Life Is A Journey

My Chapter Contribution

2011-07-25T08:26:00.001+08:00

Validation of PerformanceAssessments

Norashid Bin DARNI

INTRODUCTION

Authentic assessment is a form of alternative assessment. It is different in nature as compared to standardized testing. As mentioned by Wellington, Thomas, Powell, and Clarke (2002), authentic assessment embodies a whole raft of alternative or non-traditional assessment techniques. These forms of assessment are required as means of validating student’s ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world situations. Posner (1994) also mentioned that authentic assessment should attempt to determine what a student knows and can do in the real-life context that have purposes besides assessment and that, therefore, cut across subject matter boundaries. Authentic assessment is expected to stimulate students to develop skills or competencies relevant to their future workplace. But authenticity is not an ‘objective’ quality as such; it is subjective and dependent on who is judging the authenticity. The authenticity of assessment is argued to be important for preparing students for the unexpected global economy.

The concept of authentic assessment clearly has its roots in performance assessment, particularly of work skills requiring error-free performance of complex psychomotor and cognitive tasks with speed and accuracy. There are two essences of authentic assessments. Authentic tasks supply valid direction, intellectual coherence and motivation for day-to-day work and performer-friendly feedback and guidance will allow the learner to improve his/her performance over time.

There are many criteria or features of authentic assessment. Wiggins (1998) stated that authentic tasks should be realistic, requires judgment and innovation, allowing the students to do the subject, the tasks must replicate or simulate the workplace, students must be able to use a repertoire of knowledge and skills and must be given ample opportunity to rehearse, practice, consult and get feedback. He also reasoned that authentic tasks must have evidence to validate skills. Newmann and Archbald (1992) also indicate that a major goal for authentic achievement is to cultivate the kind of higher order thinking and problem solving capacities useful to both individuals and society. The mastery gained in school is likely to transfer more readily to life beyond school. This is identical to Wiggins’s (1998) idea earlier when he mentioned about the simulation of the workplace.

Authentic and direct assessments of performances are examined in the light of contrasting functions and purposes having implications for validation, especially with respect to the need for specialized validity criteria tailored for performance-based assessment. The absence of a reliable and valid performance-based assessment leads to arising issues in standards. Thus, there is a need to ascertain the reliability and validity of performance-based assessments so that the assessment results are beneficial towards students’ development.

Cumming (1997) stated that performance assessments or authentic assessments are related to performance situated learning, problem-based and competence focused. These are the various interpretations of authentic assessments which have been used by many authors. In fact, authentic assessments encompass all of these elements. Wiggins’s (1993) definition of performance assessment is that performance is the execution of some tasks or processes which has to be assessed through actual demonstration, which is a productive activity. The construction of authenticity assumes that assessment of performance involves only direct observation of the performance. It is then necessary to assess the student within the relevant learning context. According to Cumming (1997), authentic assessments must consist of complexity that will allow students to exercise a repertoire of knowledge and skills.

The skills needed to perform the task as a technician or as support personnel requires a repertoire of competencies. It is not merely a single skill that is used to perform a job function. For example, the scope of the IT Backup Specialist requires the person to understand networks, backup and disaster recovery, system administration, network security and storage networking. As such, the mastery of theoretical knowledge is not adequate for vocational institute students to perform this job function well. Hands-on experience and technical skills are equally important for them to carry out the various related tasks well. In the job function, no errors or ignorance will be tolerated but within a classroom setting, this is where we allow students to commit mistakes, relearn, redo, reflect and make corrections. Therefore, an authentic learning environment should provide such avenues for our students to experience a simulated workplace within a classroom setting. Hence, based on the views of Cumming (1997) and Wiggins (1993), assessment of authentic learning would be best carried through performance assessment. It is believed that practical lessons conducted in an authentic environment coupled with performance assessment would be ideal for vocational institutions as the aim of the authentic learning is to prepare the students with skills to perform in the working industry.

In the context of vocational education, Gulikers, Bastien, and Kirschner (2006) pointed out that authenticity is expected to be crucial in preparing students for the dynamic world of work that characterizes current society. Authentic, performance assessment is expected to stimulate students to develop skills or competencies relevant to their future professional workplace. They also mentioned that the concept of authenticity can be viewed from two different angles, the theoretical and practical angle. The practical angle focuses on examining what determines authenticity in the perception of different users. The gaps between teaching in school and the real world and between assessment and task and what occurs in the real world are the major problem in education. The school standards are not aligned to the expectations of the real world. They suggested that to foster authentic learning and to improve student achievement, it is imperative that authentic assessment is aligned to authentic instruction as well as real world expectations. It is by focusing on resembling real-world performance, performance assessment is likely to cover the relevant aspects of real-world performance. Authenticity is thus argued to be important for preparing students for the unexpected world of work. They further contended that since education is to prepare students for the real world, at least in the vocational education, the authenticity of an assessment should be defined by its resemblance to students’ current or future professional practice.

Formative and Summative Assessments

At the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), we create a learning environment based on the understanding that we need to help prepare students to fulfill the need in the workforce. As such, the assessment framework at ITE provides directions for our students to acquire technical knowledge and skills to apply knowledge into the real-world context. The assessment framework follows a sequential format.

Figure 1. Assessment Framework

In Figure 1, formative assessments refer to our use of the assessment information from the authentic performance tasks to provide formative feedback to students based on the criteria and standards on the related rubrics. In other words, in the new assessment framework, teachers are expected to provide the opportunities for students to receive formative feedback and improve the quality of their work over time. This is akin to the bite-site formative assessment as we incorporate frequent, descriptive feedback after each performance task. There are four performance tasks and each of them is given to students after a series of practical lessons. The final piece of work, representing students’ culminating perfomances, is a summative assessment. Therefore, assessment of competence is not carried out merely on the basis of a single, snapshot of performance (i.e., summative assessment). Rather, feedback is given over time to inform students about the next steps to take in order for them to improve their performances (i.e., formative asssessment).

Such an assessment framework gives lecturers or raters the ability to observe patterns of success, failures and the reasons behind them. We also created an authentic environment by purchasing updated equipments that are currently used by the companies. One of the key principles for the autheniticity of performance assessment is that it must allow students to do the subject and to carry out exploration and work within the discipline (Wiggins, 1998). As such, we created an authentic environment so that students will have first-hand experience administering and managing the real equipments that they will encounter when they join the workforce.

Validation of Performance Assessment

The assessment points to the importance of performance assessment in preparing students for their future professional workplace. This has provided directions for vocational institute to follow and redesign our assessments so that the tasks given to students are authentic to their learning. Wiggins (1998) suggests several indicators for authentic assessment including observable performance dealing with ill-structured and complex issues. Developing an authentic, performance assessment should start with an analysis of the professional practice and situation to find out what kind of knowledge, skills and attitudes/dispositions experts use when handling the situation and how they use them. This analysis provides an up-to-date performance standard for developing a performance assessment or for evaluating the authenticity of a performance assessment.

