e-Learning In Malaysia

IMU-LS-03: How to Become a Rapid E-Learning Pro (Tom Kuhlmann)

2012-01-26T12:10:00.000+08:00

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

(100 Free slots made available to Public! Running out fast!)

IMU LEARNING SERIES

Welcome to the IMU Learning Series (Round 3)…The most electrifying webinar series on the planet (by 2013)!

We are thrilled to announce that our first invited International speaker is Tom Kuhlmann… WOW! Let me repeat: TOM KUHLMANN...WOW!

Title : How to Become a Rapid E-Learning Pro
Date : 8th February, 2012
Venue : Online (WizIQ)
Time : 10.00 AM (Time zones)
Venue : Online (WizIQ)

Description:

Many developers work with limited budgets and resources. How can they build effective elearning courses with these constraints? Join Tom Kuhlmann as he shares some practical tips on getting the most out of the resources you have to build engaging and interactive elearning content.

Speaker:

Tom Kuhlmann is the author of the Rapid E-Learning Blog, which has over 85,000 subscribers each week. He shares practical tips and tricks to help people learn more about elearning. He also manages the Articulate user community. He holds a Master's in Education Technology from Pepperdine and is very passionate about learning and technology.

If you have any questions that you would like to ask Tom Kuhlmann before the webinar, please do it in the webinar registration form or the 'comments' section below.

RECORDING

The webinar will also be recorded and be made available here after the event. So, should you miss this 'NO WAY AM I GOING TO MISS' webinar, you will be able to view (and even download) it right here.

UPCOMING WEBINAR?

There are some crazy unspoken rumors that Stephen Downes will be the next International speaker on IMU Learning Series. Stay tuned for more disruptive updates in the coming days... :)

Move Aside TEDx, Here Comes The Learning Innovation Talks (LIT)!

2012-01-10T15:23:00.003+08:00

Alright, we should not talk big before things happen, but sometimes in life you get that feeling...

"THIS IS GOING TO WORK!"

ORIGIN

Somehow, I got that feeling when I joined 'iPTA-iPad (& Tablets) for Academicians' Facebook group (invited by the electrifying Prof. Karim). Since late 2008, I have been dreaming (passively) about collaborating with a core group of passionate educators in Malaysia to really transform education for the better (without much luck!).

But, then I stumbled upon this Facebook group, and the rest is history in the making (Hopefully!). When I joined the group, they were passionately planning to conduct a TEDx session, but then I opened my big mouth (Devil's Advocate)! Within a short period, the TEDx idea was history. TEDx is great, but it doesn't really fit into our mission.

While TEDx is often associated with 'Big Ideas' and 'Changing the World', we are thinking about creating multiple venues (Face-to-face, Webinars, Second Life, etc.) for sharing learning stories on how to use technology (e.g. using iPad apps) to transform the way we learn and teach. Small ideas matter as much as big ideas! And importantly, you don't have to be out of this world to present. Everyone is welcome, as long as you think you have a learning innovation to share (small or big!).

Welcome to...

LEARNING INNOVATION TALKS

As a result, we used our collective intelligence to conceptualize Learning Innovation Talks.

Learning Innovation Talks (LIT)

Yes, I will be one of the presenters. Please come! If you don't, you will be able to view the recorded sessions later. So, either way we do hope our learning innovation sharing sessions reaches you.

LEARNING INNOVATION CIRCLE

Learning Innovation Talks is the first learning gem to spark out of this brand new Learning Innovation Circle. Confusing? Come and join the Learning Innovation Circle!

I got this fuzzy little feeling that this group is going to conceptualize and implement some pretty awesome initiatives in the coming months (and years), so why not be part of history in the making... Everyone is welcome to join... :)

IMU Learning Series 01 - Facebook for Learning and Teaching?

2011-12-30T17:28:00.000+08:00

Date: Wednesday, 28th December

Venue: Online (WiZiQ)

Time: 2:30 - 3:30 P.M. (Malaysian time)

(GMT + 8 Hours: 6:30 - 7:30 A.M)

AGENDA

Can Facebook be used for teaching and learning? How can it be used? In this online session we explored how it can be used for teaching and learning with a specific emphasis on using Facebook Groups and Pages.

FACILITATORS

Zaid Ali Alsagoff
Fareeza Marican

RECORDING
You are recommended to skip the first 10 minutes, so that you can get right into the action. If you have problems viewing, try updating your Flash Player.

IMU Learning Series 01 - Facebook for Learning and Teaching?

CLICK HERE

(To view the recorded online session)

PRESENTATION SLIDES

IMU Learning Series 01 - Facebook for Learning and Teaching?

View more presentations from Zaid Alsagoff.

Stay tuned for the upcoming online session, which will be revealed soon :)

Seminar - Transformative e-Learning in Higher Education

2011-05-23T11:16:00.007+08:00

Click here to download the Brochure

Facebook Event Page

The International Medical University (IMU) is organizing an e-learning seminar on July 5 (2011), entitled "Transformative e-Learning in Higher Education". It will be held in the Senate Room, 2nd Floor, IMU Campus, Bukit Jalil.

OVERVIEW
This seminar brings together five experts in education and e-learning to share their ideas, experiences and best practices on how we can use e-learning to transform the way we learn and teach in higher education. They will explore a variety of areas essential to construct transformative learning experiences covering instructional design, online facilitation and assessment, personal learning environments, and e-learning quality and governance.

Date: 5 July, 2011 (Tuesday)
Time: 8.30 am – 5.15 pm
Venue: IMU Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

SPEAKERS

Prof Dato’ Dr Ansary Ahmed
President / CEO, Asia e University
Assoc Prof David M. Kennedy
Director, Teaching and Learning Centre, Lingnan University
Prof Rozhan M. Idrus
Professor of Open & Distance Learning & Technogogy, USM
Prof Dato’ Dr Jai Mohan
Director, Learning Resources, International Medical University
Zaid Ali Alsagoff
E-Learning Manager, International Medical University

KEY TOPICS

Instructional Design
Personal Learning Environments
Curriculum Design & Management
E-Learning Quality & Governance

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this seminar, you will be able to:

Apply effective instructional design principles to your learning environments.
Adopt effective online facilitation and assessment strategies to engage and assess your learners.
Build your personal learning environments using social media and web 2.0 tools.
Identify and discuss essential e-learning quality and governance issues.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Academics
E-Learning Professionals
IT Professionals
Instructional Designers

Registration Fee: RM650
Early Bird Registration: RM500
(Before 8 June)

If you are interested to attend, please download this form. It includes all the registration and contact details required to attend.

Transformative e-Learning in Higher Education

Looking forward to your participation!

E-Learning Trends and Challenges in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions

2011-04-25T08:23:00.000+08:00

"MEdO will make Malaysia a leading brand in Asia for online higher education services and a one stop centre for learning, education and the administration of international students."
- Datuk Seri Mohd Khaled Nordin (Minister for Higher Education)

Last Saturday (16th April, 2011), I attended the "Majlis Pelancaran Dasar e-Pembelajaran Negara (DePAN), Buku-Buku e-Pembelajaran dan Malaysia Education Online (MEdO)" event launched by Datuk Seri Mohd Khaled Nordin (Minister for Higher Education).

It turned out to be a very exciting and enriching learning experience for me, and here are my discoveries and reflections...

MALAYSIA EDUCATION ONLINE (MEdO)

Malaysia Education Online (MEdO) is part of the Malaysia Government Transformation Plan (GTP) to expand international distance learning. MEdO is an online learning platform delivering education programmes from Malaysian universities, colleges, polytechnics and training institutes. It is the gateway for them to extend their global outreach whilst each participating institution is able to maintain its identity and uniqueness (more).

MEdO is initiated and led by Asia e University (AeU), which is the selected gateway university (by PEMANDU) for international education for distance and online learning. Six other Malaysian universities and institutes have already signed up to offer programmes on MEdO.

The MEdO platform itself is based on a fusion of Joomla and Moodle with some customization to suit its needs and requirements. As many universities are already using Moodle, it could speed up the learning curve (familiar environment) and adoption by educators that will be required to use it.

It will be interesting to see how this project unfolds. Let's be positive about it :)

E-BOOKS
Besides MEdO, the National E-Learning Policy (Dasar e-Pembelajaran Negara) for Higher Education Institutions, and two books (and one translation) about e-Learning in Malaysian Higher Education were launched.

Here we go:

National E-Learning Policy for Higher Education Institutions
(will add the link when made available)
e-Pembelajaran di IPTA Malaysia (Issuu version)
This e-book provides great insights into how especially public Universities in Malaysia are using e-learning to facilitate learning and teaching. It includes 20 University papers sharing their e-learning stories.
Amalan, Keberkesanan & Cabaran Pelaksanaan e-Pembelajaran di IPT Malaysia (Issuu version)
The English version is below...
e-Learning in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions: Status, Trends & Challenges (Issuu version)
Will be discussed next...

Unfortunately the National E-Learning Policy (No link yet) and e-Pembelajaran di IPTA Malaysia are not yet translated (or published) into English. Anyway, you could always use Google Translator Toolkit, and then decipher the parts that are poorly translated into English.

E-LEARNING IN MALAYSIAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
I have to admit I was thrilled to discover the e-Learning in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions: Status, Trends & Challenges publication during the event. Actually, I couldn't wait and was reading it furiously during Datuk Seri Mohd Khaled Nordin's speech (please don't tell!), and what struck me most was all the juicy statistics (Yes, I just love that!) about what was going on in Higher Education in Malaysia, and the simple language used to describe the survey results and findings.

Also, the three (3) questionnaires (E-Learning Admin, Lecturer and student) used for this research were comprehensive and easy to understand (Check Appendices/page 123). The findings in the book is based on 7,962 survey respondents (26 e-Learning administrators, 1,635 lecturers and 6,301 students) from a sample of 30 Malaysian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), comprising of 20 public HEIs, 7 private HEIs, and 3 polytechnics. As four (out of 7) e-Learning Admins from the private Universities did not participate, I suppose we could generalize that the findings mostly represent what is going on in the public HEIs in Malaysia.

Before I dwell more, I would like to introduce you to Prof Dr Mohamed Amin Embi, who was the chief editor for all the three books mentioned above. He was also the first recipient of the prestigious National Academic Award 2006, and the recipient of the distinguished ISESCO Science Laureate 2010. In other words, he is a pretty interesting guy to know. So, next time you want to know more about e-Learning in Malaysian HEIs, who are you going to call? Simple answer: Prof Dr Mohamed Amin Embi

We have met a couple of times, but I suppose I need to bug him more from now on. Actually, I bugged him through e-mail a few days back to publish these 3 books on Issuu or Scribd, and within a couple of days they were published on both. Great guy!

Yes, he has also summarized nicely the key findings of each chapter in the book, and then published them on SlideShare. So, instead of summarizing the book, I can focus next on providing some of my own insights and reflections to what has been published.

Let's rumble...

Chapter 2: e-Learning Policy

e-Learning policy

View more presentations from Mohamed Amin Embi

Here are few questions we should perhaps ask before even thinking about formulating or requiring HEIs to have e-learning policies:

Do we need to have e-learning policies to make e-learning work for us?
Who should be involved in formulating e-learning policies (all stakeholders, including students)?
How detailed should e-learning policies be (any template)?
Can e-learning policies have a negative impact on implementing e-learning?
Should the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) have a mechanism to enforce all HEIs to have e-learning policies?

Dealing with e-learning policies is a very tricky issue, and cannot be taken lightly. Actually, sometimes e-learning policies can be self-destructive and curb innovations in teaching and learning. Imagine if we have an e-learning policy stating that, "All e-learning content must be SCORM-Compliant". A few years back, this might sound totally reasonable, but any enlightened learning professional today would know that a lot of amazing learning resources (and top Universities) don't care much about SCORM, and are shared in the spirit of Open Courseware (OCW) or Open Educational Resources (OER).

So, e-learning policies is something that all HEIs should explore, but we have to be careful, and strive to find the right balance so that they empower people to learn and innovate, instead of becoming an obstacle to moving forward.

Chapter 3: e-Learning Governance

e-learning governance

View more presentations from Mohamed Amin Embi

According to the survey results, the two main challenges related to the e-Learning governance are shortage of staff (84.5%) and lack of incentives provided by the HEIs to those responsible for implementing e-Learning (69.2%).

So, no doubt HEIs need to invest more in quality staff, and be creative about providing incentives (e.g. less administration and more time to think!) that inspire educators to take the effort to transform their own learning and teaching. It is strange that institutions can spend millions and millions on hardware, networks and software, but when it comes to investing in quality people and paying competitive salaries with the industry; It is so difficult!

In short, HEIs need to rethink their hiring and salary policies to capture the great talent that is out there, but are very reluctant to work in HEIs. Also, HEIs need to learn from creative companies like Google, Apple and Zappos on how to build working environments that empowers and inspires people to express their potential. Challenging, but certainly possible :)

Chapter 4: Learning Managements Systems

Learning Management Systems

View more presentations from Mohamed Amin Embi

Interestingly, All (100%) HEIs that participated had their own Learning Management System (LMS), and more than half (57.7%) of the HEIs used Open Source Platforms, while 34.6% used purchased commercial LMS, and the remaining 15.4% were developed on their own. In this survey, Moodle beat Blackboard (12 - 2) impressively, but if we were to include more private HEIs the results would be a bit darker :)

Though, from a learning point-of-view, we need to increasingly look beyond the LMS (they just cannot keep up with disruptive innovations taking place), as increasingly learning will take place outside in the web 2.0 (3.0/x.0) and social media worlds in the form of personal learning environments tailored to what learners and educators really want. Here is a crash course:

Social Media & Web 2.0 for Learning (2nd Edition)

View more presentations from Zaid Alsagoff

Chapter 5: e-Learning Training

e-learning training

View more presentations from Mohamed Amin Embi

Sadly, only one-third (34.6%) of the HEIs provide exposure to Web 2.0 applications. Though, I foresee a huge growth in the coming years of educators using Social media and web 2.0 (3.0 and x.0) beyond the LMS to facilitate more engaging and relevant learning with their students.

It will also be interesting to see how institutions deal with copyright and privacy issues, when educators and students increasingly use tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube, Wikis, etc.

Are you prepared for that? Don't wait! It is happening already!

Chapter 6: e-Content Development

e-content development

View more presentations from Mohamed Amin Embi

The main applications used for e-Content development are Flash (92.3%), followed by Articulate (46.3%), Adobe Captivate (38.3%), Camtasia Studio (30.8%), Lecture Maker (15.42%), and Interactive Raptivity Builder ( 15.4%).

One word: Ouch! Hopefully, Apple will come to its senses and allow Flash to run smoothly on an iPad, iPod or iPhone. Unless Steve Jobs retires soon that might take some time. Though, let's hope that browsers will have auto-converters, or that Flash is updated to meet all Steve Jobs requirements, otherwise e-content developed in Flash would be useless on Apple-based mobile devices. Luckily, Flash-based content works on Androids :)

The five major challenges faced by most HEIs are lack of motivation among the academic staff (65.4%), lack of specialists (53.80%), lack of a dedicated team to develop e-Content (53.8%), lack of commitment among academic staff (46.2%), and lack of funding/budget (46.2%).

Why are not academic staff motivated or committed to develop e-content? If you are already overloaded with administration, research, publication and teaching obligations, you are not going to be inspired to develop e-content for your students without some seriously good reasons.

Incentives could help (e.g. one e-content module = 1 publication in a high impact journal), but you still need to find the time. In Chapter 10 (page 119), it is proposed that common university courses could be developed jointly by a centre under the Ministry of Higher Education, as this is a more efficient use of resources, time, money, and manpower, while maintaining an acceptable level of quality.

In a nutshell, we could establish Malaysia's first official ‘Open Courseware’ initiative, which would enable all HEIs to have access and reuse (hopefully remix) freely common University courses. By doing so, then HEIs can streamline their resources to build unique e-content for their unique courses.

Based on the survey, the copyright issue is also a big problem faced by the majority (80.8%) of Malaysian HEIs in the development of e-Content. What to do? Forget Copyright, Practice Copyleft Instead!

Actually, we need to rethink our obsession with e-content development, and be more obsessed with designing relevant and engaging learning environments/spaces, where authentic learning activities play a larger role than (spoon-feeding) e-content and courseware.

Instead, HEIs students should be empowered and nurtured with the necessary learning skills to find their own content based on the learning outcomes set, or we could expose them to a variety learning resources (for each topic) and then require them to analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and then create their own contextualized meaning.

We want to develop independent lifelong learners. The e-content or courseware (spoon-feeding) model is an easy shortcut to enable them to pass the exam, but perhaps not the best way to nurture the necessary skills required for them to thrive in the 21st century.

Finally, educators need to learn the art of aggregating, filtering and remixing content from a variety of resources using a variety of learning tools out there. In a nutshell, think beyond e-content development, and focus more on nurturing educators to build sizzling learning activities and spaces for students.

In short, only develop e-content when it does not exist, or it can be synthesized or presented in a more engaging and meaningful way :)

Chapter 7: Integration of e-Learning in Teaching & Learning

integration of e-learning in teaching & learning

View more presentations from Mohamed Amin Embi

According to the survey findings, lecturers' two major challenges to integrate e-Learning in their teaching and learning, is trying to balance between teaching and research (59.8%) and time constraints (54.9%). Interestingly, technophobia (13%) was the least responsible challenge among the challenges faced by lecturers in order to integrate e-Learning.

For students, the two major challenges is lack of access (53.4%), and feedback from lecturers takes too long (42.8%). By focusing less on developing e-content, lecturers will have more time to interact with their students, and construct more interactive and engaging learning environments. If we can be replaced by a courseware, then we should be replaced.

To no surprise, most lecturers (50.1%) prefer to upload materials on a weekly basis before the classes begin. Noteworthy, most students (84.7%) prefer to read the materials offline rather than online. The challenge comes when students have printed out the uploaded slides before their class (often weeks in advance), and then find out during the lecture that the slides have been updated. What do you do? Establish an e-learning policy forcing them to upload their slides at least one week before...Not a good idea! Call me to elaborate :)

On a positive note, this is a problem of today, and probably won't even exist in 3-5 years' time. Why? By then most students will be reflecting their slides on their mobile devices in the form of iPads, Kindles, Galaxy, etc.

Chapter 8: Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance in e-Learning

View more presentations from Mohamed Amin Embi

How do we ensure that our e-learning implementations are of quality? How do we ensure that our conventional learning approaches are of quality? Do we look at the drop-out rates? Or perhaps the students satisfaction levels? What about using the students' assessment results as a measure of success?

On page 119, the guidelines on e-Content standards that were developed collaboratively by CEMCA (Commonwealth of Educational Media Centre for Asia) and MOHE is recommended to be distributed and followed by all Malaysian HEIs in order to control the quality of e-Learning materials available at the tertiary level.

I disagree in using these guidelines as the standards, but it could be used as a good reference guide, like so many other guidelines out there. Personally, I don't even like the expression 'Best Practices', but instead prefer 'Good Practices'. The reason is that there is simply too much innovation and exploration still needed to be done, before we can settle down with any form of standards in E-Learning. Let's celebrate 'Good Practices' out there, and learn from them to create our own contextualized 'Good Practices'.

We want standards, but standards are often the biggest enemy to creativity and innovation. Let's not forget that!

THE FUTURE?
Not surprisingly implementing mobile learning is a priority (92.3%), according to the survey findings. Interestingly, lecturers (67%) and students (76.8%) believe that HEIs should give priority to Intelligent Tutoring Systems as compared to other applications.

Strangely enough, lecturers (23.4%) and students (19.4%) place podcasting applications as the lowest in terms of priority. Maybe it is just me, but I would prefer listening and reflecting to a great lecture over a courseware anytime of the day, no matter how interactive it may be. I suppose I am a bit weird!

