WEEK 3

After the demonstration of ComicLife by the 1st group, SCL has a new meaning to me. For the past few weeks, I had thought that SCL is how teachers can engage their students in learning by various means. However, after going through the demonstration I found out that its not only engaging the students in their own learnings. It is also about choosing the right tools and equipping them with the right skills for them to make their own learning meaningful. Just like what I have learn last semester, meaningful learning (Ausubul) is the key to effective learning. The tools do not just help the teachers to make the lessons more interesting, they also help the students to make connections between the knowledge and learn on their own.


Just like what Pro Tan has mentioned in the class, ICT is not a "must" for SCL, drawing board and markers can do the same job. Thus, it is important for us to make sure the usefulness of the softwares or whatever technologies in SCL before we are going to use it in the lessons.

Pro Tan also mentioned another important point in the class, which is the importance of the preparations before the class. It is such an important step, but yet I believe that most people would overlook it most of time. It is because we will just "assume" everything should be able to work. However, base on my past experiences in Poly or even now in NIE, there were many times things did not work out the way it supposed to be. eg, connection failure, file corrupted, etc ...

Besides, it is actually quite amazing that they are actually more points need to be taken care off compare to the traditional makers and paper's way. Making sure of wireless network is ready for use is already challenging enough especially when most of us have no idea of how to do it. Of course there should have a technician, but what is he or she happen to be on leave? Guess I am just thinking too much over here.


Lastly, after reading the Modeling with Computers as Mindtools, I agree that the advancement of IT, especially the introduction of internet has changed the way we "should" teach. Teaching should no longer be limited to transmitting of knowledge, because we can easily get the information we want by just typing few keywords on the keyboard. It is much more important to teach the students about critical and creative thinking skills. This is where the computer softwares can be useful, but just like what it mentions in the article, it also has its limitation and disadvantages. It is all up to the user and how he or she wants to use it.

Just remember the 2 key words, "help" and "options" They are just 1 of the options that can help in teaching. That's all.

By the way, I start to wonder how do we choose the right software to help students? Of course they must be easy enough for them to use, but the problem is, how easy is considered easy to students and not too easy that they lose their interests in using that.

Hmm ... that's something I would like to find out in the coming weeks.

WEEK 2 - COFT

Firstly, I have to say that I am really impressed by the displays in COTF, despite the fact that there are some flaws in the Bacterial identification part.

However, after giving it a thorough thought on the way back home, I began to doubt if it is really effective to have all these technologies in the classroom to make current learning more student centered.

It is true that these wireless or bluetooth technologies can make learning easier and more mobile and at the same time save teachers' trouble of taking attendances. However, is it really student centered? I am pretty sure that no student will like to be known their whereabout after their classes. All these technology have failed to ensure students' privacy.

Besides, I believe that we do not need all these technologies to achieve the concept of SCL, they just make learning more accessible and looked more sophisticated. No matter how "hi-tech" it looked, it still has to come down to a point of simulating students' interests so that they will want to learn and learn on their own. Thus, the teachers are still the most important elements when it comes to learning cause they are the ones who control the technologies and make them to create a more interesting and appropriate learning environment for the students to carry out their own learnings.

AED 104 - Week 1 Reflection

Before starting the first ICT class, I had thought this class is going to teach us on how to use the softwares, like Photopshops, Powerpoint, to help us on our future teaching careers. Thus, I hoped that I would be able to learn how to create flash and use Photoshop before starting of the module. Besides, my impressions with ICT is just about conducting the lessons with Powerpoint slides and videos.


However, after the first lesson, everything seemed to be almost completely different from what I had known. According to my tutor, there will not be anything lesson on any of the program, instead I was introduced to the term of "Student Centered Learning" where teachers no longer teach instead they facilitate and "Master Plan II" which aims to enhance educational processes and structures through the use of ICT. (http://www.moe.gov.sg/edumall/mp2/mp2.htm)

Personally, I think the Student Centered Learning concept is a bit like the "teach less, learn more" (http://www.moe.gov.sg/bluesky/tllm.htm) concept by MOE in 1997. The teachers are asked to spend less time on teaching and more time to guide the students in their own researches and engage them in self learning. This is to help the students to develop their critical and creative thinking skills as these are the 2 of the most important skills that educators want hope to equip the future generations with in the world today.

Thus, ICT is not about using sophisticated IT tools, it is more about using the most appropriate IT tools to assist you inside and outside the classes to allow students to get the information correctly and easily, and simulate the interests of the students at the same time. That is why it is called "Student Centered Learning" rather than "IT Centered Learning". After all, IT is just a tool, a tool to help the students in their learning.

