Thanks~

          Finally, I would like to grab this opportunity to express my gratitude to all who have helped me throughout this course.

          I would like to thank our course coordinator, Dr. Stit Fatimah Mohd. Yassin, for guiding us along the way. Her willingness to sacrifice her valuable time on us, despite her busy schedule. Thank you.

          I would also like to thank our course lecturer, Mr. Fariduddin for his concern and care. His undivided attention and advice has help us through all the hardships. Thank you.

         To my highly committed partner, Ting Suk Hua. Together we figure out solutions to problems, and finally managed to go through all challenges we encountered. I whole-heartedly appreciate her efforts. Thank you.

         To all course mates who helped me when I have problems which I do not understand. Their selflessness in providing helpful information is something that I would always remember in heart. Thank you.

          I would have not finished  all the assignments in time without the support of my family who has always been there for me whenever I need them, the love and encouragement they give are important sources of motivation that keep me going. Thank you.

Once again, thank you. =P

CHONG XIN TXIN

B. Ed TESL IPGKS-UKM

GGGE1155

Computer in Education

Faculty of Education

Tel: 0198759717

E-mail: cxintxin@rocketmail,com / cxintxin@gmail.com

Yahoo!Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/XinTxin_A135741/

Facebook: http://facebook.com/cxintxin

Blog: http://cxintxin.blogspot.com/


Xin Txin

Reflection (Week 7)

          Time flies. In just a glimpse, we have come to the final week of our short semester. Our last two assignments will be Assignment 8a and 8b: Spreadsheet and Assignment 9: Database. This time we are going to explore about the use of OfficeOfice Calc and OpenOffice Base.

          First of all, in Assignment 8a, by using Calc, we are required to create a monthly financial record, which can be used to record our monthly income and expenses. The balance for each month must be linked to the next month and added to the new balance. To link the balance, we must first copy the amount > Paste Special it in the next worksheet (where you are going to calculate your new balance) > Select link and add. Since I personally keep a record of my daily expenses using Excel, it did not cause me much problem in this particular assignment.

          While in Assignment 8b, we are to create a record for students' scores. This skill is very important especially for teachers who need to keep a record of our students' examination results. By using Calc also, we can analyse our data and come up with statistics from the scores recorded. Teachers who mastered the use of Excel would be able to prevent loss of time as all calculations can be done automatically by inserting the correct formulae.

          Finally, it is Assignment 9. We learnt to create a database to record students' details on their name, parents' information, curriculum and co-curriculum activities.


Xin Txin

Reflection (Week 6)

          Reaching the sixth week of our course, we will be working on Assignment 7a and 7b: Presentation Skills. In this assignment, we are required to prepare a presentation kit on our topic "Original and Licensing Software" using OpenOffice Impress. For my previous experience, I have always used Microsoft Office Powerpoint. Hence, it would not be a problem for me to use Powerpoint to create a presentation kit. However, our assignment's requirement stated that we should be using Impress instead, to create the presentation. I have never used Impress to create a presentation before. Hence, it will be something new to explore on.

          It is indeed time-consuming for us to create a presentation using Impress. Eventhough both Powerpoint and Impress share a large amount of similar features, the organisation of icons and certain functions are different. Thus, it takes time for to explore functions by functions. Besides inserting the content of our presentation, we created hyperlink in between slides for the convenient use of users.

          Assignment 7a involves creating a presentation kit while assignment 7b requires us to add on multimedia materials into out slides of presentation. Therefore, we moved on our next task that is to create an authentic video clip. We created our video clip using Window Movie Maker, where we edited the flow of pictures and to match our background music with our video presentation. Before we put them together in one piece, pictures are edited in combined using Paint while the background music for the clip is cut and recombined using Audacity. To do so, I downloaded the software Audacity. After I finished editing the music, only then I found that it cannot be saved as MP3 file. I consulted Mr. Fariduddin with my problem and he told me that I will need to download another converter to export the file from Audacity to MP3 files. I googled for the type of converter needed. It is LAME MP3 Encoder. I appreciated my coursemate, Vanessa Cordilia, who kindly helped me out with the search. After continuous attempt, everything turned out fine and I was able to continue with my work.

          In the video, we did a mini interview regarding our topic of discussion with some of the teacher trainees from IPG Kampus Sarawak. Unluckily, it was raining the day when we did our recording. The sound of the rain interferes with our voices, thus causing the recording to be unclear. Besides that, there was not much problem in the process of creating. The video was later being inserted to the presentation in Impress. The file is uploaded to google doc.

 

Xin Txin

Reflection (Week 5)

          Moving on to Assignment 6a and 6b this week, we were required to create a brochure using Microsoft Publisher (Assignment 6a) and a booklet using Microsoft Word (Assignment 6b).

          In order to create a brochure using MS Publisher, go to Publisher > Brochure > Template Design > Create. A brochure outline was shown for further editing. We inserted pictures which we created earlier on using Paint. At the same time, we also added in suitable text to our brochure. Pictures and texts were organised in a desired presentable manner. Eventually, we have problems editing pictures using photoshop, thus we chose to use paint instead. It really took time for us to explore and edit for our most desired pictures which were appropriate for our brochure. Our brochure concentrated on the idea to promote original software. Therefore, the content of our brochure was about a campaign organised to promote the use of original software in Malaysia. To view our brochure, please click here.

