PGCTHE Course

Letter to newbie teacher

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 05:29:00 +0000

Dear my newbie teacher,

I wish this letter finds you well.

I would like to congratulate you with being a teacher. It is not just a career to pursuing on; it is a journey of learning and facilitating learning to others.

I would advise you with some tips before you start your first day of classes; first is to leverage your knowledge about how people learn, there are many theories and directions but personally I like humanistic orientations theories (like Maslow’s), cognitive and constructive learning theories, here is a few links for more details about it http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-learn.htm, http://www.directions.usp.ac.fj/collect/direct/index/assoc/D1175794.dir/doc.pdf.

Second is to have your own personal learning network where a communities of practice people get together for mutual learning experience , here is a good link to read about it http://www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm.

Third is to start thinking about using the proper technology as a tool in your classroom, here is a few links for more details about it http://www.mathopenref.com/site/techreasons.html, http://www.education.com/reference/article/how-does-technology-facilitate-learning/?page=2, http://ro.uow.edu.au/newtech/, personally; I prefer simulation and games tools in our IT field.

Fourth is to think about the teaching approaches/strategies that would be applicable in our IT filed, Such as Direct Instruction (DI) which usually used with a student who do not have the basic information about the subject matter ( here is a nice presentation about it http://prezi.com/q8mfs71aucsa/direct-instruction-group-2-pgcthe/?auth_key=914c161de3a7694f3cf2065c666028508fd255cf), Problem/Project based (PBL) approach that could be used to develop and achieve the deep understanding and build the critical thinking skills needed in real life environment through case study and IT lab activities (here is a link about it http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning), and Interactive learning approach that could be useful to increase the students engagement inside the classroom in order to foster deeper understanding of the course content through group discussion and practice by doing (here is a nice presentation about it http://prezi.com/_-0ha7agykop/group-c-presentation/). Personally; I would go with a combination of the above approaches (DI, PBL, and Interactive learning) to align ourselves with a level-3 teacher who is concern is about what a student does and the product or the learning outcome of the teaching.

Fifth is to read the course cover sheet carefully and start to think about easy ways to explore it (personally; I use mind map software to drill down the course in organized and structured way that link the learning outcome together to enable students to begin the course with end in their minds )

I would advise you with some tips at the first day of classes (Ice Break Session); first is to introduce yourself to your class, let the students know about your academic and work history, share with them information that will help them connect with you (interests, hobbies, family, favorite books and so forth)

Second is to ask your students to introduce themselves, let them identify their interests and hobbies; know their expectations about the course.

Third is to break students into smaller groups (it is better to change the plane of the classroom to create more dynamics within groups) and get them to discuss any problem that is a general public issue and try to join each group for small amount of time (this will make students know each other well plus it create a synergy within groups).

Fourth is to discuss the objectives of the course with the students (use the simple mind map you have created for course cover sheet), explain to students what they should be able to do when the course is over (for example; students will be able to build their own PC from scratch “hardware & software” and create their own home wireless network)

Fifth is to review the assessment strategy, how will the assessment strategy (that count mainly in projects, hands-on lab, and case studies) lead to deeper learning.

Sixth is to let your students reflect (feedback) about their first class experience and make this as an assignment that would be reviewed at the beginning of your second class.

Now you have passed the difficult phase (ice break phase). Let’s move on to the next phase which is how to facilitate learning throughout the course; first is to remind yourself that your role is mainly to facilitate learning, one mistake here is that some teachers might go with students’ memorizing things as an indication of understanding which is not the proper indication (here is the link for prezi presentation about that http://prezi.com/xe8fk082wcye/edit/?auth_key=723b8vs&follow=dr47dn3pz5eu)

Second is to start using technology as an effective tool in the learning process; personally I prefer mind maps and simulation tools and flipped classroom with Camtasia (here is a link for a web site I have created about using technology in classroom http://ahmad71173.wix.com/using-technology-in#!initiation), one mistake here is that some teachers might think technology will do everything “which is not true”, technology has its own limitation (for example; you can’t use the simulation tools to replace the hands-on labs activities, I did try it myself with my students and hands-on lab activities is really more helpful than simulation tools (the major advantage of using simulation tool for my students was using it from home online through BbVista LMS)

Third is to think and act from a level-3 teacher perspective who focus on what a student does before/during/after teaching. You might need to use the following guidlines to align yourself with a level-3 teacher:

● Deal with misconception to correct any misunderstanding before you start teaching new concepts; start each module with the learning objectives (L.O) of it and what type of assessment & activities will be included in this module (unit) to explore these L.Os, then you go through Q&A session with your students where you ask them directly about some previously studied core concepts that will be used to construct a new knowledge to correct any misconception and to know your students’ levels as some of them might need more efforts/help to behave in active learning way.

● Apply interactive lecturing to make sure students get what you want them to learn during teaching. Clicker, Discussions, Group activities are good examples in this area.

● Built-in activities/quizzes/assessments/researches/project s within curriculum that reflects students’ understanding/applying/analyzing/evaluating/creating after the teaching

Go with a problem/project based teaching approach in Computer Hardware & Network course that relaying on creating a case study scenarios and projects which emulate a real work scenarios which give an opportunity to the students to apply their knowledge, some of these activities are group based where each group can discuss & collaborate about certain topic and its application while some other activities are implemented individually based through simulation software and lab activities to ensure student’ understanding. You should periodically give feedback to your students while doing the Lab exercises where you can pinpoint to the area that both of you need to work it out together to enhance it.

This is really active learning model as students do some work in classroom/Lab other than merely passively listening to teacher; I think also lab activities/hands-on experience is a good thing in this course whereas students can measure their understanding (metacognition) and applying the concepts.

● Assessments: you need ideas (ways) to measure the output of learning process. Let’s start with the classifications of assessments “Summative & Formative”.

How can you enhance the formative assessments? As you know formative assessments can provide “just-in-time” information on what students know or can do and I would suggest using the following ideas (ways) to achieve that:

1- Case Study Quiz; to measure the understanding and applying (problem solving/critical thinking) concepts in real life scenarios. (Tip: the instruction should also use many Case-study scenarios to cover the topics, which ideally can be done in interactive lecturing model where you can measure the understanding and applying it)

2- Discussion board; where you can have verbal, written, and face-to-face discussions about certain topics, like the discussion board we have it in Moodle & BbVista.

3- Group Activity; where you can have your class divided to groups and each group participate in collaborative activity, for example you can assigned an activity to your class and called it “Get the best Laptop” which depends on knowing the technical specs of PC parts like the CPU, RAM, Hard-disk, monitor,.., and budget. It will be very useful activity (Quiz) for them as it makes them apply what they have studied to select a good laptop amongst variety of vendors.

