Amna’s blog

I t was interesting to go back to MOE. there i met my work network from different departments and I was selected to work in the curiculam department with Ms. Khuool Al Qassimi who is the general director of the CD. I met some of the employees there who are rolling different positions and having different careers. Mariam and Huda are my mentors of this work placement weeks and I decided with them what I am going to work on. But before of that I intreduced myself and I talked about my program and my college and of course about my abilities, talents and interests. It was a lovely meeting which ended positivly. I am looking forward going tomorrow to MOE to take my place there and to do my job.

Today, I arrived to the minstry late because of the traffic jams in Sharjah. I get used on this issue after I used to be very bad tempered. I don't think that if am going to feel ok if am going to lose my temper. Till now I did not do anything important I just classify the papers and take some notes in to the system, it is boring becuae I have nothing to do.

I talked to my mentor Shamsa who aged 31 she is very kind and helpful. I felt that I know her since a long years. She describe for me the method of training the teachers and other educators. I noticed that the minstry does not have an individual training system, so this let me think more about the successful stratigies of creating a training programs.

I tried to gain benefits from my summer job since this will help me later on my studeies and experince. I think that most of the trainers will gain benefits too beacuse I saw a large number of the students who works in different departments in the mistry. I still want to move to the curiculam department to see how does the mistry approve and publish suitable books for various levels and I am very curious to know more about the stratigies and the theories that they follow hopfully I might see something different than the bloom taxonomy.

Furthermore, I searched for couple of master programes avaliable in australia in Southern Quesslan University and I will keep searching till I find the suitable program that will support my bacholar degree and the most important thing is I have to be pleased when choosing and studing about the master program. Also, I searched more about the art types after I saw some of the abstract art it was greart and I like it. Anyway I will complete posting more about my activities in Twitter, so follow me!

Waking every morning at 6:30 would be something difficult to me since I just finished my 6th semester and I feel really tired after working hard during the previous months. But I think that it would be very motivation to wake early daily becuase I joint the summer camp in the Minstry of Education. Being in the Training and Development Department is a good opportunity to learn more about the method of the adminstration working which is might be relevant to my courses and my future career.

Couple of things that I did till now which are mailing, typing, printing, writing formal letters and faxing. I met almost everybody who is working the department and I think that my mentor is going to be Shamsa. Let's talk about her for a bit. hmmm I dont got lots of information about her since I did not have a meeting yet. But I realized that she is a busy lady in the department of course the secretry is always seems to be. I think that she is one of the HCT graduaters becuase I heard her saying that she spent a long time figuring out about the Arabic windows system. This means that HCT is one of the best educational college that teach their students in English.

that set for today I know I did not write too much for today but today I break the ice in MOE. Read my posts for tomorrow. I think that I will complete posting in Twitter. Follow me if you like my Screen Name is : DXBVISION

See you all

On my first day in Sharjah equasrrain center I tried to meet my mentor who's name is Aziz Haroun the IT manager But unforcunatly I couldn't since he and his assestent prepeared for the horse octoin which took place in the center. Actully I met the octoom director who was so delighted to see me and through the quick conversation I knew that the ocriom went well on the last day and the center sold 130 horses which is a great success for the equestrain center. I made my mind so quickly and I decided to go to the college to meet miss myrann and to sort out all the things that I need to be acoknowlege and so I did.

Second Day: I tried to contact Mr. Aziz ana I finally did that. The meeting was is Sharjah Equestrain Center and from there I noticed that he was very pleased to work with the students since he think that they need the help and the support to guide them into the safe side. I think that the conversation between me and the mentor was not formal since he asked me about my interests, personality and my tasks and projects at college. He was so kind and friendly and he asked me to contact him at any time if I need any help or if I faced any kinds of issues. I like his way of dealing with me and with the other employees and his personality as well. At the end of the day I left the center and I went to the college to see Miss Mary and to talk to her about the meeting and I started immidiatly my Instructional design format with the first stage which is Ayalysis.

