FIRST LECTURE...

Salam...
Unexpected... that was the first word that pop up in my mind after the first lecture last two weeks. At first, I thought that this class is just about using and developing the resources given by the lecturer in the classroom. Since we have been exposed to this subject by our previous lecturer in IPIK, I never expected that this subject will mainly focusing on how we as teachers 'manipulating' the advancement of technology in using and developing the resources for the ESL classroom. This is because in IPIK, the tradition of being dependent towards the lecturer was very dominant, and most of the teaching materials were provided by the lecturer.
Puan Foziah, our lecturer for this subject is very knowledgeable about all this technology stuff. I am very impressed because looking at her age, I wonder how much time that she took to learn and master all the soft skills and those technological stuff. However, I can see her determination in teaching us, and I notice that her strictness somewhow taught me to be more discipline and systematic in my work. Hence, It is my hope to be able to cooperate and work together with my lecturer so that a conducive, encouraging learning environment will be created.
Besides that, I realised the importance of being an independent learner, and as undergraduate university students, it is a must for me to be able to stand on my own feet and become a productive learner, with less dependent towards others. Hence, this subject is like a platform for me to become as such, since it requires me to find my own teaching resources through the internet, and developing it for use in the classroom. Besides, this subject also taught me to be practical and concerned with the needs of young learners, since not all materials available in the internet can be used in the classroom. I have to 'filter' up certain teaching materials and this task is not easy to be done. I have to explore and learn the soft skills like downloading, video editing, converting files and many of other technological stuff that sometime I have never heard before. This course is very challenging for this semester and I hope that I can cope and learn something useful for the betterment of the students in Malaysian context. Why Malaysia? This is because the application of technology was not yet well spread or practiced among school teachers. Although not all school are well equipped with laptops and LCD, we can see that there are many schools which didn't maximise the use of technology although they are well equipped with computer lab, media room, and others. The use of technology is just limited to movie viewing and video watching. Therefore, it is my responsibility as 'teacher to be' to maximise the use of technology in the classroom so as to optimize the students' potential and educating them in a more creative environment in the classroom.