# FIFTH DAY Online Teaching and Learning: Adapting to The New Norm

By: Ammar Shauqi bin Jamaluddin G1918501

As we all know, the Covid-19 that is happening in Malaysia has affected many people including the teachers and the students. The teachers and students are on their way to adapt to the new styles of teaching which is online teaching and learning. The teacher uses many platforms of teaching such as Google Meet and Zoom to teach the students.

Meeting in Google Meet 

It is supposed to be easier for the teachers to teach the students but due to the sudden transition, the students seem to be having a hard time adapting to the new way of teaching. Not all of the students come from a wealthy family. Not all of them have the gadget needed to attend the online class. Sometimes, they have to share with their siblings and take turn to attend the online class.

A student attending online class
Source: Mstar Online

Other than that, the students also have problem with their Internet connection. Not all of the students come from a family that can afford continuous Internet connection. Some of them have limited Internet access in their area, for example, a student in Sabah, Veveonah. She has to sleep on a tree for 24 hours in order to take online examination. That is so heartbreaking to hear from a student that just want to learn for their future.

Veveonah, a UMS student, is eating and taking examination on
a tree. Source: Buzzkini

Online teaching is supposed to make things easier for both teacher and students. But for now, it seems to be a burden for some of the unfortunate students. The government should make a proactive move in helping the students to get the best education during the pandemic period. - Shauqi

# FOURTH DAY ICT CLASS EDU 7130

Things have dramatically changed as a new malady has ascended unexpectedly. Covid-19 or Sars has briskly spreaded around the world leading to large number of deaths all over the world. Malaysia has efficiently dealt with the virus by implementing MCO which stands for Movement Control Order. Due this pandemic, we opt to the new norm by cancelling all face-to-face classes by replacing them with online classes.

Used for the time being, online learning might not work for some colleges such as Engineering, Medicine, Architecture, etc. Having online classes become a must for conducting classes following the guidelines which UIA has acknowledged. The predominant app among lecturers is Zoom social app. Surely, this is a temporal settlement for the time being as some of my classmate might not have the accessibility to high-speed internet connection. To be constructive, online learning should be combined with having students reading on their own pace. When skillfully integrated, learning outcomes can be achieved through online learning combined with independent learning. We also must observe that sit-in exam is something from the past whereby other assessment procedures should be considered for fair grading. For this purpose, UIA has notified lecturers and students to start their trial online classes beginning on June 1, 2020 to examine all issues affiliated to assignments and assessment-related concerns. As for the formal online classes, they shall start on June 10, 2020. With regard to this new norm, it might not attend to every student need as all facilities at the university (e.g., library) still closed.

To sum, in the light of Covid-19, there were strict measures that got effective since March 18, 2020. It was depressing for all students to conform to the new norm as UIA banned all students to go outside campus until recently on June 6, 2020 by which they approved letting students to go out from 9 am to 4 pm.
During the period of closure, many students were dispirited. While this is true that students cannot go out, some were fleeing campus for a relief or a positive pulse for life! Take me for instance!
All in all, MCO has come to its final stages by which it will allow for almost all premises to re-open and interstate travel has become permissible. Hopefully, things will go back to normal as Schools and universities yet not open during the last stage of MCO. WALID DAKHEL G1814575 

# SECOND DAY Reflection of for Today's EDU 7130

On our second day of the ICT class, our instructor Dr. Mohaida gave us the whole picture of the assignment, the deadline for the submission, and informed us about the date of the midterm exam. Even though this course is somehow heavy; we are to submit our assignment on time because we have been already informed about the deadline of all the assignments from the very beginning of the semester which is our second day of the class. We have divided our Group work equally so that we can finish before our submission date.

We have to do one project paper which is individual work. The most difficult assignment from all. The Other 3 assignments are Group work which are E-book, Poster, and Blog. At the same time, our midterm Exam will be held on the 23rd of March. We learned lots of new knowledge from the second class. Dr. Mohaida discussed “Teachers’ Perceptions of E-learning in Malaysian Secondary Schools”.  She also showed us samples of Posters for ELT and Sample -E-Book. Besides, she discussed the Blog Rubric. As a result, we got a clear idea of our assignments. Actually, Ict class is very interesting and effective for us. We learned from the class that teachers are facilitators and students must be independent. So, if we use interactive ICT platforms, there is a chance for immediate feedback, for example, be used to making drills and practice learning more engaging and effective. In fact, the use of student-centered activities allows teachers to spend more of their time diagnosing and correcting student problems, consulting with individual students, and teaching one - on - one and in small groups. So, learning is the development of new knowledge, skills, or attitudes as an individual interacts with information and the environment. Then we learned 4 C’s of  21st Century skills.

