week 3b: Online Questionnaire (Reflection)

Today we are required to produce an online questionnaire which related to our literature review that we had done earlier. For a starter, we had to create the questionnaire by using surveymonkey.com as a pilot test. I had to say that creating a survey is very easy as you just have to follow all the guideline provided. However, to think of a question that need to be asked in that survey is extremely tricky! As this questionnaire's result will help us in our next task of producing a journal, the questions that involved must be as detailed as possible. At the same time, it can't be too long as it will effect the mood of our participants. I mean, me myself wouldn't have a mood to answer a survey that involved a lot of questions and a long answer. So, in order to prevent it from happening, we had to brain storm the questions. To think of a question is easy but to think of a question that can help us in our next journal is kinda of, exhausting. Our questions had been rejected for about 5 times by our lecturer! Every time we got rejected, we have to rationalize our question again and came with a new one. =( It's very tiring to think of a new question every time you got rejected and when you came with a newer question, it was rejected, again.  Nevertheless, in spite of all the difficulties that we faced, i am proudly to announce that we had finally produce our own questionnaire!After we had successfully created the online questionnaire, we then shared the link to our facebook so that our classmates can complete it thus enable us to receive a feedback of that survey. After we had receive all the feedback, the REAL questionnaire were produced by using Google Document. Variety format of questions were being used in the survey. We had also explored the use of Spreadsheet for this online questionnaire and the questionnaire, with it's result were then downloaded as Excel format so that it can be used in our next task which involved with the usage of SPSS. Besides receiving feedback from our classmates, we had also send the link to our coursemates in IPGS. It's like a win-win situation. We had completed their survey and as an exchanged, they'll complete our survey too.

I think that's all for the time being. Again, I had gained and discovered new skills of ICT; creating online questionnaire. =D With that, I end my reflection for this week's task. Have a nice day!

Week 3a (Web 2.0; Distance Learning- What should be done in Malaysia)

This week we were assigned of doing literature review based on our topic from assignment 1. And not to forget, we have to write a report by using Open Office which, i can say that i'm not quite familiar with. However, once i've installed it in my laptop, it's not that different with our common microsoft word, right?hehe.. anyhow, other than using that software, we were also required to do our literature review by finding our resources from google books, google scholar and even journal from the UKM's library.  What i can say is, it really gives me a new kind of experience as i've never use those google books, google scholar and others. Throughout my period of learning, the only way that i obtained my online material is thru the web links provided by the engine search. That's it. No online materials from those e-books and others. But now I know where can i find those reliable online materials for my future assignments. =)

So, from our first assignment of Web 2.0 in education, we ( me and my partner Salma, as usual =D ) decided to choose the problem arise in distance learning as distance learning is part of the impacts of web 2.0 . After we consulted with our lecturer, Sir Norazlan and were given "green light" to carry out our discussion, we directly search using the search engine and try to find any materials that related to our topic. Thanks to our co-ordinator, Dr. Fatimah for the password of UKM library, it enables us to have an access for journal. Finding online material is not that easy as i'm not really used in reading journal and it may takes time for me to completely understand the content of the journal because you know, it's really in an 'academic form'..hehe..

The report that we've done can be seen in my previous post as i'm not going to elaborate about it here. However, by having this research done, i can finally identify the real situation faced by our students nowadays regarding the usage of web 2.0 applications and steps that can be taken by government especially in order to solve those problems.

I think that's all for this time being. The next assignment should be fun and something new as it requires us to produce a survey! Something that i've never done before. Anyway, just wait for my next entry for that interesting task. Till then, have a nice day! =)

Web 2.0; distance learning: what should be done in Malaysia

Web 2.0; distance learning: what should be done in Malaysia

The term Web 2.0 refers to a loose collection of ‘second generation’ web-based technologies and services, many of which are designed to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users (O’Reilly, 2005). Basically, web 2.0 is an interactive web application that enables people to share their knowledge and be an active participant instead of just a reader or viewer. In other words, web 2.0 make learning easier as people from all over the world can contribute their knowledge regardless of where there are. The greatest influence of web 2.0 is it promotes distance learning as it doesn’t require you to have a face-to-face interaction thus making learning process more global and not limited in a typical formal classroom environment.

