Poll of the week 9: With e-learning as a learning and teaching tool, who do you think benefits the most?

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Based on this week poll result, the question of this poll which is "With e-learning as learning and teaching tool, who do you think benefits the most?". During this week result none of the respondent think that it's e-learning as learning and teaching tools most benefits is for instructor, parents and others. Because currently most of the people who using e-learning which is students and teacher/lecturer.

Generally, in this result from this week all the respondents are agree with e-learning as learning and teaching tools is more benefits for students as in 8 respondents 100%. Why they said so ? It is because e-learning is more convenient for students to learn something such as extra information and it can widen their extra knowledge in their life. Besides that, e-learning can grab student's attention because it's just not a text and it also has some graphic or photos which are related to the information. They would not get bored studying as the learning is more interactive and interesting. Furthermore, it also can help some of the students get more interest on IT and improve their IT techniques as well.

Computer lab for kids

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Source: The Star newspaper, Computer lab for kids, 13th of March 2010

Nowadays, its common to have computer lab at school. We even have computer labs in kindergarden schools. Almost all of us have personal computer at home as it becomes one of our needs in life. Unfortunately, there are some could not afford to buy one.

According to the news article, Avilion Hotel Group has generously donated three brand new computers to the children of Pertubuhan Kanak-kanak Yatim dan Miskin in Port Dickson (Malaysia). The children now have their own computer lab. Sharing is caring. Besides donating the three brand new computers, Avilion Hotel Group also gives some money to them. The total money of RM 5,724 which was raised from the Christmas charity sale of teddy bears is given to the home by the representative of the Avilion Hotel Group which is the managing director, Andre Jean Siebert. The children is so happy to have this "mini computer lab". The smiles on their face are priceless.

The founder of home, Pastor Paul Jegathesan is overjoyed by the generosity of the Avilion Hotel Group. Pastor Paul expresses his gratitude and is thankful to the Group. He said that the hotel has been very supportive as for the past few years, the Group has been helping them a lot and there is no word that could express how they feel.

Not only that, Pastor Paul also said that the children that stays in the home were basically came from abusive background homes, losing their parents and so on. The children of Pertubuhan Kanak-kanak Yatim dan Miskin could not do this on their own as they need the government support as well as others to help the kids to live a new life. The three new computers will be used as a teaching and learning tool for the children. They will be useful for the children. The children could use the computers for the school projects purpose or to play educational games. Pastor Paul also said that the children need a volunteer computer teacher so that the children would at least have the basic knowledge about the computer skills. With the basic skills of the computer, the children could do their homework and projects with the use of the computers. The computers would be beneficial to the children as computing skills are necessary nowadays. Well, they could access to e-learning courses which are free too. There are a lot of free websites that provide good e-learning courses. The children could go for e-learning courses to improve and widen their knowledge.

In our opinion, sharing things together is a good deed not only in term of food, drinks and money but also in term of education. We share knowledge with each other to build up our education system in our country. If everyone is selfish, the world will not going to improve as everyone is living in their own life. Education is very important. It helps to upgrade the person's life and also the world.

The below short video clip is about how the World Wide Web (WWW) has changed the world. It also tells how much education has changed.


Video clip source: youtube, Learning and Motivation in the 21st Century [Online], Retrieved on Wednesday, 17th of March 2010
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_6GUx1Zx0w&feature=related

References:

- CHITRA S. NATHAN, thestar, Computer lab for kids [Online], Retrieved on Wednesday, 17th of March 2010,
URL: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/3/13/central/5847524&sec=central

- youtube, Learning and Motivation in the 21st Century [Online], Retrieved on Wednesday, 17th of March 2010
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_6GUx1Zx0w&feature=related

The Features and Benefits of eLearning

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Hi, readers!

Today we are gonna to talk about the Features and Benefits of eLearning. This topic basically covers up the information about the functions and advantages of eLearning.

Features of eLearning

Learning is self-paced and gives lecturers and students an opportunity to speed up or slow down the process of using eLearning. Its is a self-directed functioning where it allows students to choose any content and learning tools to their different interests, needs and skill levels.

