Assignment 9 (Database)

Assalamualaikum Wbt.

First of all, I would like to express my warmest gratitude to The Almighty for with His blessing I have managed to complete all the assignments for this course which is Computer in Education. Honestly, this is one of the most difficult courses that I have ever endured and it was definitely a very fruitful learning process for me as well as to my other course mates. I have learnt a lot form this sole course and I personally believe that the knowledge that I have gained would be really useful in the future as a teacher soon to be.

As I aforementioned in my previous post, this week has been divided into week 7a and 7b. We were assigned to work on 2 assignments for week 7a and an assignment for week 7b. Well, truth to be told, this week was one of the toughest weeks we have ever had and the input that we got was greatly fundamental especially for a teacher. Imagine, tonnes of assignments being given in a week! Honestly, I thought I could not make it in the first place, but thank God I could manage it in the end. Even I myself could not believe it! But, whatever it is, I am so relieved that I have completed all the assignments given in within the frame time given.

Back to our business, what was the assignment assigned to us for this week? For the final task, we were asked to create a student database by using Database Open Office. This was my very first time of using database in the Open Office. Of course, it was all Greek to me in the first place. We were then asked to plan, create and edit a simple database for student management information in creative, innovative and ethical ways. It was hard for me to handle in the first place. But, luckily, our lecturer, Mr. Fariduddin was indeed helpful as he was willing to show us how to create the database. I managed to complete it within few minutes only with the help from my brilliant partner Barbara Kath Anak Nipo. She was really awesome as she has helped me a lot in getting our assignments done. I am really grateful and thankful for that.

Personally, I strongly believe that database is one of the most essential components for any organisation be it a school, company, and so on. It is amazing how technology has made everything seems so convenient and ease the burden for us in getting our task done. However, in order to utilise the use of technology to the fullest, one really needs to have sound knowledge in ICT. Based on my exposure on ICT for about 7 excruciating weeks, I have realised how significant the role of technology in our everyday lives. Every chore is possible to be carried out by using technology. For example, bill payment, online banking, online shopping, distance learning, communication and so many other interesting things!

That is one of the reasons why some people could not live without the internet. Internet has so far brought a lot of benefits to us, the human kinds. But, it is undeniable that it has also brought along some negative impacts in our lives. However, it depends on the individual to incorporate the good things in their lives instead of taking the negative ones. After all, I believe that everyone agrees that education field is one of the fields that have changes abruptly as a result of the modernisation in technology. In Malaysia for instance, it is no longer possible for the students to have a video conference with our Prime Minister or any other Ministers to discuss some hotly debated issues. In fact, it is also no longer possible for a student to pursue his study from his home, it is called home schooling.

Thus, can you see how great technology is? And how crucial it is to us the users? Therefore, I personally urge everybody especially those who are going to become a teacher in the future to equip themselves with the knowledge about ICT so that they can be an all rounded person. Once again, I am really thankful to be able to learn this particular course and I believe I have managed to achieve my goal for this course which is to learn as much as possible to improve my knowledge about ICT specifically since I am a bit of a computer illiterate.

I would like to take this opportunity to bid a token of appreciation to our course coordinator, Dr. Siti Fatimah Mohd. Yassin for her endless guidance. Not forgetting, to our favourite course lecturer, Mr. Muhd Fariduddin Wajdi Anthony for showing us his dedication and giving us so much contribution to get us through this course successfully. Last but not least, a bunch of thank to my fellow partner, Barbara Kath Anak Nipo for lending me her helping hand whenever I am in trouble and also to my other fellow course mates for giving me their fullest cooperation throughout this entire course.

Thank you!

Happy Learning!

Good Day!

AHMAD AZRUL AFEZE BIN AHMAD ROSDI

B.Ed TESL IPGKS-UKM

IPG Kampus Sarawak

Jalan Bakam

98009 Miri

Sarawak

Email                : afezeukm@yahoo.com/afezeukm@gmail.com

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Assignment 8a (Spreadsheet) & 8b (Excel)

Assalamualaikum Wbt.