In vocational institutes or occupational types of education where student education for a specific profession or where students are more practically instead of theoretically oriented, performance assessment should also be aligned to more occupation-specific content and value as well as performance standards that define knowledge, skills and attitudes/dispositions of a specific field of work. At ITE, we designed a curriculum that is well aligned with the standards needed for future workplace and hence well-developed performance assessments are needed to provide students with ample opportunities to learn and perform in an authentic environment. One of the clear claims for performance assessment being introduced is that it will contribute to improved student achievement. This is also the aim of the institution, which is to provide technical education to our students. Performance assessment is thus believed to be more consistent with a re-conceptualization of teaching and learning as a richer, context-bound experience that does not rely solely on rote learning and regurgitaion of technical terms and procedural skills.

The validity of performance assessments is very important for curriculum developers to examine the accuracy of the focus and context of the assessment. In addition, the evidence of validity of the assessment data derived from the performance assessments will increase public confidence of the use and interpretation of the data for making important decisions about students. According to Messick (1994), there are six aspects of construct validity that need to be examined in the validation of performance assessments. Each of them is described and explained as below:

Content

The content aspect of construct validity that examines the evidence of the content is typically done through an analysis of the content of tasks, the curriculum and the domain theory. This aspect of the construct validation relies on the expert judgments about the boundaries of the curriculum, skills and contents measured by tasks. Content standards are expected to provide the basis for both curriculum and assessment specifications. Content analysis can occur in two phases: (1) initial task(s)/assessment development and (2) review after the assessment has been constructed. Phase 1 looks into developing assessment blueprints for the contents and skills to be assessed. It consists of specific instructional objectives of skills and the task(s) that must be carried out, and which must be consistent with the intent of the module. The documentation must also provide clear specific standardization for the scoring of the assessment, in the form of rubrics. It must provide justification for the assessors to award scores for the performance of the students during the assessment. Relative weightage and criticality of the specific task must also be identified very clearly. Phase 2 provides evidence regarding the judgments of the assessment developers. Curriculum development has to be balanced and focused on the characteristics of task(s). The assessment criteria cannot be too few as this will lead to a construct interpretation that is too narrow (i.e., construct irrelevant variance). Therefore, curriculum developers must look at the breadth of the task and examine the relationship between the task and the domain objectives of the program.

Substantive

This aspect of construct validity examines thinking skills that are used as a basis for performance on task(s). As tasks need to be representative and relevant to content and skill specifications, so processes used in completing the tasks need to be representative and relevant to the processes that constitute the construct of interest. Messick (1996) stated that the need to acquire empirical evidence and that the ostensibly sampled processes are actually engaged by respondents in task performance. This includes examining responses using “thinking alouds” or empirical investigations of process models. Contents standards can also be shown by words such as ''explain'', "describe'' and ''analyze''. This is a qualitative method of judging the process used to solve a problem by asking students to solve a problem orally. Apart from reviewing the tasks, the review of scoring rubrics needs to show that scores are based on the successful completion of a process.

Structural

This aspect of construct validity examines the scoring system (i.e., rubrics) as it relates to the construct domain. It is also crucial to get comparable scores especially when we have multiple raters to judge students’ performances. Hence, inter-rater reliability is very crucial to ensure the consistency of teachers’ judgement. There are several models for reliable scoring, which include multiple readers, anchors or benchmarks, adjudication, training and calibration checks, social and statistical moderation. This can lead to high levels of rater consistency (Brennan, 1996; Miller, 1998; Shavelson, Baxter, & Gao, 1993).

Generalizability

This aspect of construct validity measures the consistency of assessment results across levels of random facets of the assessment. Generalizability studies take into account the raters and tasks as source of error for consistency of assessment procedures under different conditions of raters and tasks. For performance assessments, generalizability has been a focal point for the examination of validity. Major concerns have been around the raters' scoring. Most of these methods have been refined many times such that it can increase inter-rater reliability. Moderation between raters is also an element that increased the reliability of scoring. Shavelson (1993) mentioned that only two solutions can reduce error associated with heterogeneity: (1) the number of tasks can be increased and (2) the construct and task can be defined more narrowly. However, the first solution may not really be practical because of assessment time limitations; students may not be able to complete too many performance-based tasks. The second solution may make the inferences from the task scores becomes too narrow, as the construct of the assessment is more narrow than it was previously. Miller (1998) reported that the number of tasks to attain comparable levels of generalizability varies by the type of task. Longer, more complex tasks require fewer tasks for adequate levels of generalizability. In examining the generalizability, there is also a need to have a greater understanding of the sources of person-by-task interaction and how it can be reduced as an error source for performance assessments. In short, generalizability studies are important for an understanding of the use of performance assessment as an accountability measure (i.e. summative assessment).

External

This aspect of construct validity examines the relationship of task scores to variables external to the assessment tasks which provide another important source of validity evidence. This type of validity is used to examine if assessment relationships are consistent with the knowledge base and theory of the construct. Student performance during the performance assessments should be related to instructional effects. Wiggins (1989) mentioned that the impetus for performance assessments is that they should mirror the teaching and learning process and provide a better measure to accountability.

Blank and Engler (1992) reported increases in achievement across time on performance assessment. However, this type of data does not examine whether students do better on particular tasks depending on the form or content of the assessment or whether learning really occurs on the broader construct. Firstly, all achievement measures should be sensitive to instructional effects. Much impetus of the performance assessment is that they should mirror the teaching and learning process and provide a better measure of accountability. Secondly, construct variance should be higher than method variance as there is a range of methods that can be used to measure the same construct. Thirdly, the performance should be fair without giving any subpopulation an advantage based on construct irrelevant factors. For example, gender bias and ethnic bias.

Consequential

This aspect of construct validity focuses on the intended and unintended consequences of the use of assesment information and the impact on score interpretation and use. Inter-rater reliability is the extent to which two or more individuals (coders or raters) agree. Inter-rater reliability addresses the consistency of the implementation of a rating system. It involves the presence of two or more assessors during an assessment and looks into establishing a common undertsanding of the standards of assessment between two or more assessors. Different assessors may award different scores based on his own judgment. Hence, inter-rater reliability checks against any biasness and uneven standards.

Shepard (1993) argued that consequences are an integral part of validity because they affect the overall construct use and interpretation of test scores or assessment information. A distinction needs to be drawn between consequences of assessments that do not affect the inferences and uses, and consequences of the assessments that do affect the inferences or uses. The former is not a part of validity, whereas the latter is. Consequences can be intended or unintended. Intended consequences might include changes in the instructional and circular practices of teachers that lead to better learning environments for students (Linn & Baker, 1996). Unintended consequences might include bias in the assessment, leading to misinterpretations for some subpopulation (Bond, 1995).