However, as interesting as it might sound, implementing distance learning does have it own challenges. Research in Malaysia shows that from 27.57 millions of Malaysia citizens, only 4.9 millions of them are the subscribers of broadband (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, 2011). This proves that the awareness of owning a broadband especially for education purpose is very low. This consequently can interfere the process of distance learning as it requires you to have an internet access. On the other hand, those who solely depend on the free internet access (wi-fi) encountered a problem whereby some of the websites being blocked and filtered by the authority. For instance, the higher learning institutions sponsored by government (IPTK) are provided with free internet access. However, some of the websites are filtered by the Ministry of Education thus limiting the resource for the students. Recently, we were shocked by the news announced by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) that from now onwards, some of the websites that deals with sharing files such as Megaupload, Filesonic, Filestube and Fileserve. This further hindered the process of obtaining information since some of the useful data contained in those websites. Needless to say, distance learning deals mainly with uploading and downloading online material. In order for Malaysia to resolve such problems, MCMC should instead set out some of the potential risk of the websites such as those which can lead to exposure to inappropriate content and contact, breach of intellectual property rights, exposure of virus and hacking and high demands on network bandwith (Becta, 2008) rather than blocking all those file sharing sites.

Web 2.0 is an upgraded version of its predecessors. It refers to any platforms that allow its users to contribute their own idea rather acquiring information passively. This is enabled by various new and improved website that encourage users generated content like social network, blogs, Wikipedia, video sharing and file hosting sites (to name a few). If before internet users find information written by experts on a websites like Netscape, now they also can impart their own on a website like Wikipedia. As the content is generated by user who may not an experts, some mistakes is unavoidable. On the other hand, it covers wide range of topic and it is quite helpful as it give people at least an overview of what they are searching for.

There are arguments about how the user generated content is not really reliable, since most of them can be subjected to abuse, test can be interpolated, pictures can be altered, and video can be edited. However this weakness is compensated by the emergence of filtering or recommendation sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, Google Buzz and others can help in recognizing relevant/correct information thus proving the authenticity of information. Apart from that, there are rating and comment features enable in some websites. These features allow users to share their thoughts and voice out their opinion on the subject. So, Web 2.0 not only encourages people to share but also helps to identify the relevant content by the feedback of the users themselves.

Furthermore, as Web 2.0 facilitates information sharing, there will be many responses from diverse users for a subject. It also has the mechanism to compile all related information of a certain subject in a place. Data mashup ‘combine similar types of media and information from multiple sources into a single representation.’ For example, if there is any video of Youtube’s users  that is related to an article the writer can embed video, songs and slides of picture into his/her article. Apart from making the readers understand more about information or making dreary article interesting, it’ll also work as a step towards acknowledging the content creator.

Plagiarism is ‘the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work’ (Dictionary.com, 2011). This act of academic honesty is becoming rampant as more information can be accessed readily on the internet. In 2009, two lecturers of University Putra Malaysia have been investigated because the book that they wrote ‘may have plagiarised materials of several American university websites, including Harvard and Albion College’ (malaysianbar.org, 2009). This is not all. This epidemic also has swept within the school and through the improvement in our technology, web 2.0 per say, plagiarism will happen more than ever as information can be taken easily   In lieu of this event, appropriate measure should be taken to prevent such misconduct from happening again. According to a study in Journal of College Student Development ‘Most students in this study agreed that plagiarism of any kind is wrong. Approximately 89% strongly or somewhat agreed that handing in someone else’s writing as one’s own or purchasing a paper to turn in as one’s own is wrong, whether done conventionally or online.’ Therefore, awareness is not the main issue why this act of misconduct is still rampant. Following the same Journal discussed that while the subjects are aware the negativity of plagiarism that are not aware of punishment. It seems that warning, suspension and subsequent expelled from university are not enough to deter them, perhaps more severe punishment should be created and exercised. Apart from that, plagiarism detection software should be used to screen students’ assignment, at least on regular basis so that the students become more cautious in plagiarizing.