This would be the very last week for all of us before battling for our final examination. What do we have to do for this week? Briefly, this week has been divided as week 7a where we were assigned to work on Assignment 8a which was Open Office Spreadsheet and Assignment 8b, Microsoft Excel. Meanwhile, for week 7b, we were told to create student’s database-Assignment 9. Basically, I believe that these final assignments are greatly fundamental especially when we are working as a teacher soon.

So, for Assignment 8a, we have to plan, create and edit a simple one year personal financial management (income and spending) using Open Office Spreadsheet. Frankly speaking, we dealt with a minor problem here especially when we wanted to add the balance from the month before to the following months onward. However, problem was solved as soon as Mr. Fariduddin taught us how to do it. So, a bunch of thank to Mr. Fariduddin for giving us his hand! After we have come out with a financial management account, we were then required to upload it to Google Docs in order to share it with our lecturer and friends.

For our second task which was Assignment 8b, it was rather challenging as compared to the aforementioned assignment. I personally think that everybody needs to master this skill which was using Microsoft Excel. We are acknowledge that nowadays teachers use Excel to key in all the students information be it for their exam results, their database and so on. Thus, this is a skill that a teacher should not be lacking in. As for me, I have learnt about it during my foundation years but it is a norm for a human being to always forget. Needless to say, I am grateful to work on this assignment again as I was able to polish up my skills in using Excel. Hopefully I could utilise this skill in future if I would.

In a nutshell, personally I strongly believe that knowledge is meant to be shared among each other. In fact, it is crucial that the knowledge that we have should be imparted to students in the future. A teacher needs to be a step ahead of others so that we could become the source of reference and the one that people look up for should there be any doubts. Therefore, I personally urge myself and friends to brush up our skills in ICT particularly and always try to improve ourselves to be a better man.

Thank you!

Happy Learning!

Good Day!

AHMAD AZRUL AFEZE BIN AHMAD ROSDI

B.Ed TESL IPGKS-UKM

IPG Kampus Sarawak

Jalan Bakam

98009 Miri

Sarawak

Email                : afezeukm@yahoo.com/afezeukm@gmail.com

Facebook          : http://www.facebook.com/afezeukm

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Assignment 7a (Open Office Impress) & 7b (Windows Movie Maker)

Assalamualaikum Wbt.

Week 6- again with a brand new assignment. I am going to make it short and brief of what I have learnt from this week’s assignment. As usual, we were assigned to work on two assignments, namely assignment 7a and assignment 7b. Have I mentioned that we are almost at the end of our short semester already? If I have not, pardon me. Sounds like I could breathe for fresh breath, unfortunately, the final examination is just around the corner. And yet, I have not done any revision yet since I am too busy working on the loads of assignments assigned. But, I always keep my fingers crossed and hope everything will be just fine for me.

So, what were the assignments all about? For the first task which was assignment 7a, we were required to create a powerpoint slides by using Open Office Impress. The content of the slides need to be based on what we have written in our Mini Research Project. Honestly, that was my very first time of using it and I was like having so many difficulties in using it in the first place. It took me like ages just to create a slide! See, how difficult it was for me! Well, basically if we were to create a powerpoint slide, we would definitely resort to using the Microsoft Powerpoint. It was was so much easier to handle than Open Office. However, working on powerpoint slide by using Open Office Impress was indeed a new experience and knowledge for me. I believe it would be useful in the future. So, as a teacher, we should equip ourselves with tonnes of knowledge so that we would be the source of reference for others, the most importantly to our students.

In the assignment 7b, we were asked to explore and utilise the use of Windows Movie Maker. I shall say that the second assignment was quite familiar for all of us because I believe we have been using it before for our previous course works as well. Even though we have used it before, but we were also taught about something new. We were exposed to the use of this software called Audacity. This software could edit a song which soon will be used to be imported in our Movie Maker. For the second task, its content should be related to our very first assignment which was about 'Internet and Computer Security'.