In addition to Messick’s (1994) six aspects of construct validity, Linn, Baker and Dunbar (1991) discussed eight validation criteria for performance assessments. Four of these eight criteria are identical to Miller and Linn (2000). The four which are distinct from those above are:

Fairness

Fairness looks into the equality of opportunities without having a sense of biasness towards any race, gender, or language. It also looks into the fairness of selection and scoring of performance-based tasks and scoring of responses. Stiggins (1987) stated that it is critical that the scoring procedures are designed to assure that performance ratings reflect the true capabilities of a student, not just a function of the perceptions and biasness of the judges evaluating the performance based on the characteristics of the student.

Content Quality

This criterion looks into the quality of the content, which must be consistent with the best current understanding of the field and at the same time reflective of what are to be assessed to be aspects of quality. Moreover, the selected tasks to assess a given content domain should themselves be worthy of the time and efforts of students and raters. One strategy to assure content quality is to involve subject matter experts not only in task review but also in curriculum design.

Content Coverage

This criterion refers to the comprehensiveness such as scope, of content coverage provides another potential criterion of interest. Collins, Hawkins, and Frederiksen (1990) noted that if there are gaps on coverage, teachers and students are likely to underemphasize those parts of the content domain that are excluded from the assessment. An inadequate content coverage may lead not only to misleading high scores, but also to a distortion of the instruction provided.

Meaningfulness

This criterion refers to the meaningfulness of criteria to students is worthy of attention. The rationale is that students get to deal with meaningful problems that provide worthwhile educational experiences. Task analysis can provide some relevant information to this criterion. Studies such as a the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) have shown that meaningfulness of tasks during practical lessons lead to high levels of motivation. Ames (1992) stated that tasks are dimensions within a classroom that influence a student's levels of motivation.

The above-mentioned criteria are very useful in providing a direction for us to validate our performance assessment, which is currently being pursued.

Effectiveness of Formative Assessment

Importance of feedback

Based on our interview with some of the ITE students who had gone through the performance assessment at ITE, they stated that receiving feedback during the formative assessments was helpful as it provided them with useful information to enhance their performances over time. They stated that their teachers provided them with the necessary guide and assistance during the reviews of their performance. This helped them discover their mistakes and opened them up to improving their performances.

Increased Confidence Level

The students stated that the formative assessments also increased their confidence for the summative assessment. They shared taht because of the availability for them to model after their teachers and practice the skills taught, they became more confident in the summative assessment. They also mentioned that knowing what to expect from the assessment rubrics helped them alleviate their worries.

Relevance of Formative Assessments to the Summative Assessment

The students found that knowing how they performed and what actions or steps to take based on the formative feedback over time is very helpful for them to be persistence on tasks and the knowledge and skills they acquired over the multiple performance tasks are very relevant to the knowledge and skills needed in the summative assessment.

REFLECTION ON THE BENEFITS AND CHALLENAGES

Messick’s (1994) six aspects of construct validity provide an excellent framework for the validation study of the performance assessment at ITE. It also allows us to indentify the strengths and limitations of the implementation of the performance assessment.

In the analysis above, the absence of inter-rater reliability was discovered. In the current practice, a single assessor conducts the assessment single-handedly and rate the scores. It can prove to be very technically challenging to handle a class of 35 students singly. The presence of another rater will ensure that the scoring is more comparable. The scores of the 1st rater and the 2nd rater will be compared for any discrepancy and the raters need to arrive at a consensus score on each criterion on the assessemnt rubrics. This procedure ensures that the task scores given to the students are reliable and valid as it helps minimize rater biasness.

The challenges that educators face in vocational institute is the ever-changing technology. In this 21st century where technology is rapidly changing, competencies required to perform a job function expands. Hence, educators must consistently equip themselves with the current skills and competencies before they can impart them to the students. We also do note from the interviews conducted that formative assessments are important and critical to build students’ confidence and equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to attempt the summative assessment.

Students also highlighted the importance of feedback so that they will know their areas for improvement. Formative feedback informs them on how to improve on the quality of their work. The effectiveness of feedback and continuous learning through formative assessments have enhanced the performance of students during the summative assessment. It has proven to be very effective for the students in the vocational institution. Performance assessment also supports the alignment of authentic learning, which is very important for the students to experience real-world skills needed in the future workforce. We have also seen that formative assessment is important in developing and scaffolding the competencies required for students to perform a task. Hence, it is critical that we place a greater emphasis on the formative assessment component in the design and implementation of performance assessments at ITE.

The importance of this study is to validate the current practices in the deployment of performance assessment. As there is no other post-secondary institution that has performed such validation study, it is a good step for us so that we can reflect on our current practice and seek ways to improve it. The study helps us gather some feedback from the students on the implementation of the performance assessment and formative assessment, which focus on assessing both the process and product.

Educators at vocational institutions must see the value of performance assessments and what they aim to achieve. The importance of feedback, formative and summative assessments must be embraced by the teaching staff at vocational institutes. Feedback towards students performance after the formative assessments could be done in many creative ways, be it individual or group-focused feedback. Feedback given to students aims not only to highlight students’ strengths and weakness but also to suggest further steps needed to be taken by students to improve the quality of their work.

High-quality professional development should be given to ITE lecturers to educate them on the curriculum design and the development of performance assessments. ITE lecturers who are new to the formative assessment practice need to be trained on the design and implemenattion of formative assesssment, which is embedded in the performance-based tasks. In short, the task of improving the assessment literacy of ITE lecturers through effective professional developemnt is of equally important to that of teachers in schools.

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Welcome Back

2011-07-25T08:18:00.002+08:00

It has been close to 2years since I left this blog. Studies has taken priority and now that that's done, I have some time to spare before I hit the books again...

It has been an enriching journey, my 2nd postgrad studies became very meaningful and valuable. It was full of struggle and sacrifices.

3 months back, little Alyssa came to this world and she came at the right time, I was about to complete my final submission :)

Life has to go on...I achieved many wonderful things this year and I am really proud of those. Now I have submitted a few applications for my PhD and hope to be admitted in either one.

Got to go now...see you in a bit...

Is IT Truly Useful in the Classroom - My writings

2009-03-29T10:13:00.000+08:00

INTRODUCTION
Information Technology is defined by NASA John H.Glenn Research Centre as ‘any equipment or interconnected system or subsystem of equipment, which is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information.