If you don't have time to read the whole book, just read chapter 9 (summary) and 10 (recommendations), which will provide sufficient insights to see the big picture. Though, I would strongly recommend to enjoy all the diagrams, charts and stats spread over 120 pages.

So, what can we expect next?

Based on the suggestions given in the book (page 120), MOHE will probably soon establish 'The National Institute of e-Learning', a centre of excellence for e-Learning, that can conduct and coordinate research on e-Learning, particularly in terms of the impact of e-Learning on student achievement.

Let's hope the National Institute of e-Learning becomes an inspiring light that empowers and sparks sizzling e-learning at all HEIs.

Will I be involved?

Only God knows at this moment :)

Kable.MY - Malaysia's Premiere Instructional Technology Website

2011-03-09T10:14:00.002+08:00

Kable.MY

"This website provides the latest news, articles and tutorials on emerging technologies for educational purposes, and serves as a hub for educators to congregate and share ideas that can be put into practice. It is hoped that this website will be on the forefront of Malaysia's instructional technology and inspire educators to use technologies to enhance their instructions."

NEW!
19 hours ago, I got a pleasant e-mail from Hafiz Hanif, who invited me to visit his new Kable.MY website. I was also invited to be a freelance writer for the website, but I told him instead of being a freelance writer, why not use whatever you like from ZaidLearn, and then link back to the original post (article). The reason is that whatever I write to share (to anyone), I will post it on ZaidLearn (First!). Anyway, this post is not about ZaidLearn, but about this awesome Kable.MY website that I just discovered, thanks to Hafiz Hanif.

Although, Kable.MY is still brand new, and probably needs some time to build up a substantial collection of awesome articles (unless they reuse with attribution and permission from great Edubloggers out there), I am really impressed with the website design, and the first few articles too are very useful and relevant.

INSPIRING!
Also, I like their team's learning philosophy and spirit:

"We are a bunch of normal educators like you, with the enthusiasm to provide the latest and fun ways to teach students, to inspire them with the use of technologies that are often regarded as a separate entity from our instructional strategies. Here, we share our thoughts on how to integrate technologies into your everyday teaching and learning activities, and how to understand the design of certain applications, how to re-purpose the applications to suit our educational needs, and how to get control over our own methodological strategies (Source)."

Yes, certainly a good start! The challenge is to keep that volcanic creative eruption continuously flowing, and if the passion and focus is there... WOW, this could evolve into something really special!

Thinking of it, after being inspired by Kable.MY's awesome website design, I believe it is time to relook and rethink the website design of ZaidLearn, which has not really changed much since its inception. But then again, neither has Google's homepage either. But, then again I have yet to find that swoosh factor that fits ZaidLearn's flavor and content. One thing for sure, I would want the revamped website to infuse a lot of (white) dreaming space free from anything.

I believe it is time to erupt some changes soon...Need another 102 days to think about it!

Kable.MY, thanks for this inspiring website, and hopefully it will inspire more educators in Malaysia to share their learning stories and tips. Yes, why not :)

The One Stop Learning Blog

2011-01-22T22:27:00.000+08:00

ONE STOP LEARNING

"As I have progressed along my journey as an educator, I have come to better appreciate that teaching is about sharing—sharing what I have learned with others, including the public at large. This blog is my expression, my way of sharing my passion on the issue of teaching and learning, lifelong learning and education in general. It is also intended as a repository of resources related to teaching and learning. This is my humble attempt to put together useful links, articles, websites, presentations, videos, etc. in one place -- for my own reference and for those who are interested to learn more about teaching and learning...more"

- Professor Karim (Universiti Sains Malaysia)

I am always thrilled to discover new edublogs from educators in Higher Education in Malaysia passionate about sharing their learning discoveries and journeys. This blog by Prof. Karim has already been around since November 2010, so it is not totally new, but without doubt worth sharing here. Interestingly, we met during a workshop (National E-Learning Road Map) late last year (2010), and have since communicated through Twitter (@biopolimer) and e-mail, but ironically I didn't really discover his juicy blog until today.

As the One Stop Learning blog is also Prof. Karim's own reference for learning discoveries on teaching and learning, means that his motivation to keep it going goes beyond hits and fame, which is important to keep it rolling until the world discovers this gem of a blog. Besides being self-motivated to share, it is always great to know that you have readers and people willing to challenge your ideas and thoughts. If he can keep it up (like now!), I am pretty sure that this blog will achieve just that as it explores and grows.

In short, why not visit...I shall say no more... just CLICK HERE :)

IMU Student Blogging Project to Promote a Healthy Lifestyle!

2011-01-12T13:08:00.001+08:00

"Every blog has a story behind it."

- Teenage Advisor

THE STORY

In late October 2010, Sheba DMani, the coordinator (facilitator) for the 'A Critical and Reflective Response to Media' (Medical Humanities Selective) course (at IMU) explored with me the idea of assigning students to work in groups to develop blogs addressing important issues and promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Of course that made me excited, as I have been promoting the usage of web 2.0 and social media for learning ever since I joined IMU (June 2009). And having already been through one cycle assisting Prof. Khoo Suan Phaik with her students' project using Google Sites, I was quite confident it would be an inspiring and valuable learning experience.

Interestingly, both these inspiring lecturers are not exactly IT-savvy, but they were willing and open to explore possibilities, and with a bit of assistance they managed to get through both projects successfully without too much hassle. As today's Y-generation (Most IMU students) is already quite IT-savvy, you don't exactly need to train them, but instead explore and empower them with creative ideas and possibilities.

A CRITICAL & REFLECTIVE RESPONSE TO MEDIA
This module facilitated by Sheba DMani focuses on connections between media and health within socio-cultural contexts. Media in the form of text and graphic presented through visual and audio modes from magazines, television and internet will be explored. These may include advertisements, films and music videos related to themes on health and healthcare. Students will approach these media texts through critical interpretation, reflective thinking and creative presentations. Upon completing this course, students will have learned that the media constructs views of the real world and that these views have been mediated to provide filtered and partial meaning of health belief and behaviour.

THE PROJECT & EVALUATION PROCESS

So, instead of writing a group assignment (using Microsoft Word/PowerPoint) to impress the lecturer, students were assigned to create a blog and promote their mission to the world. Surely that is more inspiring and exciting, right?

The students were assigned randomly into groups (consisting of 10 or less) and had three weeks (29 Nov-17 Dec) to prepare the blog, before presenting their project to the class and a selected group of evaluators. The blogs purpose was to promote health information to a specific audience (i.e. children, teenagers, adults, special needs and pregnant women).

The blogs would be evaluated based on their originality and creativity (title, tag-line, content, etc.), and the blog had to include at least 3 articles/columns and/or editorials that convey messages on the chosen topic. Finally, each blog had to include at least one video or audio message developed by the group.

Strong emphasis was given on originality, and students were reminded the importance of avoiding plagiarism and dealing with risk communication. In other words, it is important to acknowledge and appreciate authors and sources (re)used to develop the content for the blogs.

Overall, the blogs were assessed for accuracy and relevance of information, creativity, interactive features and the use of media techniques. To make it more exciting and competitive, each group did not make their blogs available to the other groups (or public) before their group presentation on the 16th December (2010).

Each group was given 30 minutes to present and defend their blog on the 16 December. Interestingly, Assoc. Prof. Dr. SriKumar Chakravarthi (IMU lecturer) whom was one of the evaluators was in India during this period, but still managed to watch and participate in the evaluation process using Skype. In addition to getting feedback from other class mates and evaluators, students voted for their favorite blog (using the Moodle poll feature) after the group presentation.

So, what was my role besides being one of the evaluators? As Sheba DMani is not too familiar with blogging, I handled a Q&A session on creating a blog with the students on the 3rd December. No, I didn't present any PowerPoint slides! I simply came to class, asked them relevant questions, and explored possibilities from this awesome list of free learning tools they could use to create or reuse sizzling content for their blogs.

So, how much did this project cost? In terms of technology, all the online tools they used to spread their message to the world cost.... ZERO! Not bad!

STUDENT LEARNING OUTPUT?

Nutrition 101 in Pregnancy

"Healthy foods for a healthy baby"

This blog aims to guide pregnant women through the process of making a positive change in the diet. It discusses and explores nutrition tips, delicious recipes, common myths, pregnancy tips and no-nos, useful links, and a few cool widgets, including the 'Weekly Pregnancy Calendar'. Overall, the blog is well-designed providing the user with a visually soothing and user-friendly navigation experience, which is certainly a requirement for any pregnant woman.

The project team (Amelia, Melisa, Moushini, Natasha, Ray, Shahira, and Sharon) did a great collaborative effort. Congratulations!

In one word: Wonderful!

Teen Advisor

"Teenage Life is Never Black & White"

This blog focuses on adolescent issues aimed at the teenage population of 13-19. It explores in an emotionally creative, but informative way common youth challenges such as alcohol, drugs, relationships (family/friends/girlfriend/boyfriend), stress and smoking.

To really connect with the youth in an inspiring and engaging way, this hard working project team mashed-up their own original graphics, directed and recorded a short Abstinence Educational Video, set up a Facebook page, and used Xtranormal to create this cool animated video:

In one word: AWESOME!

Pink Awareness

"BIG or small, We Save them All"

This blog aims to provide a one stop avenue for information on breast cancer in an easy way to understand. Its' combination of stylish (pink) and interactive design, easy navigation, and relevant topics makes it a great place to discover more about breast cancer, which include symptoms, risk factors, preventive measures, test and diagnosis, and alternative medicine. In addition to developing a great website, the project team (Qi Quan, Melody, Wern Ching, Shariffa and Praveena) developed a very informative 'Breast Self-Examination' video...

In one word: INSPIRING!

Understanding Asperger’s Syndrome

This blog focuses on Asperger's Syndrome, which is often misunderstood among people. Asperger's Syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. The project team has done a good job in designing and structuring the few (identified), but relevant issues regarding this disability, which include helping people to recognize it, statistics and epidemiology, books and resources, and famous people with it. Did you know that Albert Einstein had Asperger's Syndrome? Now you know!

In one word: INTERESTING!

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

"Don't Forget to Brush Your Teeth"

This blog provides some useful tips on how to take care of your health, including brushing your teeth, eating oranges and carrots, and washing your hands. The highlight of this blog has to be the creatively designed video developed by the project team (view contributors), entitled "The story of Bluey and Pinky'.

In one word: CREATIVE!

LESSONS LEARNED

From my experience working with students involved in projects requiring them to develop a website (using web 2.0), often complain that it is time consuming and that it requires a lot of work. But by knowing that their work will continue to live on (more meaning), and that they are publishing it to the world (instead of only to the lecturer), they are willing to take up the challenge and put in a greater effort. In other words, their motivation often goes beyond grades, and that is very exciting and encouraging.

Though, we still have to work on their fair use or reuse of external content and graphics, and teach them proper online referencing procedures, which is something we have to continue to work on. It is alright to quote and reuse (if permission is given), but we must appreciate and recognize other people's work. As such we have already setup a site for IMU staff and students (only) exploring project based learning (in the e-learning portal), including proper online referencing procedures.

Although, our e-learning portal (using Moodle) is wonderful for uploading and organizing course content, linking online resources, online discussions, assignment submissions, online quizzes, and so on, we should also encourage and empower students to use other web 2.0 and social media tools for creating creative content and informal learning. For example, several lecturers from the School of Pharmacy use Facebook for communicating online with their students, and have experimented with conducting Problem-Based Learning (PBL) sessions using Facebook Groups.

I have noticed that some Universities in Malaysia ban the usage of Facebook and YouTube at their campuses, and use the excuse that they encourage poor learning/working habits and clog up their network (bandwidth) for other usages. That might be true, but if staff and students learn how to discipline themselves using such tools (no choice!), they will actually have access to some of the most amazing learning resources on the planet (for free), and be able to interact with experts and students from all over the world through Facebook groups/pages (e.g. Harvard University - Facebook). I can't think of a better investment for learning than boosting the network (bandwidth) to support online learning in all forms. The Internet is the heart, blood circulation, and oxygen of learning in the 21st century.

More importantly, today more than ever, it is critical to encourage students to nurture their communication, collaboration, creative and analytical skills using the web and multimedia tools. Increasingly in the future, people in organizations will be working and collaborating online using the cloud, so it is important to encourage and necessary to prepare our students for this new world.

Also, it is important to highlight here that the quality of the students' output (results) at this stage is not as important as empowering their passionate and inquiring mindset to explore possibilities and ideas, and continuously reflect, learn and improve from these learning experiences. In short, focus more on the learning process than the output (results). Results will come as they learn. Some are early bloomers, others are late bloomers, and that is something we should never forget.

Can you imagine hiring a graduate that cannot communicate and collaborate online? Try asking that same question in four year's time :)

Islam, Higher Education & The Virtual Campus!

2010-12-08T08:48:00.000+08:00

"When the son of Adam (human being) dies, his deeds are stopped except for three things, namely, his good deeds, his knowledge, and his pious child who prays for him."
- Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

In this context, 'his knowledge' means knowledge that benefit others (including written materials such as articles, papers, books, etc.). Not only what has been learned, but more importantly what has been shared. So, sharing knowledge is not only a good thing to do, it is a form of worship in Islam. So, let's practice it sincerely (whether we are Muslim or not)!

TWO CONFERENCES

A couple of weeks back (9-11 November), I attended and participated in two (2) very interesting conferences (Oops, I mean one conference & one forum!):

International Conference On Islam And Higher Education (8-9 November)
Future Campus Forum Malaysia (10-11 November)

As for the first conference, I could only attend the 2nd day (9th November), as I was stuck with other work commitments. Overall, these two events where enriching and enlightening (in their own ways), and now I will share some insights (lessons learned) and explore how we could face some of the challenges ahead.

ISLAM & HIGHER EDUCATION

Actually, I was invited to moderate the e-learning session just a few days before the conference. For whatever reason that may be (the original moderator pulled out, poor planning, etc.), I don't care, except that I was delighted to get the call, and obviously agreed to take up the challenge. As I have never moderated a session at an International Conference, how could I say 'NO' to such a great challenge.

9th NOVEMBER
I attended all the sessions at the International Conference On Islam And Higher Education (download the presentation slides) on the 9th November, as I was interested to listen and get some insights into how different countries and communities are struggling to infuse more Islamic teachings and values into their mainstream education models. Of course, if FOX News was here, they would paint a different picture saying ______, and I would be on CIA's most wanted list.

But, getting back to reality, it was heartening and enlightening that most have realized that investing in education and moving forward is NON-Brainer. I had the opportunity to listen to speakers discuss Islam and (mostly Higher) education in India, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Iran, Tanzania, Kazakhstan and Malaysia.

No doubt, we (Muslims) have many challenges ahead, but investing heavily and smartly in education could do wonders to deal with many of them. No doubt, dropping bombs from 30,000 feet is not going bring Muslims closer to the West (or accomplish the mission, except amplify hate. Obama, time to wake up!), but also Muslims have to realize that there are plenty of peaceful loving people in the West, and just brushing everyone under one monster roof is not the solution. We both have to do some soul searching (Including me!), and educating and connecting people (besides using Facebook!) is a great way to infuse greater understanding and move forward.

GLOBAL WARMING!
Yes, moving forward together to solve mission nearly impossible, which is mankind's authentic TERRORISM AGAINST MOTHER EARTH! Whether 'Global Warming' is a fact or myth, I cannot verify, but what I do know is that mankind is abusing the Earth beyond its capacity (by __%), and unless we change or transform the way we live soon, we are not providing much hope for our future generations. But, on a positive note this disaster in the making (or made!) will increasingly bring us together around the world, and eventually we will have to put our differences aside (for a while), so that we can clean up our own mess. Shame on mankind, shame on me! I suppose I am dreamer, but why not? I am still learning! Let's get back to the conference...

HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
Although, some might argue that Universities will be extinct soon (like the dinosaurs), unless they transform the way they facilitate and assess learning, they are still very much needed (for reasons also beyond learning), an e-Learning can play a vital role to empower more people to be educated. As you see in the diagram below, we have a long way to go to ensure that all in the Muslim world (15 selected countries) have the opportunity to continue their education:

Professor Dato’ Dr. Ansary Ahmed's insightful an stimulating talk (PDF) during the e-Learning session (which I moderated) went beyond wishful thinking, and provided us with hardcore (sad) numbers and some excellent thoughts on moving forward.

The other speaker during the e-learning session, Professor Dr. Ahmad Memariani Azizolah from Iran (FOX News, please chill!), explored Payame Noor University (PNU), Iran: A Universal Distance-Based University in the Islamic World, which I found truly mind boggling. For example, The University has 485 centers throughout the country supported by 3500 teaching staff and the student population exceeds 1,100,000, which means roughly 314 students to one teacher. WOW! To put this into perspective, Oxford University has a ratio of 3 students to one teacher. How can one ensure quality University education with such a student-teacher ratio (314 to 1)? Any magic formulas to share?

In 1979 the access to higher education in Iran was just 5% . Today the PNU and Islamic Azad University (1,200,000 students in regular programs!) cover approximately 65% of the students. And Al-Mustafa Open University (a virtual Islamic University) attracts more than 18000 international students from more than 100 countries. Again, WOW!

Having also witnessed (2 trips) the tremendous growth and emphasis on education and e-learning (e.g. National Center for e-Learning & Distance Learning) in Saudi Arabia over the last two (2) years, it is an exciting time to be working in the education world. I was fortunate to be part of the first e-Learning audit team that visited eight (8) Universities earlier this year, and it was very encouraging to see the passion and drive in Saudi Arabia to transform the education system (more input here). Actually, the whole Middle East is going through a massive transformation, and education and e-learning is increasingly playing a critical role.

MOVING FORWARD?
But, we still have a long but exciting way to go, and here are three (3) transformative things that I recommend that we should focus on to really take-off:

Source - ZaidLearn

Free Internet Access is a Fundamental Human Right!
Internet is the oxygen of learning in the 21st century, and without it we are denying millions (1.57 billion Muslims around the world) of people access to learn (e.g. free learning resources), even if educational institutions have no space for them. Also, the Internet provides people an amazing platform (ecosystem) to connect, network, innovate, and do business directly and indirectly.

As of 1 July this year (2010) "every Finn will have the right to access to a 1Mbps (megabit per second) broadband connection. Finland has vowed to connect everyone to a 100Mbps connection by 2015 (Source)." In short, we must realize the importance and the empowering impact the Internet can have on society and education, and therefore should do everything possible to make it happen. Of course, the Internet can be used to do negative stuff, but that is a challenge we have little choice, but to face. If that means sometimes censoring sites, fine, but do not censor the Internet itself, which is probably the surest way to self-destruct in the 21st century. Let's think beyond, and envision Internet (and learning devices) for all! It might sound impossible now, but it is not! We, just need to rethink the way we think, and put our energies and passions in the right direction(s)!
Forget Copyright, Practice Copyleft Instead!
Isn't it weird that we can actually copyright and sell knowledge that was created by others, but synthesized, paraphrased, and mashed-up by ourselves. Oops, I forgot, we contributed say 5% originality. What right do we have to copyright and sell such knowledge? We can argue that we invested time synthesizing it, referenced resources used, but does that take the fact away that many academic textbooks today are often just a collection of other people's work wrapped nicely up into a sizzling cover, which we glorify and sell as if we are the masters of the universe. Some people do actually make a (necessary) living from it, fine! But, to the rest who already make a decent living, let's practice the greatest passion of a true academic, which is to share what we learn to as many people as we possibly can. Today with the Internet and tons of amazing free learning tools we can reach anyone in the world that has access to the Internet without needing to invest much, except our time.

