Overall Reflection for my learning experience in MEd 858

Two weeks flew by quickly... but nevertheless, it has been a great learning journey.

I started as a dummy in the ICT domain, reluctant to involve myself in the many interesting aspects of the online environment.

"No blogs for me.. they are for the young people.. for their social network.. i dun need it"

Yet two weeks later, I have a blog which I am proud to call my own. :)

"I can never create any webpages cos I dunno any html language to create or format it"

Yet two weeks later, I have a WIKI account with my group's research findings uploaded on it... just in case you haven't assessed it yet, it is at www.kurtlewin.wetpaint.com

I realised that I had been reluctant to try due to the fear of the unknown. I did not know what I must learn and how to learn it. How often our students are like us. How often have they withdrawn before they even try. How wasteful.

Realised that all these online learning tools are so user-friendly and fool-proof. Just follow the instructions and fiddle with the functions and ta-da.. you have it! Not difficult at all!

Another aspect of the overall learning environment for our group is this... we have super motivated students in this course! Our beloved moniteress started off the course by asking for the assessment rubrics. I guess she set the tone for the classroom environment. Everyone's ears pricked up when it comes to assessments and grades as we have to achieve the minimum grade of 2.5 (correct or not?) Then, we have siao on people like Brian, (who happens to be my group mate) so I just need to rub some siao-onness off him.. ;) Then we have the two-chongs who love to play act their presentations ;) and of course, our well-loved Dr Quek, who took the effort to get to know us better and make sure we have good food for lunches. (Thanks Thanks Thanks)

As the course draws to a close, these are my key takeaways:

• Learnt the use of blogger, wetpaint, docs.google sufficiently to apply it for teaching and learning in school. Will want to try using blogs to get students to journal their learning and use wetpaint WIKI to get students to present research findings for research topics. Think that they are very useful tools that are relevant to them at this age.
• Learnt the key concepts of learning environments. What is it? How do you assess it?
• Researched on the gurus of learning environment research like Kurt Lewin, Murray, Rudolf Moo, Fraser, Fisher. Learnt about their theories and their contribution to the researches in the learning environment
• Learnt a brief about different instruments used to assess learning environments and why and how to modify them to suit our research needs.
• Learnt basics about writing research papers

And of course, all the good food available all around the campus :)

Will miss the on-ness of this class but glad to finally start the school holidays! Enjoy! :D