Third day: On this day I went directly to the college since the center had a day off. I saw Reem and Salama who worked really hard for the  Planiturum and there work was so creative and I liked it. I spend the whole day searching for the best elements of the and layout for the website and, so I visited several of the sites that gave me an idea of how can I design something similar to the one that I will build it.

Here are some of the websites that I visited:

 http://www.roodandriddle.com/

http://www.liphookequinehosp.co.uk/

http://www.dubaiequine.ae/

http://www.merrittequine.com/

http://www.pioneerequine.com/

Forth day: on the forth day I went to the Equie Center and there I met Ruth the admin there. She asked one of the employees to take me for a tour around the center and fro that I get the main idea about the center and how does it work. later on, I talked with the admin about the website and she was so pleased to know that I am the one who is going to build the site. so she explained for me how does she wants the website to look like and how many parts and sections will include. She was prepared previously the content of every page that the website will include and she surfed with me via the internet around several sites also that she is aiming to direct later. Mrs. Ruth was so friendly and kind too since she treated with me as her daughter and I was pleased to be.

On my final day at the center I worked independently at Ruth office since she had a day off. At that time I was designed the logo and the flowchart of the website and it was so basic and simple. I used OneNote to gather the information and also to write on the scratches. At I was so pleased because of the celebration that run at the college for the national day but unfortunately I could not attend that ceremony. According to my timeline I had to finish the web design structure and to get started the Needs analysis and the design stages.

I attended different sessions on the Devlearn conference and I was so delighted to learn about the novel web2.0 tools and most of them can implemented in an effective way in most of the educational sectors and business too. Moreover, I think that the sessions were relevant to what I study in the college and most of them gave me new ideas to develop the educational materials and to be a successful developer and designer. Here is the Devlearn 2008 website and I am a member on it so if you would like from me to download any of the latest researches I am pleased to do that for you :)

http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.918

1-Microsoft OneNote: A Next generation e-Learning Tool.

Speaker: Mike Tholfsen
Session time: Thursday, Nov 13
From the following session I learnt that the software is not just an electronic note book that you can use it for your appointments and your important events. It is an educational tool that allows the users to write their projects, meetings, lessons, and the plans in an organized method.

2-Adobe Presenter

Speaker: Oehlert

The session was all about the Adobe products such as Acrobat and presenter. it was so enjoyable to see how is the Adobe presenter works as a plug in with the Microsoft PowerPoint which enable different features and options that provide the flexibility and the interactive to enhance the meaningful learning.

3-Fly paper: Using Flypaper Templates for SME-generation Training Models.

Speaker: Pierson
Session time: Thursday, Nov 13 | 1:15-2:30p
After I had get bored from the traditional presenting software which is PowerPoint finally I found another amazing program that demonstrate your presentation in an attractive way. The Flypaper is not just a presenting tool it can be your first program in organizing your lessons and projects. I strongly recommend that the schools and the colleges should perches the software since it is easy to use and to demonstrate too.

4-Adobe Captivate:

Speaker: Adobe Com.
I was so pleased to attend this session which was about editing videos and recording the screens with other interactive options and features since the software is not as Camtisia. You can design your questions and surveys though it and it is so easy to use.

5-iPhone: The Apple iPhone – Practical users in Corporate e-Learning.

Speaker: Kerkelberg
Session time: Friday, Nov 14 | 10:00-11:00p

The following session had presented by an apple engineer who is name is and he mentioned about the history of the apple devices and gadgets till it reaches to the smart gizmo which is iPhone.  Furthermore, it was so interesting to know more about the iPhone benefits in the educational departments and to know more about the challenges that the companies and the business might concern from. I just added in this session a comment since I am one of the iPhone users and I face a major difficulties through using it and implement it in the educational part such as in my lessons is that the iPhone is locked for the Middle east and the other countries and unlock it might be a risk because not all of the jail break software are high-quality to use and breaking that is an issues that is against the law. Also I added that the schools might use the iPhone as an educational gadget if it has the Arabic language. Finally, I was pleased to see how do most of the people are interested and concerned about the smart gizmo the iPhone.  

