Artifact 2: The One About My Research Proposal

Below is a sample of my research proposal (1 pager) that I have submitted as my Assignment 1 of HMPD 6204 Research Project Design. This proposal outlines the actual research that I'm conducting for my final semester. Nevertheless, I have made some amendments to the research questions to cater to the depth and scope of my research. I will take you through the hiccups that I face while conducting my research in my future posts.

Note: You can also view the following document from here

Kindly read my reflection of Artifact 2 here.

Artifact 1: The One About Blogging and Learning

My first artifact centers around my idea of blogging and learning based on a task given by one of the facilitators of my HMLT 5203 course.

Question: 

Choose an online example of a tool or resource used to support learning. 

1.  Which theory or theories of learning support the example chosen?

2.  Is this an appropriate approach in today's world?   

3.   How would you use the type of tool or resource in your own classroom/training or learning and teaching environment?

I chose blog as one of the tools to support learning and my justification is as follows:

Blogs are part of the concept of Web 2.0 which is a new generation of web development and design that functions to "facilitate communication, secure information sharing, interoperability and collaboration through the World Wide Web" (Wikipedia). In its simplest sense, a "blog" (also known as a "weblog") is a website maintained by an individual in which the writer will pen down his or her thoughts on events, hobbies, commentraries etc. Blogs can also incorporate creative multimedia tools such as video and music clips as well as animations to enhance the contents of the blogs.

You can easily create a blog by registering an account at WordPress.com or Blogspot.com if you have a Google Mail account. These two websites are among the most common websites for blogs and blogging.

At present, technology has become part of our lives. We depend on technological advancements to ease our daily routines and assist in creative human development skills. The definition of a blog as stated above translates the main idea of learning with technological support.  As you may have observed, learning takes place when a writer composes and organises their thoughts. Technology comes in when the writer wishes to publish their work online and adds multimedia to enhance the contents of their work. As such, blogs uphold the essence of connectivism. Blogs have created an impact on learning by using the World Wide Web as its host whereby viewers of blogs around the globe are able to compose, share, comment and review their published works online.

Blogs are exceptionally useful in the learning and teaching environment as it functions to facilitate collaborative learning among students. In other words, it allows asynchronous collaborative learning especially in the distance learning context. In the learning/teaching environment, teachers may create a "class blog" where the students in the class are the members or subscribers to the blogs. The teacher can then post activities and questions in the blog and the students are able to view and answer the questions posted. Besides that, students are also able to comment on each others post with guidance provided by the teacher. The concept of collaborative learning may relate to the concept of scaffolding introduced by Vygotsky in the sense that students are able to learn something new from their peers or teacher based on the review and feedback received from the class blogs.

Reflection

I never thought of the idea of using blogs to learn before I enrolled in HMLT 5203. This task initiated me to think in terms of how blogging can assist learning hence forming the basis of my research paper in which I deem to evaluate Web 2.0 tools that facilitate English language learning. Kindly view my full reflection on Artifact 1 here.


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Introduction

This blog is part of my e-portfolio for my course HMVS 6502 Virtual Seminar: Critique and Review of Electronic Portfolio under the Master of Instructional Design and Technology (MIDT) offered by Open University of Malaysia. The purpose of creating this blog is to share and showcase what I have learnt throughout the MIDT programme. This blog features my reflection of the courses that I have enrolled in this programme and also my materials and resources for developing my research paper. My target audience are facilitators and colleagues in the MIDT programme.

The objectives of my blog are:

1. To demonstrate what I have learnt throughout the MIDT programme via various artifacts and reflections.
2. To enable me to thoughtfully analyse and reflect on each artifact as sources of my research project.
3. To enable communities of practice in the MIDT programme to evaluate, reflect and share their views on the artifacts.