Besides of SCL and MPII, the word "referencing" has been mentioned quite a few times in the class too. Well, it is not a new term for me as my lecturers in poly always asked for that, but still that is still a headache for me to do citations especially when the length of the essays have increased many many times in NIE compare to poly time.

It is just the first week of the school and I already started to feel stress !!!

Hong Kong Trip Day ~~~ NO. 1

Finally, its the day we have been looking for .... the start of our Hong Kong trip. I have been there once but that was like 10 ears ago, cannot remember what is over there.

Anyway, I bet you guys cannot wait to see the photos took during the trip .. right ??

HahAh



Before we enter the custom in Changi Airport ... we are ready to go

A series of MUST WATCH PHOTOS !!!!



I love the foot massage machine in the departure hall ... look at my enjoyable expressions ... it feels ~~~~ so good !!!

We are in the air .... flying towards HongKong

Welcome to Hong Kong, I am your tour guide Chienchi. In the next 5 days, I will bring you through HongKong .... . .. . . .. . .. . ..

Hei Hei Hei ... we finally reach HongKong ... I looked a bit tired.

The CityGate ... just next to the airport ... the 1st shopping mall we visited ... all the shops here are factory outlets which means big big discounts !!! .... ranging from ESPRIT, GIORDANO, LEVIS, AIDIDAS, NIKE, NEW BALANCE, CK, QUICKSILVER ... etc ....

We went to Mongkok at night .... its ... simply ..... CROWDED !!!!

It is our hotel lobby ..... The L Hotel ... a 5 star hotel oh .... still under construction ... so its only half price .. .hahaha

This is our hotel room ... at 35th floor oh~~~ the picture next to it is the view from our room ... I wonder when will I have the money to buy an apartment with a view like this .... hahah

These are all for the 1st day ... sorry there is no picture taken when we were sleeping .... so stay tune and wait for another post tomorrow ....

Its getting nervous

I am not sure why that I am getting nervous as the date for my Hong Kong trip comes near. It is for sure that it is not my 1st time taking an airplane and not the 1st time take Cathay Airline too. I just cannot help it but to feel nervous. Maybe I am afraid that I will not know where to go once I reach Hong Kong and spend all my 5 days there in the Hotel. That is the worst scenario I can ever think of. Anyway, I am sure that if I could have a good time in University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia with my attachment partner in my Polytechic end of 2nd year, I definitely can have a hell of good time with my mei in Hong Kong. Don't worry, I am experienced .... hahah ... I mean ... experience in travelling and exploring.

By the way, I cannot help myself but getting happier every time Chien Ming Wang started for Yankees as he just could not stop winning and improving. He just strike out 10 New York Mets' batter in his last outing which was a career high for him. I cannot wait to watch his next game which is against San Francisco Giants this coming Sunday. I wonder how he will fare when he face Barry Bonds. Unfortunately, I will be in Hong Kong having fun that day. So .... sorry ... I am going to miss it

Where to go when it comes to currency exchange

Today, I went to Hasan's Global Money Exchange which he claims everyone in Ngee Ann Polytechnic knows about his family's shop to exchange for Hong Kong Dollar and a last minute RM for Shi Ting (my mei's best friend).

It was raining at that time and I was so lucky that when I reached the DBS bank in Peninsula Plaza, all of the 3 ATMs are down, yes, it was not 1 or 2, it was ALL 3 of THEM were showing blank screen on those small LCD monitors. What a luck I was having. So I had to run to the Fu Nan the IT Mall to withdraw out the Singapore dollar.

After going through the rain and crowded IT mall, I thought I could finally get down to money exchanging business. However, Hasan's don't know what relative or friend could only give me 1000 dollar note instead of the 500 ones i requested from him early in the morning. He told me that there were 3 banks issued 1000 dollar note in Hong Kong, Standard Charted Bank, HSBC and Hong Kong Shanghai Bank. The ones that people refuse to accept are from HSBC and Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, so the Standard Charted ones which he gave me are the ones that can be used. I was like ... hmm ... really or not, but since they offered such a good rate, so i just accepted them. However, I called Hasan again and complained to him, to my surprise, Hasan is indeed a good businessman as he immediately called back his brother and asked him to get the 1000 dollar note to change to small ones. I was so touched and feel a bit Pai Sei. Just became a Singaporean not long ago and started to complain like one already. haHaHaha

Anyway, Hasan's shop did give a very good rate. I am doing a free advertisment for him HahahHaahaHaaAHahAhaHAHaHa !!! AHAHAHahAaAhaha !!!