In addition to this issue of distance learning, the students themselves are not that keen in using technologies to aid their study process.  These students are really familiar in using such established applications of technologies such as Short Messaging Service (SMS), finding information using the search engine and emailing. However, the newer technologies such as producing a podcast, creating blogs, contributing data to Wikis and others that enable them to collaborate and sharing information with the online community are not being used widely by the students.  This is further proves by research done in an article from Ascilite Singapore 2007; The Net Generation are not the big users of Web 2.0 technologies: Preliminary Findings. The study found that more than 80% of students had never produced a Podcast and never contributed to a Wiki. More than 70% had never kept their blog. More than 50% had never used a social networking site, read someone else’s blog or downloaded a Podcast.  However, there is still quite amount of students who able to use Web 2.0 in a right way. A total of 15% students had produced and contributed to their own blog on a daily or weekly basis. As the basis of distance learning require the students to be actively involved with the Web 2.0 applications, problems may arise when these students couldn’t completely maximised the usage of Web 2.0 in education. In order to curb this problem from happening, the Ministry of Education (MOE) especially should further encourage the practice of Web 2.0 in higher education institution. As written in International Journal of Intercultural Information Management, “Although the use of ICT in Malaysian higher education institutions is nothing new, there is a need to study its delivery systems' trends. A content analysis was carried out on 100 articles published in the latest four Malaysian Educational Technology Convention proceedings. The ICT delivery systems' trends were identified and clustered into three main categories: computer-based delivery (focusing on the use of CD-ROMs and stand-alone platforms), web-based delivery (utilising Web 1.0 technology) and technology-enhanced learning which focuses on the combination of Web 2.0 and other modern electronic devices. The features, details and examples of each delivery system are discussed.” These exemplified that the implementation of computer subject are not fully carried out by our education system. Thus, MOE should revise their curriculum so that students can completely master the Web 2.0 in education hence participate in the distance learning actively.

To conclude, advanced technology like web 2.0 is created to contribute to our society, however there always be some troublemaker manipulate and wangle the loopholes for their advantage to the chagrin of many other users. For instances, data can be compiled easily without acknowledging the real content creator or in short plagiarizing on the internet but thanks to advancement of technology plagiarism detector software has been built thus plagiarist is bound to be found out as there are software easily accessible by users. Apart from that, unfortunately, there are users who are unaware and sometimes inept to utilize the facilities provided for their own good plus the act blocking some website is quite detrimental for students to find materials online. In relation to distance learning, it is disappointing there are those who stop studying and using time and place as excuses, while some plagiarize freely because the lack of face to face interaction with lecturer or moderator of the program, breeds lackadaisical attitude in these students . Therefore, by listing out the challenges, perhaps the action suggested can be a stimulus for the authority to think further and establish effective measure to be done in Malaysia

References:

Celeste Fenton, B. W. (2010). Fluency in distance learning. New York: Charlotte, NC:

Informationg Age Pub.

Irfan N. Umar, N. H. (2010). Research trends of ICT delivery system in Malaysian higher

education institutions: a content analysis. International Journal of Intercultural Information Management , 153 - 163.

Juliea Davies, G. M. (2009). Web 2.0 for schools: learning and social participation.

New York: Peter Lang.

Kennedy, G., Dalgarno, B., Gray, K., Judd, T., Waycott, J., Bennett, S., Maton, K., Krause,

K.L., Bishop, A., Chang, R. & Churchward A. (2007). The net generation are not big users of Web 2.0 technologies: Preliminary findings. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/kennedy.pdf

Panse, S. (2011, January 26). Issues with Web 2.0 in Distance Education. Retrieved July 25, 2011,

from Bright Hub: http://www.brighthub.com/education/online-learning                     /articles/69863.aspx

Patrick M.  Scalon, D. R. (2002). Internet plagiarism Among College Students. Journal of

               College Student Development, 385.

UPM Duo in Plagiarism Scandal. (2009, September 14). Retrieved July 26, 2011,

from The Malaysian Bar: http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/legal/general_news/upm_duo_in_plagiarism_scandal.html

Week 2b (Course/Learning Management System) Reflection

Our next assignment was finding out about Course Management System (CMS) and get a deep understanding about it. So, my partner (Salma) and I have decided to discuss about What, Why, Where, Who and How of CMS, the advantages of C/LMS and the list of some open source software for C/LMS. We were then asked to write a report using Google doc and share it with our friends, course lecturer and not to forget, our coordinator. We then uploaded it to our yahoogroups so that further discussion can take place.

Frankly, I've never heard of this course management system and I was so clueless when we received this task. However, as we were guided by our lecturer, Sir Norazlan and done some research, finally i am able to get a grasp about what course management system is. Not to forget, I have received a lot of helps from my partner, Salma and she's the one who explained patiently to me about CMS as it took me quite a lot of time to understand completely about this topic.

Basically, CMS allows us to share any educational materials or interact with others regardless of where you are. It promotes distant learning as it doesn't require you to be in a formal classroom in order for you to received information. And the most important thing that i found out is, you don't have to be an IT expert because using those features provided in CMS is as easy as ABC. 

