KIRKBY : The Life and the Loves


I bought this book last year during my trip to KL. I went to Boders Book store in KL to search for a book. Suddently, I found this book in the educational book shelves. I took it and read the summary and found it was interesting. Without delay I bought the book which costed me about RM 29.90. I think it's worth the price because the book has an interesting story line and it's really encouraging me as a trainee teacher.


SYNOPSIS OF THE NOVEL
(Adapted from the synopsis of Kirkby: The Life and the Loves a fascinating novel by SHAARI ISA)

As the title of the book suggests, this novel tells the story of the life at Kirkby College, a college established by the Federation of Malaya to train its teachers in England from 1952 to 1962. In this sense the College is unique in the annals of educational history. This novel is a work of fiction set within the framework of facts which are described in great detail. It is a fascinating story of the loves and conflicts weaved within the life of the students in the College who lived within an island of diverse Malaysan cultures surrounded by the sea of British life. The book is also a historical document because it describes the curricular and extra curricular activities, also the ctual staff and physical facilities of the Colleege at that time. Dr. Shaari has an eduacational background having been trained as a teacher at Kirkby then went on to become a professioanl accountant. He has written several novels and a set of short stories in Malay and several academic books on accounting mainly in English. Like all of Shaari's creative works, this novel focuses on human relation in society. It portrays that human emotion and life cut accross all cultures, races and boundaries.


CONCLUSION

It's an interesting novel. I recommend this book to all trainee teachers. This book will develop your understanding of real life teaching.

THE USE OF ICT IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING MALAYSIA

The review article is on “The Use of ICT in Public and Private Institutions of Higher Learning, Malaysia”, Vol. 2, No.4, November 2009. The study has done by Siti Rafidah Muhamat Dawam, Khairul Adilah Ahmad, Taniza Tajuddin, Shamsul Jamel Elias, Suhardi Wan Mansor form Faculty of Computer and Mathematics, Universiti Tecknologi MARA Kedah and Kamaruzaman Jusoff a corresponding author, Faculty of Forestry form Universiti Pertanian Malaysia.

SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE

The article examines the extent of ICT utilization among the members of higher stitutions in Northern Malaysian. The research study is focus on to investigate the extent of ICT resources provided by universities authorities, focus on types and extent of ICT usage in daily activities, to explore the ICT proficiencies level and to investigate the level of ICT integration in teaching activities. The research’s objective is to explore on the ICT utilizations among the IPTA and IPTS educators of northern Malaysia. While, specific objectives are three folds to investigate the extent of ICT resources provided by universities authorities, focus on types and extent of ICT usage in usage in daily activities, to explore the ICT proficiencies level and to investigate the level of ICT integration in teaching activities. The research used the subject or sample of study from 76 responses out of 77 from IPTA and only 105 out of 108 responses of IPTS are usable for further analysis in this study. The findings of the study research indicated that in the IPTA, though the facilities provided are not as a lot as in IPTS, however the level of usage is quite encouraging. While in the IPTS, the levels of ICT usage among the educators are still not satisfactorily. Besides, the study also indicated that there were considerable differences in the use of ICT by educators in the process of mastering ICT’s skill. The research methodology used a survey instrument which designed to gather information on the computer usage by using close-ended questionnaire questions which adapted, edited and rephrased from the previous studies done. The study also used frequency and duration to measure usage in ICT while, instrument used to measure proficiency level related to computer technologies and integrating information technology in teaching activities. However, the research also raises some suggestions where the study could be improved by expending the total of sampling population to all faculties in both universities, method of analysis could be varied beyond the descriptive analysis done and factors that could hinder the level of ICT usage by the educators could also be studied.

MY REACTION
In my opinion, the research study does interest me on how important ICT integration in teaching activities. Besides, the professional observation on ICT usage in classroom among teachers show that ICT resources availability is really important for educators. At present most educators agree that ICT is a valuable instructional tool and by utilizing it in their preparation for teaching materials in the class teaching will enhance their professional development. Furthermore, ICT promoted the development of communication skills in writing and presentation to teacher and develop student’s deep understanding on the respective topic. The results of the study highlighted the level of ICT resources, types and extent of ICT usage, level of ICT proficiencies and level of ICT integration in teaching activities. The study level of ICT resources revealed that enough resources should be made available to every university to assist students to master the related software according to students’ discipline. Next, is the comparison usage frequencies between the IPTA and IPTS where resulted eight aspects of computing purposes used by the teachers such as informative, communicative and expensive, integrating computer technology, evaluative instructional, organizational and creative purpose. In level of ICT proficiencies, differences were found in the levels of proficiency between two institutions. Although, the educators claim they are expert or advanced in the level of proficiency, however the ICT resources that can support them into becoming creative applicants of teaching and learning process are not enough. Lastly, is level of ICT integration in teaching activities attempted to determine the educators’ process level in integrating computer technology in their teaching activities.

DO YOU THINK THE RESEARCH WELL CONDUCTED?

Yes, I think the research was well conducted because the research study covered the level of ICT resources, types and extent of ICT usage, level of ICT proficiencies and level of ICT integration in teaching activities. I think most teachers need to know what the availability of ICT resources in the school is. However, the findings did not show good sign of the use of ICT in the classroom.

In conclusion, the implications of the in the teaching and learning of ESL in the general in Malaysian contexts are teacher should be trained on how to integrate the ICT program in the classroom. Next, teacher should be occupied with knowledge about ICT to solve problem when occur during his or her teaching. Consequently, teacher must also have the interest on teaching using ICT in the classroom. Other than that, teacher has to admit that teaching using ICT in the class bring more benefits to both teacher and students. In conclusion, teacher has to believe that through the usage of ICT in teaching it will promote development of communication skills in writing and presentation using PowerPoint.