Maybe I am wrong here, or maybe it is that I am left handed, and as a result I find copyright so difficult to appreciate (especially in the academic world). Anyway, now that we can easily Copyleft (Confused? Click the link!), or use Creative Commons, we should think beyond copyright, and explore sharing more for the benefit of everyone (except the publishers). Also, if we argue that a University would lose its competitive edge by sharing learning resources (courses), I disagree. If your real competitive edge is content, I suppose you need to rethink your learning model, because content can easily be duplicated within seconds. Having awesome content is not a sustainable competitive edge, but infusing and nurturing learning models that use content to apply learning and transform learning minds is. You can duplicate content easily, but a learning model and culture takes time to nurture. Many top universities around the world know this, and don't mind sharing their educational resources? It is also great branding for a University to be part of the Open Educational Resources (OER) or Open Courseware (OCW) movements.

Moreover, if you are a Public University funded by citizens (tax money and endowment), you should share back whatever you can. Although, Public Universities cannot enroll every potential student due to obvious limitations (facilities, teachers, car parks, etc.), they can still share at least their courses and learning resources, empowering hungry minds to learn on their own. Also, the public should have the right to check the quality of their investment. In short, we won't lose much by sharing learning resources (not like money!), but the community at large can benefit tremendously by creating a learning sharing ecosystem (reuse, remix, adapt, contextualize, mash-up, etc.) that is potentially sustainable beyond physical barriers, providing everyone the potential to learn. But, how do we then make money? You can make money through teaching, coaching, online facilitation, consultations, workshops, site advertisements, funding, endowment, etc. There are so many ways to still make tons of money, if we really think about it!

Finally, by focusing on researching, constructing and innovating the missing links, instead of wasting too much time reinventing content that already exists (reuse/remix existing OER/OCW), we become more valuable as a teacher and educator. This is the only way to catch-up and lead the way in the 21 century where 'Zorro' bytes of new learning content is created and made available only (mostly for free) every day.

Build Learning Networks!
Having free Internet access and free learning resources is not sufficient to transform us into a learning and innovation society. Learning resources usually don't inspire people into action or learning (if they did, libraries would be crowded beyond reach!), but inspiring and knowledgeable people can. We all know that the Internet can also be the biggest waste of time creating an amusing life out of basically doing nothing (in the real world). We have to get out of our University cocoon nests and interact beyond. We need to create learning communities and networks where we share and discuss trends, issues, resources and ideas, and are receptive to criticism and disagreements. It is amazing how powerful group and network learning can be, if we embrace it and participate.

Finally, we should increasingly explore the idea of facilitating 'Massive Open Online Courses/Environments (MOOC)' where we get together to share, discuss and reflect important topics and issues. If you are looking for a good example, try PLENK 2010. Imagine having educators from say 78 countries explore together important issues using a variety of free learning tools.

That brings me back to this conference, and the problem with most conferences (that I have attended) is that when completed, I suffer from information overload and exhaustion. In other words, how can we transform conferences to become less bla, bla, bla... to be more engaging & interactive?

In other other words, conferences should perhaps emphasize 'Less is more' for presenters, and encourage them to focus on key points/issues, so that we can have more time to discuss and network.

And that is what I experienced at the...

FUTURE CAMPUS FORUM MALAYSIA

The 'Future Campus Forum Malaysia' took place at Westin Hotel (Kuala Lumpur), and there were roughly 100 participants. The forum hall was a perfect fit for a stage and 10 discussion tables (with 10 seats each). Besides the amazingly small prayer room (only 4 could pray at once), Westin is a reasonably good place to conduct a forum with this context.

Although, this forum did not have any particularly enlightening or inspiring speakers (got quite high expectations, usually!), the whole format was really built around networking and sharing ideas (and capturing them). My role was to be a participant only...

DISCUSSION TABLES
Even though the presenters or the panel discussion was not too enriching, the real fun was the 10 30-minute interactive discussion sessions. So, basically for 6 hours during the 2-day forum, we were in intensive discussions covering 10 different relevant topics:

Measuring Effectiveness
Remaining Competitive
Gaming & Immersive learning
Content Development
Future Learning Styles
Creativity & Innovation
Public-Private Partnerships
Connected Campus
Continuous Professional Development
Choosing Classroom ICT Equipment

Each discussion topic was facilitated by an international or local expert who initiated the discussion and captured the interesting ideas and experiences shared (1 facilitator + 9 participants). The 10 interactive discussion sessions were organized according to 10 different colors, and each color was associated with a number, too. Every participant was given a color (on the name card), and would then start from the table with the same color, and then move from table to table after each discussion session. I was black (my name card!), meaning I would start at table 1 (Black). Since some people might be color-blind, it is good to have numbers besides colors to refer to. After 2 or 3 sessions, we would be enriched (discussion break!) with a talk or coffee (networking) break.

To manage time (and speed up the discussion), they projected an Interactive Discussion Table Timer (starting at 30 minutes), which was kind of cool, but at times also made you feel like you were taking an exam. As they were going GREEN (Yeah, whatever!) they would not hand out web resources, and instead we needed to participate in all activities and submit the forum evaluation before getting the password (and certificate of attendance) to download all the presentation slides. Did all, but yet to receive the password (by e-mail)!

Overall, it was an interesting way to encourage participation, discussion and capturing of ideas. Though, you are stuck with the same group (of 9) throughout all the 10 discussions, and that is where they could have innovated more. Surely, it would have been fun to mix-up perhaps after two 30-minute discussion sessions, and then challenge your ideas with another group of people. By the time my group had reached session two, everyone realized I was the only E-Learning professional (or whatever!) in our group, meaning from then onwards I became the automatic choice to be the first participant to share ideas and experiences.

In conclusion, the forum setup was perfect for discussions, networking, sharing ideas and learning; though it would have been even cooler if we didn't have to stick with the same group throughout the two days. Don't get me wrong, my group was a lot of fun, but just something to ponder, if we were to adopt such an approach for our conferences or forums in the future.

LESSONS LEARNED
To be honest I didn't learn that much new, except from the way the forum was dynamically facilitated. But there were a few new nuggets of wisdom and resources shared during the two days, which I will blast away in the form of bullets here:

Check out the Digital Education Revolution (New South Wales) resources and information.
DER-NSW research focuses on how educational technology (or their programme) is influencing teacher pedagogy, students and the consequences of it on the students’ educational outcomes (3 key research questions).
Digital Citizenship (8 free lessons to download).
Amazing to learn about Fung Kai Innovative School from Ma Siu Leung (CEO), who is a lively & engaging speaker, too! He shared with us tricks on how to create win-win public-private partnerships, and how to trick (smartly) vendors to sell you great technology for bargain prices, and then make them feel like they have a bargain, too (win-win).
There are now 9 million Facebook users in Malaysia alone...Now that is connectivity :)
In a connected campus, student traverse formal, informal, & virtual learning space towards learning outcomes in a seamless manner (Whatever!)
How to develop authentic learning experiences? Prosumer? Produce and consume your own learning!

Not much to scream who-ha about, but I did really enjoy listening to Dr. Stuart Lee (Director, Computing & Services, Oxford University) over the Skype session to us. Now, that was the highlight for me (without doubt!). For example, I learned that Oxford University embraces open source and tries to use it where possible (according Dr. Stuart Lee). Interestingly, some Oxford University building walls are up to 7 meters thick, so it can be a challenge to drill holes to wire the network. Dr. Stuart Lee seemed very conscious that Oxford University is an old University, and that it takes sometimes centuries to change things there (or more than a lifetime).

Then Melissa Highton (Head of Learning Technologies Group, Oxford University) took over the Skype session and shared with us that Oxford University uses Sakai for VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) and invest a lot in video recording lectures and increasingly making them available online for free (something to ponder!).Oxford University also embraces mobile technologies and learning to support their 3 students to one lecturer ratio (Small group teaching).

Interestingly, Oxford University rejected Blackboard as they didn't understand or support the needs of Oxford University's need for a free roaming kind of learning environment (not necessarily course-based)...Ouch! Was it just poor marketing, or could it be that Blackboard is simply not up to mark (yet)?

When we came to the Q&A session with the Oxford 'Twin Tech Terrors', silence from the participants continued. However, that did not stop me from asking whether Oxford University uses Moodle or not. It was revealed that Oxford University has embraced Moodle for distance education, and mostly use Sakai to support face-to-face learning and online research activities. In short, who needs Blackboard?

Finally, I visited Taylor's University (our group) new campus, as the 2nd part of day 2 was a field trip to one of three chosen locations. Tailor's University new campus is pretty impressive, and their 5 (or 4) floor state-of-the-art (whatever that means!) library, which had sizzling noise, collaborative, quiet and sleeping learning spaces, was certainly my favorite highlight. The library even had a mini orange cinema, which included sand bags perfect for falling asleep. I took tons of pictures with my IPhone until it fell asleep (too early!), but I promised not reveal their secret spices.

So, please visit the place yourself to experience a trendy mini-city kind of campus, which looked more like an outdoor version of KLCC (shopping mall) rather than a typical campus you would associate with a University (Certainly hip with Starbucks, Baskin-Robbins, Famous Amos, restaurants, cafes, cinema, hotel, etc). In short, they are making tons of money also by renting out spaces beyond the hostels.

Anyway, since their student population (around 9000 at that campus) are mostly young and trendy, this outfit is perhaps a perfect match. Interestingly, when I came to Tailor's University new campus, I had trouble finding a car park. Later I found out that they actually had 3000 parking spaces (according to their tour guide), and ironically I still had problem finding a car park (at 2 pm). I suppose most students today have cars!

Overall, I learned a lot during those three (3) days and three (3) major events (conference, forum & Field trip).

If only everyday could be like that! I wish :)

Using Twitter to Amplify Connective Learning and Sharing at ICEL 2010

2010-07-21T15:38:00.002+08:00

"If only one person knows it, nobody knows it!"
- Ludwig Wittgenstein

#ICEL5

I have already written a post about the story behind this Twitter experiment, but if you missed it, here is a visually stimulating clarification:

If the picture above makes no sense, then perhaps you can find some time to watch this 5-minute video tutorial:

Besides this, I would like to highlight that if you are an active Twitter user, Monitter might not be the ideal tool to monitor/track a word, phrase or hashtag (e.g. #icel5). Instead, you might as well use the 'Search' function in Twitter, and then save the search, which you can follow.

Another tool you might want to consider (among several) is TweetDeck, which provides you a host of excellent features to track whatever you want, and also enables conveniently to update your own Twitter world. If you are using an IPhone, you are probably going to love the TweetDeck application.

Alright, so did the #icel5 learning stream idea work?

THANK YOU!
But, before going into that, I would like to thank everyone involved with the 5th International Conference on e-Learning (ICEL 2010) for making it a sizzling learning adventure (Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia 12-13 July 2010).

Also, I would like to give a special thanks to Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus (Conference Chair) for inviting me personally, and making it a memorable and exciting learning adventure throughout, starting from Japanese sushi to promoting my blog (Say no more!).

In addition, Frashad Shah deserves a big thank you for picking me up from the airport and making my trip to the hotel smooth and easy. Yes, he will be joining IMU e-Learning team next month, and I am sure we can fuse our brain waves to innovate and inspire our University's e-learning ambition to new heights. Can't wait!

Besides this, Sue Nugus (Organizer), Issham Ismail (Programme Chair), David M. Kennedy (Keynote Speaker), Laura Czerniewicz (Keynote Speaker), Brant Knutzen (Best Speaker and Swimmer!!!), and Ben Archer (Best Twitter #icel5 user, heads down!) were amazing. In addition, I got to tickle Philip Balcaen's 'Critical Thinking' brain a bit, which was kind of fun.

There were around 100 participants from 19 countries that attended, and that certainly made it more exciting. I probably chatted with at least 60% of the participants, and learned too much to babble it here...!

SO, DID #ICEL5 WORK?
Out of around 100 participants at the conference, only nine (9) joined (including me) or shared tweets using the #icel5 hashtag. I believe many in the audience were kind of new to Twitter (or were clueless). Prof. Rozhan Idrus did a great job in promoting the #icel5 hashtag (and my blog) during his opening speech.

However, next time we should perhaps facilitate a 10-15 minute Twitter tutorial (unless everyone is already using Twitter) to get more participants involved.

Here is a sizzling visual illustration of all the people that contributed to the #icel5 learning stream:

If you notice, you will actually notice that around 30 people (3 times more!!!) from the Twitter world (gray icons) also contributed to the #icel5 learning stream, one way or the other. Did we invite them to join? Of course not! They probably saw some interesting tweets while following our tweets, and then simply gave us their piece of mind, or retweeted interesting stuff here and there. Interestingly, a few of the tweets were even translated into Spanish (example).

So, was it a success?

Difficult question to answer! Below is a bird's eye view of all the #icel5 tweets (230+) shared over the 2-day e-learning conference:

Cool graphic, but I want to review and learn something from these 230+ #icel5 tweets; Not just bells and whistles (and a octopus!)? No, problem! Here we go:

#ICEL5 Learning Stream

Not, bad! Surely, it could have been more participation, but overall it did generate some really interesting connections, ideas, reflections and resources. From a personal learning point-of-view, tweeting kept me busy thinking and pondering throughout the conference. I only felt sleepy towards the end of the whole conference. Usually, you will see me practically sleeping before the 2nd speakers is done (unless the presenter is awesome!).

So, what did I learn?

10 LEARNING NUGGETS
Here are 10 interesting things I learned during this e-learning conference:

Paul was right!
Yeah, Paul the octopus (above) guessed 8 out of 8 matches during the 2010 World Cup, but would he have predicted that we would start an e-learning conference four hours after the World Cup final. What were they thinking? Luckily, I managed to survive the first day, thanks to a bit of yoga breathing exercises and a 1000 ml Vitamin C tablet.
IPhone is a sizzling mobile learning device!
Alright, I am surely going to pursue an IPad once the price goes down a bit, but the IPhone is not a bad alternative. I did actually bring along my notebook, but it was never used, because I was able to do all the necessary learning and sharing activities using my IPhone. For example, I used the IPhone to tweet, take pictures (upload them using Twitpic), reply e-mail, read online newspapers, play games, listen to podcasts, search, moodle, etc.
Might not make the British swimming team for 2012 Olympics!
I got hooked on swimming last year (2009), and have ever since been swimming 2-3 times week. For the sake of fun, I have set an audacious goal (Nothing is impossible) to make the British swimming team for the 2012 Olympics. And I thought I was on track (seriously!), but then I got into a 50 meter freestyle race with David Kennedy (Australia) and Brant Knutzen (USA) at the hotel (Equatorial). They were going to race (for fun), and I thought why not test my ability against these two 50+ year old dudes. This should be easy, right? I went all out, but within 25 meters, Brant 'Phelps' Knutzen was propelling his feet past my face, and I was crushed as badly as England was against Germany during the 2010 World Cup. I suppose I'm kind of British after all! Anyway, I am not targeting to make the sprint team, but instead I will go for the ultimate manhood test: 15oo meters. The world record is around 14.35 min. and I am currently capable of 36.53 min. (was 50 min in April, 2010). It looks bad, but I still got two (2) more years to go. Yes, I am certainly British :)
Mahoodle could rock!
What? You get a Mahoodle, when you mash-up Mahara with Moodle. In pedagogical terms, you combine these two tools to facilitate both teacher (Moodle) and student centred (Mahara) learning, according to David Kennedy. It looks promising, and if you want to know more, just CLICK HERE.
Free Internet Access is a Fundamental Human Right!
Actually, I have been babbling about this before, but after listening to presenters from several so called 'developing countries' it would simply be amazing if we could make Internet as easy to access as National radio and TV channels. Or think of it as a Digital Democracy, whereby not only do we have a right to vote, but also a right to free access to the Internet, or learning resources around the world (Explore Laura's reflective Keynote: Digital Native in a New Era: Apartheid or democracy). Why not? Within five (5) years, I believe the world will be fully wired, but will it be a better one (or more learning friendly)? With an accessible free global network, we might be able to do some amazing things together. What do you think?
Resistance to E-Learning is still Global!
You would think that lecturers in countries like England and Australia would not be so resistant and negative to implementing e-learning at their learning institutions. But, the truth is that it is probably as common there, as it is here in Malaysia. But then again, if they have been exposed to crappy e-learning content and environments, how can we blame them (or us)? So, who do we inspire first to adopt e-learning, the students or the lecturers? Do we really need e-learning? Perhaps, we should just call it LEARNING. What do you think? I got some great ideas (I think), but let's discuss them in another post.
Highly interactive discussions through small learning groups!
In the past we wanted to use self-paced e-learning to train millions at a time. But, today we are increasingly realizing the power of learning through small groups, whether online or offline. Brant Knutzen discovered through his research that 4-5 members per group is ideal for facilitating dynamic online discussions in terms of getting more responses and replies. Any thing to add?
Be PREPARED! Seriously, be prepared!
Besides listening to some amazing keynotes and paper presentations, there were a few that made me wonder...What were you thinking? For example, one presenter shared her findings exploring Mobile learning with 20 students, by simply showing a table with 20 rows of raw data (comments by students). And she summed up that most of the participating students didn't like mobile learning. Interestingly, a person sitting next to me, summed up within seconds that 70% of the students didn't like mobile learning, by simply looking at the table. Worse yet, when I asked her what kind of mobile devices these 20 students were using during the research, she couldn't even answer that question accurately, and fumbled... 'I think... Worse yet, when you look at the first student's comment in the table, it basically noted that the student had no Internet coverage. I mean, who would enjoy mobile learning without Internet access. Worse yet, the presenter was an Associate Professor, and you would expect that if you have reached that level, you would have at least an analytical or scientific mindset, but I suppose that is not necessarily the case. In short, if you are going to present anything, be prepared, and try to explore all possible scenarios and questions for whatever you are researching. If you question yourself and what you are doing, it is not so difficult. Oops, I might be wrong!
Prezi is not so great after all!
Interestingly, three (3) of the presentations I attended used Prezi to present their story or research. Yes, it is really cool, trendy, and you kind of get swooshed away with no slides and amazing zoom-in-and-out elevations through a big learning map, or may I say a Picasso painting. However, after viewing a few Prezi presentations, you kind of get bored with it (They all look the same, just like PowerPoint!). Well, I do. And one presenter summed it up nicely, by saying, 'It is a real headache developing one" (if I heard it correctly!). Whatever tool you use, the bottom line is substance. If you have substance, then design makes sense. But design without substance, is a joke. But, if you have both substance and design, then WOW! And I would argue that PowerPoint (2010) is a more complete tool (including picture editing) to sizzle. I know, Apple dudes are going to scream, 'Keynote'... Whatever! It is fun experimenting with tools like Prezi, but until they have real Power, like PowerPoint 2010, then forget it. I am not joking!
Mobile Learning is the FUTURE!
Period...! We should not ignore this, but instead embrace the amazing possibilities to reach out to billions of people out there around the world. I used my IPhone for all my learning and sharing activities during this 2-day e-learning conference, and it was simply an amazing tool for learning. I am now dreaming of an IPad, and imagine students not needing to carry a heavy bag full of books, and having instead an A4-sized learning device enabling them to read, interact, play and connect with learners all over the world. What are we waiting for?

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I have to admit I didn't learn so many new things during this conference. I suppose when you subscribe to OLDaily and RSS most of the top learning professionals around the world that is a difficult prospect and mission.

But then again learning is so much more than simply learning new knowledge and following trends, whether it Web 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 or 10.0. Looking back, I am really excited to have connected with some amazing learning professionals, and hopefully I can continue to learn from and interact with these geniuses.

Finally, you can say what you want about Twitter, but for me, it rocks for learning! Why? It rocks, because it empowers me to connect, interact, and learn from people all over the world. And using a hashtag (#) to connect and collectively think (out loud) makes it even more convenient and dynamic. What do you think? Any better alternative (besides a Facebook wall!)? :)

IMU Learning Series Launched!

2010-06-02T13:48:00.000+08:00

CLICK HERE
(to read the first article)

WHAT?

The idea with this 'IMU Learning Series' initiative is to invite lecturers at IMU to share their learning and teaching experiences, and how they are innovating and inspiring students to learn and think (short articles: 250 - 1000 words). Later, we will also be inviting students to come forward sharing their learning stories and best practices.

