Alternative learning method such as online learning, hybrid learning and flipped classroom are a good medium in enhancing teaching and learning process for both educators and students. Undeniable it did promote enormous advantages to the education system if its turn out like what it supposed to be. It is also changing continuously and it represents a great opportunity to spark students’ interest towards the lessons. In fact, it is an easy and productive method to achieve knowledge in almost every field such as education, medical, accounting, engineering and so on. It is also a great way in replacing traditional style of teaching and learning to a more modern and interactive way apart from it proves to be a great alternative as students have the chance to study in their own time and especially for free. Though these type of alternative learning, students don't have to come to class anymore and get the face-to-face experiences like the typical way of learning and teaching. It will benefits students who stay far from their school or university. However, there is slight difference between these three methods as mentioned by researcher:

“Flipped Learning has been compared to online, blended, and distance learning because of the screen cast or video components, but, there are clear differences. Online education, for example, occurs only remotely, and the teacher and student are never face-to-face (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005). Virtual class meetings, assignments, and lectures happen online through a course management website usually, but not always, asynchronously. Sometimes the lectures and other activities are augmented by group chats or other means of facilitating collaboration and peer instruction.

“Blended classes also have an online element, but that usually occurs during class time along with direct student-teacher contact (Allen, Seaman, & Garrett, 2007).”

                However, despite all the benefits mentioned above, the implementation of online learning, hybrid learning, and flipped classroom are quite hard to be done here, in Malaysia. There are only small amount of location that offers all the facilities needed in order to implement this method into the institution such as schools and universities. Unfortunately, most of schools and universities in our country did not able to equip all the element needed such as the program of ‘online learning, flipped classroom, hybrid learning’ itself! There are only several institutions who offer this type of learning to the learners and most of it offered by private institutions.

                Since I've presented about ‘flipped classroom’ on previous class, I will discuss several issues more in depth about it. As mentioned before during our presentation, flipped classroom is a method of blended learning and teaching which students learn about the target topic by watching video lectures in advance before come to class. The videos was prepared by their educators and it is like an ‘imagery classroom’ since they listen to a real lecture but in a more relax and informal atmosphere. They can watch the video anywhere and any time (as long as before they come to class) they want and once they entered their ‘real classroom’ they are all prepared and have the basic idea about what they should aspect on that day. In fact, there will no lecture given in the classroom. Instead, more interactive activities such as presentation, Q&A session were done in classroom with educators, and for students to discuss and solve questions. It will indirectly enhance their creative and critical thinking skills in the target area.

              Vice versa, in conventional classroom, lecture is given in the classroom while homework will be given for students to attempt to once they get back home. In this situation, students will have chance to understand more in depth about the topic since they are prepared right from entering the classroom and they’ll have ample of time to ask anything that are not clear to their educator in the classroom. In addition, it also provide convenient schedule for both learners and educators. Due to the emphasis on students becoming the agents of their own learning rather than the object of  instruction, the Flipped Classroom can enable educators to make the shift from teacher-driven instruction to a more student-centered learning.
           
               Alternative  learning is indeed still  relatively young methods in our education system that promising a rich future of breakthroughs. New models of teaching are already emerging that have the potential to take flipped classroom to even greater accomplishments. However, note to be taken, it will not turn out to be like what it is expected if there is no changes in term of attitude of the students, educators, parents, culture in our education as well as our Ministry of Education itself!

Assalamualaikum and Hello Dr Burn,

We are moving to the 21st  century where everything is keep changing and constantly moving. Technology is one part of it and it influences the pattern of our educational system from time to time. 

We can see the implications either from the positive side as well as the negative side of it. One of the positive sides that can be seen is from the perspective of the teaching materials/ teaching aids provided by the educators itself. Several years ago, educators do not really have opportunity and chance to diverse their teaching method as technology is not really being applied in the education system. Chalk and talk is the common method used by educators back then in delivering their lessons.