Implementation of Information Technology in classrooms serves as a learning aide to the students. While IT reinforces knowledge in the students, it should not be used to replace classroom teaching completely. IT devices include Tablets, PDAs and the computers. How has the implementation affect students’ academic achievement? Is IT practical and implementable across all subjects? The effects of introducing technologies into the classrooms have varied.

Ungerleider and Burns (2002) in their paper ‘Information and Communication Technologies in Elementary and Secondary Education: A state of the Art Review’ hypothesized that students attitudes towards computers and computer related technologies will improve as a consequence of exposure.

In this study we will look into these areas a) positive and negative review of literatures and b) impact of technology in academic performance. These areas of reading will give us a broad balance in getting in weighing whether it is really useful.
An important element of increasing technological advance is the rapid spread of the Internet and other communication technologies.

EFFECTIVENESS OF TECHNOLOGY
Henchey (2001) believed that classrooms should be equipped with technology. His believe predicated on the belief that technology can improve the rate, quality, amount and effectiveness of learning. Trans-formatively, this was also supported by Rust (1991) who argued that IT had overcome the boundaries of classroom-traditional schooling. This was also mentioned by Clark (1997) that children who are exposed to computers have a more positive attitude towards technologies and this trait is very useful throughout their lives. Professor Mark Lepper (1995) suggested several ways that computer based learning could lead to increased student engagement on academic task. Lepper (1995) identified three areas in which a) computer activities can provide intellectual challenge and motivation, b) it also stimulate human curiosity and c) provides a sense of independence and control.
Schofield (1995) mentioned that the incrementalist believed that the effect of technology would make the curriculum more efficient. Bigum & Green (1995) believed that with technologies being introduced in the classroom, it becomes not just as a more efficient way of delivering the lesson, but also it creates a new context for learning. In fact, more students were doing more independent exploration than before. Qualitative research on computer-rich environments has supported the idea that project-based work with computers is highly engaging for students.

As mentioned by Ungerleider and Burns (2002) in their paper ‘Information and Communication Technologies in Elementary and Secondary Education: A state of the Art Review’, Ainsa (1989) found that the addition of computers in the classrooms contributed to higher achievement in areas of motor, cognitive and language and she also concludes that the introduction of computers in the curricula improves students performance. They also mentioned that Laferriere et al (1999) pointed out those children without access to computer at home finds it more motivating to go to school where they can have access to a computer.

In our local context, teachers use IT to aide in their lesson delivery. This is truer in skills-based and technology-based subjects. Students are required to be competent in the technology as this forms part of their assessment and academic performance. In the Institutes of Higher Learning, the use of IT is the standards set for students to learn and apply the concepts. This use of IT develops research skills, thinking skills, interpretation and application which sharpen the requirements for them when they attempt their year-end examinations, which was also mentioned by Clark (1995). Some viewed that the potential of the internet highway opens the door of expression and delivering the students own views rather than just receive inputs from the teacher. This was also one of the criticisms of Paulo Freire (1971) concepts in his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (p71). Paulo mentioned about the ‘banking’ concept, which is the one way communication traffic of teaching that inhibits the student’s creative thinking and expression. The addition of technology may be able to alleviate this as students express their thoughts through their daily journals – blogs.

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Abrami (2000) stated that although there is much promise to this, there is little evidence to prove the effectiveness of using technology for long-term learning. It is critical that enough research and study is done to have a valid steer towards a conclusion. Mason (1995) rejects the idea that new technologies will transform education. He said that the conservative mass of teachers will take advantage of technology to deliver traditional curriculum in a more efficient way. Technology does not replace curriculum but instead it aides in curriculum delivery. Thereby, this constitutes the fact that not all schools provide a one-to-one computer access to all its students. There were many schools that just had one computer in a classroom for all the students to share. Even then, this computer is sparsely used as many teachers still conduct lessons in the conventional way.

As mentioned by Ungerleider and Burns (2002) in their paper ‘Information and Communication Technologies in Elementary and Secondary Education: A state of the Art Review’ (p.5) that Canadian and American data collected through research indicated that academic performances and achievements does not improve simply as a result of introducing and having access to computers in the classroom. They highlighted that these kind of investigative research are important as the sample size was very large, the geographical location were diverse and the level of instructional settings were detailed in the data collection. They also pointed out that the presence or absence of the computers was not manipulated on purpose. They had conducted their research using that addressed the hypotheses using quasi-experimental methods. They also mentioned that Alspaugh (1999); Baron (1992) examined the impact of computers in working groups of students and concluded that the availability does not appear to be a contributing factor to students achievements.

Lawson and Comber (2000) mentioned that searches on the internet are ‘time-wasting’ as students drew materials from the Internet that was outside of the subject focus. In most cases, the textbooks used in class provided up to date and relevant materials for the students. Casey (1996) explored the use of computers in American schools and argued that computers were used in the context of traditional learning with a differentiated curriculum.

In the United States, a recent analysis from the national Mathematics test was reported by Wenglinsky (1998). He conducted a purposive sampling methodology and analyzed the results of 6227 fourth graders and 7146 eight graders and found that the frequency of access to the computers created an inverse relationship to performance; students with greater computer access performed less well than students with less or no computer access. In (Means and Olson, 1995) case study reported that the case study of 17 intensive computer-using classes reported that the effect on students was an increase in motivation.

In our local context, the primary and secondary school teachers use IT to aide in the lesson delivery. The use of Microsoft Power-point TM, videos and the online academic materials provide a variation of teaching that keep students mind stimulated. This does not necessarily conform to an increased academic performance. The use of IT in these schools is to provide a variation of learning to cater to visual learners and kinesthetic learners. This was fully supported by Casey (1996) where he mentioned that IT will be very effective for differentiated learning.

IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY IN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS
Garnder et al. (1993) experimented with 235 students and suggested that mere access to computer technologies without concurrent changes to instruction is not sufficient to affect achievement. He found no significant differences between the students when he grouped them, one with personal laptops for the entire year while another have no laptops with them.

Van Daal et al. (2000) reported dramatic increase in reading and spelling performance of students who were exposed to computer-based reading and spelling program.

In addition, Tremblay, Ross and Berthelot (2001) reported an analysis conducted in Canada in 1997 with 115 000 students. Their study found no relationship between the presence of technology in the classroom and the students’ achievements. Johnson (2000) also conducted an analysis and reported that fourth and eighth graders in United States who used computers in classrooms do not perform better than those who did not.

In the United States, Becker (2000) mentioned that a probability sample questionnaire was done to collect the impact of having computers in classrooms. 44% of the teachers reported that allowing access to the computers in classrooms improves the way the students present information to a group of audiences, 29% reported that it improves the ability of expressing oneself in writing, 27% reported that it improves electronic communication. The other areas of improvement include 26% for analyzing information, 22% for learning to work collaboratively, 21% for learning to work independently and 18% for remediation of skills.

