Sala’s blog

Today I did my best to arrange everything to finish up. I started the morning with meeting with miss marry who helped me to organize my ideas and guided me to carry on the other parts of the projects.

I went to Mrs. Huda and decide a meeting with her and Mrs. Mariam to finalize and talking about the project. Amna and I will present our ideas to them and the way we will be working on. We will take their advices and listen to their opinions.

Then I started collecting the questionnaire, unfortunately I got around 8 back but still I have time to collect the rest.

I started searching for journal and articles related to my project. Also I continued searching for software and learning some.

By the end of the day I listed some ideas for kinds of materials that I could create effectively.

Although I prepared everything with the ministry and the school but I couldn't do anything in the school visit because the principle wasn't there she had to attend a meeting. So they told me I can't do anything because she is not there.

I meet my previous teacher there and I was very happy about that. She asked me to teach her how to use some software like wimba create and study mate. Also I showed her how she can use vox in teaching and I let her read my reflection journals. She was very pleased.

She asked me to give sessions to the teachers in the school.  Of course I was very pleased but we have to arrange that professionally with the college and the school. So It may take time.

Another thing is that we did discussing about the learning resources that are needed in the schools and what are the best types for each level.  After that she said that I have to do another visit to the school and she will prepare every thing for me. Before I leave she told me how much I improved and become more mature. This is really encouraged and motivated me to carry on the hard work.  

I started my work by having a look on their materials that they have created for Arabic, religious studies and physics. The materials are cartooning short films, Audios and Flash activities.  For creating the learning resources I have to consider some main points.

The materials should be:

·         Creative and new ideas

·         Suit the topics of the curriculum

·         Suit the level and students skills

·         Suit our culture and believes

Here are some screen shots of the materials

Cartoon

Local

Flash

I think it will be the most challenge work for me to create learning materials that suit their needs. Also their materials are very good and I have to create something at least as good as what as what they have.

Please if you have or know any software that could help me send it to me ^_^  

Today I did nothing except meeting with Miss Marry and talk to her about our ideas and planning. As usual she guides us and helped us to manage and organized our thoughts. We have spent a long time talking and discussing. She is very helpful girls and you need to be communicating with her.

Then I and Amna talked to Miss Mouna to give us CDs of the learning materials for the subject that we are planning to work on.  We wanted to have a look to get an idea of their style and kind of work they want.

Moreover, I asked Miss Huda do prepare a permission paper for me to take to school to make interviews with teachers and students to see their opinion about the learning resources that the ministry prepare for them  and I'm planning to do that on Thursday.

Today I couldn’t give the questionnaire to the staff there because not all of them are in. So Miss Huda suggested to me to do that in another day. Also she suggested to give the questionnaire in both languages English and Arabic because not all of them are good in English as well as in Arabic. Moreover, since Miss Huda was very busy she suggested to send her the interview questions and she will answer them then send them back to me.

Another then that I did today I observe Miss Mouna while she is working. I learnt a lot from her and I discovered that this department surely they need CMS but I think not all of them recognize this need. Furthermore, I showed Miss Mouna how to do  use Monkey survey to create online surveys and send them to school fr teachers and students. she liked it a lot and she told me that she will buy it.

By the end of the day Amna and Me had a good dissection about our ideas and thought related to the  needs of the departments.

Today I did nothing although I was planning to interview the head section and give my survey to the staff. But everybody was busy. So I planned to do that tomorrow.

I sat on my office plan for tomorrow work and summarize my thoughts. After that I had a good dissection with Mrs. Huda about the materials that will be in a CD to support the curriculum book. She told us that they really want us to create these materials and this will be the best thing to for this department. That really confused me because I can see that they need lots of things to be covered beside the learning recourse. So again I have to think about it and try to organize my Ideas. Talking to Miss Maryann really helped me a lot to be on the right track as usual.

Now I am planning to teach one of the staff the online tool for creating surveys and job shadowing her also.  I will do my best to do an excellent work.

Which luck to me ^_^

At the morning I start writing my interview questions and send them to Miss Maryann to check. In my writing I tried to vary my questions. I asked general questions then I started to be more specific. The interview is for Mrs. Huda Ali the head section of the department. I tried to ask questions which are suitable to her position and responsibilities. As usual Miss Maryann replayed me directly and sends me back the question after checking them.