It also accommodates multiple learning styles by using a variety types of delivery methods for learners, it would be more effective to some learners. eLearning is designed to accommodates around the learners for its easy usage. It is learned that in eLearning, geographical barriers are being eliminated and opening up broader ways of education options to learners. 24 hours in 7 days accessibility of eLearning makes learners' schedule easy and allows a large number of people to get motivated on education.

eLearning offers the option of on-demand access whereby learners can learn and have a quicker access to eLearning whenever they like for education purpose or seek for sources. Learners also enable to save up some unnecessary cost of travel time and associated costs such as parking, fuel, vehicle maintenance and toll charges just to get to a bookstore or library to get sources and reading materials. Overall eLearning also be able to save up students cost and parents expenses for tuition fees, books and time. eLearning can save up time and associated costs, hence it is convenient and easy to access. It also enhance the communication and interaction process between students and lecturer throughout application provided by eLearning. It also draws upon hundreds of years of established pedagogical principles. It also attracts the most attention from major colleges and universities in the world for their most outcome online degrees, professional certificates and individual part time courses. Furthermore, it enhance learners' learning progression and computing skills.

Benefits of eLearning

There are many significant advantages lies beyond eLearning. It would be greater advantage for students to learn online. eLearning is convenient and portability as long there is a network connection. Online courses that uses eLearning are accessible based on our schedule and free time. Its is 24/7 accessibility with just few clicks. eLearning also does not require physical attendance. Besides that it is self-paced and organized which enable users to go not too slow or too fast using eLearning. Users also enable to absorb the sources and learning materials easier and comfortable due to its structure in eLearning is being organized. Users also are unbound by location and time as users can have 24/7 access and be able to study anywhere whenever there is a network connection.

Users also enable to read materials and seek for sources online and download them to be read later. Users and students also save up a large cost on associated costs. eLearning enables users to choose from a wide range of courses to meet their needs and wants such as degree courses, vocational, certified professional courses and diploma courses. Its flexibility. eLearning accommodates users' preference and needs whereby students are being centered. It is one of the option being offered in self-study online. Users also enable to skip over chapters on a reading material and focus on the particular chapter to study as eLearning enable users to find the chapter through clicks and not through flips of pages.

Do you know that eLearning is one of the act of high retention on education? It is learned that online learning enable users to draw to topics they like and enjoyed. Research shows that due to variety of delivery methods being offered in eLearning to reach different types of learners, retention is always better than studying traditional ways. eLearning creates greater collaborations, interactions and communications among students, users and lecturers. Users also enable to avoid face-to-face in order to earn skills and education (students avoid face-to-face lecturers). eLearning is just at users' fingertips with online learning and computing skills. eLearning requires computing skills and not physical skills.

Reference:

Worldwidelearn, eLearning Essentials [Online], Retrieved on Tuesday, 16th of March 2010

URL: http://www.worldwidelearn.com/elearning-essentials/elearning-benefits.htm

eLearning in Malaysia

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Nowadays, eLearning is the most rapid growth on Malaysia between it is a web-based technologies and higher usage of Internet. Besides that, Universities in Malaysia have responded actively to challenge this and ministry of education's strategies want to enhance people who use eLearning. Other then that, eLearning also is the latest evolution in corporate education and training for user. The first electronic supplement was computer-based training, delivered via CD-ROM to individual PCs or local area networks. The rise of web led to web-based training, courseware developed specially for delivery via the internet or intranet. Intranet is a private computer network that uses internet protocol technologies to securely share any part of an organization's information or operation systems. furthermore, the term intranet also uses to contrast internet.

Obviously, in Malaysia are slowly to use eLearning for teaching such as primary school, secondary school, College and Universities as well. Based on the research, currently 20 public Universities & Universities-College, Private Universities & Universities College and at last almost over 600 private College in Malaysia. Since 2004, Malaysia start planning eLearning on all the eduacation between this technology also able to provide interactivity and active learning. E-learning also is a small library for user. Why I said so? It's because all the video, audio, diagram and graphic we can find on eLearning to get the information between it's also convenient to sharing the information. Besides that, eLearning also easy for teacher to teaching on class and can easily to catch all the students attention on it.