Therefore, for successful integration of computers in schools, it is essential that teachers participate in the decision making process, design, implementation and evaluation of this innovation.

REFLECTIONS
In this media-saturated world, the traditional modes of classroom delivery were unlikely to anymore hold the attention of the young. Therefore teachers have to engage in a pedagogical change through greater awareness of the availability of technology and how they can tap these technologies to provide variation to learning.
The literatures above conduct study and research on primary and secondary students. There are no reports on the study on technical schools and post secondary institutions.

In the various literatures, Lawson, Tony and Comber, Chris (2000) focused on the effects of Information and Communication Technologies that goes beyond the boundaries of the classroom, subject matter, teachers and curriculum. Becker, Henry Jay, Wong, Yan Tien & Ravitz, Jason L. (1999) focused on the conditions that a teacher would use computers to aid in their teaching. Ungerleirder, Charles S. and Burns, Tracey C. (2002) focused on ICT and their educational impact on student socialization and Mumtaz Shazia (2000) focused on the factors that would influence a teacher’s decision to use ICT in the classroom.

Means (1994) suggested that for successful implementation of computers in primary schools, it is important that the teachers participate in the design, implementation and evaluation of these change. The use of information technology and how it would impact the pedagogic output will depend very much on the nature of the subject.
In the skills based schools like the polytechnics and technical institutes in Singapore, the use of Information Technology is widely adopted across all subjects. This is especially true in subjects like computing, computer networking and programming where students require the availability of technology to develop and hone their skills. Frequent use of computers is a necessary condition for important, technology-based teaching. Jonessen (1996) argued that technology-based learning occurs when students use computers to represent what they know and make meanings of them. They also need the availability of technology to apply the theories and concepts that they learnt during their lectures. Students’ assessments and achievements were based on the application of skills on these technologies. Frequent use of computers is a necessary condition for technology-based teaching. These were also evidently proven by the various National InfoComm Competitions (NIC) organized by InfoComm Development Authority (iDA) Singapore. Students were required to pit their skills and knowledge on the application of current and advanced technologies. As seen here, technology does not replace curriculum, it aides in curriculum delivery.

In the primary and secondary schools, deciding if IT should be part of the curriculum, we could use Tyler (1942) three focal points as a guiding principle. Tyler (1942) looked at three points 1) nature of the subject, 2) the individual and 3) the nature of society. In 1) nature of the subject, the teacher could base the requirement on the lesson plan and objectives. The teacher could use IT as a variation to maintain interest and develop motivational levels of the student. 2) The individual – teachers have to understand the way our students learn. Students learn from a myriad of ways. We have the kinesthetic, visual and auditory learners. Will IT be effective for all kinds of learners? We also have to look into 3) the nature of society; teachers have to scan around the nature of students. Are all the students exposed to technology at their homes? Will students who have computers at home perform academically better?

Goodenow (1996, p.198) argued that there will be a dissonant impact when we integrate technologies in our curriculum delivery that would change the way we seek information and they way debate over issues.

SUMMARY
The review of the relevance of technology in classrooms has been investigated by many educators. Still manly literature has emerged with contrasting ideas, research and studies done at their national levels. There were also mixed responses and reactions from subject specialist and teachers on the use of technology. Teachers have shown reactive and proactive responses. The elements that decide include the subject matter and the capability of the students.

Schlechty (1990) mentioned that ‘schools are required to produce independent minded, flexible workers, who are able to collaborate with others in creative ways’. Hence the introduction of technology may aide to produce such potentials. Educators must be able to make use of the availability of technology to transform students.

REFERENCES
Mumtaz, Shazia (2000) ‘Factors affecting teachers’ use if information and communications technology: a review of literature’, Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 9:3,319-342

Ungerleider, Charles S. and Burns, Tracey C. (2002) ‘Information and Communication Technologies in Elementary and Secondary Education: A state of the Art Review’, University of British Columbia

Lawson, Tony & Comber, Chris (2000) ‘Introducing Information and Communication Technologies into Schools: the blurring of boundaries’, School of Education, University of Leicester, UK

Becker, Henry Jay, Yan Tien, Wong & Ravitz, Jason L.,(1999) ”Computer Use and Pedagogy in Co-NECT Schools, A Comparative Study.”, Teaching, Learning and Computing: 1998 National Survey, Special Report, University of California, Irvine

Vrasidas Charalambos & McIsaac Marina S (2001) “Integrating Technology in Teaching and Teacher Education: Implications for Policy and Curriculum Reform”, (pp. 127-132). International Council for Education Media.

Becker, Henry Jay (2000) “Pedagogical Motivations for Student Computer Use That Lead to Student Engagement”, Educational Technology, September – October 2000, University of California, Irvine

Pedagogy of The Oppressed - Paulo Freire

2009-03-29T10:12:00.000+08:00

Paulo Freire focused two concepts of in his book. However, these 2 concepts - Banking Concept & Dialogics mushroomed from his background and his internalizational beliefs.

Having grown up in the darkest corners of Brazil, he was very much deprived of many luxuries and thus it became on of the critical factors in constructing his state of mind and in his way of seeing education.

The Banking concepts looks at education in a very conventional traditional way where students were seen as objects of receiving and storing information. Teachers were deemed as purely depositing and dictating information which they deemed the students should know. Students were deprived from the inculcation of questioning, thinking and reflecting. Students were known to be in the oppressed state. Here he defined the teacher as the Oppressor and the students as the Oppressed. Take note that this is something Freire does not advocate.

In countering the Banking concept, he introduced Dialogics. This dialogics are actually dialogue between teacher and student which will encourage the student to listen, filter, reflect, question and discuss. This is what true dialogue is about. In this context, there is no clear distinction between a student and a teacher as both parties listen and learn from one another. In advocating true dialogics, a teacher has to instill love, trust, faith and humility in himself to bring out the true meaning of dialogics. This is the act of self consciouness, internalization and humility coming from the teacher. The aim of these dialogics, in this case of Freire, is to achieve liberation so that the Oppressed have the power and knowledge to speak up, express the views, dictate the way they live in, upgrade the social status and break free from oppression.

Many critics have said that Freire's ideas skewed too much on social class and liberation, which is very idealistic. Also to note that when the oppressed becomes knowledgeable and influenced, they will somehow be in a state of the Oppressor and advocate Oppression. So we see a continuous cycle that is inevitable.

In our local context, dialogics were very much applied through collaborative learning, problem-based, project based, TLLM ...

In short, Freire ended his context that "Education is Freedom"..