A few more lecturers have also taken up the challenge (in progress), and hopefully more will follow. There are a lot of innovations and inspiring learning stories happening at IMU, and it would be wonderful if more lecturers came forward to share them. Especially, younger less experienced lecturers at IMU could benefit tremendously from these reflective learning and teaching stories.

Also, these learning stories will also be reaching many educators and learners beyond IMU. To date, IMU e-Learning Blog has had visitors from more than 50 countries (within a couple of months).

Finally, imagine if many IMU lecturers participate in sharing their inspiring learning stories over the coming months. By year end, we could actually compile and organize 'IMU Learning Series' articles into a digital e-book (e.g. IMU Learning Series 2010), which would be a wonderful learning resource.

In short, let's celebrate and participate sharing our inspiring learning stories and best practices.

Think big, start small, innovate fast :)

Let's make a difference! :)

Finally, if you are interested in experiencing IMU E-Learning learning stream on Facebook (including pictures from learning sessions), just CLICK HERE :)

Discover IMU E-Learning on Facebook!

2010-05-21T11:39:00.000+08:00

CLICK HERE to discover IMU E-Learning on Facebook!

WHAT?

Facebook will be one of the main tools that we (IMU E-Learning) use to connect and share our e-learning adventures and stories as we explore, learn, share, facilitate and reflect together with IMU (International Medical University) educators, staff, and students regarding the amazing learning possibilities we have today.

As we are in the early stages of exploring social media (social networking, wikis, blogs, podcasts, Twitter, etc.) for learning at IMU, we hope that by openly sharing our learning stories, we will increasingly encourage more to participate and share. More and more universities or educational institutions around the world are exploring social media for learning, and we hope that our experiences shared can benefit others out there, especially new comers. Also, we do hope that this sharing initiative will lead to more connections and discussions with educators and students at IMU and beyond.

We have so much to learn, and by sharing and connecting with great people like you, we can learn faster and more effectively using our collective intelligence, or wisdom of the crowds (Oops, a few big words!).

Some might argue that you lose your competitive (e-learning) edge by being open and willing to share. I would argue that if you want to be leader in any field, you have to share your work and efforts, and be open to feedback and criticism. If you reflect and act upon these nuggets of feedback and criticism, you are probably going to improve faster than sticking to the old paradigm emphasizing indirectly that 'Hoarding Learning (knowledge, competencies and skills) is Power!'.

It should be 'Sharing Learning is Power'. Not much can be done alone, but it is amazing what we can do together collectively.

INGREDIENTS
We are using the Facebook Page feature to share our e-learning adventures and stories. Here you will find the following tabs (sections):

The Wall
Enjoy the learning stream, and please share your ideas, feedback (Like!) and comments, too.
Blog
Here you can get easily access all the learning stories and resources explored on IMU E-Learning blog.
Discussions
Here you can participate and share your thoughts and ideas on how we can improve learning at IMU, or anything related to learning, facilitation, creativity, innovation, etc.
Video
For now we will mostly upload screencasts exploring the different learning tools explored during the workshops, and discuss how we could use them for developing more sizzling learning environments or content.
Pictures
Pictures from all e-learning related events and workshops. So, if you have attended one, we might have caught a nice picture of you learning, or perhaps ______ :)
Links
Resource links (URL) to amazing learning resources from around the world. Most of these amazing learning resource links are shared through IMU E-Learning blog, which collects and tries to make sense of them via refreshing resource collections.

IMU E-Learning Facebook Page is still very much under construction, so you can probably expect some interesting surprises as we explore and discover further.

MOVING ON!

Currently, most of the learning stories and resources shared on the Facebook Page are from the e-learning team, but we are working with several lecturers to share their learning stories, and will soon be encouraging several students to share their learning stories, too.

We are also working on a website (using Google Sites) entitled the 'Learning Innovation Lab', which will enable...(still under construction). For this social media learning sharing initiative we will be mostly using technology that is free and reasonably easy-to-use, meaning that anyone interested in doing something similar (or better!) to what we are doing, can do that without needing worry too much about hardware, software and hosting budgets (big zero!). Though, you would require time to do it, but if you see the value and have the passion, you will most likely find the time.

The good thing today, is that we have so many learning tools and possibilities to potentially use to facilitate learning. The sad thing is that due to that fact, many of us are obviously facing information (and tools) overload, and are clueless where to start.

In a learning shell, how do we use emerging (and old) learning tools to facilitate sizzling learning environments? How do we use learning tools and open educational resources to nurture students to ask deeper and more reflective questions, master their learning areas, think more creatively and innovatively, discover their passion, and eventually inspire them to become, or achieve their ultimate dreams (even the impossible)?

Let's explore the possibilities together :)

Facebook for Learning? Boleh!

2010-04-22T15:21:00.000+08:00

Click here to view the Articulate version

DOWNLOAD

MP3 and Articulate Version (Unzip before viewing)
Slideshare Version

LEARNING SESSION
This week's learning session explored Facebook and how we can use it to facilitate learning. As expected, thanks to the juicy topic 'Facebook', we had a full house (e-learning lab, I mean!). Only 25 were allowed to register, but we ended up with 32 participants, which just illustrates that Facebook is an interesting topic.

For those of you who missed the learning session, here is the slidecast version from SlideShare:

Facebook For Learning? Boleh!

View more presentations from Zaid Alsagoff.

LET'S DO IT!
Based on our recent poll the majority of both Academic staff (66.7) and students (67.8) that participated think that IMU should use Facebook for e-learning.

But, where to start?

To get your Facebook social learning space moving, why not for starters create a 'Facebook Group' (especially if you want to have a closed group)?

STEP-BY-STEP
Here are two screencast tutorials exploring how to create a Facebook Group and how we could use it to facilitate learning:

Part 1 - Creating a 'Facebook Group'

Part 2 - Exploring Facebook Group Features

But...

Why not combine Moodle (E-learning Portal) and Facebook to facilitate online learning environments that sizzles :)

REFLECTION
If you are wondering how long it took to record the narration (audio) for the 'Facebook for Learning? Boleh!' presentation (41 min) and the two (2) screencast tutorials (5 x 2 min = 10 min), it took actually a whole day. I started 9.30 am in the morning, and completed all recordings by 7.30 pm in the evening. If we minus the lunch break and prayers, I probably spent 7.5 working hours to record the above.

The toughest part was recording the 2 screencasts, because I initially had no clue of what to record or say, and I didn't finish them before 4 pm. I used Screenr (a free tool) to develop the two screencasts, and it is a very user-friendly tool to record anything happening on your screen (other screencasting tools).

Though, Screenr has three (3) major minus points. One, is that you are limited to recording 5 minute sessions (perhaps positive in terms of instructional design and forcing you to be more precise and concise), and that can get annoying if you are recording and just cannot make the 5 minute time-line. If you listen carefully, you will notice this on both the screencasts I recorded. I had to also re-record twice, because I just missed the time line. I suppose I need to chunk it up more in the future, and perhaps use an audio script.

Now, that leads us to the 2nd minus point, which is that you cannot edit what you have recorded. Meaning basically that you have to perfect your recording, or keep on recording until you are satisfied. Post-editing, ability to zoom, adding annotations, and desktop version (offline) would be great, but I suspect Articulate is saving that for the commercial version in the near future. Let's hope I am wrong :)

Thirdly, you cannot record another screencast, while you are uploading and publishing the first one (please correct me if I am wrong!). And if you have a slow connection, now that gets annoying! There should be a feature allowing you to record another screencast, while waiting for the first one to be uploaded. Now that would be useful!

But, besides that Screenr is great. Alright, let's move on! As for recording audio for the presentation slides used during our Facebook workshop, I used Articulate. Since the slides were ready, and I had some idea what to say (no audio script though, which is obvious!), so I managed to record the narration for the presentation (including adding animations and annotations) in roughly three (3) hours. Meaning, it took roughly 4.4 times longer to record, compared to the presentation's actual length (41 min). Not bad, but certainly I would love to do it faster. Practice, Reflect, Improve, Practice, Practice...

Besides publishing the Articulate version, I published the podcast version, and extracted the audio, which was uploaded and synchronized to the SlideShare version, to create a screencast. Finally, I uploaded both the MP3 and Articulate version (Zip format) to the Internet Archive enabling anyone to download both formats and explore them further offline.

A quicker approach would be to simply video record the workshop and dump the recording on the web. The approach I took was certainly more exhaustive than simply video recording the workshop, but in the long run this approach could perhaps add more value (learning) and spark more interest to whoever is exploring.

What do you think? :)

MedTutor - Learning to Think!

2010-04-05T22:20:00.002+08:00

"No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined."
~Harry E. Fosdick

MEDTUTOR?

MedTutor is an online tutoring site for medical students and young doctors in Internal Medicine. The mastermind behind the MedTutor is Dr. Vela Menon, MD (Faculty of Medicine, International Medical University, Malaysia).

This project is still very much a work-in-progress, but then again that should not stop us from exploring it and providing some constructive feedback.

EXPLORATION

The first time I visited the MedTutor site, it was kind of refreshing, because the homepage is light-and-easy, and not overloaded with all sorts of links, text and images. One image, a sizzling quote, latest reflections from Dr. Vela Menon, and of course a site menu with links to other site resources and activities.

MedTutor is built using Wikidot (free and commercial version), which is a decent wiki tool that allows you easily to create web pages and invite others to participate in the development.

If you are thinking of embarking on creating a website together with a group, there are several other tools you might also want to consider, including Google Sites (cool!), Wikispaces, and Wetpaint.

Alright, let's get back to MedTutor and explore some of the site menu links. In the "Materia Non Medica" (Does this mean 'Non-medical material?) section, you will find a small collection of links to sites and articles that explore all sorts of stuff (e.g. The secret of doing a great job. Need that!). My favorite section is the 'Learning Bytes' one, where you will find some short and mind boggling case studies and Q&A activities (check out the Cardiac Arrest activity to get a taste). In the 'Journal Club" section, clinically relevant questions are asked based on publications in journals.

Interestingly, Dr. Vela is using MedTutor to facilitate learning activities (Renal and Diabetes modules) with his students. He invites (not forces!) them to register and participate, and for conducting online quizzes, he is using QuizStar. QuizStar enables you to create online quizzes for your students, disseminate quizzes to students, automatically grade quizzes, and view the quiz results online (here are 12 more free tools to create online quizzes).

In the 'IMU 10 semester' section, Dr. Vela has creatively used MedTutor (a wiki) for students to submit their case summaries about patients seen in the ward, clinic or during your on-call hours. Also, please check out the Learning Issues area, where he reviews students' submission and provides constructive feedback. If you look carefully, you will notice that he does not use the 'YOU ARE RIGHT/WRONG' approach, but instead triggers relevant questions for the students to reflect deeper on their findings and actions. In short, his approach is inline with MedTutor's slogan: 'LEARNING TO THINK'.

Finally, he has created a MedTutor Facebook Page, which he uses to share, interact, and keep students (and fans) updated with the latest happenings in MedTutor and beyond (96 fans! Oops, 97! Just became one!).

MOVING FORWARD
Dr. Vela was not born with an IPhone or IPad in his hand, and is a self-professed digital immigrant. Also, he was not instructed by the top management to develop MedTutor. I suppose his passion for education, and exploring ways to facilitate more effective and convenient learning drove him to conceptualize and build MedTutor. It is a great start, and a remarkable effort taking into consideration his background. Also, it just shows that today's (mostly free) learning tools available online (start here!) can empower anyone to create online learning environments, as long as one is willing to invest some exploration time to make it happen. Yes, he did struggle a lot initially building MedTutor, but can learning and building online learning environments be exciting without some form of struggle?

Having said that, what could Dr. Vela do to enhance MedTutor further?

Firstly, for case summary submissions and online quizzes, IMU E-Learning Portal (Moodle) could perhaps handle these two learning activities more efficiently. For case summary submissions, Moodle Assignment module could do a pretty good job, although the e-mail notification function might not always work the way we want. One could always post a selection of case summaries (with your comments for learning purposes) in MedTutor later (instead of all), if the students permit. As for online quizzes, Moodle's Quiz module is quite solid, especially in terms of features (e.g. Item analysis). Also, you can create questions quite efficiently using Notepad (add pictures and mathematical jumbo after upload, if any). Moodle is not perfect, but if used wisely it could solve some of our needs to conduct online learning activities in an organized and efficient manner.

Secondly, I would strongly recommend adding a blog to MedTutor to keep students updated with his reflections and things going on in the medical world. While the wiki is excellent for creating web pages and collaborative activities, it might not be the best tool for sharing explorations and discoveries as we learn. Instead, we could perhaps use a blog to provide an space for sharing and exploring experiences, knowledge, skills, ideas and resources with the readers. For such things, blogs are ideal (self-organizing: latest first, tagging, categories, etc.).

If you ask me, I would argue that blogging is one of the best ways to facilitate personal learning and reflection. Also, if we think on a larger scale, blogging when used for educational or learning purposes, is an ideal e-portfolio tool. It provides you with an excellent environment to integrate and reflect what you have discovered, experienced, created and learned. Also, it enables anyone to provide feedback in the comments section (unless disabled) on your own thoughts and reflections (peer-review). And if categories and tagging is used appropriately, one will have little trouble navigating and finding relevant information as the blog evolves.

As for which blogging tool to use, I would personally recommend Blogger, because it is user-friendly and feature rich. WordPress fans are going to disagree, but now that Blogger allows you to create 'Pages', too, why would you want to use WordPress (especially the free version)? Anyway, it is a personal choice, and if you start off with Blogger and then decide to switch to WordPress later, you can always import whatever you have done in Blogger with just a few clicks (So, no worries there!).

Beside a blog, I would also recommend to add a Twitter stream to share your quick thoughts, questions, ideas, and resources as you learn. While you might only have time to blog a few times a month, you could use Twitter more often to connect, update, share, engage and facilitate learning conversations on a more regular basis without too much effort (short 140 character messages). Of course, one could just update using the Facebook page (Wall), but with Twitter you will have many more possibilities to facilitate interactive social learning environments with those micro-messages (Looking for a starting point? Click here).

These are just two examples (or tools) on how one could connect and engage more students to learn and interact with MedTutor on a regular basis. In addition, it would be great if there were more resource links on the site, especially to relevant medical videos found on the web, and (bla,bla,bla)...

So...

Today, educators are empowered with so many possibilities to build online content and activities (where to start?). Besides building content and learning environments, we should not be afraid to use Open Educational Resources to reuse/remix/mash-up/adapt learning content. If the content is already out there and meets most of the learning requirements and is free-to-use (please use me!), we should not hesitate to use it to enhance the learning environment (though, selling the content would be a problem). Instead, we can then focus more on building interactive learning environments, connecting with students, creating content that does not exist (instead of the imaginary paraphrasing of existing content to avoid plagiarism, which strictly speaking is plagiarism!), and having more time to do research. Then again, it takes time to discover gems in this growing galaxy of learning resources (e.g. medical resources).

It is a challenge we all have to face sooner or later. Dr. Vela has managed with MedTutor to blend a bit of both, and it will be interesting to see how it evolves.

If you are interested in contacting Dr. Vela regarding MedTutor, use this e-mail address: medtutorwikidot@gmail.com

Lets' support and promote MedTutor! Why not build our own website exploring our learning area of interest? Yes, why not! :)

Go Online! Go Mobile! Lost in Space!

2009-12-11T08:37:00.001+08:00

THINKING!
So, when you prepare your curriculum, learning environment, or course content, do you develop everything yourself (Me, Myself and I)? Or are you good at using whatever you can find? Or perhaps you combine the best of both worlds to mash-up amazing learning experiences for your students.

So, what is your secret recipe to constructing effective learning content and activities?

To succeed today and increasingly in the future (unless you know and can do everything!) being a chef-minded thinker will be crucial.

Actually, if you think about it, being a Chef-minded thinker (unless you have assistants) might not be the ideal analogy for developing learning content and activities in today's disruptive inter-galactic information flowing world. If the future's information flow and rapid change becomes as disruptive as I am imagining right now, we would most likely need an army of self-directed and motivated students (learners) to collaborate and co-create learning environments and experiences to stay intact with the learning domain we are facilitating and learning (Already dizzy, just thinking about it!).

I suppose, the history of KuKu land would not be so affected, but most learning domains will, so we better change our mindset or...

ICEL 2009
On December 1st and 2nd, I attended the 2nd International Conference of e-Learning hosted by UiTM (in cooperation with AKEPT and MEIPTA as joint organizers). The theme was:

Go Online! Go Mobile!

It was a great opportunity to discover some of the learning innovations going on in Malaysia. Also, they had a couple of great keynote speakers in Marc J. Rosenberg and Lucifer Chu, and finally a great opportunity to network and exchange some thoughts and ideas.

Besides that, I experimented with using Twitter to take learning notes, and share my discoveries and thoughts beyond the walls of the conference (check the tweets for 1-2 Dec.). By the time the conference was over, I had swooshed out 140+ tweets of ideas, frustrations, reflections, distractions, and resources (URLs).

I suppose I have a long way to go before I master the art of tweeting an event, but it certainly kept me awake throughout the conference. Also, since you only have 140 characters for each tweet, it forces you to be more concise and precise with the words you choose (Not like here!). Though, I have to admit that on certain tweets, it just spilled over to the next one. I am still learning.

Also, while I was tweeting away, others (from who-knows-where!) joined in, and added their reflections and suggestions. And then you have those tweets that spark a bit of incidental learning, which is often fun and enriching.

Finally, learning notes does not look neat in Twitter (at least mine don't!), but then again I hardly ever recap such things (Do you?). But the act of reflecting and taking notes certainly stimulates the brain to learn (and stay awake!).

So, what did I learn? Here are the highlights...

"Educators are terrible managers of technology!"
- Marc J. Rosenberg

MARC J. ROSENBERG
His keynote was entitled 'Beyond E-Learning', and it was great to see him in action, and learn lessons from his vast experience in education and e-learning. I suppose the moment of shock and joy came when one of his slides showed a screenshot of my 'E-Learning in Malaysia' blog (why not ZaidLearn?).

He was basically showing some of his Malaysian e-learning discoveries since his arrival, and that included one of my blogs (Yep, if you search 'e-learning Malaysia' it is No.1 on the list, including when you click 'I'm Feeling Lucky'). Anyway, it was a nice surprise, and free promotion, so thanks for that.

So, what did I learn from this e-learning gladiator. His e-learning definition was alright:

"The use of internet technologies to deliver a broad array of anytime, anywhere solutions that enhance knowledge and performance"

In a learning shell, Rosenberg emphasized to look beyond formal online education. He argued that we need to also infuse performance support, information repositories, communities of practice, access to experts/expertise (online), simulation/games, etc. to enhance and enrich our and students' learning experiences. He argued that we need to look beyond the 'course centric' view to the 'knowledge centric' view of learning domains, arguing also that we need to look beyond the LMS to manage it all (Amen to that!).

In the future, the focus will increasingly move from instruction to information (access), course scarcity to information abundance, learning center to workplace, learning management to knowledge management, classes to communities, teaching to coaching and collaboration, authoring to blogging, documents to wikis, presentations to podcasts, push to pull, course catalogs to information repositories, and so on.

Yes, he also said that educators are terrible managers of technology! And I certainly can testify to that (Though, there are exceptions)! However, Rosenberg also said that the classroom will never go away, but that we need utilize our learning time with students more effectively, changing the classroom into a center for inquiry, discovery, activities, team collaboration, engagement, etc.

In addition, he talked about the new learning paradigm, which he has coined 'Learning 2.0' (learning using a fusion of formal and informal learning tools and approaches to facilitate effective and update-to-date learning).

Some of today's challenges include using wrong content, ignoring pedagogy and instructional design, and too much focus, or too little focus on technology. Also, to make e-learning work, you need to have the appropriate incentives (value, purpose, relevance, etc), and efficient methods, or the grumpy old professors are going give you trouble (been there!).