4- Simulation tool; we are lucky as we have plenty of simulation tools in IT field those could be used to assess & train our students, for example I am using PC assembly tool where students reassemble the whole PC and it can be used as a training tool and testing tool as well (like Cisco Packet Tracer & Virtual PC tool).

5-Researches: you can use this type to stress the deep understanding for students for the core concepts.

How can we enhance the Summative assessments? As you know summative assessments tell us which students are having problems or developing misconceptions during the course or unit (module) and I would suggest using the following ideas (ways) for this type of assessment:

1- Projects: Project-based learning is one of the greatest approaches that can be used with students as it prepare students to working environments through applying long term projects that simulate the real-life scenarios

2- Presentations: I think that one can replace the traditional written exams in IT courses in future, it gives opportunity to the students to stress their deep understanding on core concepts as they need to present/explain it to audience (also anyone of audience can ask the student if she/he is not clearly understanding some points)

3- Lab assessments: this is the favorite type for my students and for me personally, it really stress the hands-on experience for the students and it measure applying their current knowledge in solving problem from real-work industrial scenarios.

Remember that "assessment should be really a reflection to the students’ activities and teacher’s intention"

Finally find below the URL for my own learning theory: http://ahmedalsorouge.blogspot.com/2011/10/bb-vista-week-3-task.html

Good Luck,
Ahmed

Feedback on the selected strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 10:38:00 +0000

How effective was the selected teaching strategy?

I think the selected strategy that I have talked about it in my previous post was really effective especially after I compared its output with the contents of the given article “From Teacher to Facilitator” http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/74/from-teacher-to-facilitator. this strategy achieved students’ engagement in a real working environment which leverage their knowledge in computer’s hardware & software through the number of technical problems they have seen their which develop students’ critical thinking skills

How did I measure its effectiveness?

Two evaluation criteria were applied; first one was during the class as a group discussion was going on about participating in IT help desk and connect what they have learnt there with what was covered by curriculum in that area (computer’s hardware/software) and I did enjoy the feeling of being a facilitator, second evaluation criteria was a simple verbal quiz.

What is the down side of this strategy?

From IT help desk manager’s perspective; it might be another commitment and work load for her as students are special trainees whom need a special attention (attendance, motivating students, …..).

From students’ perspective; sometimes IT help desk will be very busy with customers and students might be affected by doing extra work; sometimes IT help desk will have less traffic and students might be affected (less things to do).

From facilitator’s perspective; more administrative work to be done in coordination of this activity with the IT help desk & students plus the probing of students’ attendance & performance at the IT help desk from time to time.

Am I willing to do it again?

Sure. I think this approach is like the flipped classroom in the way that students watch/observe the contents in real work scenarios (IT help desk in this case) and then do the homework in class through the group discussion and interviews with the facilitator.

Trying a new teaching strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 11:41:00 +0000

I did try a new strategy with my students in Computer Hardware & Networking course by sending them in groups to our IT Help desk (I really appreciate that initiative from our IT Service Dept.) to practice some concepts before I teach it, for example they learn from this working environment the different types of hardware and software used in computer by observing/practicing number of problem solving scenarios that is happening on daily based, that really helped me a lot when I was teaching these terms and concepts during the class. Plus students’ feedback was really good about this experience.

There were many tricky points in this strategy:

1- I got my IT dept. chair approval & IT service Manger approval.

2- 5% of the total marks were given to this strategy (activity).

3- A dedicated time need to be agreeing with IT Help desk.

4- Attendence was taken by IT Help desk representative.

5- You need to predefine which part of the curriculum will be covered by this strategy. (In my case it was only one chapter).

6- It is a good strategy to warm-up students but you need to have a dedicated computer lab to pursuing on what was built during their IT Help desk engagement.

7- It needs a lot of coordination to make it happen smoothly.

Another strategy that I would recommend for IT students is engaging some of them with any new IT project that is related to their discipline that is happening in our college (for example last semester we had engaged some students with our College wireless LAN project deployments).

Finally; I think learning by doing is the greatest teaching approach whenever it is doable.

Teaching Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 10:48:00 +0000

Let’s start with SOLO taxonomy; students are classified into five categories; first category is pre-structural student who do not have the basic information about the subject matter and I think Direct Instructional (DI) could be useful in this situation with some technology tools/techniques to present the curriculum, this could be applied for example in teaching English as a foreign language for our foundation student, this approach would be effective for providing information or developing step-by-step skills; second and third categories are uni-structural/multi-structural student who have the basic information but from one angle or multi angle but only as a Surface Understanding as the student is not being able to put this information together to form a solid knowledge and I think interactive lecturing could be useful in this case to increase the students engagement inside the classroom in order to foster deeper understanding of the course content through group discussion and practice by doing; fourth and fifth categories are relational/extended abstract student who have the deep understanding in the subject matter and I think Problem/Project based (PBL) approach could be used to develop to achieve the deep understanding and build the critical thinking skills needed in real life environment.

Personally; I would go with a combination of the above approaches (DI, PBL, and Interactive learning) as we have different levels of students in our classroom and to align ourselves with a level-3 teacher who is concern is about what a student does and the product or the learning outcome of the teaching.

Regarding Bloom’s taxonomy; I think a combination of PBL & interactive lecturing would be an essential teaching approaches in any classroom if we want our students to gain the creating, evaluating, analysis, applying, and understanding skills; I think that Direct Instruction (DI) could be useful in remembering and achieving understanding.

Regarding Assessments; for formative assessments (just-in-time information on what students know or can do) I would go with Case study, group activity, and researches which a reflection to the teaching approaches using PBL & interactive lecturing (also teacher & students can pinpoint to the concepts those are not clear yet or misunderstood (metacognition)); for summative assessments (reflect students understanding during the course or a unit (module)) I would go with projects which a reflection to PBL teaching approach as exam should test the ability to explain, relate, prove, and apply (same as the teacher intention).

Aligning goals with my course

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:11:00 +0000

From a level-3 teacher perspective we need to focus on what a student does before/during/after teaching and to achieve that we need to use the proper teaching strategies as follows:

● Deal with misconception to correct any misunderstanding before we start teaching new concepts; I start each module with the learning objectives (L.O) of it and what type of assessment & activities will be included in this module (unit) to explore these L.Os, then I go through Q&A session with my students where I ask them directly about some previously studied core concepts that will be used to construct a new knowledge to correct any misconception and to know my students’ levels as some of them might need more efforts/help to behave in active learning way.