Personal reflection :
There are so many insights in Freire that I cant write here due to space constraints. And I am so flooded with reflections that I have to organize my thoughts on paper and make sense of everything that I read

I am still alive

2009-03-08T02:05:00.003+08:00

Dear all,

I am still alive ..heheheee...apologies for being away from here for the past 8mths. I have been caught up with school work and it took a toll on me.

Now its more challenge, I am back to hitting the books twice a week in the evenings @ NIE.

But I promise to be more consistent in here...so you should see more post coming up real soon.

Its 2+ in the morning now and my is half-open...Alice in Wonderland is waiting...

Good nite everyone..

PS : To all those who have left comments in my earlier post, Thanks so much ;)

Singapore Garden Festival

2008-07-27T01:41:00.001+08:00

Wow, what a day we had....A planned visit to the SGF 2008 was truly amazing. The flora and fauna was truly awesome.

The Joy of Fatherhood...

2008-07-02T22:14:00.003+08:00

I heard people said that we never realised how much our parents loved us until we become parents ourselves. Guessed its really true..

After being a parent for the past 1.5yrs, I began to realize the love relationship between mum, dad and their children. After having watched and protected Adelina growing up for the past 1.5yrs, my bond with her grow stronger each day. She brought so much joy, laughter and brings the family together. I had my share of late nights, my share of getting wet from her pisses, from her vomits...and all. But I never complained. Seeing her run around the house, climb every corner, laughs and screams and messes up our tiny home replaces all the tiredness we feel waking up in the middle of the night. I also learnt all those kids songs - hehe. Not forgetting the phonics songs and nursery rhymes..

She has started to pick up words, speak little here and there, and mumbles all the time. Her smile is like a panacea, it cures our fatigue from work and creates the sweet atmosphere at home. I tend to get protective, rushing forward at her every fall and at every slightest danger I could sense. Many lonely times with her was spent bonding. Sometimes I wonder how quiet the house would be if she grew up and heads to school.

I recalled during my last trip to HKG on work assignment. I cried myself to sleep at nights coz I missed her. I was used to have her sleep beside me each nite and feel her kicks, her calling me and he laughters. And even on my trip to PVG, I cried almost each day missing her. Now as I grew much closer to her, I cant bear not to have her around...I dread the day where I have to go overseas again for work, without them.

I have spent the last 2.5 weeks bonding with her all day. My school vacation gonna end by the week and I will be back at work. Sometimes morning till night. Thats when I dread most because by the time I reached home, its quite late and she might be asleep by then. I always 'apologise' to her whenever I come home late, as I was unable to 'play' with her. That is enough to derail me, and threw me into guilt corner. So I always try to come home quickly after work, so that I can spend some time with her - bonding.

Now she is turning 16mths and soon enough she heads to a childcare centre. We wanted her to learn to socialize and pick up some skills from the school. It will do her a lot of good to start early. I dont know how I will react the day she starts school, I might be the one crying and I might be the one feeling terribly upset coz I will not be there to catch her if she falls.

Oh shucks that feeling crept in me now, think I am shedding a tear. The thought of not seeing her for a whole day just threw me in the pits. So you can imagine if I have to work till late, how does that feel ?

Adelina is the centre of the joy at home. Both me and Z are spending quality time together as parents. The joy of love for the family is growing and we try our best to provide for her and be with her. Really, there is so much love in the family and I know I love my family, my Adelina and my wife - above everything else.

At this moment, Adelina is sound in bed and me beside her penning this away and Mummy is in the study, running up her school work. And oh yes Mummy is now kindergarten teacher. Felt so happy and proud for her. We have a family of educators now and hopefully Adelina will be a bright and smart one. God Willing !

Well, I am still harping on the day I complete my EdD and Mum completes her studies. We can move our lives abroad. I hope to take on a professorship in NZ, Aussie or Canada. Perhaps that could come before I turn 40 and we'll move on with our lives. Hey me turning 40 is not that far away .....

Adelina & Mummy ~ Daddy love you both..............very much :-)

A Day @ Singapore Botanic Gardens

2008-05-16T22:20:00.002+08:00

We had a good day..took the family + 2 nieces down to SBG on 10May It has been ages since I last set foot in there...cant recall when....Sun wasn't too bad..Huh never know SBG was quite big...the walk was endless. I liked the enviro though, you can see couples walking hand in hand, young or old, families picnicing and partying on grasslands....really good time for family bonding....and I had my fair share.

Of course Little D has her fair share of running around slopes, falls, shouts and screams...you can see a pic of how happy she is, running around the pathway @ SBG. Attention seeker - she screamed and laughed loudly....and we had to stop her...hahahahaha. Thats my girl...

We took about 2 hours to 'complete' our walk @ SBG, but still we have not covered the whole of SBG yet. As the sun was killing, we decided to get away to get some ice-cream to chill-down. And off we went to Vivo, my favourite :-)

Little D loves to shout and scream...and she is very curious about everything around here. Thats good for her. It ignites her amygdala and sets her thoughts and we parents have to be on standy with answers to worldly questions.

Life is getting better each time and I always enjoy moments with Little D, she makes my day, she makes me forget all my tireness after nite class, she makes me forget any unhappiness I have...she is my girl - my little D....

National Museum Trip @ 4th May

2008-05-13T21:01:00.002+08:00

Hi all, I am back !!...We made a trip to the National Museum @ Old Parliament Lane. Never been there before so we had to figure out where to park. As expected, carpark was full so we had to park at an adjacent building - The Adelphi, just opposite Funan Centre.

Never knew the building looked so nice. We had wanted to see the art pieces from Ukraine - so to speak, motivated by the radio deejays that kept promoting it.

Well, its kinda fun and nice . . . .The internal decor and design looked very good, really good for photographs and wedding shots...hehehehe.

We had our fair share of pictures and here's a family pic. Little Darling, Mummy and Daddy - A great family hanging out together on a Sunday @ The Museum :-)

Historical Murals @ Changi

2008-05-01T22:12:00.002+08:00

Yo ! Here I am back again....been MIA for sometime..getting lazy to write here..hehehe...nah not that, just could not find time to slot into this blog. Ah well, here I am....

Today we made a trip to Changi Museum. Never knew it existed in the 1st place. And all because Mummy A had to do her school work that we made a trip there. Sun was scorchingly killing burningly prickly hot and we were all sweaty after a few minutes in the sun. Heeeee...........

Thinking back, it was a knowledge generation trip, enlightened me a lot.

The museum boast a whole lot history of the fall and rise of Singapore, known as Malaya back then. It encompasses the journeys of WW2, the pain and sufferings our people went through. It displayed many pictures of POWs, daily encounters, life journeys and the tortures that our forefathers went through, under the ruling of the Japanese.

Its also showed our national heroes, like Lim Bo Seng, 2LT Adnan who fought teeth and grit to free our people from the sufferings and insults of the Japanese. Real equipments and tools used during that era were also on display....cool huh you think ? After going through the different sections of the museum, I cant help but feel that we have come a really long way...