1st HOMERUN for Taiwanese Player in MLB

Mark down 13 Jun 2007 as 1 of the most special day in Baseball history, cause the 1st ever homerun by a Taiwanese player in MLB !!! On top of that, its by a pitcher who is last one in the homerun possibility list as batting is never their specialities. Kuo Hong Chih !! His name will be remembered forever not only being the 1st Taiwanese player to hit a homerun in MLB but also he is the 3rd player to hit the homerun for LA Dodger in a series of extremly rare back to back to back 3 homeruns. All of them come from the 1st pitch of each batter by the pitcher John Maine from New York Mets

This is how the 3 homeruns come from


And this needless to say, is the part specially focus on Kuo Hong Chih alone

王建民 (Chien-Ming Wang and 郭泓志 (Hong Chih-Kuo) both starting in MLB tomorrow

A sleepless night for me ... why??

Cause 2 of the best pitcher for Taiwan are both starting for their teams (Yankees and LA Dogers) in few hours time. That why I guess I am nervous. Especially, Wang is facing the challenge of Brandon Webb from Arizona Diamondbacks. Not only they both use sinkers as their primary weapon, but Brandon is even better than Wang as he won the Cy award last season when Wang only managed to be runner up. However, I do really hope that Wang Chien Ming can once again show me that he is also a Cy pitcher to be in the future and can pitch as good as Brandon or even better than him.

As for Kuo, all the best for his 1st win in the season tomorrow. If not because of his 2 tommy john surgeries. I bet he would be better than Wang right now.

By the way, we are going to watch ZODIAC tomorrow with my mei. We have been wanting to watch it for a long time. Especially, last Saturday, where Weilin and us could not get the tickets at Cineleisure, so we went to LIDO, yet we could not get the movie tickets, so Weilin (luckily she was driving that day) drove us to Vivo City to try our luck at Golden Village, but but but ... to our horror ... there was still no ticket !!!!

What is happening nowadays ?? Is it because internet booking for movie tickets are so easy and we, Singaporean (now i am a Singaporean ... haha .. I can change inbetween) simply have nothing to do during weekend except for watching movies that all the cinemas are full packed during weekends ??

I hate it when its crowded ....

It has been a long time since I last paid attention to a NBA final since the retirement of Jordan cause I simply do not like to see big guys like Duncan or O'Neil muscle in the pain or Kobe Bryan's arrogant face.

However, this year's playoff has caught my attentions with its continous surprises. From the 1st seeded Dallas lost to the last seeded Golden State to the guy who finally matured and brought his team into the 1st NBA final appearence .... LeBron James !!

Before he joined NBA, many people had already said he would be the next Jordan. All he needed was time to develope and now I can see him as an almost finished product. Just look at his performance in the GAME 5 of the Eastern Conference Final where he single handed taking on the whole Detroit Pistons. Time to time, Pistons were in the lead but time to time again he made Detroit's defence defenceless. 1 to 1, 2 on 1 or even 3 on him, it all seemed to be nothing to him. He just continue to put the ball into the basket, no matter how many defenders were guarding him. From here, I can see Jordan's shadow, cause that was what Jordan always did.

Just share a few videos and you will know how unstoppable he is...

Just like my label, I will be alone in the big big microbilogy lab for 1 whole week. It all because my supervisior is having a course this week and my partner is once again serveing the Singapore government for 1 week in the jungle.

So far the 1st day, I already start to miss my partner, cause I did everything on my own and that left me with no time to do my own staffs. I was basically occupied the whole day, from taking samples from the production lines, doing the bioburden and water testings to counting the colonies from the cultured plates and even doing environmental testings. If there was just one more person there, I would be much more relieve. hahah ... don't worry, I believe that I will be more relax tomorrow onwards ... cause I have finished all the weekly testings by today.

Finally, my mei has finished her 3 interviews with Chatered, SSMC and Hitachi, even though she kept saying that she does not think she will be selected cause her Fianl Year Project is doing Biosensor instead of anything that is realated to Semi-Conductor. But .. But... but .... I still hope she can get the sponsorship la ... hahah

I still can remeber the very 1st interview during last year when I was going to ORD and looking for jobs. I went to this company in Paya Lebar which is doing QC for other companies (sorry, I cannot remember the name). I was so lost and did not know what to answer or just gave single word answer. Guess that time it was because I was out from the real world for too long. hahah

Anyway, after that very lousy interview, I started to pick up from the 1st interview. In fact the 1st job after NS came from the 2nd interview. I am really a fast learner !!! haahha

My point here is that experience really counts when it comes to interview, so if you do not do well for the 1st few ones. Don't be upset. Don't be depressed. Its more important that you get down and find out why didn't you do well and how you should improve yourself.

This is the Taiwanese drama I came across when I was having overtime in the company (better cross my fingers and hope that my manger never finds out my blog)

Anyway, I find it very funny cause it talks about the things that we all encountered (especially girls, cause I am not girls, so I am not sure what happened to them during that period of time) during the stage when boys turn into men or girls turn into women. In case if you are still wondering what stage I am talking about .... hmm... its PUBERTY !!