● Apply interactive lecturing to make sure students get what we want them to learn during teaching. Clicker, Discussions, Group activities are good examples in this area.

● Built-in activities/quizzes/assessments/researches/project s within curriculum that reflects students’ understanding/applying/analyzing/evaluating/creating after the teaching

I am using a problem/project based teaching approach in my Computer Hardware & Network course that relaying on creating a case study scenarios and projects which emulate a real work scenarios which give an opportunity to the students to apply their knowledge, some of these activities are group based where each group can discuss & collaborate about certain topic and its application while some other activities are implemented individually based through simulation software and lab activities to ensure student’ understanding. Most of activities with marks and I use it as an assessment way especially the final lab project at end of each module (unit) which test students with the desired L.O (for example Module-1 final project is Construct a computer from physical components and recognize different hardware components and specifications which exactly aligned with the L.O.1)

I periodically give feedback to my students as we do a lot of Lab exercises where I can pinpoint to the area that both of us need to work it out together to enhance it.

This is really active learning model as students do some work in classroom/Lab other than merely passively listening to teacher; I think also lab activities/hands-on experience is a good thing in my course whereas students can measure their understanding (metacognition) and applying the concepts. Plus the assessment is really a reflection to the students’ activities and teacher’s intention.

Ideas for assessments

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 09:50:00 +0000

I think the whole idea here is to know what the students are learning, did they really understand what they have learnt, can they apply this knowledge in different contexts, and can they use it in constructive way?

So we need ideas (ways) to measure (Assessments) the output of learning process. I would start with the classifications of assessments “Summative & Formative”.

How can we enhance the formative assessments?

As you know formative assessments can provide “just-in-time” information on what students know or can do and I would suggest using the following ideas (ways) to achieve that:

1- Case Study Quiz; ideally you can do it in interactive lecturing model where you can measure the understanding and applying it in real life scenarios. Actually I used this technique in my class where I present them a scenario for some IT company which has some IT requirements and let the students list how they can fulfill these requirements.(problem solving/critical thinking)

Tip: the instruction should also use many Case-study scenarios to cover the subject matter.

2- Discussion board; where you can have verbal, written, and face-to-face discussions about certain topics, like the discussion board we have it in Moodle & BbVista.

3- Group Activity; where you can have your class divided to groups and each group participate in collaborative activity, for example I assigned an activity to my class and I called it “Get the best Laptop” which depends on knowing the technical specs of PC parts like the CPU, RAM, Hard-disk, monitor,.., and budget. It was very useful activity (Quiz) for them as it makes them apply what they have studied to select a good laptop amongst variety of vendors.

5-Researches: you can use this type to stress the deep understanding for students for the core concepts.

How can we enhance the Summative assessments?

As you know summative assessments tell us which students are having problems or developing misconceptions during the course or unit (module) and I would suggest using the following ideas (ways) to enhance this type of assessment:

Finally, I think that is fair enough that we teach/present the curricula in creative ways (not the traditional direct instruction lecture) using the interactive lecturing and project/problem based learning before we apply these ideas (assessments should be a reflection to the learning process).

What about your students

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 08:12:00 +0000

Learner could be a non-student or student or graduate person, old or young person, learner could be anyone who is seeking knowledge in any subject matter formally or informally.

The reasons for learning are varying from a person to another; for example, some people might be seeking knowledge in certain areas as it gives them the opportunity to have a good certification that would enable them to have a good job/salary/position in near future and learning process end for them with achieving this certification “Done, no more study for us. Said by this type of learners” (unfortunately; most of our students belonging to this type), another type would be the active lifelong learner who acquire knowledge to deeply understand the subject matter to apply it in different contexts.

Learner could be motivated by many things to make the effort in learning such as the enthusiasm to be the expert in this subject matter, competency with other learners, financial reasons, and applying this knowledge.

For my students; they learn the Computers’ Hardware-Software & Network, this course Contents introduces students to the essential components of a contemporary computer system, the learning outcomes of this course are: recognize & identifying various types of computer system and explaining the function of their components. Construct a computer from physical components and recognize different hardware components and specifications. Define the role of operating system and demonstrate the ability to install and apply the required configuration. Explain standard network models and demonstrate the ability to construct and operate a peer to peer network.

It is a blended course learning using an interactive lecturing and project-based learning. Students demonstrate what they have learned through hands-on lab activities and case study problem solving.

The assessment is mix of written exam (40%) which tests the understanding of core concepts and knowledge plus students’ projects (60%) which tests the ability of applying this knowledge in simulated real work scenarios.

Module-II Project

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 08:18:00 +0000

This is the time to put it all together in one document; here is the link for my project http://ahmad71173.wix.com/using-technology-in

I hope you like it J

Moodle Week-13 Task

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 12:12:00 +0000

Plagiarism

This article is really a valuable one. I think many Skills are already integrated with my course.

For example critical thinking is one of the important skills as the simulation tool (packet Tracer) can have many design scenarios (Solution-oriented scenario) with some errors in configuration (or missing configuration in some network devices such as routers and switches) to simulate the real working environment, students responsibilities is to find these errors plus completing any missing configuration, they need to make it working properly. We usually divide the class to five or six groups (each group is 3 or 4 students) and we assign to them some troubleshooting scenarios, the idea behind that is to let the students practicing what they will face in their future career, they need to work as a team in different areas to sort out all the problems and to make it up and running normally. During the troubleshooting cycle; students need to search internet and handbook or any other source, they start to analyze and evaluate the information and how to apply it to their scenario, which develop analytic thinking and application for students. From my experience; students really enjoy this type of activities (assignments/projects/..), they really get inspired by doing lab activities and simulation tools activities.

Understanding the big picture skill; this is the most important part in my course as it will help students on how to construct the knowledge from many different areas, I applied it using a mind map program which links the entire learning outcome with different learning modules. I have three different modules in this course (PC-Hardware, PC-Software, and Network Devices), the mind map was a helpful guide to students on how we can reach our final target which is building computer network (LAN) to share data and resources between different PCs by first building the PCs itself (Hardware and Software) and then using Network device (router, switches, access points) to connect these PCs to each other.

I think balancing between preventing plagiarism and learning to work together and construct knowledge collaboratively is really a challenge, actually we had a good brainstorming about that in Moodle discussion with many ideas like giving students assignments that fits with their competency level another idea is having oral or practical assignments rather than written one.

