My Reflection
From 661 course, I feel impressed with a variety of in-class practices and suggested tools for application to educational purposes. Many things are new knowledge for me, for example, Blog using, web designing, planning through a storyboard and functions of application gadgets of Facebook. Besides, helpful suggestions, lectures and thousands of trials and errors have improved my thinking skill, broadened my viewpoints and grounded me ICT knowledge for future work.
Focusing on the activities as assigned, I participated in group projects with different topics. They have challenging aspects which put me to think more and I have gained a lot from them through sort of self-directed assignments whose several reliable sources of information were gathered in the LMS system. To accomplish the missions, working in group needs a strong teamwork skill. Although I and my team members were in different places and did not have the same interval, we could do the tasks without any worry about communication as we used on-line channels in contacting either one. The more we used technology, the more familiar we were. Beside grounding or strengthening the ICT essentials, I started to learn how to systematize roles in working and information management and selection. Another important awareness about working in group is that grasping knowledge from other groups can help fulfilling gaps in my group work. The value of knowledge among all is its rationales from various experience and backgrounds of the qualified ones.
For my individual projects which are an ICT project and an e-Portfolio, I faced several difficulties at the beginning. Everything learnt seemed dependent on only memorizing and following my notes. At work, I always use technology but not so complicated like what I was doing in the class. When a computer in operation broke down during the lecture, catching up was almost impossible. However, trying to do everything myself after class helped me figure out about some functions and features. Anyhow, through a variety of classroom practices, the hidden concept at this stage is knowing the features for right selection.
In initiating a project using Facebook, I found that it is designed in a rigid platform but the highlight is that there are special applications competing for selection. Unfortunately, some were deleted because of, allegedly, business reasons but there are still many more beyond my desire. The interesting point to this is that Facebook is for building a social network but not for education though there is a choice of a page for educational organization. Sometimes, its platform and applications with specific functions put me to idea deadlock. In case of typing limit, keeping messages short and simple is prioritized in giving any instruction and explanation. Compared to building a website or a web portal like other classmates did, designing a website gives a user greater freedom of thought due to its clean and clear template ready for filling any kinds of information. However, if a user cannot systematize the information before filling in, the result can lead to a mess and negative feedback. The ability to adapt or invent a website is not as central as others might think. What behind the pleasant-looking websites is the awareness of how to keep the on-line mediums friendly to people in the cyber community.
After this course, I feel encouraged to conduct ICT sites for my work and systematize everything related to my current study with the help of technology. Now, I have a Facebook prototype for teaching English and it will be further developed for the suitability to other possible courses and activities. In the coming semester, I plan to design my own website with a variety of features supporting self-study for my students. I am much obliged to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maturos Chongchaikij for enlightening me about several ICT channels which can be applied to , simultaneously, maximize my work performance and lessen burdensome tasks. That is, smart working is better than hard working.