Also, you need good user support and leadership, and finally you need to have a strategic plan. Well, that is where he comes in, and can perhaps save Malaysian higher education from losing out on the learning possibilities that the learning world really offers us today and increasingly in the future (if we only open our eyes).

He is great talker, but taking a deep look into his online presence, he is very much a learning 1.0 type of user (here is my bio, presentations, a few videos, and contact details). Where is his active blog, Twitter space, social bookmarks, etc? Not much activity there (to my knowledge), but I suppose he is too busy to really engage with learning 2.0 tools.

In short, Malaysia could do with some of his ideas, but we really need practitioners who practice what they preach, and can facilitate and inspire beyond the babble.

The slides Marc Rosenberg shared were not made available online (to my knowledge), but click here for an older presentation found, which includes most of what was shared during this keynote.

"Let Your Students Be Teachers!" - Lucifer Chu

LUCIFER CHU
Oh boy, this is a six foot Geek Gamer (referred to as 'Crazy guy'), you just have to see present. This dude comes to present at an International conference wearing a black t-shirt (with 'Proud to be a geek' slogan at the back), jeans, and chilled sneakers. Why should he care anyway! Mr. Chu has become a millionaire by creating Chinese translations of fantasy novels. Using much of the $1 million in royalties from his versions of “The Lord of the Rings,” Mr. Chu says he devotes himself to distributing free translations of material from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Web site (Opensource Opencourseware Prototype System).

So, what did I learn from his keynote?

He uses videos (mostly available from YouTube) to make a point, he wonders mentally and physically around the hall, while engaging and chatting with the audience (very informal!), and he speaks his mind using visuals (slides) with strikingly few words and large fonts. Pictures speaks louder than words, videos speak larger than pictures, and he speaks loudest of them all!

I suppose the moment of truth came when he asked in a joking manner to higher officials at UiTM, why they have blocked YouTube at the campus. The crowd was craving for an answer, but none came (at least loud enough to hear). Anyway, he being himself, kind of joked his way out, and moved on to the next issue.

Mr. Chu started of his presentation reflecting briefly the wisdom of 'Art of War', and the importance for educators to know their enemy: Students! He basically wanted to share his understanding and insights of how the X and Y generations think, live, and what motivates them to learn.

In the process, he showed several mind-blowing videos (e.g. Did You Know 4.0) to inspire us think beyond our comfort zones, and embrace the new world learning order (Geeks rule the world!). Let's not complain about our students! If you can connect and find the right flavor, surely you can inspire anyone, including inmates (Thriller - 1500+ inmates dance 'Thriller' at a Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Philippines).

He also talked a lot about how mobile phones will increasingly have a huge impact on the way we learn, and that we should embrace it to facilitate learning. For example, he looked at Google Latitude (location based service) and QR Code (generator), and asked the audience how we could use this to facilitate learning. He shared with us possibilities, but argued that the educators (not him with a big smile) should figure out how they could use such tools to construct more dynamic learning environments.

Mr. Chu, also emphasized that today's youth go online to socialize, compared to the old generation who actually go out to socialize. And finally, he talked about games and game addiction (e.g. Scribblenauts and Brain Age), and argued that we should learn from them instead, and apply some of the success factors to facilitate learning. Have you ever heard about learning addiction or education addiction? Now, that would be a serious problem :)

Besides that, he also said that (watching) 'videos' is the only method to make today's students focus on one window (So, use it a lot in class!). Finally and importantly, he argued that teachers should move away from the 'Farmer' mentality to the 'Chef' mentality (discussed above).

Mr. Chu sums up his talk with 'Whatever, Whenever, Wherever!', when it comes to learning. Learning follows you, not you follow it.

You might also want to check out Mr. Chu's OCW Blog.

LOST IN SPACE!
The last keynote speaker discussed some of the challenges in online and m-Learning Practice in Malaysia. It explored mostly OUM's e-learning initiatives to make learning more accessible and engaging, including iRadio and the Math Learning e-Resource Center, which is their latest innovation. Interestingly, both projects are open to anyone to explore. In addition, several lecturers at OUM are exploring mobile learning (SMS) and web 2.0 tools like Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, and Twitter to spice up their learning environments, and should be applauded for that. Interestingly, one of their mobile learning projects utilizes SMS to share content nuggets, start forum questions, and provide tips, motivation quotes, and exam/assignment submission schedules.

Besides attending the keynote talks, I did attend several paper presentations during the parallel sessions, and there were some sparks here and there, such as one lecturer using Elgg to facilitate a post-graduate course. But overall, it was a shocking and boring learning experience.

It was boring, because most presenters I listened to spent too much of their 15 minutes given to talk about e-learning theories and concepts, rather than talk about their contributions, ideas and projects (practice). If you only have 15 minutes to present, why not start with the end (solution and findings), and then speed through the middle and beginning (theory and concepts). Focus on your contribution!

It was shocking, because several of the presenters seemed totally out-of-sync with the disruptive learning innovations available today and how today's youth learn (Hopefully Mr. Chu introduction has changed that a little bit). During these two conference days, I heard a lot of who-ha about Learning objects, learning management systems, storyboard templates, instructional design, and of course SCORM.

One presenter was talking about developing quality learning content and related that to SCORM, as if SCORM guarantees quality (Absolutely crap!). First, most e-learning authoring tools publish SCORM-compliant content on-the-fly anyway, so who cares. Secondly, what has content quality to do with SCORM? Alright, you want it to be reusable, accessible, interoperable, and durable, and SCORM caters to that and other technical specifications (though not very well), but that is not 'content quality', if you ask me. In other words, you can produce SCORM-compliant content, but your content could still be crap.

The essence of quality content, lies in its substance (the way it is articulated and visualized, and the learning activities encapsulating it), not in the technical specifications (SCORM). Though, it is good to have substance quality and SCORM-compliance, but SCORM-compliance is not actually necessary for content to be of quality. YouTube Edu, TED Talks and Academic Earth should ring a bell!

So, is SCORM relevant anymore in Higher education? Should we care about it? Unless you need to track every click and test item in a learning object, then don't make SCORM a requirement (or a must have feature!). Why? Because, most of the amazing learning resources for higher education are not SCORM-compliant.

Beside the SCORM obsession (some vendors are making a lot of money on that obvious crap!), there was one presenter who was so excited to have a WYSIWYG online content editor in his University's LMS, and insisted that all content development should go through that WYSIWYG window. Perhaps he should explore Prezi and thousands of other possible learning tools, before coming to such a conclusion (shocking!). In short, use a variety of rapid e-learning and web 2.0 tools to develop your content and learning environments.

Another presenter seemed frustrated with lecturers' participation in story boarding using an authoring template, which required them to enter or copy paste their content into boxes. Why not instead use a tool which lecturers are familiar with, such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Word?

Although, there were some really interesting initiatives (wikis, mobile learning, gaming, blogging, etc.), I felt that several of the presenters seemed totally out-of-sync (perhaps it was acting) with the amazing learning possibilities we have today, and mostly focused on developing CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT.

MOVING FORWARD

So, how can we (Malaysia) move forward in terms of e-learning, or using digital learning tools to transform the way we learn?

First, we have to encourage more academics to read EduBlogs (and follow Twitter streams). Here are 100 featured learning professionals to get you started. It is alright to read e-learning books (free e-books), and published journal articles, but if you want to keep track of the latest disruptive learning innovations and learning ideas, excellent EduBlogs will serve you much better.

Secondly, we need to establish informal and formal learning sharing clusters consisting of learning professionals and academics. It could take place online (e.g. webinars and online communities), or through face-to-face gatherings.

Finally, we have to look beyond just developing quality content for students, because in the future everyone will have free access to 'World Class' content (already!), whether you are a student or not. Meaning that you need to focus more time on nurturing the ability to construct relevant and engaging learning activities and environments for your students.

The future living and working environments will require you to master the art of thinking, doing, mashing-up, innovating, connecting, networking, communicating, collaborating and learning. People will not be interested in what courses you took, but what you know, what you can do, and your ideas to innovate and make things happen.

In a sentence, we need to lifelong learn, embrace change, be adaptable/flexible, think innovativelly, and continuously explore and discover. However, to do that, Universities need to allocate educators more time to explore and discover each learning domain they facilitate (Business aside!). If not, we will end up having educators that are out-of-sync with their learning domains (experienced that!). As a result, it will be more effective to learn outside the University system.

It is already happening! And unless we innovate, adapt and change fast, our Universities will face extinction much faster than we realize. Universities will still be around, but which sane learner would want to go there, unless they simply want the paper qualification(s). Again, let's get together and transform! It can be done, but time is running out (drama!) :)

John Larkin's Learning World!

2009-11-19T13:51:00.001+08:00

John Larkin's Learning World!

"I will be conducting a series of “Web 2.0″ workshops for academics from 23 universities from across the region on behalf of the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (MoHE). I will be in KL for 8 days. I am working with Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, on this project. " - John Larkin

I will be attending a web 2.0 workshop conducted by John Larkin (and Dr. Daniel Tan) next week, so obviously I had to check out his stuff, and I like the fact that he has already shared his workshop notes (guides and tips) on his informative website. Here are some of the workshops he conducts:

Web 2.0 (You can find the notes there, just scroll down!)
Digital Videography
Comic Life
Podcasting
Blended Learning
Web Presence
Trivantis Lectora
Managing your computer

Yep, he is a 'Learning Gladiator' and I can't wait to battle it out! It will be fun learning from another learning gladiator. Actually, I would have preferred going for the Comic Life workshop instead (if ever conducted here), because that would be more useful, as I am pretty familiar with the web 2.0 workshop curriculum. But, since I am invited, I am not going step down against another learning gladiator. It will be a true battle of learning, which only causes harm to the ignorant and ego-boasting male :)

P.S. Lance Larkin, you will probably have read this post by the time we meet, so please be prepared for a lot of tough questions. Can't wait to battle it out :)

3 Interesting Malaysian Learning Initiatives in a Swoosh!

2009-11-10T17:04:00.001+08:00

CerdikNet

CerdikNet is the result of an effort made by teachers in Kuala Lumpur to assist primary and secondary students to explore their subjects through interactive and engaging online learning activities (e.g. English activities). Also, you can try out the online learning activities without needing to login. Thumbs up for that!

EDUWEBTV

Alright, if you can't speak or understand Malay, this site might be... but wait! Here, you will find more than 1400 short videos that give you a glimpse into the wonders of Malaysia and education, and of course free tuition to many subjects. Although, you might not understand the Malay language well, I am certain you will learn a lot by simply watching some of the videos here. If you are a Malaysian reading this (post), then just forget or ignore what I just wrote. In short, a great site to get some insight (at least visual!) into the Malaysian education system. Yes, we have a lot of bright and happy kids here, like anywhere else in the world.

iBoxX IPTV

Yes, now you can even get tutors at your command in your home TV. Alright, this one is not free. And I usually do not promote anything that cost anything in any of my blogs. So, the reason I am bringing it up here, is that Malaysia (and Singapore of course!) are kind of fanatic about after-school tuition, and believe it or not, it is a RM 5 Billion Ringgit (approx. 1.5 Billion US Dollars!) market here (in Malaysia).

So, no wonder some innovative dudes are trying to capitalize it using digital media, too. However, it would be wonderful if every single primary and secondary student in Malaysia got equal, fair and open access to quality online tuition for free, breaking down the barriers that favors too much the rich, or people that can afford it.

I HAVE A DREAM

Better yet, I have a dream! Let's improve our schools, our curriculum, our assessment approaches, and totally do away with any form of tuition beyond the taxing school hours. Yes, let's move away from memorizing everything from ants to pants, and empower our students with more time to think, discuss, and reflect together about whatever they are learning. Finally, let them play (games) more, so that they can nurture their competitive and creative abilities, without the exam-oriented roller-coaster stress ride.

Do you know what (no!), I never paid for any tuition, or went for any extra tuition (as much as I can remember) throughout my whole life, and to be honest I didn't turn out that bad after all (until now!). I had my primary and secondary school in Norway, so that probably explains a bit.

Yep, I got lousy memory, too! But, I do think and reflect a lot :)

iRadio - OUM's Official Internet Radio Station

2009-11-02T16:00:00.000+08:00

iRadio - OUM

Open University Malaysia's (OUM) official internet radio station, iRadio OUM broadcasts segments based on OUM's courses, blending entertainment and education at your fingertips! Interestingly, it is Malaysia's first Internet radio station to base its programmes on modules offered by a university.

Although, I have known about OUM's iRadio initiative for some time, it was first today I really explored it. Earlier today, we (IMU group) had actually visited OUM for some other matters, and during the process we got to learn more about iRadio behind the scenes. I was quite impressed with the energy and passion sparked into this initiative.

You can actually download some of their course module books in MP3 format (audio books!) for free (they are using text-to-speech tools to convert them). If you miss the daily live learning sessions, you can listen or download later from their iCast archive, conveniently organized according to faculty, schools and special segments.

Also, the iRadio team is using web 2.0 tools such as iTunes, Twitter and Facebook to simplify the access, spread the news, and communicate more effectively with their audience. Since launch (2007), they have had online visitors from more than a 100 countries.

Finally, I did manage to listen to some of their iCasts, and it was quite interesting. However, I would strongly recommend that they cut out the background music while people talk, especially when special guests are being interviewed. I was getting quite dizzy and distracted listening to cool music, while trying to grasp what the old Professor was trying to say.

I suppose I am getting too old to multitask my ears while learning. But, overall iOUM's iRadio is a wonderful knowledge and learning sharing initiative that we should encourage more Universities in Malaysia to explore :)

5th International Conference on e-Learning at USM (Malaysia)

2009-10-29T10:05:00.003+08:00

5th International Conference on e-Learning
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
12-13 July 2010

The International Conference on e-Learning (ICEL-2010) invites researchers, practitioners and academics to present their research findings, work in progress, case studies and conceptual advances in areas of work where education and technology intersect. The conference brings together varied groups of people with different perspectives, experiences and knowledge in one location. It aims to help practitioners find ways of putting research into practice and researchers to gain an understanding of real-world problems, needs and aspirations.

If you decide to take up the challenge, you will find Penang a fascinating place that embraces modernity while retaining its traditions and old world charm. Yes, besides stimulating our brain, we must not forget that Penang is regarded as the food capital of Malaysia, which means that we can also stimulate our eating desires and experience a complete hands-on learning experience.

Finally, you simply cannot find a more dynamic, engaging and entertaining double act than Rozhan M. Idrus (Conference Chair) and Issham Ismail (Programme Chair). These two giants will surely ensure that your learning experience is both enriching and entertaining.

I am not sure if I can present, but I will certainly try to make it there. The problem is that I have to sit down again and practice writing academic papers full of opinions disguised in objective mode using dry and boring academic language standards (You are wrong!).

Yes, that is a tough one (If I was Einstein, I suppose I could get away with it)! But, I am sure you can :)

Malaysian Sharein Tickles Real Potential!

2009-08-02T09:12:00.002+08:00

Sharein

“The goal is convenience, to make it easy for the user...It’s not a power tool, but for the average user who wants to share.”

- Colin Wong (CEO, Sharein)

SHAREIN?

Sharein is an easy-to-learn/use tool that allows you to bookmark, rate, share, and discuss your internet discoveries with your friends in an efficient manner. You can share your favorite content via email with your friends or you may post it to Twitter or Facebook being the latest features launched. They will also shorten your link (URL) using a URL Shortening Service at tr.my. Also, you can always bookmark a link for future reference and sharing to your friends.

Interestingly, Sharein enables you to get more insight into how people are consuming your discoveries. It tracks total views, reach, re-tweets, comments etc. to help you better understand how viral your discovery is. The Bookmarklet tool also enables you to personalize your discussions into different private groups, such as family, work friends, school friends or to your social network. You can have the satisfaction of knowing how your friends enjoyed your share through their votes and discussions.

All-In-One Idea (still not there, though!)
It combines the ability to bookmark, rate, share, discuss and track your internet discoveries all-in-one.
Tracking
It enables you to get more insight into how people are consuming your discoveries in textual and visual format. Really cool! Thumbs up to this feature. Other social bookmarking tools needs learn a few tricks from here!
Personalized Sharing
Enables you easily to share to who you want in an efficient manner (including groups and privacy), whether it is your work buddies or friends in where-not-know.
Speed-to-Share
Within 2-3 of clicks you have shared what you want, compared to 6-8 clicks using traditional e-mail. If you share a lot (please do!), then it makes a 'Ca-Wa-Banga' difference.

DON'T LIKE

Limited Sharing Options
Why only Twitter and Facebook! Please add more soon! At least to other widely used social bookmarking, social networking and blogging sites. Don't need to use tabs (as it will clutter and confuse the average user), but perhaps checkboxes or a drop-down menu would do the trick.
Bookmarking Tool
It is miles behind Delicious and Diigo, which is kind of expected. However, to avoid putting too much effort to compete (think win-win!), why not make it easier to directly post your discoveries to widely used social bookmarking sites, if the user wants (I want!). It only requires a few lines of code to make it happen, so I predict this will be available by the time you read this (Not you!).
One-Discovery Sharing
Although, I am not an average user and a hyper discovery sharer, I believe this tool should also provide us the option to share multiple discoveries in one-shot (Select checkbox or simply 'All') to multiple tools. Keep it real, keep it simple! One shot, bang!

FINAL VERDICT

Will I use it?
Nope (perhaps in the future)! If people are interested in what I share, they can always RSS whatever I share. Anyway, I can easily share to Twitter and Facebook using Delicious in one shot. The only thing that is missing, is Sharein's cool tracking feature. But then again with at least Twitter, we have enough tools to tell us A-Z about whether our discoveries, or tweets are making any impact.

Will I recommend Sharein to others?
Although, I will probably not use it, I would actually strongly recommend it to average users, or users that like to share links (URLs) to particular aliens or groups. Why waste time using traditional e-mail (like Gmail!), when Sharein makes it easier and faster. Though, they really need to get that multiple link sharing feature up and running soon.

The fact that I am writing about it on a Sunday morning (started 6.45 am!), should indicate that there is something special about Sharein. Also, this blog is about juicy stuff, and not constructed to slaughter every crappy tool out there. There are enough blogs doing that already.

In short, I am thrilled to see a Malaysian web 2.0 tool making waves, and I do hope that they really kick-off in the coming months. Also, we need to keep in mind, that the CEO (Colin Wong) used to work for Google, meaning he should know something about what makes people Google, and embed that Googleness into Sharein (in a original and innovative way!).

Sharein needs a bit tweaking and feature enhancements, but with Web 2.0 technologies that can be done within a blink-of-an-eye, and it wouldn't surprise me that by the time you read this, some of my dislikes have been crushed.

Finally...

Malaysia Boleh! Seriously, a Two Thumbs Up :)

Ruzaimi's Free Drawing Lessons Inspires Me to Sketch!

2009-05-09T09:47:00.001+08:00

WHO?

Ruzaimi Mat Rani is currently lecturing at the Faculty of Architecture and Environmental Design, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). He has been interested in art and design ever since he was in primary school, and has over the years evolved into a master in pen and pencil sketching (especially landscapes) and has got his share of rewards and recognitions for it. Click here and here to know more about that.

WHAT?

Now, he has gone one step further and has created a blog to share his sketching knowledge and skills to people around the world. He has entitled the blog, "FREE DRAWING LESSON(S)". Here you will find pictures of many of his sketches (samples mashed-up above), and videos illustrating the drawing process, or how he goes about sketching these drawings. These short (1-2 minute) videos are juicy learning nuggets to get a quick idea on how you can sketch stuff such as gardens, buildings, rooms, furniture, and so on. But...

HOW?

How does he create such videos?
He is uses the stop motion technique where he combines the scan processed pictures into a motion picture. He basically scans every step of the sketching process and then saves the scanned pictures into JPEG format (100+ pictures). Then, he uses Windows Movie Maker to combine the pictures together into a stop motion picture.