Moodle Week-11 Task

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Mon, 28 May 2012 06:35:00 +0000

Teaching in 21^st Century

For the first article; I do agree with the author that today’s learners are digitally literate, mobile, always on, experiential and social, they have their own acronymic words that they use on their daily life communications; I do not agree with the author in his comparison between faculty & students which give a general impression that faculty do not use interactive networked learning and multimedia in their teaching approaches. I do agree with the author that new trend should be in collaboration learning within the team/group through the blended courses (face-to-face or online). I agree with him that technologies like wireless, video conferencing did help a lot in collaborative and mobile learning.

For the second article; I totally agree with the author that learning by doing is the most effective way to learn; I consider it a real way to offer authentic learning to students. That is why I did choose to use a simulation tool in my project to offer my students a real world scenarios to achieve experiences and deep understanding with real work environment scenarios also they can reflect (metacognition) on their level of knowledge to know the areas where the need more information .

For the third article, I totally agree with the author that digital native and digital immigrants’ terms are context based terms and it has nothing to do with ages, I do agree that our peer-group influences the manner in which we use technology for socialization.

Generally; I agree that our role as a faculty is a facilitating/mentoring in learning process, developing the culture of lifelong learner to our students, using the technology that can be fit to achieve deep understanding to our students (simulations, video, audio,..), using a project-based which contain a real life scenarios.

Moodle Week-9 Task

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:31:00 +0000

Gamification

Excellent article (http://elearnmag.acm.org/featured.cfm?aid=2031772) about using game mechanics to enhance eLearning; based on the concepts giving in that article I would say that my students “Target Audience” are really “wanting” this simulation tool as it give them the opportunity to practice most of the lab exercises and most of them are “liking” this tool. So it does worse “rewarding” for them to use the simulation tool which achieves students’ engagement and deep understanding “teacher’s rewarding”.

The simulation tool is built with a structural way to achieve short-term win (the easy parts assembly like computer’s power supply, DVD...) and long-term win (Assembling the whole computer unit), this fill in “Linear flow of Goal” model.

The simulation tool does have a “learn” section with written instructional “navigation” steps about the assembly process for each section in computer unit. Then another section call “test” is there to give a feedback to user about his progress (measure user progress) by letting him/her do the assembly in his own with different levels till last level of assembling the whole computer unit.

“Reward schedule” within simulation tool is not there, I think it is a good idea to have some reward points/coins but I can’t do it as I do not have the code for this simulation tool.

I think that some of the critical success factors of this simulation tool are simplicity and its user-friendly interface.

Moodle Week-7 Task

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 08:45:00 +0000

New technologies, new pedagogies

I did read two articles; one article was “Designing principles for mobile learning”, the second one was “using a smartphone to create digital teaching episodes as resources in adult education”

Both articles includes many ideas to apply in any classroom. For example, “Real World relevance” to engage learners with a real world contexts that have personal meaning and relevance plus allowing deeper understanding to be achieved. I think I can use this one in my class by creating more scenarios in my simulation software “packet tracer” based on best practice/Case-Based scenarios from real environments

Another idea would be using mobile learning in contexts where learners are mobile “Smartphones, mobile phones,…”. I think our LMS “BbVista” will release ipad/iphone version after sometime which could be used by our students to use it “in my case this will give opportunity to my class to access the PC hardware simulation tool using their smartphones!!!!!!!!!!WOW, I wish to have that version soon to apply this idea”. I think this will achieve many concepts "opportunities " of the “Designing principles for mobile learning”, it will make students use mobile learning spontaneously, they will have the time for exploration of mobile technology, they can use mobile learning both individually and collaboratively, and to use mobile learning to mediate knowledge construction.

Also as you all know that HCT will start deploying i-pad devices to all foundation students from next academic year which mean that m-learning will be deployed in HCT some way or another by customizing some learning applications and activities, I think that all of us need to be prepared for using the m-learning system in HCT in near future. "One of the challenges would be the training to teachers and students another one would be the availability of the LMS software to the new i-pad and the customized learning applications". " many opportunities could be achieved using the concepts of “Designing principles for mobile learning”.

Moodle Week-6 Task

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 08:15:00 +0000

Follow-up to project progress

First, I would like to say that Face-to-Face meeting was very helpful for me to brainstorm about our project for this module; it was really helpful in giving professional ideas about using the selected technology and applying it inside classroom (as we always say 1+1=3).

I got a feedback from one of my colleagues (Oscar) regarding one of the simulation tools I have selected; the idea was to make it more generalized to more than one type of PC which was the starting point for me to think about using a similar tool for laptop as well as the one I use for Desktop machines. (Thanks to Oscar for his idea)

Generally speaking; the experiences of using a similar technology (Simulation tools in my case) by other colleagues in my college (HCT) was very positive as it help in project-based pedagogical approach (the technique I am using to teach my Course “Computers’ Hardware & Networking”), it extends the hands-on experience outside the lab boarders.

One of the questions that remain open for me is the “Limitations of simulation tools” which is really a challenging one for me, not all lab activities we can do it with simulation tools (bad news) but most of activities we can do it with simulation tools (good news). But as I was saying in my previous posts’ “that Simulation tools is going to give advantage in expansion of time and deep understanding but practical lab activities (hands-on experience) still a must in this course “as simulation tool cannot do it all alone”

I have already started the using of hardware simulation tool (to assembly the internal parts of PC like power supply, mother board, CPU,…) inside my classroom, some of the feedback I am getting from my students are below:
“WOW, it is working from home as if we are doing it in lab”. “Sir, it is very good but still I prefer taking the lab’s keys from you and do it practically inside lab”. “Sir, not all activities are covered, can you add more activities?”

I think balancing between using simulations technology and practical lab activities might be one of the dilemmas in near future as we are raising the bar about our expectations from technology.

Moodle Week-3 Task

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 07:59:00 +0000

Module-2 Project

My Course Title is Hardware and Networking (Code Number: CIS 1103), this course introduces students to the essential components of a contemporary computer system.

The learning outcomes of this course are: recognize various types of computer systems plus identifing and explaining the function of their components. Construct a computer from physical components and recognize different hardware components and specifications. Define the role of operating systems and demonstrate the ability to install and apply the required configuration of an operating system. Explain standard network models and demonstrate the ability to construct and operate a peer to peer network.

The assessment type is a combination of cognitive response (CR) through practical implementation of a project based scenario by the end of each module (60%) and Selective Response (SR) using a a BbVist exame (10%) and a final CSA exam (30%)

I will use technology in this course by using two simulation softwares; first one is PC hardware simulation tool that simulate the assembly of the PC (it identify each part visually, give a full description of each part, and shows how to assembly each part (to seek deep understanding)); second one is through a Network simulation tool (Packet tracer) that help students to design and simulate a small to medium size network contains the needed routers, switches, and PCs.

