PXGT 6308 Class #1: 8th January 2009

First class of PXGT6308 Instructional Strategies for Distance Education

001: The Lecturer

We’ve got a new lecturer for the course instead of Hui Wan. Before joining this first session, checked his name and he’s new in UM I guess. So, the lecturer is Dr. Tee Meng Yew and I’m totally zero about him.

He introduced himself to the class. Exchanged notes with the class. Ok, what about him? My first perception: I like him, good and creative lecturer, detail and high expectation, friendly, brain over mouth, immaculate and word-wise in English (his Bahasa Malaysia needs help!) coz he used to be in journalism, knowledgeable and thorough researcher (because he remembers quotes/citations from other people works). To conclude … I think I have to work extra hard in this course.


002: The Partners of Crime (Classmates)

Starting of the class, the lecturer seems nervous (Heheheh … I guess) and he’s doing a lot of assessing and mental analysis on his students. There are about 17 of MIT candidates in the class. Some I knew from last semesters and some are new faces. So, trying hard to process the schema and make all the brain glands jumping happily processing all the information within 3 hours duration.

The friends are mostly teachers either from primary or secondary or with various majors. And to top it, I’m happy and feeling great to be part of the class.


Part I: Introduction

So, what is the common thing when starting new class in a new semester? I guess it’s kind of practise to get to know each other or we call is ‘familiarising and associating’ with each other to enable the creation of equal understanding among students. Hmmm I would metaphorically say that … in order to achieve ‘the comfort zone of learning’, we need to understand and adapt to the environment of learning first.

Everyone get to introduce themselves (half of the class only due to time constraint) but the session is smooth flowing; with few cracked jokes from friends sharing their experience as a teacher/instructor. Actually, I do like the introduction session because I love hearing great stories … because all teachers do have great stories. Their stories on how their dedication to educate can make difference on someone lives.


Part II: Breaking the Ice

Let me recap my introduction part (not in exact words during the real session) … I’m an instructional designer. I love my job. I’m designing learning tools and materials for others to use as teaching or learning tool. The best part in my job is DESIGN and EVALUATE.

Why DESIGN? Coz I can be extraordinary creative sometime or I can be dull-witted designer some other time.
Why EVALUATE? Coz through evaluation and feedback from others I got to know to what extend my designs are able to help users learn.
Why not DEVELOP? Coz during development period, my stress level is double the stress during design period. But, of course I’ve got to get through the development process with high persistence.

When others questioned about my fascinated job, I always thought it is only a job and not a special one … this is what I do for a living and nonetheless others saw me a ‘passionate designer’ … Ok, I do love the job.


Part III: The Carrot for Grabs

Seems this posting is backdated (master of procrastination at work) I guess everyone still talking about the 7 pages of PXGT 6308 Course Syllabus and how detail it spelt out the input, process and outcome of this course. Well, I can say that Dr. Tee is a very detail ID (membodek!). Guess Hui Wan also commented on that in the Facebook about herself getting soft to her 6308 past students.

About the course syllabus, I will take one step at a time to digest it particularly on Learning Activities and Evaluation part. OK, all activities are ON-GOING … guess I have a lot to catch up on my next entries.

Part IV: The Teaching and Learning

What is teaching? In my own words and understanding … teaching is the process of imparting knowledge to others

What is learning? In my own words and understanding …learning is receiving, processing, digesting and understanding knowledge either from the imparters of knowledge or through cognitively or constructively assessing others

What all these teaching and learning?
Ok, some part of us in certain time is a teacher to others … teaching either through examples, experiences or abstractly imparting knowledge.
While, some part of us in other time is always a learner … learn from others, receiving knowledge and construct understanding.
It’s like a hand-shake; giving and receiving.

Teaching and learning can take places everywhere and anytime. We can’t baseline the learning occurs only in classroom (a set of learning environment), and we can’t say that the learning can only occurs when there is a teacher in the classroom. Learning can be transfer in many ways and mediums. This highlight is to relate to the learning via distance.


Part V: The Core – Distance Education

Before we delve further into Distance Education (DE) or Distance Learning (DL), let us look first into concepts of traditional teaching and learning (classroom, face-2-face). We all have experienced it since kindergarten. We all love it because the teacher is always at the front of the class … my father (he was a teacher in 1970s) told me he likes to be at the back of the class … I wonder why?

Ok, in the traditional classroom, the learning features we get are:
- to learn ‘same place and same time’
- a synchronous learning
- immediate feedback (just put up your hand to get attention)
- the teacher is there

So, I can say that most of my formal learning happened in the traditional classroom setting.

Have ever tried Distance Education / Learning?
I personally have tried but not the 100% defined distance education … means definition here is totally distance without the presence of teacher. No, I have never enrolled in any class without teacher.

Would you like to try the 100% Distance Education?
Definitely would like to try and would like to know the outcome and the impact of learning via distance.

Actually there are more things to write about Class #1 coz there are few questions posted left unanswered ... so read the book Chapter 1, 2 & 3 for the answer.

My next entry would be answering these Qs:
1. What is Distance Education?
2. What is possible in DE?
3. What is not possible in DE?

Adios.