REFLECTION

Oh man, that is a lot of tedious work for a short learning nugget (you need real patience and passion to do such things). Let me just say this,

"I respect Ruzaimi for his excellent art work, but I admire him for sharing it to the world for free."

I hope more educators in Malaysia and Asia come out of the copyright closet and join the Copyleft and Creative Commons revolution, and engross the OER (Open Educational Resources) movement. Let's face it, most educators are not going to make much money doing the copyrighted stuff. And we will not become irrelevant if we do share our knowledge or content on the Internet (Hoarding knowledge is the old school! Sharing knowledge is power and the way to go!).

Actually, it makes more sense to share our ideas and knowledge to the world using the Internet and all the excellent free learning tools available to us today. It requires our additional time, but the potential fruits are amazing if we really think about it.

For example, by sharing our ideas and knowledge online, we could trigger unexpected connections and feedback from professionals (and learners), which will trigger us to reflect back what we have shared, and refine and improve further. That point alone is exciting enough for me!

If you are really good, you might even be invited to speak, or conduct workshops in places you perhaps have never heard of. Yes, you might even make more money than going down the copyright road.

There are many more benefits for sharing our knowledge and contents online, but if you ask me:

Educators should share their knowledge and content to the world for free (unless their livelihood depends on it), because it is the right thing to do.

With the Internet and easy-to-learn/use authoring tools we can potentially educate people all over the world (through the internet, mirror sites, or downloaded content), and help those that are not so fortunate out there.

Yes, you don't need to spend millions on a commercial LMS, or additional millions on developing courseware that includes flying ducks and dogs with bells and whistles. Why not simply start with a blog, just like Ruzaimi did.

Finally, let's spread stories like Ruzaimi's one to the world using our twitters, blogs, wikis, etc. It would be nice to see educators attract hits and viewing numbers like the Britney Spears and Jungle Jims'.

Besides creating content, let's promote the excellent work of our fellow educators :)

My E-Learning Talk at Wawasan Open University (WOU)

2009-05-05T23:40:00.001+08:00

WHY WOU?

I was invited to spend two days at Wawasan Open University (WOU) to meet some of the key people there and share ideas about e-learning and so on. It was a thrill to interact with everyone from the Vice Chancellor to the driver. After spending two days exploring WOU, its' slogan 'The people's University' is increasingly making sense ...about WOU

Besides having fun interacting and sharing ideas with the people of WOU, I am still amazed with WOU's unique campus buildings, which truly demonstrates the fusion of old and modern construction. The picture above should give you a good indication of what I mean.

In short, I enjoyed the learning adventure, and learned some valuable lessons on the way (hopefully vice versa) :)

E-LEARNING TALK

In addition, I gave a 90 minute full-steam e-learning talk exploring some of the e-learning 2.0 (or web 2.0 technologies) tools, and discussed how they could be used to infuse a more social, collaborative and dynamic online learning environment. Yes, we even explored connectivism, and how we can use a network of diverse technologies to facilitate online learning.

Why, bla, bla, bla, ... Here are the slides (on SlideShare):

E-Learning Talk

View more presentations from zaid.

REFLECTION
This time around, I slimmed down the participants' slide-intake from 100+ to 73, and was able to cover what I wanted to share (I am still learning!). We managed to even watch 4 short videos during the 90 minute e-learning roller coaster (which ended up with the '5-Minute University' video!). I am sure many were overwhelmed, but at least they got some idea what e-learning 2.0 is all about (before we have to deal with e-Learning 3.0! Don't we love such buzz words!).

Besides talking about e-learning 2.0, I promoted again my eBook and blog. If you look at the stats above, you will notice that Malaysia is not the top country visitor to my blog (sadly enough!), and can only muster a fifth place. However, we should be proud that we are higher positioned than Singapore at least (this time around!).

On a positive note, people from 185 countries, or 5,786 cities around the world have discovered ZaidLearn one way or the other (over the last 12 months). This just shows how interconnected the world is today. Amazing!

Yes, believe it or not, I have even connected with a remarkable guy from Gaza Strip (Palestine), who is exploring 'learning 2.0' with 12-15 year old kids. He is even planning to write a book about e-learning 2.0 in Arabic. Couldn't CNN or BCC cover such positive stories, besides the depressing ones. Again, amazing!

Oops, I need to pack, I am going on holiday to ... :)

Edunovice Offers Affordable Tutorial Services

2009-01-02T10:37:00.007+08:00

ONLINE LEARNING CENTER
Edunovice is a new online learning center for anyone who is fond to learn Math. Currently they are only distributing online Math exercises and reading materials for students who are in Form 1 to Form 3. Edunovice also plays its part to help local publishers, tutors and advertisers to benefits from our Math community.

VISION

Edunovice hopes to provide the best reading materials/notes to students and adults around the world.
Edunovice strive to provide the cheapest and Free Online resources to our community within years to come.
Building up a math community worldwide to have passion for math.

MISSION

Make it Cheap / Free For Everyone.
Build a community where everyone can contribute
Provides Online material for everyone from all ages.

OPPORTUNITIES

Edunovice also provides opportunity for home tutors, local/international books publisher to take advantage to promote products, conduct seminars and advertising in our websites. They are committed to bring the best to everyone.

INTERESTING!
If you register, they provide you for starters with some free maths and physics notes. Their learning concept is rather straight forward: Learn through examples and exercises.

Isn't that what we want! If you are interested in online tutoring services, why not check it out. Just click here :)

Coaching Critical Thinking to Think Creatively! (Zaid Alsagoff)

2008-03-13T15:28:00.002+08:00

Link to Printer Friendly Version

“We want the development of modal insan, students who can think critically and creatively, who are able to solve problems and have the ability to adapt themselves to an ever-changing global environment.” - Blueprint for Education Development, Malaysia (2006 – 2010)

ONCE UPON A TIME ….
A long time ago (early 2007) in a galaxy far away (Malaysia), there was a little boy (34 years old) who happened to be me. This little boy was suddenly entrusted to transform a dying course at the University entitled ‘Critical Thinking’. Here I was leading a Learning and Teaching Unit (in the Quality Assurance department) facilitating change and improvements to our e-learning approach, and managing a University wide ‘Thinking Skills Infusion Programme’ (TSIP). Although, I had trained many lecturers, senior lecturers and professors in using technology to facilitate learning, I had ironically never had any real experience in managing an actual course at the University.

Now, one of the leaders from our academic world figured rightly out that perhaps I needed some real experience to understand what it is like to be a lecturer, before having the right to lecture to lecturers on how to teach and facilitate effective learning (which makes perfect sense!). Also, since I had been managing the TSIP programme for over six (6) months, the “Critical Thinking’ course would be the perfect challenge and opportunity to test all my untested theories and suggestions on effective learning.

In a nutshell, I was asked to lead and transform the ‘Critical Thinking’ course, which is a requirement for all undergraduate students.

THE UNITAR WAY!
Although, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) is currently becoming a more conventional University, it used to adopt a blended learning model, which usually included courseware, online forums, online tutorials (OLT), and Face-to-Face (F2F) tutorials. Every course is led by a course leader supported by tutors who facilitate their own sections. The course leader is responsible for guiding the tutors, and preparing the course plan, course materials, assignments, quizzes and exams. In addition, the course leader is responsible for correcting the final exams (40% - 50% of the course assessment evaluation), and giving the students’ final grade for all sections. The tutor’s role is to communicate with the course leader, facilitate the course for their section(s), and grade the coursework (50% - 60%).

COURSE REENGINEERING NEEDED?
Based on my initial unscientific findings, students found the course difficult to understand and the overall students’ satisfaction rates were lower than in other courses for the undergraduate level. In addition, both students and tutors complained that the lecture notes were not sufficient.

Although, the past course leaders seemed to have a done a good job facilitating their own sections, they failed based on my understanding to communicate and facilitate consistent quality to all the sections. Overall, students and tutors seemed frustrated with ‘Critical Thinking’, and some even questioned the relevance of this course. They argued that this course focused too much on theory and memorization, and failed to actually help students develop fundamental thinking, reasoning and language abilities that are needed for academic success.

Although, UNITAR had developed a reasonably good page tuning critical thinking courseware, the existing curriculum of the critical thinking course seemed to be mostly (80-90%) based on John Chaffe’s famous book “Thinking Critically” (6th Edition, 2000). Even the course objectives and topic outline seemed to be paraphrased out of the book. As UNITAR’s self-developed courseware was structured very differently from the course outline, it was hardly reflected or used by either the educators, or the students.

So, I began to read John Chaffe’s famous book “Thinking Critically” to get better feel of what the students were learning. Strangely, I kept on falling asleep while reading this book, and although the content is relevant and useful, the writing style and design of that book (I suppose the later versions are more engaging!) did not appeal or inspire my thinking mind. So, if I am falling asleep reading this book, what about the students?

In addition to this book, the course also recommended students to read another book entitled ‘Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction’ (G. Bassham & Co., 2007). So, I explored the book, and found it more activity-oriented, engaging, and inspiring. However, I still felt that something was missing to spark the ‘Critical Thinking’ course to life.

So, I explored our ‘Critical Thinking’ courseware again, and was actually positively surprised with the quality of the content. However, since it was structured very differently from the course outline and it did not have a search function, naturally students found it quite frustrating to use.

Based on these surface level reflections, I felt (based on my limited knowledge) that I needed to revamp the whole course to really make any difference. However, I also decided to take advantage and extract the learning juices from the three original main course resources just mentioned. Based on my understanding, the problem with this course was not so much the content, but the process on how it was facilitated. Based on my findings, and too little focus was given to engaging the student’s learning mind to question, analyze, synthesize, reason, problem solve, and make better decisions, which I believe is the essence of this course. Finally, and importantly for most of our students, English is their second language, and the student population consists of a colourful inter-religious/cultural/racial blend (Indian, Chinese, Malay, etc.), which especially the two recommended critical thinking books are not really tailored to.

Although, I was no master in ‘Critical Thinking’ (still the case!), I believed that I had enough reasons to take the risk to reengineer the course to make it more relevant and effective.

COURSE PLANNING & PREPARATION
Although, I was planning to reengineer the course, I felt that the original course objectives would remain the same, with just a minor twist. The role of the lecturer coaching ‘Critical Thinking’ is to:

Teach the fundamental thinking, reasoning and language abilities that a student needs for academic success.
Engage students in the active thinking process.
Integrate the development of thinking abilities with the four skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.

As students seemed to fear the word “Critical’ more than thinking (tough one, too!), I suggested to change the name of the course to just ‘Thinking Skills’, but that was firmly rejected. Then I had this crazy idea to simply develop the course outline (modules and topics) and learning objectives, and let the students discover, explore, organize, adapt and construct the course content based on existing materials available on the web (User-generated content). This idea was totally rejected. Finally, I suggested to include a ‘Creative Thinking’ topic, which I felt was missing from the course, but that was also rejected. Creative thinking is different! So, instead I decided to infuse creative thinking into every single module of the ‘Critical Thinking’ course.

In the end, just before the semester started we managed to agree upon the course outline, which was (Click on the links to view the modules in Slideshare):

Introduction to Critical Thinking
Thinking Tools
Arguments = Part I + Part II + Part III
Fallacies
Language
Decision Making
Problem Solving

Due to limited time, I constructed the content for each module during the 15-week semester, usually a week or two ahead of schedule. As our University was increasingly becoming more conventional, we were required to conduct a 2-hour F2F tutorial every week with our students. Although, we could use OLT, I decided not to, due to the nature of the course (real-time activity-based), number of students (300+), students status (mostly full-time), lack of broadband Internet access (for some), and that the group of tutors facilitating this course were reasonably experienced (more than me, actually!) and were fully capable of managing their own section(s) without my interference. As a course leader, I was also assigned to manage three (3) sections (90+ students).

However, to improve the possibility of consistent quality, I did prepare lesson plans (and student activity sheets) for the tutors, which gave them some idea on how I would conduct my tutorials. The lesson plans also included answers (if any), tips, and resource links to some of the puzzles, questions, and videos (YouTube) discussed in the presentation slides. In short, I provided them with some ideas on how I would facilitate the tutorials, but empowered them the freedom to think and do it their own way, as long as they covered the syllabus.

COURSE CONTENT
The main focus of the revamped course would be on students’ practicing, reflecting and improving their thinking skills, and less emphasize would be given to exploring critical thinking theories, concepts and the endless definitions associated with it. What is critical thinking anyway?

With this in mind, the course content was constructed focused on engaging the students to reflect and improve their ability to question, analyze, synthesize, reason, problem solve, and make constructive decisions.

To deal with the students fear and motivation to think critically, I decided to put Aristotle, Plato and Socrates on the bench, and introduce my new dream thinking support team led by Master Yoda, Mr. Bean and Inspector Gadget. They play a critical role in relaxing the learners’ mind to laugh, think, discuss and reflect their own thinking. If Mr. Bean can think critically, why can’t I?

Finally, to engage students to think, the content or presentation slides included a lot of thought provoking questions, puzzles, cartoons, pictures, quotes, and group activities to continuously spark the desire to explore the content further.

In short, I extracted and mashed up past learning references, added my flavour, and brought in assistance from another galaxy (e.g. Master Yoda) and Earth (e.g. Mr. Bean) to reengineer the content.

F2F TUTORIALS
I made it a point from day one that students will have to think-out-loud in this class, and no one will be able to escape this. Of course to loosen up the overall fear, I would first gently force the most nervous or scared looking student in the class to answer an open-ended question with their own opinion. By giving this person encouragement and support to whatever the answer may be, the other students in the class might feel safer to participate. It actually works, even in Malaysia were students are often scared to talk and share their ideas in class.

Every F2F tutorial is broken down into four (4) sessions:

Warm Up (5 – 15 minutes) – To awaken the students’ minds and bring the class to life, I would begin each class with a few brain stimulating activities, which could be a/an puzzle, question, picture, issue, or a quote.
Lecture & Discussion (30– 40 minutes) – This session is very much like an interactive lecture, whereby I would explain, reflect and discuss together with the students the ‘Thinking Menu’ of the day.
Group Activities (45 - 55 minutes) – In this session students are broken up into small groups (4- 6 participants) to collaborate on some relevant thinking activities. Each group have to choose their leader, and are given specific time frames to complete particular tasks (or using specific thinking tools), and then they need to summarize their answers or findings in writing, and finally one (or more) of the group representatives have to present and discuss the group’s output with the class.
Sum Up (5-10 minutes) – Summarize the module and synthesize/evaluate/reflect the group activity findings.

Students are also required to share and rotate task duties, which will ensure that all students at least once or twice will have the pleasure to present the output to the class during the semester. By having such group activities in each class, students also get to practice their teamwork, time management, communication, listening, writing, and presentation skills while collectively thinking about important issues.

To make the group activities relevant to their learning, I tried to select interesting and meaningful discussion topics. For example, during the first F2F class group activity, students were asked to reflect what it means to be an excellent student and lecturer. They were asked to discuss, identify and rank the “Top 10” characteristics/traits/behaviours of an excellent lecturer and student. By the end of the class we together had actually negotiated what to expect from one another throughout the semester. I told them that I will try my level best to be an excellent lecturer according to their terms (caring, punctual, open minded, effective teaching, etc.), and that I hoped that they could be an excellent student accordingly (hard working, self-disciplined, active participation, honest, etc.).

By the end of the semester we had managed to discuss and reflect collectively a lot of interesting and relevant topics including global warming, great thinkers and inventions, whether entrepreneurship is genetic or can be learned, the essence of beauty, whether all-star wrestling is real or not, and much more. During the learning process students had also managed to explore several useful thinking tools including mind mapping, six thinking hats, CoRT, and SWOT Analysis.

ONLINE FORUMS
Students were required to participate in two (2) online forums scheduled during the semester. Each forum carried 2.5 percent (total = 5%) of the course assessment evaluation. Assessment scheme for each forum was:

1.0 % - For your reflective response to the forum issue.
1.0 % - for reflecting, adding value or challenging at least one of your classmates’ responses.
0.5 % - for submitting your 1st response within the first week of the forum.

The assessment scheme was set to encourage early participation and threaded discussions (not just a list of short essay answers!).

In the first online forum, students were asked to argue who they thought was the greatest thinker of the 20th century, and in the second forum students were asked to discuss an invention (and the thinking process behind it) that had an influential impact on mankind.

Both forums turned out to be informative and dynamic. Especially, the first forum, where approximately 300 students joined one mega discussion, was a huge challenge beyond the capability of our in-house developed learning management system (LMS), and my browser. After having several mega headaches trying to manage and reflect hundreds of posts, I made sure in the second forum to chunk the discussion into groups based on the course sections, which were facilitated and marked by each individual tutor.

The good thing we can take from the online forums is that most students know about Wikipedia. The not so good thing was that many of the students simply copy/pasted from it without giving much thought, or any reference or credit to the source. Interestingly, a few students managed to copy/paste Aristotle, Plato and Socrates from Wikipedia (No comment!). There was even one case of a student copying another students’ excellent reflective answer from the forum itself, and then pasting it as his own answer with a minor change to the introduction and conclusion. Luckily, the student being plagiarised informed me about it, and I did the necessary to teach the plagiarizer a lesson he probably won’t forget.

Overall, it was a thrill to engage and discuss about great thinkers and inventions (and the struggles they went through) with the students, and many of them took these forums quite seriously, and some of their reflections and arguments were quite impressive. I was also impressed with some of the students’ reflective arguments for why they should get a better grade.

ONLINE QUIZ
Students had to take three small quizzes, each carrying five (5) percent of the course assessment evaluation. One (1) quiz was conducted during a F2F class and two (2) quizzes were conducted online. I gave the students the opportunity to do each online quiz (multiple-choice) from any place within a one week period.

In the first online quiz, I used randomization of questions (from a question pool) and shuffling of questions/answers, and I had deliberately created a tough one to awaken and challenge the students to think early on in the course. Interestingly, only 3 out of 272 who took the first online quiz got 100%.

The second online quiz was based on the module 4 (Fallacies). This time around I did not use randomization of questions, but I did continue with shuffling of questions/answers. 60 out of 285 managed to get 100%, which was an astonishing result (and perhaps a much easier quiz!). Interestingly, I had constructed a ‘Two Wrongs Make a Right’ fallacy in module 4 which says,

“I don’t feel guilty about cheating on Zaid’s online quiz. Half the class cheats on his quiz.”

Strangely enough, in one section a whopping 20 out of 42 got 100% correct. The results were impressive, but something was not right. Then I discovered that 17 out of these 20 with full marks had completed the quiz in less than 3 minutes. Other students who did the quiz took on the average more than 10 minutes to complete. Also, one of the students had come to my office during the quiz period with a friend (in a giggling mood!), claiming that someone else had logged in as her, and done her quiz (and gotten only 90%!). She asked me to reset her quiz. So, to give her a second chance, I reset her quiz. She took less than 2 minutes to get 100%.

I told the students in the next class that some of them had cheated on the online quiz, and asked those who had done it to come forward and admit their wrongdoing. I also told them about the quiz completion time discovery, and that I had a list of all those that are likely to be guilty, and that this was also a test of integrity and character. After the class, the guilty came forward one by one to apologize for their wrongdoing. Although, they did something wrong, they showed great character to come forward and admit their mistake. To my astonishment, one student made it clear to me that they did not cheat, but instead argued that they had collaborated together to succeed. Now, that got me to think that perhaps we could also conduct online group quizzes in the future, which could be useful to facilitate collaborative learning in a quiz competitive mode. I suppose we all learned a few lessons from this incident.

Finally, if you are planning to conduct online quizzes, keep in mind that you will never know who is actually doing the online quiz, unless you have a witness (proctored exam), or it is done in a computer lab with surveillance, so that you can verify who is actually doing it. But then again if students really want to cheat, they will find a way. Besides minimizing the possibility of cheating, it is perhaps more useful to encourage and practice good values and behaviours during the learning process. In short, we need to practice good values and behaviours ourselves first, before we can expect such things from our students. Look who’s talking!