The advantage of using these technologies (PC Simulation & Network Simulation) is the engagement of students with a real life industrial scenarios where they can practice, create (innovate) new scenarios and share it with their colleagues for a collaborative activities. I believe as the article mentioned “it is learning with a technology to achieve the cognitive learning strategies and critical thinking skills”. This will acheive the expansion of time and place for students plus the deep understanding in subject matter.

Using technology is crucial in this course (CIS 1103), we need technology not only to convey the facts about the subject matter but also to enable students to practice/discover/understand these facts. To avoid learning from technology; The good point in this course is that students have their own PCs & Network Lab Room where they can apply the scenarios they designed using the simulation tool technology with practical activities which achieve “learning by doing” concept.

Moodle Week-2 Task

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 06:17:00 +0000

Personal Learning Network

I really liked the article about Personal Learning Network (PLN). As it said; it is not something new; I used to have PLN group (face-to-face meetings) during high school/College days to exchange information and share knowledge about the curricula (Unfortunately internet was not available in my country at that time). Later on after my graduation from engineering college, I used to have a professional PLN group (face-to-face/email) with my colleagues/friends working within same field to share knowledge (unfortunately social networks/blogs/.. was not there yet). Nowadays; I have many PLN groups through social networking (Facebook/twitter/LinkedIn/..), majority of these PLN groups are mixed with professional knowledge and personal-social news/updates (LinkedIn is the only exception; it is really a pure network for professional profiles).

These PLN group really helped me in my professional life; for example, I had many situations where I faced a new technical problem to me and the PLN group was the source of solution to my technical problem; another example, in teaching-PLN groups helped me a lot not only to understand some concepts in depths but also introduced a better way to present these concepts to my students, it really provides me with helpful resources (like freeware simulation tools, useful resources, videos,….).

I have some good ideas about extending PLN groups; for example by having a group within HCT organization to exchange/share our experience/knowledge about teaching environment/classroom experiences/ …; we can have another PLN group within Higher education in UAE (HCT, UAE-U, Zayed-U, ..) for the same.

I consider my online post graduate is another PLN group for me where we use new technologies such as Google Docs, Google+, Prezi, Blogs, and LMS as tools that help us sharing, developing, and constructing knowledge.

Finally; I do believe that PLN groups is our way forward to build our network society in 21^st century. Also I do like the Open Educational Resources (OER); I believe this the way forward for our future educational system.

Regarding Team Project:
I am teaching Computer Hardware & Network course which I will use some digital narritive technology with it.

Moodle Week-1 Task

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 08:58:00 +0000

Education technologies

Hi There, Nice to meet you on my page J

A bit about me: My name is Ahmed Hamdi Abdel Monem Al-Sorouge. I am married to Yosra and have our roots in Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. We have three wonderful kids (two boys, and one girl) who are fond of breeding cats. I am a Senior Network Engineer at Dubai Women’s College (Plus I do part time teaching in IT for PM Students). I graduated in 1997 as an Electronics/Communication Engineer (Benha University-Egypt). I worked as an electromechanical engineer for eight years in different fields (Oil, Machines, and Industrial X-Ray); I was responsible for the training to new fellows/customers most of the time. In 2005, I changed my career to IT field where I started my steps to get recognized certificates such as ITIL®, Project Management PMP®, and Cisco CCSP®/CCDP®/CCNP®.

Education Technologies: I am using two different educational learning systems, first one is BbVista which can be considered as the HCT official LMS (learning Management System), and the second one is MyITLab which is provided by Pearson org. I have a positive experience with both systems (especially the BbVista).

I totally agreed with the article regarding the importance and advantages the education technology have added to our learning mechanism like collaboration, fully utilization of time to learn, Depth of understanding (by providing multimedia links/format/simulations for the Curricula), and meta-cognition which I would add it as advantage to LMS if student can use it as a source to get knowledge and to test themselves “did they really understood, did they misunderstand something, did they had a wrong preconception about some topics, and ….”

Finally, I do not have any concerns regarding LMS "unless the internet is down J

Bb Vista Week-12

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:19:00 +0000

Lifelong learning is more than training.

Lifelong learner methodology is not applied yet from education system perspective. Fortunately some steps started in Domain-oriented Design environment (especially in IT Education field) where is the integration between working and learning is taking place through some learning activities (like work placement, projects), these steps are not enough as the other elements like assessments still far away from the target of having lifelong learner graduate. I agree with the author in that lifelong learning is more than training.

From student perspective I believe that we have now many students who are really Lifelong learners, they acquires knowledge without boarder (location boarder (like Schools), time boarder (like work placement)), those students got it through their engagement in communities (internet groups, blogs...) I am optimistic that new generation is self-directed in learning, they have most of 21^st century attributes in learning (like media literacy, technology literacy,…), they can be very easily adapted to any new Lifelong Education learning system.

Knowledge society wise; student or learner is the main element in knowledge society and she or he is ready to build this society, they need only our help in building a new education system which deal with them as stakeholders and accept their adaptive feedback in designing the curriculum/assessments/environment/...

Fischer’s ideas are aligned with the characteristics of building knowledge society that use collaborative learning, self-directed learning, organization learning, and on-demand learning with the new media and innovative technologies to be adequately supported.

Bb Vista Week-11:

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:40:00 +0000

Communities of practice

Situated learning: Old assumptions was that learning is something that individual do (learning by doing or experiential learning); learning has a beginning and an end (temp not permanent); learning is best separated from the rest of our activities (not integrated with our every-day activities) ; and that is a result of teaching (teacher-Centre only). New track is totally different; learning is social and comes largely from of our experience of participating in daily life “process of engagement in a community of practices” which is known as situated learning; it is a move from legitimate peripheral participation to into full participation.

Communities of practice: Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor “for example, a group of engineers works on similar problems”. Over time, this collective learning results in practices that reflect both the pursuit of our enterprises and the attendant social relations. These communities are developed around things that matter to people. In some groups we are core members, in others we are more at the margins. The characteristics of such communities of practice vary (Formal/informal, with names/without names). However, members are brought together by joining in common activities and by “what they have learned through their mutual engagement in these activities”. In this respect, a community of practice is different from a community of interest or geographical community in that it involves a shared practice. Three elements are crucial in distinguishing a community of practice from other groups and communities: The domain, which defined by the shared domain of interest. The community, engagement in activities (including complex activities and projects through cooperation) and discussions to build relationship that enables them to learn from each other. The Practice, members are practitioners, they develop a shared repertoire of resources “experiences, stories, tools…”

Conclusion: Social capital resident in communities of practice leads to behavioral change that enhances organizational effectiveness and profitability (learning communities can lead to learning organizations), Learning is in the relation between people (not only in individuals’ mind), Educators work so that people can become participants in communities of practice (educators as a facilitators/coaching/mentoring/..), and there is an intimate connection between knowledge and activity as learning is part of daily living.