To prove it, I registered myself in one of the websites of this CMS and to my amusement, a lot of things can be done within that online community. Educators from all part of the world sharing their lesson plans with each other and they even sharing their ideas and thoughts to produce a better lesson plan. Moreover, i also found out that the students are using all the learning materials provided in that websites as maximum as they can. Since we're using computer, the material provided are all enjoyable, fun and very colourful plus making the students interested in learning the subjects. I think that you have to experience it yourself and just register in any of the websites provided so that you too can get benefits from it.

I think that it is really good and beneficial for the educators to know and to maximize the usage of CMS in our teaching. As we are moving ahead with the technology, we can't rely solely on the old fashion learning method which is classroom lectures. Knowing all the new software available that can assist me in my teaching can really help me to keep in pace with the development of technology and I can even applied it in my teaching someday when I am officially a teacher. 

Week 2b (Course/Learning Management System)

On the third week, we were given a new task, as usual. The task was regarding the Course Learning Management System or better known as CMS. 

What

Course Management System (CMS) is a gizmo particularly used in an education area. It enables educator to post up any materials and information without bothering about the complicated HTML code or any related computer codes. As it is equipped with complete set of tools and framework, educators might find that creating online course content and teaching materials are somewhat easy thus making various interactions with other students possible.

Why

The usage of technology is inevitable in this modernization age. Thus, in order for us to keep par with the development of technology, using teaching materials from the CMS is a must. CMS encompasses a wide range of education aspects namely administration such as the enrolment of unofficial course staff in your course site and teaching such as creating online assessment for your students. These can help to enhance the learning process by using virtual contacts.

Where

As the CMS software gradually advancing, it can lead to a total new era of education. As such, education can become more efficient and across the boundaries. Unlimited collaboration among subject matters and course designers can be achieved and we can just find and search for the learning content at the tip of our finger. As the CMS are universal, we can exchange our critical learning content with others from the other side of the world. Thus, making the learning process more interactive and not limited to our education scoop.

Who

The target groups of Course Management System (CMS) are anyone in education field, instructors, teachers, lecturers and students, to name a few. Basically anyone with proper credentials and has the capability to create teaching materials and course content. For example, a teacher can share her/his lesson plan with other

teacher or additional learning materials with his/her students.

How

CMS served as a platform for instructors/teachers to send in their materials easily. This is because the senders and receivers do not have to be knowledgeable about HTML or any complicated codes to post up their information on the said web, as the user-friendly interface is integrated to achieve the purpose of CMS. Taking MOE LMS (http://spp.moe.edu.my/) as an example, student needs to sign up for an account on the website, the registration process is a piece of cake and after that they have unlimited access to the resources posted on the websites.

Advantages

There are various advantages in using CMS, One of them is that their ‘openness’. All people regardless of their place and time or age can join CMS website, if finance become a barrier they can always search for a free open source CMS. As CMS can reach out to anyone in the world, the users can exchange material and

use each other’s resources as references. Although CMS websites yet to feature interoperability among themselves, this feature will definitely come into play soon to serve the users better. Apart from that, CMS allow users to be evaluated when they are in this course. Thus, they are able to know their own advancement in the registered course.

List of Open source software

1. Teamscape

2. Docebo

3. Moodle.org

4. eFront

5. spp.moe.edu.my


References

Eledge Open Learning Management System. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from The University of Utah: http://eledge.sourceforge.net/

Learning Management System. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_management_system#Trends

Learning Management System. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from Ministry of Education: http://spp.moe.edu.my/mod/resource/view.php?id=4049

List of free and open source software. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_and_open_source_software_packages#Learning_support

moodle. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from moodle: http://moodle.org/

OpenSourceList.org. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from OpenSourceList.org: http://opensourcelist.org/oss/suggestedapplications.html#educational

Why use a Course Management System. (2010, July 20). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from Blackboard Office of Information Technology: http://predictionwrong.appspot.com/www.princeton.edu/bb/whycms/

Week 2: Web 2.0 in education (reflection)

There's a lot of new things that i've learned today. For instance, the variety web applications such as facebook, yahoogroups, blog and even our email account are all the software of web 2.0. These web 2.0 software sure bring a lot of advantages to the users as it encourages interactions and participation between the users. As such, it promises interactive two ways of communication. In contrast with web 1.0 which its content and material are from the experts and professionals only, web 2.0 is more user-generated content. Through this assignment, I can also have a chance to have an interaction and discussion with my course mates from Sarawak. Furthermore, i really think this kind of assignment can enhance my ICT skills as I learned to maximize the usage of my facebook group in a correct way.  It also helps me in giving a better understanding of the current technology from the discussion that I had from my fellow course mates as they've been doing different topics. To conclude, the task that were given to us for this week had me changed the way i look at the ICT technology nowadays.