The 4 cs listed are Communication, Collaboration, Critical thinking, and Creativity. All four of these items are essential inside the 21st Century classroom. These could be the 4Cs for any Century classroom as all of these skills are timeless and highly valued not only inside the classroom but in all professions. Dr. Mohaida demonstrates the use of the 4cs very interestingly.  Communication: Conveying ideas. Using the digital tool of your choice. Feel free to use multiple types of media. (e.g., videos, presentations, drawings, and mind mapping)
Collaboration: With a partner, discuss the topic/ question, then together create a digital representation of our thoughts, ideas, questions, and reflections. (e.g., Slides, Padlet, drawing or videos). With our team, discuss possible solutions to the problem and develop a solution. Critical Thinking: Using the image provided by our teacher, and inferring what happened in the picture. Retell what we think happened in our own words and demonstrate them using digital tools of our own choice. ( ex: timeline, diagram or digital story) Creativity: We can list as many uses for a paperclip that we can think of in ten minutes. Share with a partner and push our team to think of 20 more.  SALMA UMME G1735234

# THIRD DAY ICT CLASS EDU 7130

Assalamualaikum.

In today’s class, Dr. Mohaida started with an exercise where we have to answer questions about Hot Potatoes, Instructional Process and Addie Model. At first, I had problem to answer the questions as I did not read the articles given by Dr. Mohaida and referring to books was not allowed. Luckily, I had prior knowledge about all the three elements above. Dr. Mohaida was very kindhearted to let us to refer to books, but I was still with my decision to answer with my own knowledge. When the time came for discussing the answer, I learnt a lot from her and can add my knowledge about the three elements. I also knew where was I lacking in three elements.

Here what I gained from the class:

Hot Potatoes, although it is an old application, but it is really useful for the teachers. It is so easy to use and this application has five tools which are,

Hot Potatoes

1) JQUIZ – For creating quiz where the teacher can create MCQ and True or False questions.

2) JCLOZE – For creating fill in the blank questions

3) JCROSS – For creating crossword puzzle

4) JMIX – To create scrabble exercsie

5) JMATCH – To create matching exercise.

All these five tools are really compatible to teaching as it can be put into ascending level of difficulty. It is also fun for the students to finish the exercise. Other than that, the teachers can put instant feedback and hint for each question.

              As for steps in Instructional Technology, it is based on Alepsi and Trollips, where there are four instructional process which are:

1) Present: Teach and explain to the students about the topic

2) Guidance – Giving example to the students.

3) Practice – Giving exercises which are not graded to see students’ understanding

4) Assessment – Graded assessment which consists of formative and summative assessment.

These four steps are very important in instructional process. Skipping one step can affect the students’ understanding towards the topic. As a teacher, we must follow this step in order to provide the students with quality teaching.

              Last but notleast, ADDIE model. The ADDIE model is the generic process traditionally used by instructional designers and training developers. The five phases—Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation—represent a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance support tools.

ADDIE Model

1) Analysis – Analyze the needs of the students and how to teach them effectively.

2) Design – Design the objectives and lessons of the teaching.

3) Develop - Develop the lesson through lesson plan by stating the goals and objectives of the lessons. May go back to design phase again if something goes wrong.

4) Implement – To deliver the lesson to the students based on the development of the lesson plan

5) Evaluation – Evaluate the students understanding and performance by giving exercises or test. Formative and summative assessment may be used.

All in all, if we can use all of these above in class, we can provide the students with effective teaching hence enhancing the students’ understanding. As a teacher we must understand the concept of ADDIE and Instructional Process in order to develop a good lesson for the students. As for Hot Potatoes, it is a really useful application which will enhance the teachers’ delivery in class.

# FIRST DAY Introduction to ICT course, IIUM

Our names are Walid, Shauqi, and Salma. We are students at International Islamic University Malaysia which is located at

Jalan Gombak, 53100, Selangor. We are doing Master degree in TESL which stands for (Teaching English as a Second Language).

This semester we are taught a subject that is called ICT. Namely, how to integrate ICT with teaching

as an effective tool for enhancing student's comprehension throughout the utilization of Multimedia. This course is also similar to another course I am taking this semester. The name of that course is Instructional Media in TESL. The main difference is that the latter has two assignments and a final exam, but for ICT course, it has a mid-term exam and five assignments in total.

Our instructor for ICT course is Dr. Mohaida. The same thing is applicable for Instructional Media in TESL course (i.e., same instructor). She has a Doctor of Philosophy in (TESL) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). She spoke about the outline for this course. Frankly speaking, this course is heavy a bit due to many assignments that need to be done. With that said, we have to fasten our seatbelt cause this journey is not that easy, but if we organize our time, we can finish the assignment before the deadline.

Interestingly, Dr. Mohaida has shared with us Malaysia Educational Blueprint which speaks for the goals the Ministry of Education here in Malaysia wants to achieve. Notably, there are 11 shifts in that Blueprint. The most distinguished one was shift number 7. The usage of ICT to scale up educational quality in Malaysia is what shift number 7 speaks for. In other words, the whole course for this semester is based on that shift.

To sum, this course present the fruitful of integrating ICT with teaching. For, as observed above, Multimedia is becoming essential in our daily lives. Out of necessity, some teachers are using technology to make student more engaged (i.e., using videos, PowerPoint, and other authorizing systems). Further to this, some schools are furnishing their classrooms with the necessary tools and facilities to meaningfully aid the learning process and in order to make this comes true. WALID DAKHEL G1814575