In short, 7 assignments were down and 2 more assignments to go before battling for our final examination. I am really hoping that I could utilise, employ and deploy all those precious and priceless knowledge that I have gained from this course in the future, when I am going for teaching soon. In fact, it would definitely be a pleasure for me to share it with everyone.

Thank you!

Happy learning!

Good Day!

AHMAD AZRUL AFEZE BIN AHMAD ROSDI

B.Ed TESL IPGKS-UKM

IPG Kampus Sarawak

Jalan Bakam

98009 Miri

Sarawak

Email                : afezeukm@yahoo.com/afezeukm@gmail.com

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Assignment 6a (Brochure) & 6b (Booklet)

Assalamualaikum Wbt.

A busy schedule has been as my part and parcel of life. Flooded with myriad of assignments, leave me helpless even to catch my breath. Time management plays a vital role here in ensuring me to get my job done within the time given. Fortunately, this week, we were assigned to create a brochure (Assignment 6a) and a booklet (Assignment 6b). Personally, this week’s task was not as difficult as the one that we did during last week. Well, at least, we could manage it in just a day.

For the tasks given this week, we have to plan, design and create a brochure or leaflet using Microsoft Publisher. Even though I am not an IT savvy, but at least, I have once used Microsoft Publisher and I have no problem in creating a brochure. Once again, the content of the brochure that we produced must be related to the topic for assignment 1, 4 and 5. Basically, what I have put in as the contents were merely the essential things about Computer and Internet Security since that was the topic that my partner, Barbara Kath and I have been discussing about.

The same goes with Assignment 6b. We were told to plan, design and create a booklet using book fold function in Microsoft Word. As for me, I have never created a book let before, so I thought it would be pretty difficult for me to handle but after I discovered it, it was actually a fun thing. It was not that difficult as I thought it would be. I believe, credits shall go to my partner as well as our lecturer for they have shown me a lot of guidance in getting the booklet done. For the booklet, the content was actually the same as in the brochure. However, what made it distinguish with a brochure was that we put in more words as compared to the brochure. Meaning to say, the explanation was actually the only part that varied between a brochure and booklet. People read booklet to get the whole information about something and a brochure just to get the gist of what is going to be told.

In addition, before we proceed with the tasks given, we were exposed to the learning about 2D graphic types such as bitmap and vector images. Moreover, we were also exposed on the image file format. There were various types of format be it JPEG, GIFF, TIFF, BMP, PNG, WMF and so on. Each of this type of format carries different meaning and purposes. After that, we were also told to use the drawing facilities that can be found in the Microsoft Powerpoint and have to come out with a drawing which then should be saved as bitmap graphic, either jpg or bmp. Besides that, there were some other tasks that we were required to do as well such as collaborative drawing with my partner using Google draw in docs.google.com and also came out with a drawing by using OpenOffice.org Draw which later will be used as the graphics which will be used in our assignments (6a & 6b).

Drawing and ICT are just not my cup of tea. I am lousy in both fields. However, it is really no regret to learn about both things. In fact, I could empower my knowledge and enhance it so that I could be a better person in future, a person with sound knowledge not only on Linguistics but also ICT. I have a big dream, which is I hope that I can learn as much as I can from this particular course to make sure that by the end of the semester, I can at least do things that to others they might not know how to do it.

Thank you!

Happy Learning!

Good Day!

AHMAD AZRUL AFEZE BIN AHMAD ROSDI

B.Ed TESL IPGKS-UKM

IPG Kampus Sarawak

Jalan Bakam

98009 Miri

Sarawak

Email                : afezeukm@yahoo.com/afezeukm@gmail.com

Facebook          : http://www.facebook.com/afezeukm

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Assignment 5 (Mini Research/SPSS and Qualitative Analysis)

Assalamualaikum Wbt.

