Reflection; The Finale.

Assalamualaikum and hello.

Successful learning stems from perseverance, hard work and determination in enduring various lives experience either bad or happy ones. This experience is part and parcel of life and one can never move forward and improved his/her self if they did not acknowledged the contributions of past experience in making them individuals who are unique in nature and characters. I have learned a lot from this course either in terms of improved knowledge and skills or characteristic deemed essential for life.

Blogging was considered a new thing to me. At first, it posed one of the tough challenges in adapting to the new environment as a university student. But as time passes, it changed into experience that enhanced self reflection and understanding of topic or lesson learned from the class. Furthermore, it helps to sustain pivotal points and activity that have been done in the form of diary besides encouraging critical and creative thinking skills as well as problem solving skills. Complementing on the good side of blogging was that I can use the words for writing reflection freely. English words and vocabulary are considered as unique for me. Therefore blogging provide means or as a platform for me to test various English words and vocabulary. In addition, I also realized the potential of blogging in the future classroom implementation, providing necessary elements of technology are integrated in the school.

In terms of what I do not like about blogging was its biggest obstruction namely internet connection. In other words, if we do not have internet connectivity like for example if the internet cable was stolen, the weekly reflection instructed by the lecturer can not be uploaded into the websites. However, this problem can be solved through the internet connection at the cyber cafes. Some of us prefer to write on the blog rather than drafting on the Microsoft word application. Therefore it was a matter of preferences and efficient planning of time to uploaded the weekly reflection. Apart from that, it was excruciating when the ideas for writing in the blog did not appear which in turn leaving the hard- earned money and time wasted at the cyber cafes.

In terms of the advantages of blog experienced by me, it helps me to pinpoint necessary strength and weaknesses of the class. This in turn provides better understanding that can be improved for the future. Besides that, the concept of sharing information and understanding of the topic learned are also replicated through blog. People can read and give comments about what they feel about our reflection besides helping us to rectify any problems expressed in the reflection. Apart from that, my communication skills have been improved through this technology as I am able to communicate with other people who read my blog even though it was not instantaneous. Moreover, I learned to be creative and critical in managing the blog since it acts as a personal website which in turn provides exposure to the way of marketing and business.

For me, the advantaged of learning in this course was nevertheless important and crucial for my development as a future teacher. This course has taught me a lot particularly in utilizing various technologies for English lesson resources and materials which I have never thought before. Besides that, it enabled me to improve on my computer software capabilities deemed necessary to complement the understanding of computer hardware. All this understanding and improved mastery of technology application helps in translating into better sources of authentic, enjoyable, interesting and encouraging materials for ESL classroom.

In terms of discouraging point of this course, there were overemphasized of technology-based instructional material designs. In other word, there were not sufficient balanced between the non technology based material construction with technology based one. This actually translates into over dependent of the technology in the teaching and learning process in the classroom which might posed difficult situation for teachers posted to the areas such as remote places in Sabah and Sarawak.

This course has provided me with ample information, skills and knowledge deemed essential for becoming successful teacher in the future. I have learned about various computer skills I have never thought before such as you tube videos downloading, video editing, audio editing and photo editing which all represents new segments of schemata in my knowledge. In addition, the role of the internet as a basic surfing tools for sources of information and knowledge have been changed into versatile technology-based tools enabling the realization of what have been perceived in the old days as impossible.

In terms of unexpected learning experiences, the e-book presented reconstruction of previous schemata. In other word, the e-book that I have known before was based on the PDF format. However, the unexpected seemed to be better as it is active in the sense that it can be added with sounds, videos and animation compared to the passive PDF format that shares the same characteristic with typical paper-based book, differentiated only by different platform which is technology.

At first, I expected to learn the non technology based materials such as flash card as well as technology based one, but the balance falls more on the technology-based side. I believe it shares the same essential role in providing pupils with successful learning experience in the classroom. In addition, in order to complement the gap, I believe that I have to take more effective effort and diligently finds out about the non technology-based instructional material from various sources and not relying solely on the lecturer.

If I were given the chances to change anything in the course, I would like to improve on the pro forma particularly on the non technology based material designs. The instructional material must be well balanced with the technology based one. Besides, tutors should also be provided to help the lecturer and students as this course requires lots of task that needs to be done.

All in all, these technologies have presented new experience that will help me in embracing the future of education. In facing the diverse attitudes and unique characteristic of the students, necessary, appropriate and balanced used of instructional material have to be used so that it will bring the best result which in turn affect their successful learning experience.