Lastly, government is trying to give a better environment for students studying between eLearning are not really to replace that traditional teaching way. Furthermore, it also is a good teaching tool for teachers to use to grabbing students attention during their teaching.

References:
-Seven Steps of Elearning & Elearning in Malaysia[Online], Retrieved on Sunday, 14th of March 2010,

URL: http://quinnovation.com:8000/EnhancedIDWP.pdf

Tips on how to improve e-learning

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As what we have discussed in one of our previous posts on the result of what is the respondent thought on what feature is needed to be added in order to make e-learning interesting, today's post will be on the tips on how to improve the e-learning education.

There will be a few tips on how to improve e-learning.

In this era, E-learning has changed a lot of people's life. Most of the people now go for e-learning courses because it is convenient, available for 24 hours and so on. There will always be feedback and comments on users who use e-learning. The developers of the website and the instructors will then think of various ways to improve the e-learning to make it accessible to various type of users so that everyone can access to e-learning courses. It is like when you first time baking a cake and you give your friends to taste it, they then give you feedback about the taste and it seems that it did not turn out to be good feedback, so you will then try to figure out what is the problem and try to improve your baking skills. You will keep on trying until you receive good feedback. This is just like how website developers want to improve their websites after getting a lot of comments from users.

The first tips will be to consider the technology requirements used by the learners

Everyone uses different hardware, software and connection method. So, programmers and instructors should work closely together to plan what type of hardware, software and connection method that their target audience will use. For an example, not everyone has updated their browser version and programmers should consider to make the website to be best supported for almost all version of browsers. Besides, if learners want to download the notes but need to wait for an hour because of the connection speed, instructors should categorized the file properly. Not only that, instructors could either make it readable online or download the notes to read it offline. Programmers and instructor should think their learner's convenience. Apart from that, instructors should also keep the font of the text used simple. The font used like Arial, and Times New Roman are common font where they are readable on the screen. Not everyone can support other type of fonts. Instructors should also consider choosing the font that everyone's computer system have. There is no point downloading the notes when the font of the text could not read and appear to be all different type of characters. Therefore, it is advisable to use font that is available in almost all of the computer system and commonly used.

The second tips will be to motivate learners

This is where the instructors need to upgrade and improve the teaching style. Instructors need to come out with interesting way of teaching and not the dull way to motivate learners to learn. We know this is like a common tip or guideline where everyone knows but it is a very important tips. Instructors need to think of various way to motivate learners and know their needs. The way to motivate the learners is different in a traditional way of learning which is in classroom and in e-learning environment. In e-learning environment, instructors need to put a lot work and effort to make the course designs presentable in an interesting and creative way so that it will motivate the learners to learn. Do the learners prefer the visual design type or the information design type ?

Visual design is where there will be a lot of images and graphics when presenting the information for the learners. For information design, it is where there will not be much of images and graphics and there will be a lot of words in the content. The whole notes will be full of description of the information.

1) Visual design type- with a lot of graphics


Image source: dashboardspy [Online], Retrieved on Saturday, 13th March 2010,
URL: http://dashboardspy.com/dashboards/45/executive-dashboards-in-performance-improvement-frameworks

2) Information design type- with a lot of words


Image source: indezine [Online], Retrieved on Saturday, 13th of March 2010,
URL: http://www.indezine.com/articles/dumpthattext01.html

In our opinion, does anyone really read all the text on the power point slide? Well, they are probably some people but not all. Putting too much of information in one slide will make it looks dull and not interesting. This will demotivate the learners to continue reading the following slides. They will not pay attention on the slides. Information design type is where there will the design will be text-based design. It is easy to create where the instructors will just type in the information but it will make the learning to be boring. Learners will not have the interest to read the information.

Moving on, putting more pictures, video clips, interesting layout and so on will grab the learners' attention. Well, people love to see colourful things. Instructors may need to put more related graphics according to the information for the learners to see because it is easy to understand and it will make the learning more interesting. In e-learning, it is advisable that instructors need to put more effort to motivate the learners to learn and understand by giving creative and attractive notes. The graphics and images must be relevant to the content. Notes which are full of words may seem to be informative but learners need to be very concentrate in order to read the notes. Overload information will demotivate the learners to continue reading the rest of the notes.