Sorry for the delay of posting my reflection. Despite my jam-packed schedule of life, I am really grateful for being able to complete my Assignment 5 according to the frame time given. This assignment which I personally believe was the toughest that I have had so far. We were required to come out with a questionnaire and the later, we were told to produce a mini research report based on the data gathered from the survey. It was indeed a new learning experience for me. Truth to be told, it was not a smooth ride for me to get the job done. I have gone through some thick and thin time. Fortunately, my partner, Barbara Kath was indeed very helpful in helping me to get through all the time. Have I mentioned that she is an IT savvy? She really is very encouraging and I was motivated when it comes to working with someone like her. A bunch of thank to Barbara Kath for all your guidance.

As aforementioned, this was not an easy task to be done. ICT has never been my cup of tea. So, when I first read the instruction, honestly, I believe all of us were a little bit puzzled as the instructions given were not that very clear. However, our course lecturer, Mr. Fariduddin was really thoughtful as he helped to contact our course coordinator to clarify things up. Luckily, we managed to get the idea of what we should be doing for that particular assignment. So, before we came out with our mini research report, we were first told to create a questionnaire which was actually just a pilot test. This was just to expose us on the steps of creating a questionnaire. Before we could produce the real questionnaire which would be distributed among ourselves (IPGKS B.ED TESL students and our fellow course mates from IPGKDRI), we were required to create a questionnaire at www.surveymonkey.com. The steps were quite easy, even an IT illiterate like me could manage it, seriously! We just need to register, which was for free as well as the signing up process. Then, we were asked to create some questions and then emailed the completed questionnaire for pilot test to each and every one of us.

Creating the questionnaire in the surveymonkey.com was the easiest part ever. However, what made me and my partner kind of pissed off was waiting for the responds. It was really time consuming since everybody was busy creating their own one until they did not have small ample of time to answer the questionnaire. In fact, we have to wait for a day to get replied. If only everybody has responded earlier, I believe we could finish the task earlier. But, I do understand their predicament. Back to our business, after we have done with our pilot test, we were then required to create another questionnaire, the one which would be used to produce a mini research report by using Google Document. The steps were as follow.

1.    Use Gmail account.

2.    Open Google Document.

3.    Create New and click Form

4.    Add demography and item/question in variety format such as multiple choice, checkboxes and scale.

5.    Test it among fellow course mates.

6.     Download the completed questionnaire in Excel format which will be imported in SPSS

7.    Send to course mates from IPGKS and IPGKDRI.

Thus, I could tell that, the process of creating the questionnaire was a little bit challenging as well. Again, the same problem occurred in order to get this task completed. We have had hard time to wait for reply especially from fellow course mates from IPGKDRI. Perhaps they were also busy with their assignments and I do really understand that. But, we could not proceed with SPSS since we have not gathered enough data to be analysed. We could only manage to wait until we have received a number of replies.

            After a few days and we have managed to collect some data, we then proceed with our SPSS. Honestly, that was the first time I ever heard of SPSS. It was kind of alien to me in the first place. I did not know how it works, what should I do with it, stuff like that. Thank to Lord, we were being assisted by such a wonderful lecturer, Mr. Fariduddin. He was willing to explain in details the steps of using SPSS and willing to give a helping hand whenever we needed him. We were very much indeed thankful to have such a dedicated lecturer like him. Initially, I was wondering why do we need to use SPSS in order to analyse all the date. I then gained a very essential knowledge that SurveyMonkey and Google Document can only be used to record and analyse data just for a simple survey. Since we were carrying out a survey which needs to include different types of questions such as Checkboxes, Multiple choices and Scale, so we need to analyse them by using a computer aided quantitative data analysis such as SPSS.

Later then, based on the data that we have received from our fellow course mates, we then were told to make a report on our mini research in a journal article format complete with references.  Well, since we have done our journal previously, so it was not a really big deal for us to write another one. However, they were slightly differences than the one that we have written before. It was just this time, we have to come out with findings which including all the gathered data and we have to deduce the possibility, the reasons to the data that we received. In short, it was a whole brand new learning experience that I have got from this particular task.

