ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

HAVE BEEN MOVING OFFICE since last Friday – so, no time to think, except to plagiarize. Let’s talk about music, through the words of a Mr Lim Siong Guan, head, civil service — a colleague of mine is a fan of his writings:

“Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) was a famous composer. He started going deaf in 1800. He had to use his ‘inner ear’ – his memory of sounds – to compose his great music. His Ninth Symphony is the longest symphony ever written. It closes with a choir singing the Ode to Joy. He took 10 years to compose it. Here was Beethovan, deaf, but demanding that the choir sing about joy! When the Symphony was first played on 7 May 1824, in Vienna, the audience loved it. However, he could not hear them. A singer had to turn him around so he could see them cheering. Read the rest of this entry »

ONE THING THAT STRUCK ME as i progressed through the Teaching Online course was that i felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of papers listed upfront in the course. The exemplars for Assignment 1 helped a lot in clarifying expectations of what needs to be done. So did the tutors’ responsiveness to queries. However….

Looking back now, if i’m the instructor, i might re-design the course. M. and i put up a similar idea via simultaneous typing in a virtual chat last Wed. For an instant, we ’smiled’ in cyberspace at the meeting of our minds as M. wrote, “i think we are talking the same language”. Read the rest of this entry »

A CONSOLATION: All was not lost, some ‘work’ did get done while i was at rest. During my four-day retreat in May, the thought ‘God, the Divine Teacher’ kept coming to mind. Even now, this still comes as i re-read Laurillard’s paper Teaching As Mediating Learning which i finished yesterday. As she put it, “…teaching is a rhetorical activity: it is mediated learning, allowing students to acquire knowledge of someone else’s way of experiencing the world.”

Each evening, in accordance with the Ignatian spiritual exercise, my spiritual director (SD) would give me four recommended passages to pray over four hours the next day. The thought came on the third day when my SD was listening very attentively to what i was telling him about my prayer experience — the thoughts and feelings that came to mind while meditating or contemplating over the scripture passages. As usual, he has asked a few strategic questions in the beginning and was about to recommend readings for the next day at the end. Read the rest of this entry »

THE ANSWERS are many and obvious:

1. Personal Interest. When i first started on the course in early March, i was highly motivated and raring to go. i’ve paid for the Teaching Online course fees out of my own pocket. Had been teaching a tertiary subject part-time for a year. And due to an on-going project on a knowledge portal for instructional designers, i’ve also been researching on the subject on my own for almost two years.

2. Professional Need. At work, a second run of the School ID program has also started. Will be helping to moderate some of the online discussions. So, skills acquired from the Teaching Online course will come in just handy. i also wanted the qualification: a Masters’ degree in educational technology will help open doors to better job opportunities, i hope. Read the rest of this entry »