Bb Vista Week 9 Task

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:52:00 +0000

Changes in Structures and Practices of Education

Happy Earth 2020

Dear Son,

I hope this video message finds you well,

Congratulations on your graduation’s project that has been published recently by UNESCO as a road map to have our planet free of Carbon monoxide by 2025. You are lucky with your current education system as it is totally different from our old education system in 2011, with youth people manage the new education system with their creative and innovative ideas. You are lucky in having free education from K1 to Master and Doctorate degrees, to live in a planet that recognizes educators as superstars. You are lucky to have education system that permits students from different continental to study in one global system (I know that you had to wake-up early to catch the 7:00AM jet from UAE to arrive UK by 7:30AM, otherwise you watch it online). You are lucky to have curriculum that focus on deep understanding (not memorizing) with its project/research based concepts, curriculum that can be transferred to any format you want. You are lucky to have learning environment that you can participate in its designing and not the ice cube model that we had in 2011. You are lucky to have students communities involved in governmental activities and decisions making, involved in social activities, involved in politics, and involved in charity activities. You are lucky to live in a planet that uses dialogue instead of war to solve a problem; one hand world against poverty and climate change.

This was my dream ten years back and I am happy to see it.

Your Father

Bb Vista Week 7 Task

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:42:00 +0000

Chapter 1: The Network Society from knowledge to policy

The road map (history) of knowledge societies was moving from survival to agricultural Societies, then to the industrial society (transition process countries like Portugal), and finally to the post-industrial/Information/knowledge society (Like US, Finland, Singapore).

Industrial society was built based on power networks (energy networks, which cause the factory model in education) while network society was built based on digital communication networks (like internet) which extend to every country in our planet. (Essential in our 21^st century learning model).

The network society, in the simplest terms, is a social structure (open structure) based on networks operated by information and communication technologies.Globalization is another way to refer to the network society. The network state

Cons views of new technologies/network society:

In these views, new technologies destroy jobs, Internet isolates, we suffer from an overload of information, the digital divide increases social exclusion, Big Brother extends its surveillance thanks to more powerful digital technologies, technological development is controlled by the military, the tempo of our lives is relentlessly accelerated by technology, biotechnology leads to human cloning and to major environmental hazars, Third World countries do not need technology but the satisfaction of their human needs, children are increasingly ignorant because they are messaging and chatting instead of reading books, nobody knows who is whom in the Internet, work efficiency is hampered by technology that does not rely on human experience, crime and violence, and even terrorism use the Internet as a privileged medium, and we are rapidly losing the magic of the human touch. We are alienated by technology.

Pros Views of new technologies/network society:

Although some workers are displaced and some occupations are phased out (e.g., traditional typist secretaries), other occupations appear (e.g. assistant managers instead of secretaries), more jobs are created, and most displaced workers are re-employed, except for those too old to adapt, their fate being decided depending on public policies in each society; Internet users are more social, have more friends and contacts, and are more socially and politically active than non-users; using internet in charity activities (e.g. collecting money for tsunami hurricane’s refugees), for health awareness campaigns (e.g. diabetes/Aids/.. campaigns), for environmental issues (e.g. Hopenhagen group); electronic trade in internet (e.g. ebay, amazon,…); knowledge transfer that internet and new technologies facilities it; internet is a real indicator of globalization and diversity in cultures we have today in planet (not in all countries but for a lot of countries); Digital networking technologies enable networks to overcome their historical limits of sharing their knowledge in innovative and accessible way.

There are three necessary conditions for productivity growth to take place: generation and diffusion of new microelectronics/ digital technologies of information and communication, on the basis of scientific research and technological innovation; transformation of labor, with the growth of highly educated, autonomous labor that is able to innovate and adapt to a constantly changing global and local economy “Self Programmable Labor”; diffusion of a new form of organization around networking.

Dilemmas of Our Time: Creativity versus Rentier Capitalism; Communication Democracy versus Political Control.

Chapter 7: The E-learning and the Transformation of Education for a Knowledge Economy

The knowledge economy is related to changes in society worldwide, particularly globalization, information/knowledge intensity, and networking and connectivity.

Characteristics of a knowledge economy include: the increased mobility of services, information, and workforce; the need to derive local value from information often in creative ways that go beyond expected performance; the need to work in multidisciplinary and distributed teams; the need to use information technology (IT) for knowledge management, sharing, and creation; the need to update and change ones skills throughout one’s lifetime; and the need to “act autonomously and reflectively, joining and functioning in socially heterogeneous groups”.

Know-why and know-who is matter than Know-what:

Know-what, or knowledge about facts, is nowadays diminishing in relevance. Know-why is knowledge about the natural world, society, and the human mind. Know-who refers to the world of social relations and is knowledge of who knows what and who can do what.Knowing key people is sometimes more important to innovation than knowing scientific principles.

Personal knowledge management skills as well as a knowledge management infrastructure for the organization or professional body supporting knowledge workers are critical to the learning needed for a knowledge economy.

The World Bank (2003) contrasts traditional learning with learning for a knowledge economy as moving away from the teacher and textbook as sources of knowledge towards the teacher as a guide for finding and interpreting real-world information; away from learning being delivered to learners who receive it toward learning by doing and participating as close to the real world as possible; from assessment being based on responding to questions with pre-determined right and wrong answers to assessment being based on competence development as documented by a variety of forms of performance including those that require integrating one’s work with the work of others.

Example from professional:

From Shell EP company applying the e-learning system and how it positively enhances employees’ skills and knowledge.

Example from education:

From University of Twente applying the e-learning system that causes a competencies growth to their students.

My Contribution to these two chapters reading Plus UNESCO report:

Network Society:

I believe there are plenty of challenges to build a network society, these challenges stated in UNESCO report like poverty, human rights, human security (Maslow’s theory), illiteracy, democracy, language barrier, social barrier, and a lot of other factors that affect forming a knowledge/network society, even within the same country it could be relative network society (like in India case as stated by UNESCO report).

Another problem would be the misuse of the internet, as stated in UNESCO report by giving examples about terrorist, I would add also slavery trade, and any other type of crime that could be happening using internet, Also privacy of individual (like what happened to some Facebook users sometime back). But there are ways we can secure the internet and deal with these challenges.