          The next task was to create a booklet using book fold in MS Word. Through this particular task, we found out that it was easier to insert and edit the location of pictures by using text boxes. Like creating brochure, we added in pictures and texts to design our booklet. Our booklet contained 9 pages altogether. It was basically a summary of our literature review in Assignment 4 related to original licensed software and pirated software. We did not have much trouble upon completing our booklet as we were used to the features in MS Word. Our booklet looks like this.

         
Xin Txin

Reflection (Week 3b & 4)

          Basically, this week we will be learning about surveys and how to analyse data using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software in Assignment 5. Tasks in Assignment 5:-

1. Create survey forms using SurneyMonkey (Pilot Test) - 10 Questions and Google Docs - 30 Questions
2. Using SPSS, analyse the results obtained from the surveys.
3. Write a report in journal article form which include:
• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Research Approach
• Finding
• Discussion
• Recommendation and Conclusion

          I have started Assignment 5 by exploring the use of SurveyMonkey as our pilot test before creating the real survey using Google Docs. My partner and I created 10 multiple choice questions which were related to Topic of Assignment 1 (Original and Licensing Software). Our survey form looks like this. After that, we used Google docs's spreadsheet to create another survey form which consisted of 30 questions with 3 different question type: 1. YES/NO questions, 2. multiple choice questions and 3. scales. To view our 30 questions survey form please click here. Our aim for this survey was to investigate the tendency for teacher trainees from IPG KS and IPG KDRI to use pirated software.

          When the form was ready, we need to have at least 10 respondents for us to come up with the analysis. Hence, we urged fellow coursemates (teacher trainees from both IPG KS and IPG KDRI) to answer the survey forms via e-mail and facebook. Only then we were able to proceed to our next task which was to analyse data using SPSS. There was a problem that we encountered upon completing the task. Not everyone of our coursemates cooperate in completing the survey sheets. Thus, this affected the pace of our assignment. Luckily, we managed to obtain 16 different response from various respondents to start our analyis and interpretation of data.

          Before I started to use SPSS, I downloaded it before hand. However, the download was a failure. I was not sure with the cause of the problem, but the files just cannot be downloaded to my laptop, no matter how hard I tried. Thanks to Mr. Fariduddin who passed around a soft copy of the software for us to have a copy of it. The SPSS software from Mr. Fariduddin is a version of SPSS 14.0. Window 7 in my laptop seemed to be incompatible with some of the functions of the software. Hence, some features of my window was forced to be changed in order to suit the SPSS software. Anyhow, the software worked properly without causing much trouble afterwards. As SPSS was a total stranger software to me, I was quite lost when I first handle it. Once again, I really appreciated our course lecturer's help by guiding me through all the problem I faced.

          In order to analyse the results from the survey we conducted, we would have to first download the data from google docs. Following are the steps to analyse data using SPSS:-

1. Go to google doc where the survey spreadsheet is created.
2. Download it as excel.
3. Save the file.
4. Open SPSS.
5. In SPSS, go to File > Import "Data".
6. Choose the file saved in excel previously. Variables are being copied.
7. Change all the variables to codes as SPSS is unable to read words. For example, for YES/NO questions which consisted of only 2 choices, the 1st choice will be 0 and 2nd will be 1.
8. As for multiple questions which as 3 choices or more, the 1st choice will be 1, 2nd is 2, 3rd is 3 and so on.
9. Data in scales need not to be changed as it is already in numbers.

          Finally, we were taught to present our results in frequencies form. Go to Analyse > Descriptive Frequencies and data will be shown in output viewer of SPSS. Later, my partner and I produced a report in journal article form (posted in yahoogroup).

Xin Txin

Reflection (Week 3a)

          This week we moved on to our 4th Assignment (Literature Review using online materials) on the THINK, PAIR, SHARE activity. This assignment is related to the topic for assignment 1 -- Original and Licensing Software. Following are the guidelines to complete the assignment:-

• Literature Review:
• Online material: Plan, search, evaluate and select 2 journal articles from UKM subscription research databases; 1 article from google scholar; 1 books.google.com.
• Topic related to Assignment 1.
• Using OpenOffice Writer, write a report on what should be done in Malaysia (identify the research problem).
• The report should cite the references you use to support your argument.

          From this activity, I have learnt to search for reliable online materials from google scholar, google books and the UKM online library. Materials are available in various forms of articles, reports and journals. Before this, I only used google search most of the time instead of going for more choices of articles from google scholar, google books and the online library. When we first registered ourselves for the degree program, we are informed about the use of UKM's online library. However, we are not provided with the username and password. We tried with our student ID and the password given for SMPWeb but it was not accepted. Finally, I can now have access to it with the username and password provided by our course coordinator, and I find it extremely useful as there are numerous types of journals and articles of various courses can be used as references. Online library enables self-learning and encourages people to become independent learners through reading.

          I read and picked up some relevent sources as my references. Later, my partner and I came up with a report about our findings on the issues of original licensed software and software piracy in Malaysia. This time, we are required to use OpenOffice, an open source software to write our report. Before writing, I downloaded OpenOffice 3.3 software from its official website http://www.openoffice.org/. It took me few minutes to finish downloading and to install as well. After that, I started to work on our report. I found it almost the same as Microsoft Office except for certain features. Since some may not be able to afford the licensed Microsoft Office, they can consider using OpenOffice as an alternative instead. The software is free after all. OpenOffice is not only available for text documents but also others such as spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, database, etc.

          By the end of this week, I was able to produce a critical report on Issues on Original Licensed Software and Software Piracy in Malaysia with proper citation. With these further readings from various journals changed my previous thoughts on the issues concerned. I began to see both perspectives from different authors. Looking forward for further explorations in Computer in Education. =)


Xin Txin