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I would like to share an interesting fact: According to a survey of 2,000 people conducted by Microsoft Corp in Canada, an average human attention span is 9 seconds; the goldfish has an attention span of 8 seconds! The survey also showed that the average attention span of humans has fallen from twelve seconds in 2000 to eight seconds. Here’s another fact: According to a study by MarketingProfs, the new millennials cannot think more than 140 characters at a stretch! Maybe this is the reason why Twitter limits the tweet to 140 characters only. These findings are significant and perhaps worrying especially for educators that have to deal with the millennial generation in their classroom. Imagine the challenge to hold the attention of students (or participants in a training environment) in one hour face-to-face class. The challenge is even more profound for online courses. We have to accept the fact that we are living in the world full of distraction. What kind of distraction? The smart de...

My course, Essential Digital Tools for Student Engagement on Udemy. Finally, after 2 weeks of toiling with recording and editing, my first ever course, Essential Digital Tools for Student Engagement , is published on Udemy platform. Well, actually not quite the first ever course! I had published one course on Udemy (iPad for Teaching and Learning) a few years ago when Udemy is still in its infancy. The course was made available free. Udemy platform has grown and evolved by leaps and bounds. I have been watching and following Udemy while exploring other platforms offering skill-based courses such as Skillshare and Lynda.com . I’m a big fan of all the three platforms. I have always dream to publish a paid course on Udemy and Skillshare. Now I have realised the dream! It’s a dream come true. This is the era where almost anyone can teach and share the skill and knowledge with the global audience. I urge the readers of my blog to consider offering a course on Udemy and other online pla...

In the interview with the Times magazine in 2006, Bill Gates said, “In almost every area of human endeavour, the practice improves BUT that hasn't been the case for teaching" Why? Why haven’t we fix our education system? Are we going to do the same thing that didn’t work? Why are we still hesitant to take a bold step? What happened to all the strategic plan and education reform? what happened to all those research? Maybe we need to dismantle the whole structure of the system? The gist of Joshua's Talk in the video above: “In the mid-1800's, Horace Mann captured the potential impact of education on society. We have yet to realize the potential he saw, and in fact, we are missing the mark by a wider and wider margin. We have created a "Toxic Culture of Education" in our country that is damaging students, impacting our economy, and threatening our future. Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, we have embraced a culture of high-stakes testing and are perpet...

WHAT IS...EDUCATION? THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION?  Recently, someone asked me to define “education”, something that most people take for granted. I think a good starting point would be to revisit the National Philosophy of Education (NPE). Let me quote verbatim: “Education in Malaysia is a continuous effort towards enhancing potentials of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner in order to create individuals who are well-equipped intellectually, spiritually and emotionally. This effort aims to produce knowledgeable, ethical and responsible Malaysian citizens who are can contribute towards the harmony and prosperity of the community and nation.” To me, what is not evident or obvious in our NPE, is the lack of emphasis on the SKILLS. Here’s my own definition of education…Education has multiple dimensions which boil down to imparting KNOWLEDGE, inculcating SKILLS, and instilling VALUES. All the issues that we have been discussing on education/higher education actually revolved ar...

The article above implied that MOOCs have failed to deliver its potential to educate the masses. Well, I won't be too quick to jump to a conclusion. Yes, I'm a strong advocate of MOOCs and online learning — as a student of MOOCs as well as a practitioner of online learning, and now helping the Ministry of Education with the Malaysia@MOOC . Let us view it this way: Rome was not built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour. I'm always reminded of this phrase. It takes time to achieve something great. Actually, Rome was just the result of massive, persistent effort and lots of hard work. It was the outcome of a grand feat of strength and stamina — and intelligence. The bricks were the small units that made up the great structure. What about MOOCs? We are still laying the foundation -- still laying the bricks. Mistakes and failures are to be expected. The problem is, people (politicians, administrators, investors) are impatience—they want to see MOOCs as a game chang...

Everyone is reflecting...Me? Well, 2015 has been an interesting year. Interesting indeed! I always enjoy being in the circle of academics and work together with them. They are all great people...some with their ego  😊 . The academic world is always very exciting. Every day is different. There's no dull moment. No routine. We don't make much money like those people in the business world (but good if the government would revise our salary scheme hi hi). We pride ourselves to take on the responsibility to nurture the future nation builders. We are shaping the young mind that would become the potential leaders of the future. A lot of people looking at Malaysian Higher Education and simply judging the quality of our university by the so-called world ranking. It's not that simple. As for next year, well, the economy doesn't look very promising. Now academics have more things to think about, apart from teaching (I want to repeat, teaching, teaching, teaching), research, super...