However, nowadays there is no boundary for educators to inculcate the use of technology in their teaching approach. The good side of it, students is able to experience a more interesting teaching and learning condition as they are exposed to a variety of teaching and learning method. Instead of just listen to the teacher, they can also watch the slides or even videos shown in the classroom. Indirectly, it will enhance their understanding about the topic discussed. In fact, it will also meet the needs of different learning styles among students. Some students might prefer to watch the materials that is being discuss  instead of just listen to what the teacher is saying. 

Vice versa, from the negative point of view, not to mention students nowadays do not have the same attitude compared to the older generation of students. They become lazier as they know that they can access to everything that they wish for just by click and type it on the internet. They don’t have the courtesy to read anymore and sometimes just wait for teachers to spoon feed everything. Plagiarism is another aspect that needs to take into consideration. Since everything is so easy to access, they tend to just copy and paste without even do a research or reading about it.  Lastly, students also learned inappropriate words as for instance taboo words from the internet. Worst, they even use some of the words in their academic writing without even bother to search for the actually meaning.

In term of education field, there’s a lot of changes occurred due to rapid movement in technology. Policy in education is one of the aspects that keep changing from time to time until some of the teachers can’t get into the right track. It is due to the fact that the Ministry of Education keep changing and altering all the policies exist in order to cater the needs for 21^st century of education. It is indeed a good practice in making sure that our education system is competitive in the eyes of the world. However, there are some issues occurred as for instance in term of workload as well as confusion among the teachers themselves about all the new policies that have been introduced. 

Consequently, most of the changes can’t be use as teachers themselves don’t know how to work on it. Other than that, the ministry should also provide funds and facilities such as computers/laptops and internet at each and every school if they really want all the policies/programs that was introduced to be carry out.

Above is my opinion regarding this issue which we have discussed in the previous class. I might be wrong as I am still new in the teaching career. However, this is what I observed in 4 months being an English teacher.

Thank you for your time.

Assalamualaikum, 

Hello Dr Burn!

Here goes my ‘research proposal’ for last week’s task.

If I were given a chance to conduct a research that related to Computer Assisted Language Teaching and Learning, I would conduct a research to evaluate the implication on reading fluency in using songs video as one of the teaching tools. First, to be clear, reading fluency  is  defined  as  efficient, effective decoding  skills along with accurate,  rapid,  expressive,  prosodic  oral  reading  that  allow  students  to  comprehend  texts ,(Pikulski,  2006). Basically, the aim of this research would be to determine if there are any significant differences in reading fluency with and without using songs video as one of the teaching tool in ESL classroom.

The participants that will be involved in this research are students from the school where I am currently teaching, which is Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sertik, Karak, Pahang. There are 50 participants aged 14 years old (Form 2) from two different classes that will be used as the participants in this research.

Both classes will be using different treatment in this research. One class will only learn reading skill using the conventional way, which is to read out loud from a printed text, 'barking to a text'. On the other hand, the other class will be learning reading skill using the traditional way as well as with the integration of songs video complete with lyric that will be shown during the lesson. The treatment will be held for 2 months for both classes. The same person/teacher will teach both classes to ensure that he/she aware of the different method that will be applied for both classes.

After 2 months of treatment, participants will sits for an examination that was designed specifically for the purpose of this research. It is not a written test but it is more towards interview test where participants needs to read several materials provided to determine their reading fluency after involved in the 2 months treatment. However, participants will be first put in the same room to ensure that the evaluator will see no difference among the participants and to avoid bias. As for instance, if the evaluator aware the kind of treatment used for each participant, they might tend to give their own judgement or perception that will indirectly affect the result of the interview, yet the research itself.

In the nutshell, in my opinion, songs video is actually a great tool to be used to in the classroom in order to enhance and strengthen reading fluency among students. Teaching reading skill doesn't mean that educators can only use the conventional way of teaching, instead there are many ways that can be used in order to attract students’ attention towards the lessons.

That is all for now,

Thank you.