Political.
It was really for one political reason that the Japanese took to overthrew the British here. The quest for political dominance and power was exumably displayed when the boast the fighter jets, guns, swords. The hunger for political power led the Japanese to exhibit aggression over their weaker opponents. Power and politics, most of the time come hand in hand. But if we abuse it, it can led to many unhappiness. Being in power does not grant us the rights to suppress others.

Economic
A weak economy in Malaya contributed to the downfall back then. Well, back then , what is "economy" all about ? So the Japanese took this opportunity . We had a 'leader' back then in Malaya, the Sultan. But was economic stability and strength is the main national agenda ? Don't think so, proven....

Maybe they dont have economics as part of the learning syllabus in school then ? Hehehehe...

Social
It was our key strength of Malaya, we had good bonds with neighboring countries that all came to lend a hand during WW2. We had to thank MY, ID, AU, US, UK, IN and few more for their relentless effort fighting the Japanese to free Malaya from their clutches.

Technological
We really lost out here back then ? What technology do we have to fend off the Japanese. They have got thousands of fighter jets, rifles, manpower etc....and what do we have ? Parangs ? Keris ? Sampans ?.how do we fight ? Even our allies that came to help could not fend them off...infact the British was so afraid of them then...hahahaha

But whats so impressive was the murals. People say that a picture paints a thousand words. Really true.....looking at those pictures send chills across the hall, it reflects the hardships, the sufferings, the pain, the agony, the sorrows of our people and the POWs during the Japanese occupation. It was a really a good social studies self taught. It also depicts the heroic undertakings of our forefathers, those that fought against the rules laid during the Japanese occupation. They fought very hard, only many ended up executed and shot by the Japanese.

So is sovereignty so important ? Will taking over territories makes you worshipped even more ? Even at the expense of humanity ? Well, my thoughts tell me that power and politics come hand in hand. The urge for power will entangle us in a political struggle.

Look at what happened today ? China is still hampering to cement their sovereignty over Tibet. This has led to many unhappy events 1. The Dalai Lama scooted off to India when he was young to prevent from the ruling of China. Tibet has been under its own government for a long time and now the insurgence of China into Tibet will mean lots of changes in Tibet rules....many changes ! !

Day in day out....

2008-04-26T00:35:00.003+08:00

Hello all, been 3 weeks since I last wrote...been busy in school. Term started 2 weeks back and as usual, administering new students is not easy.

My teaching load is kinda heavy, not forgetting my nite classes on Mondays and Thursdays now...anyway, I love my job.

1] Adelina is growing day by day. Now she enjoys running around the house, tearing papers and her favourite is still that cuppycake song. She love to flip books and she gets easily attracted to large prints in books. She is also learning to talk, she is imitating us at home. Just look at the pic above..see how cute my darling is...

2] I do badminton on Sunday mornings now, got to find ways to exercise and stay healthy.

3] And of course on Sunday afternoons is my dizi class, loved it..in Grade 4 now...getting tougher...and I am not complaining....

Oh and I now in this RC thing. Doing my bit for society....

She is now 1

2008-04-03T16:26:00.003+08:00

Helllllllllllllllllllo everyone, apologies coz its been 4mths since I last wrote in here. Was super busy. Life has taken many major turning points.

Whats great is now Adelina is now 1, and yes and is busy walking around the house helping Mummy keep the house clean. She has also got her 1st 2 teeth...hahahaha...

She is getting smarter now, she knows when we are going out of the house, she knows how to wave and of course never forget her sweet sweet smile...

She is such a darling...

As for me, more job responsibilities has taken by and I am so bogged down by work. Its the school vacation now and yet I come back to school quite often to get some things done....

My enemy the flu, fever and cough has just left me and I can work in peace now....

It has been a loooooooooooooooong time

2007-11-29T18:58:00.001+08:00

WOW....it has been really long since I last logged in here.....been really really busy.... ok here I have some pictures of Little D and the family...hehehe..and Oh do drop by and listen to this dizi recital of zi zhu diao....errr played by my teacher....hahahahahaha...

I am off to HKG next week for a 4-day Cisco conference....and I am physically and mentally tired right now....work is draining.....but....I enjoy my life as a teacher...

and hey I found my long lost buddy....I have not seen him for a good 20yrs...and I found him through facebook, cool yeah.........he is my buddy pri.1 to pri.6 , and we lost touch since...and 20yrs then, I found him again.....wow really excited...and very happy of course....

A week gone by...

2007-11-06T21:56:00.000+08:00

How time flies...more than a week past since my last entry. It has been a crazy period :-) ....

Wow so many events took place in a span of 7days....I will write it in my next blog.

Today I took Little D to the polyclinic to consult on her white fungus......seemed ok. Just that I need to apply the fungus cream till it worn off...

Ok, really tired now...Thursday is a holiday but I am in no holiday mood...I have to set exam papers......

Ok Ciao all....Good Night !!!

Another week gone...

2007-10-27T21:07:00.000+08:00

Wow...another week went past..

1) It has been a crazy week in school, I have so many meetings to attend apart from classes. Albeit the fact that I was down with a blocked nose and a bad sore throat. Even Fridays meeting ended rather late, not a norm. I just felt so tired and drained that I took my family out for dinner @ Vivo and took a little walk round. We then headed off to JB to my sis-in-laws place for the night.

2) We left JB this morning about 10.30am...need to fetch Tasha and head off of airport coz my elder sis is coming back from DXB. Then I had to send her home in the north, then head off back my home coz my friends are coming to visit. By then, I am just so tired...

3) Wifey even wanted to go visiting after dinner BUT look who's talking, she fell flat on the mattress over the evening. I am too tired to go anywhere.

4) I will be spending the night awake again, got so many meetings next week and I am expected to present some data....perhaps they forgot that my teaching load is 28hours/week, which is above the norm. Honestly I feel that I can perform and be alert always, its just that I need my regular exercise ~ swim. I need to get back to my normal routine i.e swim 2/week. Anyway, this Wed after my noon class, I will head to SAFRA to swim and come back for my evening class.

5) OK for now, I need to get work done....ohhh and here's a picture of my sis-in-law family in JB. Happy viewing

6) Ciao !

Good day...

2007-10-22T21:22:00.000+08:00

Guten Tag !

The weekend went past real fast..

1) We spent the Sat and Sun visiting, uncountable number of houses....dog-tired. Driving around gives you back-aches too. Had so much of spicy and 'unhealthy' food...Oh yah, it worsens my sore throat. My throat is getting bad to worse since last week, and the weekend visits made it worse. Today, its not too bad. But it was kinda interesting, I met my ex-NS friend at someones' place...what a place. Well, it brought friends back together, isnt it ? and thats what festive seasons are all about.