As a conclusion, I personally believe that ICT is just merely about exploring it. We have to explore it in order to get to know it better. Just give it a try because the experience itself that teaches you how to do things. For instance, I never heard of SPSS before but now I shall proudly say that I think I can handle it quite well. These are some of the important skills that need to be polished up. Who says an English teacher does not have to have a profound knowledge about ICT? I greatly believe that learning new things is never a waste of time. In fact, it teaches you to be wiser, smarter and mature person. Once again, I would to express my gratitude and thanks to everyone, my friends from IPGKS and fellow course mates from IPGKDRI for all of you have put a lot of effort in getting our job done. Hopefully we could apply the new knowledge and experience that we have gained in future to make us become a better student, a better man and a better teacher, God willing!

Thank You!

Happy Learning!

Good Day!

AHMAD AZRUL AFEZE BIN AHMAD ROSDI

B.Ed TESL IPGKS-UKM

IPG Kampus Sarawak

Jalan Bakam

98009 Miri

Sarawak

Email                : afezeukm@yahoo.com/afezeukm@gmail.com

Facebook          : http://www.facebook.com/afezeukm

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Assignment 4 (Literature Review Online Material)

Assalamualaikum Wbt.

Last week has been such havoc for me. 24 hours per day seems like not enough for me. Time management, plays a vital role here. I really need to manage my time well between my studies and assignment as well as other chores. But I believe, it takes an independent student to really use his time to the fullest and wisely since time is golden.

Back to our task this week, we have to write a journal based on the topic that we have chosen in our first assignment (Think,Pair,Share). So, my partner, Barbara Kath and I have chosen the topic-Internet and Computer Security. Honestly, a lot of things that I have learnt from the first assignment. This information is indeed very useful for me to in cooperate with the latter assignment. Basically, before we come out with our very own journal, we have to look for 2 s from UKM Library, 1 journal from Google Scholar and 1 journal from Google Book. The problem that I believe each and every one of us faced was we could not access to the UKM Library since we did not have the password and log in ID. A bunch of thank to Dr. Siti Fatimah for helping us dealing with the problem.

In our first assignment of Think,Pair, Share, we discuss briefly about virus, phishing and spamming. Not forgetting, the security level of the internet as well. However, based on our findings-the journals (UKM,Google Scholar,Google Book), we have come out with a research problem which is ‘How secure is online banking today?’. The internet today has brought a lot of benefits to us as the users and one of them is online banking. It is rather cost and time saving indeed. In fact, we can also perform some important daily routine through the great online banking. For example, fund transfer, bills payment, mobile reload, online shopping and so many others. Thus, I personally think that it is really convenience and easy.

However, a question that always pops up on our mind is, is online banking secure? We always take things for granted. In fact, we trust it with all our heart. In reality, there are a lot of things that we should take into consideration. Before we sign up for any online banking for whichever bank providers in Malaysia, we should first have some knowledge what does the security level that they provide. Honestly, most of us do not know whether their bank provider is safe or not. Basically, most of the banks are using the two-factor authentication. What is a two-factor authentication? It is a type of authentication, the security level of the bank provider has to provide. Maybank for example is using this type of security. It requires the users to enter their password and another thing is the verification of their chosen photo. By using this kind of security, it is a little bit difficult for attackers to compromise the users email. So, basically it is safer than the one-factor authentication.

Since there are a lot of fraudulent cases being reported day by day, there is another type of authentication security that is very secure. It is called three-factor authentication. In Malaysia, Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is well known for the use of the three-factor authentication. How does this type of security work? Firstly, it requires the users to provide their password, smartcard (MyKAD) and lastly biometric recognition, which is either their thumbprint or iris. Therefore, by using a three-factor authentication, it is impossible for the hackers to hijack the users’ accounts unless if they are able to provide biometric recognition. Thus, it is very secure and safe.

