures emphasize on simplicity while principles emphasize on the meaningfulness and breadth of application.

Shall dedicate another day for Needs Assessment! Very important! 15marks!

Learning really isn't that easy. So many steps! so many tasks! so many things to prepare beforehand!

i need more SoC friends

we just got feedback for our webquest.. the content seems fine, but the aesthetics of it is quite bad... maybe more than quite. And we saw the webquest presentations by the other groups were so fantastic, the graphics, webpage design... So we tried asking them how they did it and realised they didnt use exe. but another software called dreamweaver. However, my soc friend advised us to not use it because its difficult to use. But still, shall dl the free trial version to test it abit. Doubt me ting or ning, 3 computer idiots can use it, so have to think of plan B fast! We thought of doing all e content on sth else, then save it as a picture file and put it on exe. Hope it works!

Tutorial presentation!

Finally week 12 and its time to present our webquest. After consulting Elmie and Alfred last week in the lecture, we realised there some problems with our task as it lacked interactivity. Hence we spent quite some time to edit it and changed our task to creating blogs instead of brochures. By using blogs, there will be more input on the student's side, which uses the cognitive learning, where students get to learn and explore on their own.
Also, while trying to improve the aesthetics of our webquest, we found it difficult as the exe software was quite limiting to how we can design the interface of it.
We're going to present soon, and I'm looking forward to feedbacks for us to improve it further.

1 more week of school left!

exe!

this wk's tut was about exe software... haven't heard or used it before. Well, it was quite an easy software to use actually, not complicated or too technical at all. Instead it was all the steps to zip n extract n....... so techinical 0.0
got the feedback of our needs assessment but there seems to be quite some problems w it.. But our grp tried our best and modified our needs assessment so just hope everything turns up well!
anyways will post the fruit of our labour ( some screenshots mayb) from the tuts soon!

oh.. n exe's nt being friendly at all. can't dl it in my laptop. so goto use my grpmate's to do. oh well.

Needs Assessment

In cabbie case study, assessing it using a problem-solving model,we feel there are problems with the instructions (ie from the employers to the employees). There is a contradiction between the road safety regulation and the company's customers policies. An example would be the dropping off passengers illegally at double yellow zig-zag lines.This may also be due to the innovations, which the taxi drivers may be unaware of. These changes refer to the changes to road regulations.

Despite the regulations governing road safety, the taxi driver most probably stopped at the yellow lines upon customer's request for convenience ( in alighting or flagging a cab in sight from their current location disregarding the road regulations). This could be further supported by the case study as they mentioned, " in the first place, people should not be flagging taxis in bus lane or double yellow lines and traffic junctions. If they do, then it is not fair to blame the taxi drivers who stop to pick them up".

We believe that this problem is related to the employee's performance. This is because if the drivers underperformed in customer service (ie. ignoring customer request), they may face complaints from their customers and this may affect their work performance ratings. The solution to this problem can be resolved through learning. Thus can be done by conducting lessons to teach drivers on how they can tackle customer's request without offending them. For instance, company could provide instructions on how to respond to customers' request to stop at illegal areas such as bus lanes. A good response from the taxi driver in this case would be to explain why he could not stop at the requested spot and suggest another nearest drop off point. For example, instead of saying "Cannot lah. Cannot stop here lah!", the taxi driver could politely suggest to the customer, "Dear Sir/Madam, i cannot stop here because it is double yellow lines and it is against the road regulation. If it's alright with you, i could drop you off at the taxi stand after the traffic light."

However in situations when customers are un-receptive to the explanations, it should be reminded to taxi drivers that they should not lose their temper, instead they will need to remain polite and state that this is a regulation stated by the company. A plausible reply would be, "Sorry sir/madam, i would love to drop you offf here but is a regulation stated by the company and i could only drop you at the taxi stand. I'm really sorry about the inconvenience caused."

However, we feel these desired performance are not offered by taxi companies as emphasis has been placed on ab surveillance instead. Therefore we will now assess the case study from the innovation-based model.

Innovation model

The nature of this innovation is instructional.This is because drivers receive verbal instructions on how to tackle customer's request and observe road regulation at the same time. There are three learning goals to be achieved.

1. to strike a balance between customer service and road safety for the drivers.
2. to reinforce good driving habits
3. to keep them updated on the changes to road regulation

We find these learning goals to be appropriate and vital in this learning system. This is because in teaching them how to respond appropriately to customer's request, it avoid situations where they are forced to drop off at illegal points or speeding (e.g. Customers request taxi drivers to speed up as they are in a hurry).

In addition, these learning goals also reinforce good road safety habits for the taxi drivers as it refreshes their memory of all regulations. After conducting such lessons, taxi companies can also implement regular test or check to evaluate the goal and to ensure these learning goals are kept up with. For instance, they could have evaluative practical exams to test how the drivers respond to customer's request as well as their road safety practices.

