Day 1: New Media in Learning Pedagogy

Attending a new course and gotta start a blog. Kinda like deja vu. Here we go again. Here's a group photo of the class. They probably need a good dose of SKII.

Five - End of Days

Have finally reached the end of the course. Lets summerise what went throught my brains:

Levin, Moos, Walberg, Murray, Fraser, Alpha & Beta Press, SPSS, WIHIC, lunch, going home.


Initially I thought that there would be little learning in the course as learning to blog and open gmail accounts was not exactly what I had in mind as tools for learining. But the course was quite stimulating to the mind and the new tools learnt would prob become useful sometime later on.

Overall I have a good time in course and a better appreactation into the methods od assessing the learning environment.

~~~~The End~~~~

Four - D.R.F.S.R.

Was not as efficient as I used to be, need 4hrs instead to complete the presentation to the l (*). Still, had finished the thing done and back to school I go.

Today did more on surveys, used excel and SPSS to figure out out if the suyvey is uasble. Faiz used to do statistics in JC so he was a boon to have around.

The lesson and groupwork this time round was at a more hectic pace. Able to keep awake after lunch. Did a somewhat modified mini thesis as groupwork. Started not knowing what we were doing and ended with some neat looking product.

Day 3 - Reflections - Does your conscience bother you?

The day for me was a short one, in a learning sense as I had some work to complete for submission tomorrow. In any case, the case study was an interesting look into how an environment may seem peachy but is internally rotten (ex. School A).

Had to recover yet another of my lost skills, the art to doing last minute work and getting it ready before the deadline. I usually get things completed if I wake up 2hr before the usual time for work. Hmmm, maybe I need more time, guess I better give mysely 2 and a half hours instead.

Day 3 - Big Wheels Keep On Turning

Another sleepy day.

This morning we dwelved more into surveys (WIHIC & SLEQ) and Moos. Read up a case study on some school (still trying to figure out which school it is) to discuss after the tea break.

The school in the case study seemed to be a good one, on the surface level at least. The drive for acedemic excellence was putting wast pressures on the teachers, head of departments and the students too. The principal was too concerned on keeping his school's "value added" status and neglected that studying has to be done in a conducive and relaxed atmosphere. Seems like the principal has the makings of an ex general.

2nd Day - Reflections - And It Makes Me Wonder

Today we had a more in depth understanding of the pioneers of learning environments. They are Kurt Lewin, Barry J Fraser, Rudolf Moos and Henry Murray. The groups placed their stuff on the Lessonbox, gotta have a look and digest more later in the evening.

Introduces to WIHIC and it was an interesting way of doing an evaluation on the learning environment. First do a survey on their preference, and somewhere in the middle of the course, give a survey on the actual expirence. This is better than end of course surveys. Neat way to gather feedback and to change the curriculum (if necessary) while the changes can still be effective. The student and teachers survey in the ppt seems useful.

Had played around with a few more tools from Blogger and Gmail. Still cannot see how I can use these stuff in teaching NWOC, but hey, its a good thing to relax the mind for a while.

Somebody figured out the meanings to the headings of yesterday's post so today I used another theme. Not something complicated, still a classic. Maybe I should up the challenge and use more obscure phrases next time.

Here is a pic from today. Focus not too good so I guess Dr Quek would make a lousy paparazzi.

Bernard Out.

2nd Day - After Lunch - And the Forests Will Echo With Laughter

Feeling sleepy as usual after lunch. Trying hard to recover my capacity to listen, comprehend and understand what is going on in class while in screen saver mode. Seems like I can still do it.

Introduced to Goggle Doc, a tool used for corroboration of documents and files within an invited group of people. Kinda useful if all your friends are around the world and living in different time zones. Still prefer the local style of discussing work over a cup of coffee... cheesecake... ice cream...

Fiddling around and placed an unnessary question for polling. Placed links to the blogs of my group mates. Also added a link to the Slipknot Fan Club to see if there are any Heavy Metal fans out there.

2nd Day - B4 Lunch - And a New Day Will Dawn, for Those Who Stand Long

Went through the lessons and the class was split into 4 groups to find out the Who, What, Where, When, Why, How on people who made great contributions to learining environment. Somehow our group had a laissez-faire attitude and allowed the others to chose first. Thats how we ended up doing a group work on Barry J Fraser.


First stop, Wikipedia. Darn it, there is no info on the dude there..... Guess we have to work harder in searching.


After a while, we managed to get some stuff and here it is:

Oops, cannot place a mindmap on blogger. Here is the next best thing, a pic of the dude.

Ta da.

First Day Reflections - Thunderbolt and Lightning; Very, Very, Frightening

Firstly I guess I have to state upfront that I came to the course to have a break from work. Not exactly the right mindframe to attend lessons.

When Dr Quek mentioned that the coursework includes starting and managing a blog (30% of grades), I can not see the relevance of this method of learning "How to Improve the Learning Environment" in a military context. Will keep an open mind on this though, since we are in the era of internet banking and credit card information is sent throught the internet regularly, SAF surely can find a way to give their officers access to classified material through the internet (hopefully during my lifetime).

During the lessons, I discovered that I have the commanding type of management style, shich is hardly surprising. Some stuff to digest from the lessons which may make interesting reading would probably be on Herbert Walberg & Rudolf Moos, and more on the inter-relationships between Lewinian's formula and Murray's needs-press model.

First Day (afternoon) - Scaramouche, Scaramouche, Will You Do the Fandango?

After lunch, we had some a little lesson on what constitutes a learning environment. Also did a questionaire on my management profile. Not surprisingly, I fall under the Commanding management style. Had a discussion on the pro and cons of this type of managament style. Basically it is useful when teaching fundamentals and when there are safety concerns. Once the learners have the right foundation on fundamentals, they are then ready for higher level of learning, where the instructor can be more Laissez-flire.

During the group discussions, we had an interesting debate on the students of today. How the good old fashioned kick in the ass has been replaced by student counciling, family background assessments, etc.

The instructor, Dr Quek was going around taking photos. Here is one of me (the dude in red, obscured partially by Sylvan). Putting this photo up as part of the course requirements on how to do a Blog.

Hey, its done.

First Day (morning) - I See a Little Silhouetto of a Man

First day in school for a long time. Now I am on the other side fo the fence, sitting down and being a student. Would I behave like the punks I teach, or will I be different?

Class started at 9 today. The schools are still on holiday so the traffic was smooth. The classroom environment was modern and different from the old days of a stuffy classroom wirh glass panelled windows and a rotary fan. Hmmm, the aircon is not working properly. Maybe the classroom is not so different after all.

Have to start a blog as coursework. Trying out the settings and variations, basically just fiddlin' around.