The Introduction

• My name is Nur Bazilah Binti Khairudin and I'm 23. I was born in Muar, Johor and currently staying in Shah Alam as a student of B. Ed TESL in UiTM Shah Alam, Section 17.

• To be honest, my computer skills are in the average of noob to geek because there are only several areas that I apply in my daily life by using computer because my education field that I'm taking right now only requires me to use simple or basic software but I would proud to call myself a geek because sometimes I love to explore new things that fulfill my personal interest such as photo editing, video making and music editing.

• I would say my knowledge on software is far more better that my knowledge on hardware because I do rely on the 'computer savvy' to help me if I had hardware problems that I could not handle it by myself.

• I had several chances in learning via computer when I was at younger age because when I was in Form 1, I learnt several basic computer skills at school which it required me to key in data in Excel, writing several type of documents in Microsoft Office etc. While I'm studying TESL, there are several courses that gave me fruitful experiences in learning via the computer such as Computer Literacy as I need to do some stuff on the HTML coding and presentation on the invention on my own computer product.

• During my practicum, I was in the afternoon session so most of my classes were started late after the recess time and by the time my classes started, library and computer lab that are equipped with all the computers and projectors were closed. But on the bright side, I managed to bring my own laptop and portable speaker and get a borrowed portable projector from the school office and use it in the classroom. In  my opinion, I would say that every lesson that was integrated with technology skills had attracted students' attention in paying more attention and developing their interest in learning as it provides attractive audio and visual representations.

• Based on my view in terms of technological skills, I believe that technology helps a lot to change students' view and perspectives in learning as it provides variety sources of teaching materials rather than stick to the old-fashioned way of teaching.

• Since I'm quite fond in technology, I do really hope that this course could enlighten me on useful knowledge in creating several educational software that could benefit to my future as an educator. Based on the insight given by my lecturer on the first class, I believe that this course will expose me with several ESL websites and software that may help me in planning my lesson and up-to-date with the current issues. 

• The topic chosen for my Academic Exercise is a study on the implementation of group work in secondary ESL classroom. I chose this topic because I believe that teaching and learning style contributes to the effectiveness of meaningful learning. However, my study would not only focusing on the positive effects as it also will investigate on the negative effects of group work in secondary ESL classroom. Thus, it helps teachers to be more careful in implementing the particular way of teaching and learning style in their classroom. I'm planning to schedule meetings with my supervisor at least once in two weeks as I need as much feedback as I can. This will make sure that I will be in track and have a smooth progress of work.