making the transition

The transition of leaving education and starting work os commonly recognized as one of the most difficult times in your life. college has no effective method of preparing you for the real world. By its nature, college is a time thats' free from any elements that you deal with in a reality that comes afterwards. Many tutors (in my experience) have a very limited understanding of what its like out there, purely because they haven't been. Talk to any professional designer and they will say the same thing.

Terminoloġija bil-Malti

Peress li l-metodi tat-tagħlim infirxu 'l barra mill-erba' ħitan tal-klassi, kull lingwa li tagħmel użu minnhom kellha taġġusta għal dawn l-eżiġenzi. Il-Malti ma qagħadx lura.

Kont qrajt li meta l-Prof. Aquilina kien avviċinat minn ġurnal lokali biex isibilhom il-kelma Maltija għal 'crossword', il-prof. mingħajr tlaqliq qalilhom 'tisliba'. Minn dak li nafu, dil-kelma kien nissilha hu dak il-ħin stess permezz tal-għerq s-l-b, li minnu għandna kelmiet bħal salib, sallab, u mislub. Eżatt bħalma nnisslu 'tifkira' minn f-k-r, jew 'tidwira' minn d-w-r. Kien kreattiv biżżejjed biex jieħu għerq stabbilit u joħroġ minnu vokabolarju ġdid għall-ħtiġijiet lingwistiċi ta' żmienu. L-għada filgħodu l-qarrejja tal-ġurnal tgħallmu kelma ġdida li mingħalihom kienet ilha teżisti sekli sħaħ... u aċċettawha.

Kont qrajt ukoll li meta l-inventuri ħolqu l-ispace shuttle, ma kellhomx isem għal din l-invenzjoni l-ġdida. Il-persuna li ħarġet bil-kelma 'shuttle' kienet ispirata minn kelma fir-reġistru tal-ħajjata li bil-Malti tiġi 'mekkuk'. Dan seħħ għax x'aktarx kienu apparentament simili. Madanakollu did-darba l-Malti (kemm l-Ilsien, u anke l-kelliem), ma kienx kreattiv daqs id-darba ta' qabel, u s-semmiegħ tiegħu laħaq draha sew bl-Ingliż. Ħadd ma kien issuġġerixxa t-terminu 'mekkuk spazjali', iżda wisq inqas dehret ħeġġa għal xi kelma ġdida.

Fuq kollox, x'hemm ħażin jekk il-Malti jissellef kliem mill-Ingliż? Hekk għamel minn lingwi oħrajn u llum ħafna minn dawn il-kelmiet saru tiegħu daqslikieku kienu minn dejjem... fosthom: 'truck' saret 'trakk', u biż-żmien ittieħdet mill-plural Semitiku <+ijiet> u saret 'trakkijiet',... il-verb 'to park' li, bl-influwenza tal-<+iare> mit-Taljan, fil-Malti sar ipparkja,... u l-bqija.

Fid-diċenji li għaddew, mal-iżvilupp tal-internet ġelben influss qawwi ta' kliem tekniku li l-Malti ma kienx ippreparat biżżejjed għalih, u m'għarafx jieħu azzjoni mill-ewwel. Il-ħtieġa li jitwessa' l-lessiku bdiet tittieħed bis-serjetà meta bdew jinqalbu d-dokumenti Ewropej għall-Malti.

Anke dwar l-isfera tal-blogs bdew jaslu s-suġġerimenti; fosthom hemm min qal li hu jikteb blogg (pl. bloggs), min qal li jħalliha blog u jiktibha korsiva (italics), u oħrajn qalu li jsejħulha bloggata, kelma Ingliża bis-suffiss Taljan <+ata>, bħalma huma paprata, ċuċata, żiblata, u l-bqija. Il-bloggs jew il-bloggati jiffurmaw il-bloggosfera, nisġa ta' ħafna minnhom qishom komunità interdipendenti, fejn kull waħda jkollha spazju allokat għall-kummenti tal-bqija.

Dal-ħsieb jixhed li l-Malti anke fit-tagħlim elettroniku qed jagħti sehmu, u qed iżomm għajnejh miftuħin kemm fuq l-iżviluppi u anke fuq it-tattiċi u l-prattiċi li qed jadottaw lingwi ġirien.

CTEP AmeriCorps Member Provides Testimony at FCC Digital Inclusion Summit

And with Great Power...

"And with great power, comes great responsibility..." So said Spiderman... (to quote)
Technology is indeed empowering people... but I ask, are people ready to accept this responsibility? Are our students willing to accept this responsibility and do they know what this responsibility really entails?
Even looking at ourselves, as Educators, when online somehow we are truly responsible for what we are writing or submitting, because there is a wide audience who is actually accessing the information which we disseminate, and therefore any misconceptions, any errors, any mistakes which can result from what we write, may have more propagating consequences.

