Welcome little Audrey

Just wanted to introduce to the online world the newest addition to our family. Little Miss Audrey Zi Wei Jackson

Audrey was born on Friday 10 January at 7:28am, and we are very blessed at the arrival of our little princess.

We are grateful for the Lord and His blessing throughout the entire process. First of all we weren’t trying to get pregnant so when it happened it was a bit of a surprise. Then there was the realisation that we will soon have 2 under 2, how will we cope?!?!?!

We’ve been really lucky in that we have a great Obstetrician who we love! If anyone is reading this and wants a great Obstetrician for either Westmead or the Hills area I would definitely recommend Dr Seng Chua. He has been great in making sure that both me and bub were doing well throughout the pregnancy. At the beginning of the pregnancy we decided to change our hospital from Norwest Private to Westmead Private. It wasn’t because Norwest was bad or anything, but it was more the fact that the last time round the Anaesthetist costs were $2600, which is more than what we paid for our Obstetrician. We were told Westmead Private’s anaesthetist is cheaper by far, so we decided that it was a better option. Besides we could look at the two different hospitals and figure out which was is better if we decide on future babies.

Looking back now, we truly believe that choosing Westmead Private was the start of the Lord’s hand at work.

Personally I have pretty good pregnancies, I rarely have any problems, with little Audrey I didn’t even have any morning sickness.

However a totally different story when it came to delivering our little princess. This time round we had a planned C-section, which very quickly turned into an emergency C-section.

I was in the pre-op area getting my IV and antibiotics (Keflin) put in through my cannula. Shortly after the first dose of Keflin I started to cough, personally I only remember one cough but I was later told that I went into a coughing fit. Started going really red, and a little blue around my lips. Then I tilted to the side and blacked out for a period of time. Having never fainted before this was quite a scary experience.

I was then quickly wheeled into the operating room and luckily by that time my Obs arrived and was all scrubbed up. When I came to, I noticed that my tummy started to hurt so I was telling everyone that my tummy hurts. Turns out that I was experiencing a tetanic contraction, which is a contraction that just doesn’t stop. Unfortunately because the contractions were non-stop it started to put a lot of pressure on Audrey. At one point the mid-wife was having problems locating her heartbeat, as they could only find a heartbeat around 80bpm, and for babies it should be around 150bpm. So an ultrasound was quickly called for. My Obs found the heartbeat but even I could see that it was beating really slow, much slower than normal. This just freaked me out like crazy and I was going hysterical and just saying over and over again “please save my baby…” Everyone in the operating theatre were really focused in making sure we were both safe, and I was put under general anaesthesia straight away. And with that I had no idea what happened next.

Poor Jacob was still sitting outside and the last thing he heard was my tummy hurts, so he was worried that something bad was gonna happen to his wife and his baby. What seemed like an eternity he was eventually lead into the operating theatre. When he entered he could see that my eyelid was taped shut, but the baby was at least crying and he got to cut part of the cord.

Happy to say everyone is safe and well. We did find out later on that the pH in bub’s cord blood was 7.0 (which is borderline bad), her 1min APGAR was 5 (once again, bad), but her 5mins and 10mins APGAR was 7, which meant she picked up really well. As for me, all my blood works came back as normal, which means I’m not allergic to Keflin. However I’m still booked into a medical allergy test just in case I have some type of reaction to penicillin based products.

At the moment I’m still a medical mystery, they have no idea why I had the so-called reaction, and they don’t believe the contractions was a result of the reaction. It just seems like I had a few complications that occurred at the same time.

So how do I know that the Lord has looked after us throughout this pregnancy?

1.     There was a really great team looking after me at Westmead Private

2.     The anaesthetist also specialises in paediatrics, and is one of the best at paeds resuscitation (luckily it didn’t come down to that)

3.     Norwest Private was still in holiday staff mode, so may not have the same number of staff available

4.     My obs who just finished one delivery made it to my delivery just before I started to have my tetanic contractions

5.     Luckily we didn’t end up at ICU, but knowing who the head anaesthetist was at ICU, I knew I would have been in good hands if I ended up there

6.     Both Audrey and I are healthy (even though Audrey did spend 2 nights in Special Care Nursery)

So this may mean that our family is complete… I’m not sure how I would deal with the though of losing a child. But I’m glad we had a happy ending this time round.

Puzzling

It has only taken months, but I finished off the final 3 panels of my double sided puzzle tonight. Yes I should have spent my time studying, writing my assignment, maybe even getting an early night sleep. But once you start a puzzle, you can't seem to put it down. Unless you are my husband who just did one panel out of four like 5 months ago and then just stopped. Crazy Man. 

Anyway here is my final product, we bought this puzzle in Taiwan from Pintoo. They have so many wonderful products and great traditional Chinese paintings. 

The inner science nerd

I was overcome by my inner science nerdiness today, whilst trawling the internet and news website, I came across this little gem.