The third tips will be adding mini games


Image source: imlaudienceresponse [Online], Retrieved on Saturday, 13th of March 2010,
URL: http://www.imlaudienceresponse.com/products/quizzes/interactive-quizzes.html

Well, putting some mini games like quizzes will make learning more interactive and interesting. Learners can take the quiz test before subscribing to online classes to see which chapters you are weak at and emphasize on that particular topic. Not only that, the objective to put some mini games is to make learning fun and not dull. Inserting some mini games like SUDOKU will also test their strategies in solving problem. This will also help them to improve their thinking skills. Courses like Maths require very good thinking skills as there will be a lot of tricky questions. Try to put quizzes on every chapters to let the learners take the quiz to see whether or not they understand the particular chapter. Well, make sure there will be feedback given after the quiz section.

References:
-Lee Ann Obringer, howstuffworks, How E-learning works [Online], Retrieved on Saturday, 13th of March 2010,
URL: http://communication.howstuffworks.com/elearning9.htm

Avelyn

Poll of the week 8 : What makes e-learning effective?

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There are total number of 8 voters for this week poll. Based on the above pie chart, it is so obvious that 100% of the respondents which is all of the voters voted "24 hours availability."

Most of the voters voted 24 hours availability as they find that e-learning is accessible whenever they need the sources. They can access it anytime and anywhere they want. There is no limitation of downloading files or overtime when user access to e-learning. The negative side of having e-learning was when the server down or under renovation, it will affect the progression of accessing into e-learning.

Students and lecturers can search for sources anytime they want nor even during their free time or peak hours. For example, a student can search for reading materials during the midnight although he or she just got back home from a movie or supper.

E-learning also enable students and lecturers interact or upload files anytime and anywhere they want as long as there is an internet access as e-learning requires internet access in order to proceed to search for files and sources.

Summary: Students and lectures or the public find e-learning useful because it is 24 hours availability and they enable to upload or search for sources anytime they want to. It is convenient for them to arrange their schedule time.

E-Learning initiative in Malaysia

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Basically, Malaysia discussion, debate and deliberation on eLearning such as an option to enhance traditional classroom face-to-face training are being widely encouraged and promoted by the government and by private organization. Besides that, eLearning does not mean that to replace traditional classroom face-to-face teaching but rather then complement it. However, the purpose of positioning Malaysia to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy, the government has promote promoted eLearning at both the policy and infrastructure level. In general, pioneering eLearning initiatives and support in Malaysia can be divided into initiative taken by:

-Educational institutes

-Government organizations

Educational institutes

Actually, developing a country into a fully developed nation by the year 2020, Malaysia has developed the national philosophy as the national guidelines and country's aspiration of unity and development. The Malaysian education policy is the transformation of national philosophy. The main focus of the policy is on improving quality and increasing the quantity of out-put to meet the manpower as well to produce citizens who are disciplined and have high moral values and good work ethics. The policy is designed to: equip student with the essential skills in a holistic and integrated manner, in order to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually,emotionally and physically balanced ; as well as functionally literate; inculcate and nurture national consciousness by promoting common ideas,values, aspiration and loyalties.

Government organization

one government organization that has embarked on eLearning initiatives is the national institute if public administration(INTAN), the training center for civil servants, where it working on accounting-modules. all civil servants are eligible for the training.

Basically, Malaysia discussion, debate and deliberation on eLearning such as an option to enhance traditional classroom face-to-face training are being widely encouraged and promoted by the government and by private organization. Besides that, eLearning does not mean that to replace traditional classroom face-to-face teaching but rather then complement it. However, the purpose of positioning Malaysia to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy, the government has promote promoted eLearning at both the policy and infrastructure level. In general, pioneering eLearning initiatives and support in Malaysia can be divided into initiative taken by:

-educational institutes

-government organizations

Educational institutes

Actually, developing a country into a fully developed nation by the year 2020, Malaysia has developed the national philosophy as the national guidelines and country's aspiration of unity and development. The Malaysian education policy is the transformation of national philosophy. The main focus of the policy is on improving quality and increasing the quantity of out-put to meet the manpower as well to produce citizens who are disciplined and have high moral values and good work ethics. The policy is designed to: equip student with the essential skills in a holistic and integrated manner, in order to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually,emotionally and physically balanced ; as well as functionally literate; inculcate and nurture national consciousness by promoting common ideas,values, aspiration and loyalties.

