Reflective Journal IV

Q: How has the online learning lesson facilitated/impeded your learning process? How has it, or not, thrown light onto certain issues you were previously unclear about? Do you have any suggestions on how online lessons can be improved?

I felt that online learning lesson is beneficial to particularly CDE as CDE topics often require in-depth research which can only be done online. Since we are having online learning today,we could make use of the Internet at home to do some thorough background research before completing our tasks for today. For example, for today, we are required to find out what the East can learn from the West and vice versa, but in order to do so, we have to research on the Eastern and Western culture before we picked out similar categories of where their differences lie based on our findings. As compared to normal CDE lessons, there are usually people who have not completed their readings or have done so but have insufficient background knowledge because of the lack of time for them to research. This will then lead to an unfruitful discussion whereby no new ideas are being explored as everybody is discussing based on the sole reading that were given out by the teachers. Hence, this not only facilitates our learning process but also allows us more freedom and time to go through our thoughts in our mind and enhance our thinking process at the same time.

Every research certainly throws light onto certain issues that I was previously unclear about. Otherwise, I certainly would not call that research a fruitful one. I have seen the clear lines separating the Eastern culture and Western culture which has caused me to ponder over certain examples I have seen in my daily life and to my surprise, I have discovered that I am more inclined towards the Eastern values. The values that been inculcated in me since young are in fact Eastern values, such as respecting the elders and not confronting people so openly, etc. Actually, I should not even say that I am surprised since I am an Asian but I have also discovered that Western ideas and culture do come into our life, often through modernization or new technology. This is probably due to the fact that Western culture and advancement of technology complement each other which certainly a factor of globalisation. Singapore is a very much modernised society as it has brought in many Western values for Singapore to develop this fast in a short span of 40 plus years. However, I am gratified that the important Eastern values have not been left behind along with the demolished Kampong villages but they have been adapted into our modern society today. In Singapore's society, Western values and Eastern values both play a different role of their own to best support Singapore's development and growth. Western culture comes into place where Singapore is needed to seek creativity and develop into a world-class modern society whereas Eastern culture remains as the root of civilisation for people to maintain good relations with other people while at the same time to ensure society stability and unity.

Lastly, I have some suggestions for the online learning which might be beneficial to the rest. Perhaps, we could have a forum to facilitate a class discussion in a virtual class. Since we are not in school to make discussions openly, perhaps we can have a forum to voice our opinions on some issue as I feel that there is a lack of interaction on the learning site. It's just like instructions being passed down and work being handed up. Although we are able to look at other people's answers to how the East can learn from the West and how the West could learn from the East, I feel that a forum is also a good platform for people to clarify their doubts and provide their own opinions of other people's opinions and a comparison can be made which is certainly much more interesting than a mundane learning site. This is all. Thank you.