VIRTUAL TOUR
2011
10 MarAPPLE WORKSHOPS AT UCSI UNIVERSITY BENEFIT LECTURERS AND STUDENTS
FREE WORKSHOPS INTEGRATE NEW TECHNOLOGY INTO TEACHING AND LEARNING
Kuala Lumpur, 10 March, 2011 - Following UCSI University’s Smart Partnership with Tristar Digital, an authorised dealer for Apple products earlier this year, the University’s Faculty of Management and Information Technology (FOMIT) is organising free workshops conducted by experienced and certified trainers directly from Apple, for the University staff as well as students. The workshops will be organised by FOMIT’s School of Information Technology at least once a month to instruct students and staff how to use Apple products for teaching, learning, as well as for recreation.
Earlier in January, the first workshop commenced with five lecturers and five students from the Mobile Computing degree course on how to create video clips using the video-editing software, iMovie. The workshop also taught them how to synchronise content using mobile devices and to create podcasts to enable them to apply what they had learnt into practical applications outside of the classroom. The new technology learnt by the students will also be applied to their final year research.
A second workshop was held recently, especially for the University’s Senate Learning and Teaching Committee to expose new pedagogy tools for teaching and learning. During the workshop, the committee learnt how to capture their lectures on video and to upload them as blog entries for better interactions with their students. The committee also learnt alternate ways to evaluate students online.
According to Macintosh trainer, Ahmad Shaharuddin Amin Sahar, this would motivate students into producing better work assignments. “It challenges them to think ahead, to see their assignments from different angles as they are more conscious about showing their assignments to the masses.” Ahmad Shaharuddin’s background as a Mac trainer since 1989 proved to be very beneficial to those who attended his workshops, as he was able to give interesting insights to the Apple technology.
Associate Professor Dr Keith Robert Thomas, Dean for the University’s Faculty of Education who participated in the workshop said that it had certainly been informative. “Although what we have learnt is not entirely new, using Apple products to execute them were really easy as the tools are very user-friendly.”
According to Ms Chloe Thong, Associate Dean for the Faculty of Management and IT, subsequent workshops will be organised soon to induct more students and staff how to create content using other Apple applications and devices. “This can then be applied to real life projects and assignments across various faculties.”
