#WEEK 3: Islamization of Knowledge

Reflection of Islamization of Knowledge

                Islamization is the concept of structuring the life of human being in line with the principle of Islamic teachings. Basically it is like changing or having new thoughts regarding our previous ideas and concepts in life.

                Nowadays, most education around the world is secular-based education that separates the religion from the state.  In Islam, we must fulfill our life for Allah and none of our activities, principals and ideas should be separated from Allah.  Islamization of knowledge covers, not just the field of education but practically everything in our lives. As Muslims, we should revert to whatever non-Islamic thoughts that we have learned before into the true Islamic way of thinking.

                For example, the Liverpool tagline, “You’ll never walk alone” can be Islamized by simply taking it as a step closer to remember Allah s.w.t. “You’ll never walk alone as Allah s.w.t. is always by your side, protecting you and guiding you.” 

#WEEK 2: Electronic Portfolio

What is electronic portfolio?

Electronic portfolio or also known as digital portfolio is an electronic evidence collected and managed by users (students), usually on the Web and is then evaluated by their teachers. The use of e-portfolio in learning nowadays is due to the advances in research and technologies. People start to turn to the new teaching methods and strategies which are way more innovative and convenient. E-portfolio, unlike the traditional portfolio where information and data used to be collected in bulky scrapbooks, provides ample benefits to the users. Many universities and schools nowadays are currently working to make sure that students are gaining practice and experience by means of electronic portfolios.

Reflection

As we know, via e-portfolio we can share information and knowledge with other people without any limitations. The learning of this topic in class has really opened our eyes that e-portfolio is indeed very advantageous as compared to the traditional portfolio where time, space, and access  become the ultimate boundaries. In our opinions, besides being the medium of assembling information, e-portfolio can also be the medium of spreading and swopping knowledge; we can get various information from others on the Internet and  we can also be the source of information to them as well. Besides that, as we are Muslims, e-portfolio can also be a good platform for us to spread Islam to the world. 

Indeed, whoever who is in the pursuit of knowledge, is walking their way to heaven. In sha Allah. :)

#GROUP DISCUSSION 1

1. Did the course incorporate the use of computer in the teaching and learning?

- Yes, Error and Contrastive Analysis did incorporate the use of computer in teaching and learning by detecting the grammatical mistakes done through the use of software such as Microsoft Office Word when students doing their work. Although the use of software in the computer can detect student’s grammatical mistakes, we can’t totally be depended on the computer alone. In other words, students also need to work together with the computer in learning and correcting each other’s mistakes. In this course, we learnt that each culture have different word choice and with the use of computer we can do research on different word choice of different culture. In conclusion, the use of computer in this course is very wide and it can be incorporated in such many ways.

2. Are the computer-based activities related to any of the THREE stages of CALL?

- Yes, especially in the stages of Communicative and Integrative CALL. In Communicative CALL grammar was taught implicitly and students work together with computer in learning by correcting each other’s grammatical mistakes. While in Integrative CALL, the computer is being used just as a tool in learning where it is a mechanism used in supplying information for the teacher and students.  The computer also is being used as the medium of interaction between the teacher and the learners and also between the learner and the other learner from across the whole world.

3. What are the important concepts in the THREE stages related to the activities?

-  COMMUNICATIVE CALL

Ø  Communicative CALL = Cognitive Approach

Ø  Computer = Pupil

Ø  Grammars was taught implicitly

Ø  Learner centered approach = Learners were left to discover the knowledge by themselves

 - INTEGRATIVE CALL

Ø  Integrative approach = the computer is integrated into the process of learning.

Ø  Authentic use of language

Ø  Task-based, Content-based and Project-based

Ø  Computer is being used as the tool for learning

#WEEK 1: History of CALL

Reflections

The use of computer in the process of learning and teaching is a current way of delivering knowledge to the learners. The reason is simply because technology is giving us so much impact and everyone on Earth tends to use technology in most of their daily activities. We do our laundry using the washing machine, we communicate with each other using the telephone which was invented by Alexander Graham Bell and even to do a simple mathematical equation, some of us would need to use the calculator. Technology made our life easier and it provides so much comfort in life. Without the technology, we would be likely spending most of our time to do some of our basic necessities. Therefore, the deployment of computer in learning and teaching process is something good and beneficial to the learners and also the educators.  

Virtual Classrooms

Attending class does not only mean that we have to literally go to class, sit on the chair with a small table attached to it and listen to the lecturers speaking in front of the class. With the rapid development of technology, now we can attend virtual classrooms and learn anything that is offered by the websites. Here, we provide some websites that functions as the virtual classrooms on the internet:

1) The Cyberitalian site is a place to learn the Italian language, discover the Italian culture and enrich their lives. It provides interactive lessons with audio, pronunciation guides, videos, self-administered exercises and exams and fun learning activities like puzzles, cross-words, reading/listening comprehension, sing along, cooking and many others. There will be also some new activities that will be added regularly.

2) The second example is the Madinaharabic site where learners can learn Arabic without having to pay anything to them. Therefore for students, especially the IIUM students, they can actually surf the website and extract the knowledge simply by clicking some of the buttons there.

Interactive Way of Learning

There are bundles of methods in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Quizzes and fun games are two top approaches of computer assisted learning. An example of the website that uses this kind of approaches is quia.com. It assists the instructors to adopt books, create classes and even to tract students’ progress. For the students, it helps them to complete their assignment in a fun way. They just have to register an account. That’s it!

Compact Disc

Even though we are not connected to the internet, the learning progress can still take place only with the presence of a computer. A CD (the abbreviation of a compact disc), which is a small plastic disc with a metallic surface on which information is recorded, also can be used as a process of learning. We still remember, during out school time, a CD used to be attached in each of our textbooks and teachers usually use it to explain the lessons and to keep students awake during the lesson time.

Virtual Connections

Social networking, instead of using it for the sake of socializing, it can also be used to maintain connections between the instructors and the learners. Connecting students to authentic environments is getting easier and more user-friendly with threaded discussion groups such as Google Groups and also Facebook Groups. It is becoming very popular during these recent days.

Conclusion

With the rapid growth of technology, the ideas and the implementation of it also changes from time to time. Some outstanding things have been done as a result of computer application and we believe that the use of computer as an aid for learners to acquire knowledge will experience an on-going development simply because of the facts that technology will be always springing up like mushrooms after the rain throughout out life.

#Four of Us

~Volunteers of International Women's Day-Celebrating Birth and Motherhood~