6-Twitter: Twitter for Beginners – What a Micro blogging, or Micro-messaging?

Speaker: Lentz
Session time: Thursday, Nov 13 | 7:15a-8:15a
The session was about the basic uses and introduction of using Twitter. In my opinion, the tool is great to which allows you to follow the users in different topics and to join their posts and relpy on what do they post at any time. It is a novel  for the educators which can be effective for their learners who will be able to track their work. The tool also enable the mobiles to interacte on the process. I learnt that the mobile can be used efficiently in the classes and can be one of the important gadgets besides the laptop.

7-Grow Games: Practical Principles for Effective learning Game Design.

Speaker: Gardner
Session time: Wednesday, Nov 12| 1:30p-2:45p
In this session which was all about the business flash games I found that the business students can use the web 2.0 tools in their learning instead of using black board vista or other traditional software that might not capture their attention and motivate them intrinsically.  I strongly believe that the web 2.0 tools can work effectively not for the employees or the business students but it can be very effective for the clients in different companies.

8-Avatars: Avatars and other Tools for More Immersive Learning.

Speaker: Pierce
Session time: Thursday, Nov 13 | 10:45a-12:00n
Introduction about the meaning of the avatars and the main use of them in marketing or in education. The speaker mentioned the avatars meanings and the ways of creating the avatars free of charge such as using the: which enable the users to design and create their own avaters. I thought that the session would explain about a special software which design the avatars for the websites and other uses.

9-Articulate: The No Compromises Approach Rapid e-Learning.

Speaker: Tom Kuhlmann
Session time: Wednesday, Nov 12 | 3:15p-4:30p

Demonstrating several in an effective use of engage and other Articulate software to create an engaging lesson or presentation which capture the students attention. The speaker showed us different examples for several topics and I learnt that there are other software better than the course genie and the soft chalk in designing the questions and the interactivity for the HTML pages.

10-SimCore-EMS: Beyond Branching Tools and Techniques for Creating Free-play Simulations.

Teaching adults requires different methods and techniques to deliver throw it the knowledge and the information. from my thoughts i think that the educators must deal with tem in the way that they like. they have to look through their abilities and talents and even their interests because that will motivate intrinsically which means that they will be able to work independently without any commends or rules that forced them to do their tasks.

I looked for several methods to encourage them to learn orally since most of them don’t have the time to register into a special course to learn or attend it so the effective educational instructional who wants to build up any of the courses of programs for them must search for the way to deliver the information to the employs at any organization.

Firstly: The Bagels day

It's an open breakfast for all of the employees where they can talk to everyone else in the organization about a specific topic that the educational instructor decided to be and through that they will be able to know more about the world and the latest news.

Secondly: Expo Reception

Invite different techno companies into the organization so they will be able to see the latest technology and gizmos where they are at their work. This will encourage them afterwards to search and look for the technology be themselves. As a result this will develop the long life learning. Also I searched for different websites with provide the free online courses for the adults where they can gain from them:

http://www.ed2go.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/

I think that the work placement would be interesting this year, I thought about several places but I wish that I can join the Equestrian Center in Sharjah since I think that there are lots of technical ways to develop the center. Moreover, I prefer to be in a quiet place without dealing with any customers. Here is a list of the places that I would like to be in:

1-      Discovery Museum

2-       Sharjah Equestrian Center

3-      Dobal

4-      Sharjah Women’s College

5-      Sharjah International  Airport

On the other hand, I found lots of valid websites that provide good samples of the CVs which will ease me writing my own CV or Resume which would be significant for my future career. The following are a list of the websites that I looked for through these days:
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/cvsamples/Sample_Curriculum_Vitae.htm