Government organization

one government organization that has embarked on eLearning initiatives is the national institute if public administration(INTAN), the training center for civil servants, where it working on accounting-modules. all civil servants are eligible for the training.

Reference:
-definingelearning, Internet Based [Online], Retrieved on Friday, 28th of February 2010
URL: http://www.ktak.gov.my/template03.asp?tt=news&newsID=273

Poll of the week 7: Do you think e-learning is right for you?

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Here is the result from last week poll question.



There is a total of 7 voters all together. Based on the above pie chart, it obviously shows that more than half of the respondents which is 5 voters, 71% of the respondents voted 'Maybe'. There are 2 voters, 29% of the respondents voted 'No'. It shows that none of the respondent voted 'Yes' as their answer.

Apparently, it seems that most of the respondents are not sure whether or not e-learning is right for them. Why? This is probably because they have yet experienced how e-learning is really works in the education system. Internet was developed around the 90's and was popular used around 1990s whereby during that period of time, most of us were taught at school with the use of textbooks. The technology during 1990s was not really advanced yet. Now, we are all engaging to high technologies machines and tools. Respondents are now engaging to blending learning where e-learning and traditional way of learning are both used as a learning and teaching tool at school. So, they are probably not clear yet whether or not e-learning is right for them.

Moving on, there are two respondents who are clear whether or not e-learning is right for them. It seems that e-learning is not right for them. This is probably because they are very clear that the old way of learning is right for them rather than e-learning. They prefer to get education in the traditional way of learning environment. Not only that, not everyone is computer literate. E-learning needs good basic skills on how to use the hardware and software. So, it is necessary to have basic skills on how to use the hardware and software in order to get education using e-learning. Not only that, they probably prefer to get education in blending learning environment rather than just e-learning. They prefer to have discussion in class rather than just through chat box services in Internet or e-mail. Not only that, they prefer to have interactivity class in the traditional classroom rather than in the chat box.

It seems that none of the respondent think that e-learning is right for them. This is because they have probably already tried e-learning and they thought that e-learning is not right for them. Besides, they probably used to the blending learning or the traditional way of learning and may not want to switch to e-learning.

Summary: Well, different people will have different preference on how they will get their education. It is still depends on the quality of the distribution of knowledge.

Japanese Learning tools

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Hi readers!

Today's topic will be a little special from our previous post. Today, we will be discussing on the Japanese learning tools.

This topic would be an advantage to those students or interested viewers who would like to master the learning of Japanese language. Why do we say so? Because today's topic gonna share about online learning on Japanese language. As we have seen that there are minority of people in the society would like to learn and master Japanese language as an additive to their life surroundings. To foreigners who would like to learn Japanese language usually as their third language preference. It would be an advantage as foreigners who master Japanese language enable to work and study in Japan.

Well, country like Japan will need a very basic requirement that is the learning of Japanese language in order to be able to work and study in Japan. It would be a compulsory. User can save cost and time on learning Japanese language as tertiary language through this link : www.sabotenweb.com/bookmarks/language.html. As nowadays people tend to reach to the cyber world in seconds, therefore online learning on Japanese language would be suitable for all online users.

Throughout this link, www.sabotenweb.com/bookmarks/language.html, it enable user or learner to learn japanese language from English to Japanese or Japanese to English. Some of the websites in the net enable user to translate Japanese language to different types of language preference for their self-understanding. Some of the language websites also provides feature such as translator, dictonaries, podcasts, and sound translator in Japanese language. For more information, user can refer to this link for further enhancement : www.sabotenweb.com/bookmarks/language.html

Reference

- japaneselanguagelearningtoolsonweb, Japanese-english, English-Japanese dictionaries [Online], Retrived on 2nd of March 2010
URL: http://www.sabotenweb.com/bookmarks/language.html