A reward and punishment system could be used in the form of merit points in this case. As mentioned in the case study, demerit points are given to taxi drivers who violated the the road regulation,hence in this reward and punishment system, merit points could be given to them as reward for improvement in their performance. Awards could also be given to taxi drivers who are nominated for best customer service.Therefore in this case study, we can proceed with the next step of our learning designas we find there is a need to do so.

Learning Design

Learning Design- to bake valentine day cupcake

wk 4

One of the main points raised in the reading by Oliver is that the essential elements that increase the potential of the learning design to foster high quality learning in higher education are namely learner engagement, acknowledgement of the learning context, learner challenge and provision of practice. According to the author, these elements are important in any higher education. This main points made me ponder if in today's context (for instance Singapore), these four elements are actually applicable to not only higher education, but even elementary or secondary educations. According to my younger nephews and nieces in primary and secondary schools, they are often required to participate actively and express themselves alot in class. Back in my time, I don't remember participating much in class and the teacher seldom required us express ourselves.
I feel that its great that such active learning is taught to the students since young as it would prepare them to be more outspoken, which would be of much help in the future ( esp in University). Perhaps because in my time we were not encouraged to really express ourselves, that is why many ( many many many) lecturers often feedback that Singaporean students are always quiet and keeping to themselves in lectures?

behaviorism, cognitivism or sociocultural approach?

Behaviorism

I feel that this theory is the most relevant to Singapore's education (and law) system. Rewards and punishment has always been (at least for the 15 yrs of education I've been through), the main means of encouraging people to do/ not do something. In education, since primary school, this system has existed, from little things like giving you a star sticker on your spelling book if you have scored well , and having to be punished (teacher uses a ruler to hit our palms) if you have not done well in the spelling test. As I stepped into secondary school, this rewards and punishment system is even more obvious. However, this rewards and punishment system is different from primary school, such that being more intelligent ( being in the A classes) , your reward will not be material reward, but more of psychological ,such that they will be be seen by the rest of the school as the best and feeling high and above all (even the teachers will be nicer to you), while the less intelligent people ( the last class), will be looked down by the rest of the school and even teachers will dislike and have prejudice against you( such that if any mischief happens in the school, all fingers will be pointed at you---which relates to the aspect of behaviorism where people are basically selfish).
Just as mentioned in the readings, 'It's just the adaptation of organisms to an environment or the lack of adaptation leave them to die off when they are not fit to survive....in the end you look as everybody is perfectly adapted, when in fact, that was just a product of long periods of time in this natural selection system". However, in Singapore's situation, I don't feel that those who can't adapt are left to "die off", but rather that they are given less emphasis and importance.
I feel that in a capitalist society, this theory is definitely useful and relevant, as it is important to differentiate between the elites and the non-elites, so that the society ( economy, culture, national security) can progress.

Cognitivism

According to this theory, learning cannot be forced and the learner is the active one. I feel that this can be linked to the behaviorism theory, even though we can punish people that can't adapt to the environment ( eg. not scoring above the 50marks in exams), we cannot force them to learn just by punishing them. Instead, they must be motivated, as mentioned in cognitivism theory. reward and punishment may work on some people as motivation, but not all people will be motivated by it. As both behaviorsm and cognitivism sees the individual as unit of analysis, whether this 2 theories will work are very much depended on the individuals.

Sociocultural Approach

In this theory, the unit of analysis is the whole system of people and objects and organisation. This I feel would be one of the more useful ways to motivate people to learn. People are social creatures, and we may be unconscious about it, but our actions and way of thinking are largely influenced by the people around us. For example, in the context of school, various factors affect the how motivated we are to learn, such as the class we are in ( A class usually more motivated by the K class?), the classmates ( if the people around you are highly motivated to study, the more likely you will be too), and sometimes even the school that you are in ( eg. SAP school vs. a neighbourhood school). Hence as mentioned in the readings, learning is not only an individual thing, but more of a system level thing and sometimes, the system level affects learning much more than we think.

Before

I decided to write this first post before i attend week 2's e learning lecture. Purpose: To give my reflection and what I think about e learning before i get to learn more about it from the future lectures. Then at the end of the semester, maybe to compare if what i initial thought about elearning has changed throughout this semester.

So.... before I've been to the 1st lecture of elearning, I thought of it as a very narrow term, and that it was solely learning via the Internet, which means from online databases ( like nuslib, wikipedia, or any other search engines). I didn't think that learning from cd-roms and softwares would be included in definition of e-learning.
Nowadays, e-learning is a norm even in primary schools. If cd-roms are considered as e-learning, then I've been going through e-learning almost all my life as I recall learning math and english from cd-roms back in my primary school days.

After going for the 1st lecture, I realised how wide a variety of elements is included in the term e-learning, which makes it complicated and difficult to define.

Lecture 2's tmr, so i shall see what more about facts of e-learning there is to come...