Apart from using all this kind of security, we can also lodge a report to those respective organisations in case if we are experiencing E-Commerce fraudulent. One of the bodies that help to address this issue is National ICT Security and Emergency Response Center (NISER). The role of NISER is actually it will try to address all the ICT security problems in the country. It is actually founded from the National Information Technology Council (NITC) after they realise the needs of having our very own national network security. In short, this is one of the organisations that we can refer to in future if we are to face such problems.

As a conclusion, there is a lot of interesting information that I have gained throughout the process of completing this task. However, it is not an easy task at all. I really need to use my mind to the fullest since this is my first time of using the Open Office Software. But, frankly speaking, it is quite easy to handle. Thus, I hope I can make use of it in the future. In a nutshell, I am hoping that this week would be another wonderful week for me to work on the new assignment.

Happy Learning!

Good Day!

AHMAD AZRUL AFEZE BIN AHMAD ROSDI

B.Ed TESL IPGKS-UKM

IPG Kampus Sarawak

Jalan Bakam

98009 Miri

Sarawak

Email                : afezeukm@yahoo.com/afezeukm@gmail.com

Facebook          : http://www.facebook.com/afezeukm

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Activity (Course/Learning Management System)

Assalamualaikum Wbt.

This has already been the third week of learning this subject and honestly, there is a lot of new information that I have gained. Again, this week, it requires another Think, Pair & Share activity. However, this time my pair, Barbara Kath and I need to upload the final work on Google Doc. Truth to be told, it’s a new thing for me and I shall say it is the first time of me uploading any document in Google Doc. Thus, I’m happy to at least gain another new knowledge this week! Well, basically, this topic Course/Learning Management System (C/LMS) is indeed a very interesting topic. I’ve indeed gain a whole new information what it is about and yes, it’s very useful for me as a teacher-to-be soon.

So, let’s get back to business. What is C/LMS all about? Based on our findings, Learning Management System is actually a software application or Web-based technology used to plan, implement and assess a specific learning process. Besides, it also manages for online training and education as well. Typically, this system is very helpful in monitoring the effectiveness of the organisation’s education and training. In addition, it can also keep records automatically.

I believe that LMS is the perfect example of mobile learning or e-learning. This is because, there is no doubt that LMS caters for everyone. Besides, it also can be used to serve the needs in educational purposes, administrative as well as deployment requirements. Apart from that, LMS is also accessible since most LMSs are web-based which means it uses a variety of development platforms such as Java, Microsoft.Net or PHP.

One thing that I personally find interesting is that everybody can access to LMS anywhere or anytime they want provided that they have a laptop or personal computer with Internet connection. In fact, it does not require a server to be accessed as the company can still create and deliver online training with LMS modules and features. Meaning to say, nowadays it is no longer possible for us who have wished to carry out distant learning as they can do it just by accessing to it. This is one of the advantages that LMS has to bring along. Furthermore, by carrying out a distant learning, students also will not waste their money and time as they can only do it at home. In fact, they also need not to worry about all the course work or lectures as everything will be guided online and all the latest information will always be updated.

Thus, what I can deduce based on this topic is that, C/LMS has made me realise that we can develop our education system by using the technology to the fullest. We have to explore and discover new things in order to become as one of the fastest developing countries in the world. It also has made me realise how important technology to us as without it, a lot of things are impossible to be carried out such as distant learning. Therefore, we really need to keep on discovering the new things in our daily life and try to make use of them until the fullest.

Thank you!
Happy Learning!
Good Day!

AHMAD AZRUL AFEZE BIN AHMAD ROSDI

B.Ed TESL IPGKS-UKM

IPG Kampus Sarawak

Jalan Bakam

98009 Miri

Sarawak

Email                : afezeukm@yahoo.com/afezeukm@gmail.com

Facebook          : http://www.facebook.com/afezeukm

Yahoo group!   :http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afezeukm