Anyway, I have attached the 1st part... hope you all will like it



By the way, if you all fall in love with it, you can always find the subsequent ones from youtube. Sorry, not that I am lazy to post all the videos here, I just do not want to fill out my blog with all videos.

Yea, a tought night for Wang, despite the fact that he had a quality start, there was not any offense to support him.

Besides, throughout the 8 inning he had pitched, the only thing he did wrongly was the 1st 2 inning where he failed to find the strike zone and allowed his pitches flying everywhere, except going downwards.

Sad man ... I stayed till the end of the ball game, hoping there will be a come back, but as you know, there wasn't

By the way, Zilan (mei) , me and her ex classmates went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3 at The Cathay (The Picture House) this afternoon, the movie last almost 3 hours. However, I still think part 2 was the best. When I watched the part 1 in Australia, Brisbane, I told myself that it was a bad movie, but part 2 really changed my view.

Anyway, despite the fact that it is not as good as part 2, it is still quite entertaining. BUT !!! I really have to say that I am really dispointed with the long fight on the sea ( the whole scene took about 40 min, I think) cause throughout that 40 mins, I only saw 2 ships fighting each other (black pearl and flying dutchman), the rest of the ships were just there for show.

That's the scene I was looking for before going for the movie, but ..... DISAPPOINTMENT !!

Yes, just as what my mei has mentioned, my Liverpool lost. I think, if I am not wrong this is the 1st time in 3 years with Rafa in charge that we did not win anything.

Well, it was a good game as we controlled the whole match but the luck is just not on our side. The 1st Milan goal was a lucky one, a deflected freekick. Anyway, luck is part of the game too, so just forget it and I believe that Rafa will have a stronger team next season to push for domestic title !!

This June seemed to be coming so slow, I have been looking forward to it as Zilan and I are going to Hong Kong. It will be my 2nd time there, but honestly, I don't have much impression with my 1st time there cause I was just a 8 or 9 year boy at that time and I spent most of the time on wheelchair as I had dengue at that time. What a poor kid I was at that time when everyone is having fun and I have to battle the dengue virus on the wheelchair. Hopefully, that this time round, same thing will not happen again.

Hahaha

Trust me !!

This is the 1st time in my life that when I tried to withdraw money from the ATM machine and it told me that "you don't have sufficient fund in your account".

This is really stunning to me as I swear that I remember there are still 1000+ in my account how did it possible that all of it disappeared.

Turn out that it has gone to my insurance premium, but I really feel angry cause they should send a letter ahead to inform me.

Now, I have to endure and save every cent I have till my next payday. The only good news is that my next salary will be in 1 week time.

lucky lucky i am

By the way, its the Champion's league final tonight.

GO GO GO ... My Liverpool .... beat the old men team AC Milan !!

Yes, Wang is going to start against Red Sox this week.

Well, I am not having high hope in this, cause his career against them is simply not good. It seems like Red Sox is meant to there to stop Wang.

What to do? He just has to find a way to handle them, if he wants to continue pitch for Yankees, as they are the dealiest rival of Yankees

Good Luck ... Wang

王建民 start against White Sox today after a terrible lose last week.

a lot of people are saying that he is not as good as what he was last year. Well, from my point of view, it just a again and losing a game in such a terrible fashion is somewhat a learning process for every pitcher. What is more important is how he reacts to it, in a positive way or negative one.

As what I have read from the press, he responded in a positive way, by taking up the responsibility instead of blaming his team mates. This is what I meant as a positive response. Its truth that he did not pitch well that day, so no excuse. Just admit it, learn from it and do it right in next outing.

Alright back to the current game, 6 inning he pitched so far, given up 5 hits, 1 era and 3 strike out so far ... A pretty solid start today and Yankee is in 4 : 1 lead now

Come on Wang !!! your 2nd Win of the season is on the way !!!

So happy !!

In fact, out of my surprise that I actually got 100 for the GST offset package cause I a an Operational Ready NS man....

waw !! i know it might mean nothing to you guys, cause most of you will be getting double or even triple of my amount.... but its the 1st time ever that i get money for whichever packages (progress package or .... cannot remember what) cause i just turned Singaporean this year and that really made me miss out alot ....

anyway, its a surprised for me cause i expected to get nothing like all the years in the past ... haha

Well ... finally Singapore has started to encourage people not to use plastic bags when shopping, even though only once a week, but its a big step forward.

Why is it that out of sudden that reuse, recycle is being emphasised so often in Singapore ?

Watch the video below and you will get come ideas as out planet has almost reached a point of no return.

So lets start doing it now, I don't want my kids to live on the water just like the movie "water world" few years back