Web 2.0 in education

In order to let people to share and boost their knowledge and ability to learn, the thoughts of using networked computing to connect people were first coined by JCR Licklider’s dated back at 1960s. However, the term of Web 2.0 was created by Dale Dougherty and O'Reilly to describe sites that survived the dot-com crash. Basically, Web 2.0 is sites that enable the visitors to become participants rather than just viewers.  The listservs, Usenet groups, discussion software, groupware and Web-based communities have been proved to link people around the world. It is believes that the emergence of the newly improved Web 1.0; Web 2.0 brings many advantages to the generation nowadays.

Take wikipedia as an example. Widely vast information can be obtained there. At the same time, if there is any wrong information about something, you can edit and correct since it is a wikipedia. Or you can even add any new extra information about that particular subject, making it as an interactive way of learning. It enabled the visitors to become participant rather than just viewers.

In addition, the egression of the web application such as blog encouraged people to share and to receive information thus lead to an emergence of close-knit virtual community. It allows the writer of the blog to share the knowledge with others while the reader can interact by leaving comments and feedback making the readers to be an active participant thus making it as a two way communication between the writer and the reader to express their different ideas. Besides that, Web 2.0 enabled us to keep a tab with the updated contents on the sites. The used of widgets such as RSS feeds allows the writer to create a loyal and niche sets of readers. Moreover, it has enabled the webmasters to measure the popularity of their blog.

Web 2.0 has also made it possible to gather information from various sources and personalize it according to the taste and preferences of individual visitors thus offered the advantages of personalizing the content. For instance, prior to the advent of Web 2.0, the searching of information are just limited to only a single source. However, with the advent of Web 2.0, information can be obtained through multiple sources making learning easier. You can either obtain it from the blog or any social bookmarking sites such as Deli.ci.ous and Digg.
In a nutshell, Web 2.0 is believes to bring many advantages to the learning process as it encourages active participant from the users thus enabled them to share different ideas and making it more interactive.

references: http://knol.google.com/k/matt-bacak/advantages-of-web-2-0/1utebk6ggpxbo/115#

http://knol.google.com/k/web-2-0-in-teaching-and-learning#

http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/web2edu/

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0621.pdf

First Week Class

Assalamualaikum and hello everyone... =)

I think that i am lagging behind in posting my first entry compared to my other friends..

nevertheless, I am going to share a brief information of what we've done during our first meeting of Computer in Education subject with our lecturer, Sir Tengku Norazlan..=)

1. Create an official google and yahoo account

Search for your google or yahoo pages and once you've been redirected to any of those pages, simply click on 'create an account' and you will be required to fill in the form provided. Once you've done, you now have your own yahoo/google account. =)

Meanwhile, to add a signature of yours:

Gmail >setting >signature

Yahoo mail >option >mail option >signature

2. Create an official Facebook account

Go to facebook and fill in all required information. Once you're done, click 'Sign Up' and you will be redirected into new page and just follow all the steps provided. Once you're done, you can start to add your friends, fill in your extra information and join any groups that you want. =)

3. Create our own facebook group

Simply click on 'create group' at the left corner of your facebook page, named your group and start to add your friends into your group by typing their name.

4. Create our own yahoo group

Go to Yahoo! groups page, click on 'start your group' and simply follow all the guidelines provided. You can start adding your friend by sending invitation to their yahoo mail.

5. Create our own blog

Go to blogger.com and click on 'get started' where you are required to fill in the required information. Once you have create your own blog, beautify your blog by changing the template at the 'design' tab.

Reflection

Creating an official account for both my gmail and yahoo is very easy as it required simple steps. However, putting a signature for my account might be unfamiliar for me as i've not done it before. I also didn't encounter any problems in creating facebook account and facebook group as i'm an avid user of facebook so i'm used with any of their features..=) In contrast, creating a yahoo group might cause a problem to me as i'm not familiar with it and i find that it is quite complicated to manage and it may take some times for me to get used with it..=) Well, I do have my own personal blog before so I am looking forward in managing my second blog. But more for academic purpose, of course..=) It is very fun doing all the task given despite of our poor internet connection which i can say that sometimes it do give me a headache..=P

that's all for now I guess, bye!