I believe also some people living in non-knowledge societies could be knowledgeable individuals themselves independently of the society that they live in, in condition of that they have all the tools/facilities/abilities that will make them members in the big network society (Globalization).

E-learning:

For sure E-learning is the future market for a lot of students all over the world as it saves cost, time, overcome the geographical obstacles, flexibility, and a lot of other advantages; even countries of South is taking a big move in e-learning (as stated by UNESCO report that out of the eleven largest open universities, eight are situated in countries of South), it is a new field in education investment because of its advantages.

As mentioned in UNESCO report, I believe that rich countries need to help poor countries to build their infrastructure which is going to enable delivering e-learning to those countries.

E-learning requires huge efforts from the provider to upload all material/courses and make it available online for all users; good example in UNESCO report was MIT which had to upload 500 of their courses online plus 1,500 in phases.

A good example mentioned in UNESCO report was the UK government initiative called National Grid for Learning to connect libraries, schools, and learning centers to form virtual education resource center; a good example also would be khalifa university initiative in UAE to connect the government universities (HCT, Zayed, and UAE-U) to form a virtual education resource center.

Bb Vista Week 6 Task

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:12:00 +0000

Applying Understanding Strategy in classroom

I created a story of my imagination for two emirate students, Khalid, and Talal. Khalid lives in Dubai and study IT while Talal lives in US and he study Business, they use their facebook accounts to communicate with each other. through out the drawing of this story plus some YouTube videos related to it, I explored to my students how Internet traffic is moving from Khalid’s laptop to his ADSL then to Etisalat and how Etisalat route this traffic out to AT&T in US then to Talal’s Laptop, plus illustrating what is happening behind the scenes when you type facebook in your browser and how it is converted to something that machine can understand it and how it is doing this function, and a lot of other core concepts that they need to know about Internet and browsing.
My Conclusion is that, creating social narrative that is directly related to students’ every-day life is really a good way to illustrates basic concepts.

Another good example; we had a project with our students about wireless to apply it in certain area in our college, once project started they start their research on best tools to use in wireless survey then they start acquiring knowledge about core concepts in wireless design and implementations, they used many resources (Internet, discussions, asking experts/technical individuals,..), I was amazed that new technical areas they had to read and understand about it to do their project properly. they really did a good job and they build a structured knowledge based on their
hands on experience on that project.
my conclusion is that applying project-based/research-based education is very powerful way for understanding specially in areas like IT.

Bb Vista Week 3 Task:

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:52:00 +0000

My Learning Theory

I really enjoyed the reading of these two articles about learning theories. I believe that it is very much related to my own work when I am doing any training to students or staff. I consider learning as a processes group life cycle which divided into five phases “see Fig-1”:

Fig.1 “My own imagination of learning life cycle”

1- Planning process phase; it maintains the way curriculum, instruction, and assessments will be designed. This phase should be based on what is taught, why it is taught, how it is taught, and how learning is assessed, plus taking into consideration the social and community context. I prefer to plan a course using the cognitive and humanist aspects, I believe in rule that is saying “failing to plan is planning to fail”. (It would be great if students can be involved in this phase someway somehow, through ideas about instruction, assessments, and even curriculum). 2- Design process phase; where we design the actual curriculum, instruction, and assessments which will be aligned with the teaching in the 21^st century knowledge society; that encourage students to understand and to use the metacognition technique; that encourage students to be active learner. (It would be great if students can be involved in this phase someway somehow, through ideas about instruction, assessments, and even curriculum). 3- Implementation process phase; it is the start point in interaction between student and teacher which should be bi-directional communication and not only one side talking and other side is listening. Teacher should help in changing any mismatch preconceptions with his students, help them to imagine the new concepts from their angle, and help students in creating their own metacognition technique. Again I personally prefer cognitive and humanist theories with taking into consideration the social and community context of the student. 4- Monitoring process phase; this phase should be there from the start of planning phase to the end of the course, as it keep us updated with the students’ feedback/preconceptions/metacognition, it should be the phase which enable us to take proper decisions to enhance students’ experience with learning. 5- Closing process phase; this is the phase where our course ended and we get the learned lessons from it to enhance our performance in next course, plus we should get a final feedback from students about what they did like in that course?/was it helpful for them in their practical life?/……

I Value:
Using latest useful technology tools in education.
Honest in teaching & learning.
Advising and accepting other side point of view.
Positive interaction between teacher & students during any discussion.

I believe in:
Education is a bi-directional communication between teacher & student.
Education is an important mission statement for a teacher.
Education “learning” is happening every day to all of us in different situations and not only inside school.

My Metaphors:
Teaching for me is like cleaning my room, organize books in shelves, and spray air refresher. This makes me very happy and willing to go on with other activities in my life.

students’ understanding Research:
I would like to say that in order to apply an understanding strategy in our classroom we should take a deep look to the main elements involved in learning process, teacher/curriculum/instruction/assessment/student/learning environment.

Let’s start with the main player (the teacher of course), I did read Marco Terese’s post about learning in Finnish, I do like their technique in teaching which permit teacher to teach only after a mastery level in training and education on how to deal with students’ needs, also I liked their policy/system regarding relation between teachers which make them work as a one team and not as a competitors, Also find below a good URL which focus on teachers’ evaluation:
http://www.tqsource.org/publications/February2008Brief.pdf

Second element is curriculum, which should present and reflect the concepts in simple and remarkable ways, avoiding complex examples/languages statements (Specially for non-native language speakers, which is the case for majority of the students all over the world today), giving examples from practical life to mutually apply/transfer between ever-day life and school, using graphics to illustrates concepts (when applicable), with a clearly defined targets from this subject-matter, with quizzes that test understanding after every module, with activities that encourage brainstorming and group work, not a hug syllabus in one book , should contain colors papers (specially graphics’ papers), fonts should be clear and readable (even the fonts on drawings/graphs!!), it should look as a nice book/ebook that student will like to read it.
See the below URL which take about designing curricula that seek understanding:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_by_Design

Third element is instruction, this is a big challenge, as instruction should present the concepts but using the innovative techniques in presenting these concepts using Audio/Video/Presentation/Project-based/...to make sure that instruction speak the same language as our students (Modern Technology Language). which could be illustrated very well in some field like health science see below youtube link as an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGxho71tScM&feature=related
Also teacher need to implement his own ideas (creations) which make subject-matter understood, plus removing misconceptions, see below URL:
http://www.edutopia.org/measuring-what-counts-memorization-versus-understanding

Fourth element is assessment, I believe that because most of our assessments were approached for memorizing and not for understanding that make our students align themselves with memorizing and not understanding as the assessments wants!!.
see below URL:
http://api.ning.com/files/4yilmyiT9cAYDaMWLbQTARb6WSh7rrjYuFIPAJJ5POHqbtuRueuXKpd0nLiRjviLQEwJT*uvvpq0ZZ1BtGIZopvJrjawAxdS/AssessmentforLearning1.pdf

Fifth element is student, which all elements in this process should help him/her to gain understanding to the subject matter, what motivate her/him to understand ?
see below URL:
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/motivation.html

Last but not least element is the learning environment, which include school or even home which affect students mentality, see below URL:
http://www.johnseelybrown.com/newlearning.pdf

That was a broadly coverage for students’ understanding.