New Study shows Wikipedia is Accurate, but hard to read!

"You might learn something on Wikipedia, if you don't fall asleep first.

A new study finds the online, user-generated encyclopedia is more accurate than some previous reports have suggested. But boy, is it boring.


Researchers found that cancer information on Wikipedia was similar in accuracy and depth to the information on a professionally peer-reviewed, patient-oriented cancer web site, the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query (PDQ). But the latter was written in plainer English." - Live Science


Read more about this article on the Live Science website

The teachers' expectations of students?

As a student, I remembered being affected by who my teacher was - and this was mirrored in the grades I got and how much I loved the subject. I am a Media lecturer, so I use movies to serve as a point of reference to start a discussion in my class.

I have seen this movie before I started working at MCAST, but it still affects me - especially in knowing what a major influence the teacher has over the students.

Have you watched this movie? Or do you know of other movies that portray the teaching setting that might influence us somehow?


The Ron Clark Story: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473389/

Comparing Pedagogies

A US-based research report has revealed that even though students participating in online courses seem to score at a higher level than when students follow the same course in a traditional setting the report raises a number of questions, such as...can we really compare online courses to traditional? What if for the online course you have an excellent instructor, whereas the traditional course is taught in a mediocre way? What if you have an excellent tutor carrying out face-to-face lectures?
In a way this report brings out the true value of pedagogy... what the teacher/tutor/educator manages to elicit from the students is rather in my opinion irreplaceable but on the other hand, the same teacher has to face the future and adapt accordingly. A nice quote caught my eye, by J. Catone (2009): "Anyone can absorb information from a book or video, but good teachers will always be necessary to draw out that knowledge and help students develop the skills needed to think critically about the information they consume. In other words, online learning tools are just like any other tools in a teacher’s bag of tricks: what matters is how they’re applied."
In answer to some other posts which we have actually seen I do think that this puts us all, as Educators, in agreement. We are indeed part of the answer to the education of the future... it all depends on the direction we take with our students.

Secure your work!!

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

Came across this motivation video with some very interesting points

As modern technology has become possible to high end media content on-line in the comfort of one's own domestic space, it is impossible to rule out the dependence of every individual to web access and information. In a very short period of time the world got pretty much linked through dexterous uses of free open-source software packages and second-life virtual spaces. Life over the net cannot not be assessed over various aspects of human dependence to technology. For some this even goes to the extent of labeling our present era as the 'Google Age'. In a nut shell I believe that this access has definitely launched a new-age of information trafficking that can only be evaluated over the accuracy and effectiveness of work provided by the user. As the web has increasingly dominated the areas of information market where one can simply log in and download 'free data' one should not foresee the implications about how accurate are the sources of data acquired. Cristopher Dawson elaborates on this notion by contrasting academic value in relation with internet access: ' Technology can make it easy to coast, cheat, and otherwise circumvent the educational process. The National Society of Collegiate Scholars would like students to embrace integrity instead'.
The statement above left me wondering about the integrity in our learning curricula and how biased are our students' works in relation to the ready-available samples of work as provided on-line. Personally I am not approaching this matter with the aim to monitor the students' work in terms of scholarly standards however this makes me question the creativity and innovation of the works submitted.
Looking forward to see your views. Ian

Sharing Resources for Teaching

In topic 2 of the Moodle, I discuss a number of emergent technologies which are being made use of extensively within a number of classrooms abroad. One of the emergent technologies is the concept of sharing global resources for teaching. One project which I used to work for, an EU funded project with the name of CLARIN, looks at providing a one single repository for language resources, (for example an automatic speech to text translator for every existent known language) to be able to be shared amongst all the researchers at the European level. Researchers include not just scholars from academia, but educators, who are for example teaching a language or the history of a language at school. There were various examples of how this created what is called as an "interdisciplinary" approach to research.
What do you think if in Malta on the local scale we would have a repository where people can share a number of resources which they use during their own teaching? There is a possibility that the same resources can be used for different topics within an entirely different range of subjects. How do you see this fit in with the nature of your teaching experience at MCAST?

On the learning revolution

Along my years of experience in education I learnt that education is something alive, it shapes society and individuals because of the transmission of knowledge. However, education itself is in turn shaped by society. Education is there for society. Consequently, educators have to be flexible enough to change their classroom methods according to the culture of their students. In communication we learn that for communication to be effective, the sender has to use the same language as the receiver so that there will be no misunderstanding. Similary, in the classroom, the educator has to speak the language of the students. This will lead to students' motivation. Nowadays, our students are living in a world of technology and virtual reality. They are interested in all sorts of gadgets... So to enter in their world and share knowledge, we need to use their language, that is, computers and technology. E-learning gives this opportunity to educators. Education has to be in line with new trends.... E-learning helps us to do so!!