2) Oh I had a long day today. Ben is away on a weeks' training and I helped to cover his class earlier. And I had lectures with 1C and continued with another 2hr lab session...It was kinda draining to be running the lab session without any assistance coz I had to attend to 36 students who wants my attention. Tomorrow is going to be another day :-)

3) I had my Dizi lesson yesterday. My teacher bought me a new flute - it looked rather solid. And it sounded crisp and melodious. The only thing is that I am not that expert enough to hold my breath...still struggling but I love the notes....

4) Oh my ticket fare to HKG is 410 by CX and 475 by SQ. Though office is paying for it, I opted for CX. I will be in HKG 4-8 December for the Cisco Conference. Hmmmm I will miss Little D :-(

5) Little D spent the evening crawling around and laughing away. She is such a darling...I am gonna miss my Little D when I am away working in HKG.

6) We had our RC meeting today at Blk22. They decided to have the DeepaRaya event on 17th Nov at the MPH between BLK 17 and 18. Still in the planning stage, nothing too finalised yet. Well, I have been roped in to be the emcee. Hahahahahahaha.

At this moment, Little D had gone to sleep. She was kinda sleepy before I left home to attend the meeting and now that I am back, she is silently asleep.....my sweet Little D

Ok thats it for today....till you hear from me again - about my life, my family and my sweet Little D.............good night, wan an, selamat malam, guten nacht !

WOW

2007-10-19T22:28:00.000+08:00

Phew !...Its Friday, how time flies....It has been 4 days since I wrote something here. My teaching schedule is very tight and I have less time to write here...My time from morning till night is spent in class with my students and bonding with them....

Little has started crawling forward now. If she used to crawl backwards then, now she is going forward and she enjoys laughing her heart out, at every little things.....She has began to yak and yak...only she understood what she says :-D

Its Saturday tomorrow, what do we plan to do ? Perhaps continue our visitings, or go for a swim tomorrow morning .....

Back to School...

2007-10-15T19:15:00.000+08:00

1) Guten Tag, its Monday again....hmmm yesterday was another tiring day, was basically out the whole day. Little D got so tired that she slept the whole night through...my Little D :-D

2) I had my 1st dizi lesson at NUS CFA on Sunday...kinda fun and tiring. Have not really played the flute for over a moth due to fasting...but I did ok. Fun...enjoyed my class :-)

3) Its the 1st day of the new school term and as usual, need many co-ordination and arrangement and administration and guidance ......so was kinda hectic today.

4) Today granny passed away........very sad :-(

Oh whats my little D doing now ? Playing and yakking away...only she knows what she is talking about..hahahahaha...Tomorrow morning Little D has got to go for the jab at the polyclinic...errrmm will send her day after sending mummy to work....

What I'll do tonite ? Read, reply emails....and get ready for class...I hv got nite class on Wed and Thu :-)

Ok for now.

Guten Nacht !

Happy Holidays

2007-10-13T22:11:00.000+08:00

Hey...Selamat Hari Raya to all...finally the month of Ramadhan is over. We have been out almost all day today. Visiting, travelling, east to west and across the causeway. Little D had much fun today, moving places....Oh and by the way, Little D is asleep now, must be tired after a whole day event. She had her fair share of ang pows, hehehe.

Tomorrow is Sunday...I have my flute lessons at 2pm @ NUS. Feel so great to go back to class after a long break from lessons. Cant wait to learn more stuff and play more songs...

It has been a tiring day...wont write too much..needed to rest ..

Guten nacht Singapur, bis morgen !

Little D screaming in the car...

2007-10-10T12:09:00.000+08:00

Hello...good afternoon...

Well its Wednesday....and a few days more fasting month is over, and school term starts. My students have been busy sms-ing me asking for the lecture timetable. Wondered why they cant view it in their e-student when I can.

Anyway, this morning I left my house key on the dining table. Usually Mummy or FDW would take my key along, but not today. After alighting mummy at NIE, I drove home. Little darling started crying midway - her usual "I wanna sleep" signal....and upon reaching home, we realised we got no house key. Gosh, tried calling mummy about 30 times with no response. I had to make quick decision to drive back to NIE to get our house keys. Rain started to pour heavily and little D is screaming away in the car. Another 30mins journey to NIE.

Eventually, mummy picked up the call after 1hr of waiting at NIE. Guessed she was in a meeting, if I recall correctly. We got her keys and got back home...its already 10+ by then. I was supposed to be in school to get some lab assignments done but I'll postpone it to tomorrow, cant finish.

Little D fell asleep along the way but the moment I parked the car at our MSCP, she woke up. And to this minute, she is still wide awake, yakking away.

What I'll do today ? I'll go to the bank later to change to smaller notes...I have yet to shower, hahahahaha....and I am still working out some admin work here......Kinda lots of stuff to prepare, term 507X starts next Monday and I am not fully prepared yet....the good thing is Tue is a school holiday for us. Its all due to us winning the International Award from Harvard Uni....

Ohhh I had also change my flute class...Its now in NUS Center for the Arts, just 5mins drive from home.Previously its at Bugis, kinda far...So, my class continues this Sunday @ 2pm..well, I got to diligently prepare for my Flute Exams in Dec 2008...long way to go but its sheer determination....way to go...

Ok, thats all for now....ciao...

Life is a journey continues

2007-10-09T16:23:00.000+08:00

Hahaha...just managed to catch a breather....its the school vacation now and the staff room is kinda empty...except few of us here ....oh well, got lots of admin stuff to do...hmmm just checked my blog and there is comment ....OOOps mummy commented "Where is the family picture"....hehehehe...OK mummy here I come....I wonder what's my little darling doing at home now.....and I got to leave office soon to fetch mummy home....

Ok for now...got to log off....pack the mess on my table and head to NIE.....ok mummy here we come...

Life is a journey...

2007-10-09T13:39:00.000+08:00

Phew.....I should have started years back on this, but just simply did not sit down to do it....well, I wanted to capture days and moments of my precious one - Adelina...from time we knew she started her life in mummy's tummy till today - she is touching 7mths old next week. Well, its never too late...

Our latest event was the KL trip we took in late September, hoping to buy stuff for the coming festive season. Worried and anxious, we took her to see a GP and enquired if its ok for her to handle the pressure onboard. Green light given, and off we went.

During take off and landing, being anxious parents, we tried religiously to heed the doctors advice, "Give her something to drink during take off and landing"...and we did...but little Adelina is too excited with her environment that she refuses to drink....hahaahaha...at the very least, she did not cry ...*phew*.....

Ooops I got more to write but I got to stop...am at work now...and needs to go off ....to be continued...