GROUP PROJECT & PRESENTATION
In addition to three (3) quizzes, two (2) online forums, and group activities in each F2F session, students were required to work on a group project, which would be presented to the class some time during the last four (4) weeks of the course. They were required to research a problem or issue of their choice, and then write a recommendation report with constructive suggestions on how to deal with it. Interestingly, I made it compulsory that everyone in the group had to present some portion of their project during the group project presentation. While all shared the same grade for the group project (15%), each student was evaluated individually for the presentation session (10%).

Although, there were many interesting projects and engaging presentations, I suppose the video showed by one of the groups of a person dying from AIDS (last moments!), is something that until today still lingers in my head. Overall, it was good to see that most of the students were confident enough to present and not chicken out. Although, many of the presenters perhaps faced the slides and notes more than the audience, we have to give them credit, because they were also presenting and articulating their findings in English, which is their second language. I suppose with more practice and encouragement, they can master the ability to present confidently with less supporting aids.

FINAL EXAM
The final exams (50% of the total course evaluation) are conducted F2F at the students’ respective study centres. The ‘Critical Thinking’ course exam included a mixture of short essay and discussion type of questions. The final exam was divided into two sections:

Section A (20%) – They were given five (5) questions (answer all) to check their understanding on the core concepts learned in this course. They were required to (depending upon the question) identify, describe, differentiate, and give examples.
Section B (30%) - They were asked to identify the purpose (or main-point), analyze, evaluate and/or give their opinions/reasons/suggestions on an article, advertisement and a quote.

Having punished the students mentally to think-out-loud throughout the course, I suppose I made the final exam reasonably easy to pass (including juicy examination tips!), testing all the six (6) levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.

To be honest, I have never been a fan of final exams. If I had the choice I would instead add at least 30% of these marks for class participation (Currently only 5%). If I was to take any of those final exams I took during my undergraduate and graduate studies, I would surely fail this time around (Even if I got ‘A’ previously!). So, what are final exams measuring anyway? Then again, we cannot blame it on the final exam mode, but instead we should question those asking the questions.

RESULTS
Were students satisfied? It was encouraging to know that I averaged approximately 90% (you need at least 85% to me nominated for best lecturer award!) in the teaching/course evaluation survey over three (3) sections. However, it was more encouraging to learn that the total average for this course was around 85% (including the tutors’ results).

However, did learning take place? It is difficult to verify this one, but I know for sure that 92.9% of all the students taking this course (316) managed to pass it. I do have some positive and constructive comments to share here from a few students and tutors.

“(Student)…Thank you for your guidance and not forgetting your lively classes. It's been a month since the exam and I must say all the fallacies learnt remain and is being applied in everyday reading materials and at workplace with…”
”(Student)…Last but not least I would like to thank you for being "the teacher that inspires". I truly enjoyed myself in your class and would really look forward to being your student again (No.no.. I don't want to repeat Critical Thinking ..maybe for other subject)…”
"(Student)…Thank you very much for your quick reply. You are certainly a very good, efficient and helpful lecturer. From my experience, you are the second lecturer who have answered my questions during the holiday but for this semester the only one. They should be more lecturers like you…”
”(Student)… honestly I have learned a lot from this course, not only in thinking, but more than what I could describe here. Really enjoyed your class and the way you teach has definitely changed the way I looked at learning myself...”
“(Tutor)…Your Forum 2 question is very interesting and the rules and regulations suggested are good. That will make the students send in their answers earlier…It’s nice having you as the course leader. You are so efficient and informative.”
“(Tutor)…I must let you know that I am very happy with your approach to the critical thinking course. It has such a fresh and imaginative look. The slides are so attractive and I like the F2F Lesson Plan. It keeps us aware on how you (as a course leader) look at things. Please keep that up…”

Now this is pleasing to my ego! As for Kirkpatrick’s levels of evaluation 3 and 4, it is difficult to provide any concrete evidence, except for comments such as the ones above. But let’s hope that students can apply some the thinking skills learned during the course and gain some positive results in their studies, work and life. Actually, I should track these 316 students down and find out!

AREAS TO IMPROVE?
One year has passed since I revamped the ‘Critical Thinking’ course. I only managed to facilitate this course for one semester, and then the top management argued that I could be more effective to the University doing other things than actually teaching students. Luckily, the course is still being taught and that they are still using my little contribution to ‘Critical Thinking’ at the undergraduate level.

However, having become one year wiser (or dumber!) and discovered through reading what is needed to survive in places like Microsoft or Google, I believe this ‘Critical Thinking’ course needs to be constructively destroyed and reengineered.

Here are a few things that I would do, if I had the chance to revamp it again:

Challenging Puzzles/Exercises – I would add new puzzles and thinking exercises to challenge the students’ analytical, imaginative and problem solving skills to the level they can expect from a Microsoft or Google interview. Give them a taste of it, which might actually accelerate their motivation to learn.
Leaner Modules - Streamline the modules to consist of fewer topics and concepts, and instead spend more time on each element, enabling students to have more time to learn, practice and reflect before moving on. Especially, the 'Arguments' module would be totally revamped (simplify and focus), which was too much based on the book (Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction’), due to my lack of knowledge in this area.
Online Tools - Would use more tools such as online surveys/polls (to gather students' opinions and collectively reflect) and perhaps LAMS (Learning Activity Management System), which could be useful for sequencing and managing thinking activities such as Six Thinking hats. Also, I would request students to use wikis to work on their group projects, enabling me to follow the progress of the project. In addition, it would be interesting to explore 3D virtual worlds like Second Life and examine how it can nurture and motivate students to think-out-loud in such environments. In short, I would use more online learning tools to facilitate thinking beyond the physical classroom.
More Videos – Although, I did use a few YouTube videos to stimulate thinking during the first round, I would probably embed more short videos this time around to engage the mind and bring the class to life.
New Dream Thinking Team – Although, I would probably keep Master Yoda and Mr. Bean in my team, I would try to include local cartoons, such as LAT (if possible).

To improve my coaching or facilitation skills I would explore, study and reflect videos of well-known educators in formal and informal education around the world, which can today be easily accessed for free through YouTube channels (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, etc.) or other video sharing sites (e.g. VIDEOLECTURES.net). In short, the only thing stopping us from becoming a good educator is our reluctance to learn, explore and challenge ourselves continuously (and a good Internet connection!).

In short, the ‘Critical Thinking’ course would be revamped again to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

CONCLUSION
Oh man, you are still reading! Alright, I will have to say a few more things before I take off to my next learning adventure. First, if you ask me, I would not get so obsessed in trying to differentiate critical, creative, innovative or inventive thinking (learning and thinking prefers no human constructed borders!) during class, but instead focus increasingly on finding new ways to nurture and infuse more thinking into the students’ learning process for all courses, so that when they graduate it has become a habit for life.

Also, I would strongly recommend that we continue to have at least one or two courses that explore thinking and thinking tools intensively, enabling us to flex our imaginative, creative and analytical thinking muscles (e.g. using six thinking hats, SWOT, Disney Creativity Strategy, and ‘Five Ws and H’). In addition, we could always use our analytical imagination to create new thinking tools.

If you ask me, I would argue that the essence of all thinking boils down to asking QUESTIONS. And we all can do that, and therefore we all have the ability to think. Which fallacy did I just commit?

If we can encourage students to ask more questions, going beyond the compartments of their disciplines, and increasingly nurture the courage in them to explore new ideas, we are probably on the right track.

I remember way back in 1992, I had just finished my college degree (similar to A-Levels) at Ullern Gymnas (Oslo, Norway), and had just managed to scrape through. I was so sick of formal education that I made a promise to myself to never study again.

Here I am in 2008, sharing my experiences on facilitating “Critical Thinking’ to undergraduate students at UNITAR, in Malaysia. You just never know :)

UNISEL Shares Their Vision, Mission and T&L Framework!

2008-02-20T15:04:00.011+08:00

Link to UNISEL Knowledge Sharing Presentations

UNISEL?
"Universiti Industri Selangor (UNISEL) was established on 23 August 1999 with the aim of providing world-class tertiary education and opportunities for research and development (R&D) within the broad sphere of industrial technology, management as well as information and communications technology (ICT). UNISEL provides an educational system which has extensive synergistic links with the industry and community in developing new innovative activities and research and development work (Source)."

KNOWLEDGE SHARING?
UNISEL's Vision is ‘Meeting Industrial Needs…’, and if you are wondering how this Learning University is planning to do that, you can get a taste of it from this excellent collection shared (source):

Easier said than done, but let's hope that they can achieve the success that they inspire to do!

FAQ FROM STUDENTS
As for my own learning, I kind of got stuck on a few critical learning questions that Prof. Madya Dr. Sharifah Meriam pointed out in her presentation (Source).

"If teachers or lecturers can answer these questions (below), they are on the way towards developing effective outcome-based approach and promoting a learning organization.

What do I have to learn?
Why do I have to learn it?
What will I be doing while I am learning?
Will it be interesting and useful?
How will I know that I am learning what I should be learning?
Will I have any say in what I learn?
How will I be assessed?"

These are really basic questions that we sometimes overlook. Perhaps, if we are able to answer these questions to our students, they will be more eager to learn the stuff we are teaching/facilitating :)

eLearning .....? I've had E-Nough!! (Rozhan Idrus)

2008-02-13T18:05:00.017+08:00

NEW BLOG?
"I can't stand it anymore .. I have to do this. Call me what you like .. but looks like I have to jump on the bandwagon as well ... so here goes another blog about e-learning ..my version, of course... Sometimes I find it absolutely comical when I hear people complaining about the 'quality' of education on the Internet, when no one ever bothered to scrutinise the 'quality' of face to face teaching .. We are so bothered whether students actually log online to view our notes when we don't even recognise the 200-odd students in our lecture (face to face) ... such dichotomy .. The funniest thing is that .. it is as though there is someone else to be blamed for what is not working with elearning or whatever learning you care to mention!! Who is to be blamed ?? If a lecture is boring - who made it boring?? If a lecture or teaching experience is captivation, who made it so?? YOU!!"

THE ART OF LEARNING!
Anyone who has witnessed one of Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus talks, had discussions with him, or read his articles and papers, would have surely enjoyed his unique style of making sense using humour, illustrations, cartoons (like the one above!), striking examples, and mind stimulating reflections and thoughts. Yes, he has this great ability to stimulate both the cognitive and affective mind when making a point.

I suppose his 22 years experience in distance learning, and his background in instructional design has powered him with a few tricks and stories to strike a point, and facilitate effective learning.

Yeah, he is also the mastermind behind Technogogy, which is currently defined as "the convergence of technology, pedagogy and content in the transformative use of technology to foster learning."

It will be interesting to see how Rozhan's new e-Learning blog evolves. The only thing to worry about is his amazing 'right brain' habit of easily getting bored and too-many-tasking (Been there, done that!), and then suddenly moving on to a new learning adventure (and galaxy!). However, I believe he has hit a juicy learning nail with this blog (including the title!), and it will hopefully inspire him to continue to share his vast experience in distance learning, e-learning and education.

Yeah, wherever this BROTHER is reflecting and sharing his learning ideas and experiences, I will also be eagerly following, reading, reflecting and learning. Hopefully, in the future we can meet more often and have virtual and face-to-face tea-break discussions. Oh, I forgot I don't drink tea! I suppose I will drink pure water to clear my mind, so that I can absorb and reflect his ramblings of learning wisdom :)

UCiTV - University Campus Interactive TV (UTHM)

2008-02-01T11:56:00.000+08:00

Today, I discovered (by a great accident) that Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) has a University Campus Interactive TV portal, which you might want to check out. Here are some of the features you can enjoy here:

I didn't find any write-up about what their mission, purpose and plans are, so I don't have much to share here. The portal seems kind of new, and the learning content available here I believe is free to access (based on a bit of exploration!). It will be interesting the see how this project evolves under the leadership of Hj. Mohd Nor Bin Ihkasan.

In short, have fun exploring video and e-Learning on demand at UTHM :)

LearnTech Asia '08 Conference and Exhibition (18-19 March)

2008-01-31T09:11:00.000+08:00

WHAT?
LearnTech Asia '08 Conference and Exhibition is set to be Asia’s first and only platform for learning technologies for organizational learning and performance improvement. It gathers practitioners from leading companies around the world to share their knowledge, experience and best practices for sourcing, content development and implementing learning technologies. LearnTech Asia Exhibition is the place where all the major vendors of learning services, systems, technology and delivery methods will meet learning and development decision makers.

VENUE?
LEARNTECH ASIA ’08 Congress” will be held on 18th-19th March 2008 at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC), Malaysia.

SPEAKERS?
Some of the TOP LEADING practitioners who will be sharing their knowledge and success:

Kamal Nawawi – Senior VP, Talent Management & Retention, Khazanah Nasional Berhad
Dr. Ali Azizan - Head, Learning & Knowledge Management, Maybank Learning Centre
M. Emil Salim Bahari - CEO & Head of Business Development, PETRONAS e-Learning
Linda Al Ansari - Training & Development e-Learning & IT , Emirates Airlines (UAE)
S V Shiv Shanker - Head of Organisational Learning, Asia Standard Chartered Bank (SPORE)
Sujaya Banarjee - Chief Learning Officer , Essar Group (INDIA)
Murali Padmanabhan - Head IRM &Technology L&D, TATA Consultancy Services ( INDIA)
Gary Grant - National Training Manager , CHUBB Fire Safety (AUS)
Deepak Pillai - Partner, Haryati Deepak (MSIA)
John Clifford - Director, TELSTAR Learning Academy (AUS)

To be honest, I have never heard of (or read articles from) any of these top practitioners in Asia, which actually reflects how ignorant I am in corporate learning. Therefore, I believe this conference is of tremendous value, as we can learn more about them and importantly learn from their vast experiences in managing and facilitating corporate learning using innovative, effective and efficient practices, methodologies and technologies.

Yeah, if we can pick some good advice and perhaps 'teleport' it into our Higher Learning worlds (if we are in Higher Education) that would be great, too! Anyway, the bottom-line is LEARNING (which eventually leads to performance improvement), and how to nurture it effectively throughout the organization, which can take place anywhere, anytime, by anyone! Interestingly, with a bit of collaboration we will increasingly be empowered with innovative and effective collaborative virtual (and conventional) learning environments blending and mashing-up corporate and higher learning using both formal and informal approaches and technologies (Ning, Facebook, WiZiQ, Skype, etc.). It sounds wonderful, but can we do it? Got any suggestions? :)

Christopher's Corner - A New Learning Blog in Town!

2008-01-30T14:33:00.000+08:00

Link to 'Christopher's Corner'

"I am putting down in my blog what I learnt in my 10 years as a trainer. I have delivered courses in classroom, created web based courses, coached via face to face, email and other means. Now I believe I have acquired new ideas and skills that will enhance the way I deliver training programs. But what I put down here is not something that is perfect and I know if I put it down here and there are people who can comment, I will learn more." - Christopher Chew

Christopher Chew (from Maxis) has recently set up his own learning blog, where he will be sharing his learning discoveries, knowledge, and experiences in facilitating training and e-learning in Malaysia. Here is his first experience sharing advice: How to Develop, Design and Deliver a Learning Course (Part 1)

I have been fortunate to meet and interact with Christopher a couple of times recently during e-learning workshops (Stephen Downes & Brian Chapman). And based on our interactions and discussions, I believe he will be one of the prominent e-Learning experts (in Malaysia) in the coming years, especially in the corporate learning sector. If you haven't heard of him yet, I suppose you will!

Hopefully, he keeps himself motivated to continue posting regularly in his learning blog (as people begin to discover his learning adventure!). It is always hard in the beginning, but when it becomes a habit, you can't stop! If you are good, sooner or later people will notice your contributions and spread the word (Already doing it!). Christopher, good luck on your learning adventure! :)

Malaysian e-Learning Stories?

2008-01-25T18:46:00.000+08:00

Link to Malaysian e-Learning Stories

Besides reading the latest research papers and news about in e-learning in Malaysia, it is also critical that we reflect past e-learning adventures, implementations, experiences and findings, so that we can learn from them. I have just started (yesterday) compiling interesting Malaysian e-Learning stories (research papers, reports, articles, etc.) that I have discovered. The discovered e-Learning stories have been organized according to chronological order, starting with the latest year first (e.g. 2007).

Currently, I am simply using Google Docs to create this compilation list. Perhaps in the future I will use a more dynamic tool, if necessary. However, sometimes using simply web pages can actually produce better results. Let's see how it goes!

At the moment there is not much there, but give it a week or two; I believe I will have discovered many more interesting e-learning stories that are scattered all over the Web. We just need to find them, and that is what I am doing now. If you have a Malaysian e-Learning story to share, please post it in the 'Comments' section, and I will add it to this growing list.

If you are doing research, or want to know more about e-learning in Malaysia, this compilation might be a good starting point (and evolve into a Gold mine!). Have fun discovering e-learning in Malaysia!

Click here to begin :)

A Comparative Study of E-Learning Practices at Malaysian Private Universities

2008-01-22T08:00:00.000+08:00

Link to article
Private Universities (Case Studies) - UNITAR, MMU and OUM

AUTHORS

Marlia Puteh, Ph.D. College of Science and Technology, UTM
Supyan Hussin, Ph.D., Institute of the Malay World and Civilization, UKM

ABSTRACT
"This paper analyses the development of the e-learning strategies that have been introduced into Malaysian private universities. Using three case studies of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR), Multimedia University (MMU) and the Open University of Malaysia (OUM), this paper examines how Malaysian private universities have introduced e-learning strategies into their undergraduate programs. It also analyses the policies that UNITAR, MMU and OUM developed to promote IT teaching and learning strategies. A critical view of the problems that these universities face in implementing their vision statements is presented. The conclusion comments on the mixed experience of e-learning at these private learning institutions: UNITAR, MMU and OUM."

REFLECTION
This article provides some useful information and reflections about UNITAR, MMU and OUM's e-learning delivery, experiences and implementation problems. Though, I would have liked to know a bit more about the demographics of the participants in this qualitative research study. Also, I found that the authors should have cited from more relevant research references with quantitative research data (found in other research papers like this one about OLT. It is not a great paper, but it provides some concrete data to work with.) to support their views and findings from the qualitative research.

Actually, some of the information about UNITAR (e.g. 60% online, 40% face-to-face learning) is inaccurate. In reality, UNITAR has adopted several different e-learning approaches throughout the years to improve and cater to the students' learning needs (e.g. more face-to-face classes for 1st year undergraduate students). The amount of Face-to-Face (F2F) learning hours per course (42 hours) has varied from 8 - 28 hours (19% - 67% F2F). In other words, UNITAR has never had a fixed blended (or hybrid) learning strategy, which was adopted by all courses, programs and faculties. One can argue that it was messy (and not always clear to the students and educators), but it was not a one-size fits all kind of approach.

Interestingly, UNITAR is now increasingly becoming more conventional (3 hours F2F classes per week, per course), especially for the undergraduate level. This is probably partly due to the fact that most of our undergraduate students (90%+) are full-time students.

Also, some of the reflections about UNITAR, MMU, and OUM in this paper are rather confusing. For example:

"The UNITAR case indicates that the online learning approach might not have achieved its goal, and implies that the change from virtual to online learning (conventional to online learning?) may not have been a good idea after all. Perhaps, in UNITAR’s case, it would have been better to have selected a more stable technology (teaching and learning approach?), rather than investing so heavily in virtual learning, which at the time was a largely untried technology (learning approach?)..."

Having said that, you should read this paper (if not, I would not have posted something about it here!), because it provides some useful information about UNITAR, MMU and OUM's e-learning or blended learning approaches, which we can learn from. Though, if you are looking for an in-depth and constructive case study about any of these Universities, you might need to look elsewhere.