Then Mrs. Huda took Amna and Me to meet with Mrs. Khadeeja the head section of the IT and Learning resources. Unfortunately this is was her last day before she goes in a holiday.

We really had a very wonderful discussion about managing and creating learning resources. Actually she is really doing a great job because as I discovered creating learning resources is not that easy job.  She told us how she organize and plan for creating resources and how she work with companies outside the UAE.  I think it is very hard job but it is very interesting and as she told us she enjoy her working.

Another good discussion was with Mouna. She is a staff in the department. She explained more about the work in the department and what kind of job she is doing. And from this discussion I discovered that they don’t use that much of technology they just relay on emails and pen and paper work.  I realized that they don’t use any CMS to help them managing their resources and work. Also I think they need a system to help them organize their contact and dealing with different educational zoon and departments.  I suggested to Mouna that I'm going to teach her a tool that will help her a lot which is online surveys because she find it difficult to do surveys and send them to schools and get them back after that.  But by online tool she can send the email and let the schools answer the survey after that to the tool will count the result for her.

By the end of the day Amna and me met with Miss Maryann Who as usual check on our work, guide as and put as on the right direction. She gave us her opinion and suggestion to improve things. We really had a very nice talk. Thank you Miss Maryann for your support

Today Amna taught me how to organize my thought and ideas. We sat together and talked and keep notes with dates of what we are going to do during next week. Also we decided how we are going to do our questionnaire and interviews. We choose different people from different jobs to ask, collect information about the need analyses and share experiences. I was very happy when I organized my ideas in this way. Thank you Amna ^_^

Storyboarding

Moreover, we start story boarding again for the video that we are going to create and we made some simple changes on some ideas. Also we went the media department to see if they have some videos that can we use for this video. I was shocked when they told us they don't have any right now but they promised us to order some for us.

Observing

Another thing that we did today we observed a designer in the department. She was designing some certificate for schools. Her main job is to design whatever the department needs such as, booklets, brochures, magazines and CD labels.

Scanner

At the end of the day we had a tour to see what technology to they use. They have PCs, Mac, printers, scanners and photocopier.

Traffic + Traffic+ Traffic every morning I spend about 30 minutes in the traffic but I always I try to arrive at the time.

Well, today start my work by seeing the different types of learning materials that they have and all of them come from abroad. I was very disappointed because of that why can't they produce local materials. Then I went to the mentor and I asked her to give me an explanation of the materials that she expect from us to create. But because she was very busy she couldn't do that today so I decided to try in another time.    

Also I started to brainstorm some questions for my survey that I'm going to create. I wrote he questions in Arabic then will translate them in English and send them to Miss Maryann to check them but also I need somebody to check them in Arabic.

The best thing that Amna and I did today was meeting people and talked to them. They shared their experiences in working and studying. We met Mrs. Shamsa she graduated from DWC IT program and we talked to Mrs. Tahani a graduated from Zayed University IT Education. I really enjoyed listening to their experiences and advices.

Then Amna and I went to collect some needed information but we couldn't find all what we need. So we talked to the secretary to provide them for us.  

Poster

It is the second day and I started collecting data and information about the place and the work there.  Today I wrote a short proposal in ARABIC for the mentor about the Video idea that Amna and Me will create and I'm not sure if my Arabic is good enough for that. It is the first time for me to write a proposal in Arabic, Ok it is a new experience for me ^_^ In fact I think I will be doing more writing in Arabic for this department and this will improve my writing skills.

Steps

Today I was very happy because I had a good discussion with Mrs. Aisha a staff in curriculum development. I really enjoyed listening to her. She explained their work in this section and talked to me about the steps they follow during developing the curriculum. Also she talked about the difficulties they face in the work. The thing that I liked most in their work is the group working actually their work depends on the group work. Moreover, I was surprised when I know that they visit schools to see how the teacher implements the curriculum.

Books

Another thing that I did today is collecting materials and information that I think it will help me during my research.

I was very pleased today when I saw some of the staff motivated to see our work and get benefit from us. They were very helpful and ready to guide us. They answered our questions and give us information and showed us some resources that will benefit us.

My Office