Bb Vista Week 2 Task:

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:44:00 +0000

The most memorable learning experiences stories:

I really like this topic, it triggers me to apply and share these memorable learning experiences I had in my academic and practical life with others.

First story is in academic field; during my high school time we had three departments (Math, Biology, and Literature) that we had to choose one of them in our second year of high school to be our specialization which in turn will determines which set of colleges we will be able to join after high school graduation. (For example a high school student graduated from Math department can join Faculty of Engineering but he cannot join Faculty of Medicine). At that time I took a decision to join biology department, not because I like it but because I had a bad experience with some Math teachers during my earlier study. But guess what happened? I had a very good Math teacher, who taught Math to my class in first year in high school, he was brilliant and very helpful to every student in our class, he was always saying to us “Do understand Math laws, feel it, and apply it, it is guaranteed way that you will never forget it”. Can you image that I still remember some geometry laws from high school time because of this man. He make it so easy for us, he was able to break this traditional barrier between teacher and students, he make us consider him as a father for all of us who is really care about us like his kids. I really appreciate his help to me which result in changing my mind and join Math Department and joining Faculty of Engineering later on, I believe that teacher is very important factor that can impact student’s future.

My second story is in practical life; I started my first career as a field service engineer; at that time I had zero experience in troubleshooting & solving technical problem and I had that fears that I cannot solve any technical problems and I will not be able to bring any machine up & running unless a senior engineer help me. Fortunately, I had a very good senior engineer, who taught me how to trust myself and use the products manuals I have plus using the troubleshooting methodology, he was so patient with me, he taught me how to read quickly a schematic electricity drawing and identify the critical points on it. He trained me for three months then he told me “Ahmed, I am sure you can troubleshoot now any problem” , after sometime he got a phone call from important customer saying that they have a severed problem in one machine, immediately he told me you will do it this time and not me, I was afraid a little bit as it was my first real challenge in my practical life but I went to this customer and I used the manuals, drawings and the logical troubleshooting methodology that I learned from him, I was able to sort out this problem, I went back to our office and I was surprised that my manger brought some sweets to celebrate my first success in my practical life with other colleagues. I believe that I was so lucky to have this manger that really guided and helped me at the beginning of my practical life.

Bb Vista week 1 Task:

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:53:00 +0000

Pre-course reflection

I fond of teaching since I was a student, I used to teach to my colleagues during college days. Even after graduation I used to share any documents I have with my work colleagues and describe it to them intensively (they used to tell me “Ahmed we understood your Docs, do not take it seriously!!!”. I believe in power of knowledge and sharing it with others. Actually sometimes I understand more when I teach to others.

My background is mainly industrial engineering where I used to solve problems/manage new projects/training to new fellows or customers (using products manuals). Six years back I changed my career to IT Field as a Network engineer then I was promoted as a senior network engineer. I have got highly recognized certificates such as PMP®, ITIL®, and Cisco CCSP®/CCDP®/CCNP® Certifications.

I do not have official experience in teaching, just the training to colleagues/fellows/customer plus few numbers of Computer Network sessions to DWC Cisco Academy students.

Unfortunately I did not have any online learning courses before. I hope this course will give me that experience “I started to gain some of it this week”.

I hope to gain the knowledge of know how in teaching techniques and the new innovation ways in teaching. I hope to learn from other colleagues during our brainstorming/discussions. I hope to be a qualified educator which will enable me to start my official teaching in any of HCT Cisco Academies as I got already the industrial qualifications (Cisco Certificates). Plus I like to know exactly the rules, concepts, and methodologies of teaching before I start that career officially. Also these will enable me to understand how Students think and how I can deal with them in different situations, what I should expect from students, what do they expect from me.

This course will help me not only in my upcoming professional career but also in my life, it will give ideas that I can use to educate my kids, my relatives, and anyway I know who need a help to study something. My expectations might be high but I am sure that course will fulfill it.

I hope to be effective member in this team. I have that great feeling as a student who wants to success and helping each one in his group. I like to have the knowledge transfer between members which is really beneficial way of learning in my opinion. I have good IT skills which I hope to use it in helping other team members when they need it. Plus I have a good experience in projects management.

I am anticipating that our team members will guide and advise me specially that most of them have a good teaching experience which is going to energize me and make me more comfortable.

I am anticipating from my facilitator to be the person who will gave me the confidence about what we are going to do and helping me when I am out of shape through her guidance and advice.

I consider learning and teaching an important statement in my mission statement in this life, there is an Arabic adage that says “Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave” which I consider it as a golden rule for us in this life as knowledge is the real power.

I really appreciate that HCT is holding this course with cooperation of TAMK, I hope that will be a chance for all of us to find our own objectives we want to achieve from that course.

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmed Hamdi) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 05:58:00 +0000

Hello everyone (Salamo Alekoum)

Nice to meet you on my page J

A bit about me: My name is Ahmed Hamdi Abdel Monem Al-Sorouge. I am married to Yosra and have our roots in Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. We have three wonderful kids (two boys, and one girl) who are fond of breeding cats. I am a senior Network Engineer at Dubai Women’s College. I graduated in 1997 as an Electronics/Communication Engineer (Benha University-Egypt). I worked as an electromechanical engineer for eight years in different fields (Oil, Machines, and Industrial X-Ray); I was responsible for the training to new fellows/customers most of the time. In 2005, I changed my career to IT field where I started my steps to get recognized certificates such as ITIL®, Project Management PMP®, and Cisco CCSP®/CCDP®/CCNP®.

Why am I on the course? I believe that I was so focused on Industrial Certifications which is not bad. But I need to get an academic certification in teaching that will enable me to become a qualified educator.

What do I hope for this course? To learn know how techniques in teaching.

My fears for this course! It not really fears. But I used to do all certificates face to face communication and that will be my first time in online courses. I believe it will be nice J