Week 8

Hey. Mid-semester break had ended and you guessed it, back to classes and assignments. Dr. Khalid was in charge of today's class and he taught us about a software called Movie Maker. It's a program widely used by teachers, V-loggers, artists and internet-users to record a video using either your computer's camera or compile multiple videos and audio altogether. I had seen a lot of YouTube artists who create videos using this program. For a person who prefer not to spend money to make videos, given I could find unpaid ones on the internet, this program is a huge plus for me. Dr. Khalid telling us about the benefits of it is like giving acknowledgement that particularly for students and teachers to use it. The task handed by Dr. was to combine two or three videos using Movie Maker based on the objectives. I love animation so much that I had to make a video about one. The title of my video is 'The Beauty of Japanese Animation'. It is a combination of 3 anime, Garden of Words, My Neighbour Totoro and Arrietty. These 3 hold a special place in my heart.

Although it is free, let's face it. It does have decent functions, is easy to learn and user-friendly. You can add visual effects, fade in or out your background audio, stabilize your recording and the most common of all editing, cut unnecessary parts and add new ones. There is plenty of online-tutorials explaining in detail how to make good use of the program. The only comments I have about Movie Maker is the inability to add certain images without them being part of the 'frames'. Meaning, I can't add an image to an existing video. I had tried adding images a few times but to no avail. Also, it is a major drawback that it tended to crash, so I would like to give a reminder to myself and readers of this post to always SAVE your Movie Maker progress if you don't want to lose anything important. Movie Maker is not the only video-editing software out there. The internet has loads to offer. Wax, Filmora and Avidemux are the names you will find on the internet available for download.

Week 7

Mid-semester Break

Week 6

Hello everyone. This week's activity is about arranging different multimedia elements in a video. It was Dr. Khalid's turn to give the lecture. He showed us two videos. We were asked to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the two by making comparisons. The first is a video with happy and upbeat music while the second is a travel video of Dr. Khalid and his family. Both were really nice videos, the second video despite slow-paced and the music not as exciting as the first is still great. It has a lasting memory of a person's vacation with his family. I would love to go on a trip to such place with my family someday.  

To make things more interesting, each group was to edit sounds by combining and tweaking them using a program called Audacity. I had used it for a different course but only to examine sound waves and pitch, thus did not explore much of the functions yet. So, everyone worked together to find the right audio. We thought the audio should be related to the topic of choice, 'Problems in Public Transport'. Halimatun, the group's sound editor was the most knowledgeable in the area. I observed a bit of her editing and learnt a good deal of editing skills. Each group presented the audio to the whole class. Everyone was really good at mixing audio. I especially like the one made by Wirda's group. I think I should try doing it again on my own sometime.

Here is what audio editing in Audacity looks like. It might look complex at first but once you get your hands on it, you will be surprised how much you'll like it. It would certainly be useful for preparing teaching activities. Thanks so much for introducing this to us.

Week 5

Assalamualaikum.

It was already week 5 but to me, it still felt like the start of the semester. This week Dr. Fariza taught us about different forms of multimedia. We chose to present on elements in a poster. There were several other elements such as videos, mahjong papers, whiteboard and LCD slides.

Posters are used to showcase important information to capture the interest of audience. With little text and eye-catching visuals, posters are useful if used correctly. In short, the choice of illustration, font and colours should be relevant and suitable with the topic. Teachers can also emphasize the keywords on a poster instead of long, wordy explanation. A good way to utilize posters is assigning students to make their own in small groups. Apart from learning teamwork, students who are usually passive will be more motivated to display their skills as they would feel appreciated by peers and teachers.

An example of an educational poster

LCD slides and mahjong papers are perfect teaching and learning tools for classroom presentations. Slides can be used as alternatives for hand-outs and written materials. It would certainly benefit classes with an LCD projector but schools that couldn't afford to provide the advancement would have to rely mostly on whiteboards/blackboards for teachers to deliver the lesson. 

On the side note, we did not expect finishing the slides and present it at the spur of the moment. 

Week 4

Assalamualaikum.

We have come quite a long way. This week's activity was illustrating the ideas for our short video in a form of a storyboard.  The night before, we (Group 6) had a discussion about the story but everything was jumbled up in words while the rest of it remained as untold imaginations. Doing this actually helped bringing the ideas in a clear and visible manner. Dr. Rosseni and Dr. Fariza were both in the class, giving guidance and support in the best way possible. Each group was given a 'mahjong' paper, big enough for us to sketch the scenes. So, the title 'Everyday Struggles: Public Transport' was the one everybody had agreed upon. Down below is the picture of us sketching the draft of the storyboard. Each group was asked to present the storyboard afterwards. We listened to other groups' presentation first. A few useful advice was given by lecturers and friends to improve the ideas and themes. According to them, the video must have some sort of solutions to the problems. They wished us luck at the end of the class.

First draft

The complete storyboard

Week 3

Assalamualaikum and hi.

It was the 11th of March and I came a bit late to class. Luckily, it had not began yet which gave me quite a relief. It was Dr. Rosseni's turn to handle the class. She explained about the video assignment. and showed us a video of TESL seniors' past work. The first was a documentary of nature where a group of people showcased a collection of photos and videos from their travel. Some of the scenes captivated me, being a lover for nature myself. Dr. Rosseni gave many good advice to enhance our video production. One of the things she said is to ensure the transition of the music to sync with the video. Noticing that the voice of the casts were unclear, I would provide subtitles in the video and make sure the sound is audible to the audience. It is also important to cut out unnecessary scenes because the duration is limited to only 10 minutes. The second video is a drama called 'Taubat', also made by our seniors. It was impressive how it managed to give an emotional impact to the audience, which is also what I am looking to have in my group's video.

The compilation of videos, as well as input from Dr. Rosseni triggered ideas and motivation for me to harness the opportunities available to produce great results in the future. The activities altogether were fun and satisfying. One of the most memorable moments was when Dr. Rosseni brought gifts from Sarawak for everyone. Keychains! She also brought sweet cake-like treats and shared them with us. It was really kind and thoughtful of her. Seeing the way she speaks and treats people, I think she is a pleasant tutor anyone could have asked for. I am looking forward to meeting her in the next class.

Week 2

Assalamualaikum.

On the 4th of March, I met Dr. Fariza, my former lecturer for Computer in Edu. It was nice meeting her again and seeing how immersed she is every time she teaches brings back memories from the first semester. She had mentioned that reflections are mainly categorized in two, reflective and non-reflective. While a non-reflective writing is about habitual actions and the content of a particular experience or lesson, a reflective is the experience in relation to problem-solving, such as how the lesson helps us to understand a problem better. How the lesson affects our perception towards an issue or situation is considered reflective as it prompts critical thinking, a highly-required skill of the 21st century. I thought about the reflections I did for Educational Psychology and Computer in Edu and only a few manage to fit the reflective category. Still, learning something new made me satisfied.

The 5 elements of Educational Tech is design, develop, utilize, manage and evaluate. Dr. Fariza stresses on its importance, thus I wrote them down as I might easily forget things especially if it's verbose. All in all, it was a fun class and did not feel long at all. Dr. Fariza was so enthusiastic in conveying the lesson and I thought how great it would be if I could do the same. Somehow I felt that my passion for teaching had grew. I also managed to keep track of the whole lesson which I wish to maintain for future classes. Thank you for reading!