Finally, I believe one of the toughest challenges in implementing e-learning in Malaysia (and beyond) today, is finding a cost-effective blend that motivates the educators, and meets the learning needs of the students. I would argue that there are plenty of excellent easy-to-use/learn e-learning tools (free and commercial) and tons of open/free educational resources easily available, and the Internet infrastructure is improving, so the real challenge will increasingly boil down to the human and pedagogical factors. Perhaps, the main e-learning implementation challenge today would be to convince and motivate educators to participate and explore full-heartedly the fruits of e-learning (especially those that are not IT-savvy), and equip them through training and support with the necessary skills to facilitate effective learning. If you are looking for some tips, I could always share a few :)

Knowledge Management International Conference 2008 (UUM)

2008-01-21T18:28:00.000+08:00

Transferring, Managing and Maintaining Knowledge for Nation Capacity Development

The Knowledge Management International Conference (KMICe) provides a platform for international presentation of research findings as well as discussions and sharing of recent advances in the field. This conference will bring together leading researchers and developers in a wide variety of areas, with a common interest in improving the state of the art of knowledge management (KM). This conference will also bring together people from the academia and industry to establish closer cooperation and ties, and creation of K-based society. As a management university, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) has initiated the platform in organizing a conference of this nature ...more

TOPICS?
KMICe'08 invites full-paper submissions, which may address theoretical, methodological or practical aspects related to Knowledge Management and should revolve around the conference theme. Topics include (full list):

Knowledge Management Strategy
Tools and Technology for Knowledge Management
E-Learning, E-Training and Executive Training
Current Trend of Knowledge Management
Content Management
Intelligent Information System
Knowledge Workers
The Issue of Culture Variety and Cross-culture
K-Economy, K-Community and K-Enterprise

This looks like an interesting conference! Are you presenting a paper or participating? Full Paper Submission Deadline: 29 February 2008 :)

E-Learning in Malaysian Public Universities - Case Studies of UKM and UTM

2008-01-18T17:36:00.000+08:00

Author: Marlia Puteh, Ph.D, College of Science and Technology, UTM

ABSTRACT
"This paper analyses the development of the e-learning strategies that have been introduced into Malaysian public universities since 1996. Using two case studies of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), the research examines how Malaysian public universities planned to introduce e-learning strategies into their undergraduate programs. This analysis uses some 25 interviews with the teaching and administrative staff at UKM and UTM. A critical view of the problems that these universities face in implementing their vision statements is also presented. However, testing the vision statements against the experience and opinions of teaching staff is a significant task, because ultimately it is the teachers who will drive the e-learning strategies. If teachers are not supportive of these programs, e-learning will struggle to become established...

...CONCLUSION
Public universities have some fundamental problems when it comes to implementing e-learning and IT teaching strategies. Most of the difficulties in implementing e-learning strategies in the public universities are similar to that of other public universities attempting to adopt IT strategies university-wide. Malaysian public universities have not been successful at generating senior leadership capable of integrating the various university plans and strategies. These leadership issues are exacerbated by the working environments that are characterised by lack of encouragement, fear of intellectual piracy, inadequate technical training, insufficient equipment and no incentives for innovation. International comparisons can help and should be encouraged. Such benchmarking can provide Malaysian universities with a measure of how well they are doing and whether and what can be learnt from external examples."

Not sure what to say! I suppose you can make up your mind when (or if) you read the whole article. With today's disruptive technologies and increasing arsenal of free and hosted learning tools available (LectureShare, WiZiQ (Virtual Classroom), Wikispaces, Wordpress (Blogging), etc.), anyone can implement e-learning as long as they and their students (or learners) have computer devices and Internet connections. If we have the passion, we will find the time to implement e-learning (if necessary!). Yes, we need time, encouragement, training, support and incentives, but if e-learning can facilitate a more effective learning environment for our students, that should be good incentive to do it (if we really have the passion for education!). But then again, it would be great to have support from the senior management, and be equipped with great learning tools and technical support. In short, I suppose to really make e-learning work, everyone involved must role up their sleeves and try harder.

As for intellectual piracy, the moment your content is digitized, the pirates out there will steal it if it is of any value to them (If there is a will, there is a way!). Anyway, should a pirate steal my content I would be really proud (I am the chosen one!) and probably discover their location through Google (or some other search tools), and applaud them for stealing my content and not giving me recognition for my great work. Then I will write an article about them in my blog (or a Newspaper), and put them into more shame. Perhaps we should just use the Creative Commons license, and get on with life! Anyway, with all the free Open Educational Resources (OER) available on the WWW, the pirate must be an idiot to steal our content, when they can probably find better free content out there (though cannot use for commercial purposes). I suppose there are many ignorant pirates out there!

If you are one of those pirates (I suspect you are not!), I strongly recommend that you visit my other blog ZaidLearn, and you will discover many World Class OER repositories with oceans of great content. I suppose you will need some time to find the right juice, but you will feel better once you do.

Hmm, where am I going! Just read the article :)

e-Learning 2.0 Workshop (Stephen Downes)

2008-01-16T16:20:00.000+08:00

Web 1.0 = Read
Web 2.0 = Read -Write
Web 3.0 = Read -Write - Research
Web 4.0 = Read -Write - Research - Rambo!

At last I got to meet Stephen Downes in person and attend one of his workshops. Better yet, due to a secret arrangement (Not telling!) I got to become his personal bodyguard (I mean assistant) during this 2-day workshop in Kuala Lumpur (14th - 15th January). You can see me on the picture happily holding tightly to the handheld laser gun (I mean camera!).

In this e-Learning 2.0 workshop facilitated by Stephen (who actually entitled it ' Web 2.0 in Learning'), participants explored a full range of web 2.0 tools, and discussed (including group activities) how these tools could facilitate more effective communication, collaboration and learning. The intention was to explore the underlying technologies and to develop a sense of what to expect in the future.

NEW DISCOVERIES?
The thing about attending workshops facilitated by people like Stephen is that you can be sure of discovering a lot of new learning stuff on the way. Here are new learning tools and sites that I discovered during this great workshop:

Gliffy - A free web-based diagram editor.
Zoho - Offers a suite of online web applications geared towards increasing your productivity and offering easy collaboration.
LiveJournal - A free service for your journaling and blogging.
Bebo - Allows users to share photos with music, and blogs, and draw on members' White Boards.
Pixer - Lets you manipulate, edit, enhance and apply filters to your digital pictures using only your web browser.
Ustream.tv - You can broadcast your own live video show for free. You only need a computer device, camera and solid Internet connection. Not bad!
Worldbridges - A community of communities that use 'homegrown webcasting' and other new media technologies to help people connect, learn, & collaborate.
EdTechTalk - A community of educators interested in discussing and learning about the uses of educational technology. They webcast several live shows each week.

In addition, we discussed many other web 2.0 learning tools such Ning (Social Networking), Second Life ( 3D virtual world) and Wikispaces, which I have already explored, but are worth mentioning here (Check out the slides to discover the rest!).

Not only did we discover new tools from Stephen, he also discovered a few new learning tools from us, including:

WiZiQ - Free Hosted Virtual Classroom platform.
CamStudio - Free Screen Recording Software.
eSnips - Get 5GB of free space to upload and share your files, photos, videos and music.

In other words, no matter how brilliant we are, we can always learn and discover stuff from others. Therefore, I would argue that Stephen Downes is brilliant, because he knows this and practices it all the time (Any logic here!).

However, of all the things I discovered, learned and explored during the workshop, I personally found the reading resources shared the most valuable to my learning mind. I suppose it is easier to find a new tool or site (at least for me!), than discover a great article or paper among millions. Anyway, here is a list of a few of those relevant and mind enriching writings, which Stephen recommended us to explore further (Check out the slides to discover the rest! 2nd time!):

The Cluetrain Manifesto - Markets are about conversations (an e-Book by several authors). If you are lazy, at least read the 95 theses to get some idea.
E-Learning 2.0 - (Stephen Downes)
What is Web 2.0 - The web as platform. Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software (Tim O'Reilly).
Educational Blogging - (Stephen Downes)
How to Be Heard - (Stephen Downes)
The Long Tail - Why the future of business is selling less of more (Clay Shirky/Chris Anderson).
MySpace is My Identity Space - (Danah Boyd)
Wisdom of Crowds - (James Surowiecki)

And the juicy list of excellent reading resources (especially about blogging and social networks) goes on and on (Check out the slides to discover the rest! 3rd time lucky!). As I had not read many of these recommended reading resources before, it was a thrill to discover them.

LESSONS LEARNED

Since, I was his personal assistant and camera man during the 2-day workshop, I really got to zoom in on Stephen Downes and discover more about him (I am not sure if the video recordings I took are up to mark, though! First time!). I suppose I can go on here (until the break of dawn!), writing about all the things I observed and learned from him, but I will only highlight a few important lessons I learned here, which we all can take note and actually do something about.

Even Stephen Downes does not know everything about e-learning, and he does not see that as a weakness either (opportunity to learn more!). Instead, he gets excited when someone in the crowd knows something he doesn't (a challenge, too!), and wants to learn about it straight away. Since we have a computer and Internet connection, let's explore the possibilities together using Google, right now (Why wait!).

In other words, it is alright to say 'I don't know', when a participant or student asks a question, which we don't know the answer to. If no one participating in the session knows, we can always explore it together using Google, or whatever search tool we find relevant for the task (or get back to the question later, when we have an answer). If we take that kind of attitude and approach into our learning environments, we will not fear questions (essence of creative and critical thinking!), and students will eventually not fear to ask questions (mind of inquiry). Both the educators and student will benefit! You will learn more (about the content, students and yourself!), and students will not only learn more, but be more active in the learning process, taking responsibility and improving their ability to ask questions. Even before we discover a problem, or conceptualize a great idea (which might lead to an invention or innovation), we need to ask questions (Zooming in on the right or AHA ones!). Questions might seem like a threat first, but if you learn how to love them, and deal with them head-on, the rest is a ball :)

In terms of conducting a workshop (lecture, tutorial, etc.), I learned that you must always be able to quickly adapt the sessions (or classes) to the learning expectations and needs of the participants, and be able to revise and reform your workshop activities on-the-fly to ensure a more effective and relevant learning experience. Sometimes, participants might not even know what they really want, but you still have to explore through relevant questions early on, and by using your emotional, observational, and analytical intelligence (e.g. What do you know about____? What are your past experiences with ____? What do you want to learn? ) . Even if you fail to satisfy their learning expectations and needs, they will most likely appreciate your efforts to tailor and customize the learning event. I suppose the main challenge will be to meet all the participants learning expectations and needs. But that is a challenge we have to deal with, if we want to be an effective educator. And by using web 2.0 technologies like blogs, wikis, social networking sites, virtual worlds, etc. appropriately, and getting participants involved in creating, remixing, mashing-up and sharing knowledge, we are probably moving forward.

In short, we need to get everyone involved in exploring, discovering, learning, doing, reflecting, creating, and sharing knowledge and ideas. By doing so, we are nurturing their ability to learn (how to learn!). If you are able to spark, participants or students will take care of the rest.

FUTURE LEARNING DIRECTIONS?
Stephen identifies five (5) main future directions of learning (and e-learning) in his slides. I have added some of my thoughts to these five directions.

Learning as Creation - We increasingly learn by creating/remixing knowledge, products and services during the learning process (not only consuming), with the assistance of increasingly more powerful and user-friendly learning tools.
Social Learning - We learn by interacting with others locally and around the world, which is increasingly being enabled more efficiently and effectively with the assistance of technology (Global Collective Intelligence). Imagine participating in global learning communities and getting access to some of the greatest minds on this planet with just a few clicks. Here I am talking to Jay Cross, Jane Knight, Joseph Hart, Stephen Downes and Clayton Wright on Skype. The only cost is basically our time.
Personal Learning Environment - People will increasingly be able to construct their own customized and convenient learning spaces, which integrates all their informal and formal learning tools. In other words, we might soon say goodbye to LMS, LCMS, portals, etc., sooner than we realize. They will probably exist, but we will hardly visit them, and mostly read their news feeds from our all-to-one learning dashboards. One User ID and Password! One Learning Space! Tons of Learning Tools! All are communicating with one another! We can get all our relevant updates from one learning space, and we can update all our learning tools with one update (Create once, publish many). WOW! That is cool!
Immersive Learning - Augmented reality and 3D virtual worlds with fully immersive tools enabling every sense of our body to engage in the learning process. It also reflects that we will increasingly be able to construct cost-effective simulated learning environments that are close to the real thing. We are able to do and practice things in safe virtual learning environments that we could only dream about in the past (e.g. manage Google, build spaceships, teleport to Mars, discuss global warming with Al Gore, and engage in past civilizations). In short, we can stimulate all our senses to fully immerse ourselves in safe virtual learning environments that are similar, or close replications of the real ones. Practice without getting physically hurt (though, we might get a bit of mental stress!).
The Living Arts (Things You Really Need to Learn) - We don't follow strictly the requirements and needs of PhD, Masters, Bachelor and Diploma programs, programs are instead tailored to our relevant learning needs, and we are empowered to construct our own learning opportunities and environments that enable and motivate us to find and fulfill our learning potential. Why learn something that we never use, or want to know?

In addition to learning a lot of stuff from Stephen, I learned a lot from more than 40 participants both from the corporate and the education (mostly Higher Education) sectors in Malaysia (picture below). Interestingly, we are also planning to start an official e-Learning community (whereby we physically meet on regular occasions) in Malaysia, and if you are interested to find out more about that, please join or visit our new Malaysian e-Learning Community in Facebook (you need a Facebook account to join).

Finally, I would like to thank FIK International for organizing a great workshop.

Oh, I forgot (this post is getting long!)! You might be wondering why Stephen and the 'Myau' picture. Well, during the first day of the workshop we all suddenly heard the sound of cat ('Myau'), and Stephen probably thought he was going a bit nutty, or the jet lag was really getting to him (which it was, I suppose!). However, it was only a ringtone to one of the participants, and we all had a great laugh! So, the picture is in memory of this funny informal learning incident. Myau!!!

In conclusion, I am glad that I attended the workshop (and become Stephen's workshop assistant), and got to know Stephen better. These are the kind of learning experiences that spark our motivation to learn and explore more. Yeah, now I am also a certified e-Learning 2.0 specialist (by attendance). If you are interested to learn more, please give me a buzz :)

CMEAD Projects (Multimedia University)

2008-01-11T19:10:00.000+08:00

CMEAD?
Centre for Multimedia Education and Applications Development (CMEAD) is a one-stop centre dedicated to providing highly technical and specialized multimedia applications and services. It was established by Multimedia University to deal with the new demands in Multimedia, which is reshaping businesses, media, entertainment, and society in increasingly new and innovative ways. CMEAD is led by the super active and respected Mr. David Asirvatham (Director).

I have met him a few times, and I have always enjoyed our discussions. I am not sure if SCORM is on his discussion menu now days, but a few years back it certainly was.

CMEAD Projects?
In this post, I just want to highlight some of their ongoing juicy projects (I suppose some of them are completed by now!), which are:

Multimedia Learning System (MMLS)
Is a web-based Learning Management System, with built-in intelligence that delivers content according to the abilities of the learners. The system captures and analyses students' learning patters in a digital learning environment.
Smart Card
The MMU Smart Card is the first multi-purpose card of its kind in South East Asia. Smart Card holds various type of information in electronic form with sophisticated security mechanisms in it. It combines financial and non-financial applications in one card. There are three technologies embedded into a single smart card such as contact chip, contactless chip and magnetic strip.
Integrated Computerised Education Management System (ICEMS)
Is an internally developed enterprise information system to manage the operation of an educational institute. It comprises of three main modules namely Students, Financials, and Administration.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
An auto attendant, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System called MMU Info Line. This system is aimed at providing information about MMU via telephone. The system is available 24 hours a day for the convenience of MMU students, staff and the public. A caller can dial up the system at any time and choose one of the many options available, to get the required information.

In addition to these projects, they are also working on a few others, including a e-Procurement System (EPS) and a Document Management System (DMS). If you want to know more about these projects and their services you can check out the presentation slides for each project.

It is always fun to explore what others are up to, and CMEAD are working on some interesting projects, which I wish I could explore in an easy manner with a few clicks (I suppose I will contact them for a demo one day!).

Having said that, I would have loved to see more screenshots of their products, and perhaps some simulated screen recordings/tutorials (why not use Wink, which is a free Tutorial and Presentation creation software) walking through the features, especially the Multimedia Learning Management System (MMLS). Yes, why not have a demo version, where we can login and explore the different type of users (e.g. Lecturer, student, and administrator). I suppose we have a lot to learn in promoting our projects and services in a more interactive and engaging way. However, the presentation slides are a good start.

Wouldn't it be cool to explore MMLS in Second Life. Hmm, that is perhaps too much to ask for, but it would be fun to play around with MMLS using a free online demo version (If can, please share it with us!). The more we taste it, the more we might like it. Just like Moodle :)

TECHNOGOGY - A Convergence of Content, Pedagogy & Technology

2008-01-09T09:30:00.002+08:00

Link to Technogogy Homepage
The Latest Paper (2008) on Technogogy (URL coming soon)
Technogogy Paper (2005 Version. 592 KB, PDF)
Prof Rozhan's website

"Technogogy is now defined as the convergence of technology, pedagogy and content in the transformative use of technology to foster learning."
- Idrus, 2008

This is Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus latest definition on Technogogy, which is discussed in his latest paper entitled, 'Technogogy – A convergence of technology, pedagogy and content'. It will be published in the the new International Journal of Excellence in e-learning that will be launched at the Excellence in e-learning in the Middle East 2008 , which will be held next week in Dubai, UAE (January 14 - 17). Interestingly, he has been appointed as the Chief Editor of this new journal and is of course one of the Keynote Speakers at that Conference.

Since the latest paper on Technogogy has not been published yet, I will not reveal some of its' learning juice. But I will make the URL soon available, and then you can discover Technogogy on your own :)

ORIGIN?
To undcover the origin of this innovative term 'Technogogy' we need to 'teleport' back to 2005. "At the 5th International Educational Technology Conference (with the theme, Distance Education) held in Sakarya, Turkey from 21-23 September 2005, Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus delivered one of the Keynote Addresses and presented the definition of technogogy. In this respect, he was working with Karen McComas who is an Associate Professor of Communication Disorders at Marshall University. She is also an ASHA-certified Speech-Language Pathologist and Audiologist (Source). "

TECHNOGOGY is defined as the transformative
use of technology to foster learning
- Idrus & McComas, 2005

Click here to read his newer paper entitled "Transforming Engineering Learning via Technogogy "(2008).

If I am not mistaken, we can also expect a book about Technogogy from Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus and Karen McComas soon. Perhaps it is already out! if so, I am certainly going to buy it. I have met Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus a few times, and I have always enjoyed our discussions. To me, he is one of the most interesting and engaging e-Learning Professionals in Higher Education in Malaysia today (that I have met!). Explore his ideas about learning and technology (Yeah, why not contact him, too!), and you might think likewise :)

International Conference on Learning and Teaching (TARC)

2008-01-09T08:47:00.000+08:00

"Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC) is organising an International Conference on Learning and Teaching (TIC 2008). This 2-day conference (4th - 5th August, Putrajaya Marriott Hotel, Malaysia) is aimed at establishing a platform to share research findings and initiatives to enhance learning and teaching approaches. It will provide an avenue for intellectual discourse among conference participants in Malaysia and abroad to promote discussions and share knowledge, experiences and expertise on developments in learning and teaching as well as best practices in higher education.

Participants will be drawn from the USA, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and other countries besides Malaysia. About 300 participants are expected to participate in this conference.

The theme of the Learning and Teaching Conference is “Enhancing Learning and Teaching in Higher Education”. In line with the theme, they are inviting theoretical and empirical papers on all aspects of learning and teaching to be presented. They particularly welcome papers that focus on issues pertaining to new developments, innovations, and technology in learning and teaching, as well as on lifelong learning, policies and governance in education in a range of areas."

For more details regarding the sub themes of the conference, please visit the conference homepage.