Someone just decided to have a quick play with the period table and had some quick explanations of the different sort of elements, which I found very cool.

When did food places at uni become so expensive!

Walking around USYD today at lunch I was surprised at how expensive uni foods have become, walking around Manning the Mexican place there (XQuisito), it cost $10 for a burrito and drinks. That is the normal price I would pay at normal food courts around work.

I remember when I first started uni, yes it was in the early 2000's, but I remember I used to get lunch between $5 to $7! Now it's $10for lunch???

Ok, I may be living in the good old days, but I always thought uni foods for uni students was meant to be cheaper... Wow being a student these days are getting harder and harder.

I did however find Pasta Bolognese with Tuna for $7 at Ralph, the service sized looked pretty good as well. So maybe I will try that next time I'm here.

It's been a long long time

I'm now in awe of all parents who tackle on full time work, postgraduate study and looking after kids at the same time!

I'm lucky that I have my mum who help look after Eli during the day, but I still found going to work during the day and coming home to try and do uni work to be very very tiring. So to my friends who will soon embark on this journey, good luck and I hope you have a great support network behind you.

After 2 subjects last semester, I really needed some time off to just relax and get my breath back.

So as I sit here in my final Masters course and my final semester, I am slowly realising that I'm going to miss the opportunity to have stimulating classes and discussions. I probably won't miss writing essays and assignments late into the night, but I will miss the opportunity to add to my knowledge.

Maybe this time of reflection is making me want to take on another course when this one finishes.... Crazy I know!

Poverty alleviation through e-learning

I have a strong personal believe in social equality and closing the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Education has been widely viewed as providing the knowledge base necessary to enter higher education that will lead to higher paying occupations (Khan and Williams, 2006). International organisations such as Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has conducted studies into the educational performance of developed versus developing nations, and how higher education has a positive impact on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country and on the levels of wages for individuals (OECD, 2005, OECD, 2007).

Having worked for CSIRO Education I was exposed to the difference in the quality of education between those from high socio-economic status (SES) areas and those from low-SES areas. Scientific literacy of the students between the two SES areas was also vastly different.

When I watched the following two TED talks I realised that it is possible to alleviate poverty through e-Learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). The ability for those from developing countries to learn a wide variety of courses from high standard universities such as Stanford University can be very appealing.

  

Recently there has been an initiative in China to promote e-learning to its citizens, as they realise that “e-learning can offer people new sources of information, improve the range and quality of education available to them, and enable all people, regardless of their physical location, to take best advantage of their learning time” (Spencer-Oatey, 2007). The Chinese Government realised that e-learning can “easily be transmitted to poverty-stricken areas to help spread high-quality education. Thus the “Education aiding poverty project” was established by Tsinghua University to eliminate poverty and spread knowledge.

As the famous saying goes “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime”. Education and knowledge can empower a person, it will help “them to become more proactive and gain control over their lives” (Khan and Williams, 2006). Education can help close the knowledge gap and promote SES equality and gender equality, which are all keys to eliminating poverty.

How else can MOOC help alleviate poverty? E-learning allows students to study at Universities such as Stanford whilst located in countries like India and Africa. As “e-learning is typically web-based and not location- bound. In an online environment, students are not required to physically attend university; the university comes to them” (Khan and Williams, 2006). This way, the student can save on time and travel costs, therefore reducing the cost of a traditional ‘brick-and-mortar’ education. On the other side of the coin though is the fact that MOOC requires dedication and good time management skills for students to remain motivated to complete the course. So the question remains as to whether those from a lower-SES will have the time required to complete the courses, with MOOC currently experiencing a relatively high drop out rate.

Self-instructed learning tested by Mitra and colleagues in the “Hole in the Wall” experiment have shown that given the tools, children and adults can use modern technologies and teach themselves. Children in rural India were given a computer connected to high speed internet (plugged into a wall), and children ended up teaching themselves through Minimally Invasive Education (Mitra, 2003, Mitra and Dangwal, 2010, Dangwal and Gupta, 2012, Dangwal and Sharma, 2013). Mitra and his colleagues also conducted similar experiments in rural UK and low-SES locations in UK, where teachers prefer not to teach at. The ability of modern technologies in these areas allowed students to be able to direct their own learning, therefore maybe just promoting an inquisitive mind in the children is enough to help raise their educational levels.

With modern technology, higher education is no longer just for the privileged. Personally I look forward to the day when everyone will have an equal opportunity to learn.

References

DANGWAL, R. & GUPTA, Z. 2012. The impact of IT literacy through HiWEL learning stations on juvenile children. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43, E117-E124.

DANGWAL, R. & SHARMA, K. 2013. Impact of HiWEL learning stations on women living in shelter homes. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44, E26-E30.

KHAN, H. & WILLIAMS, J. 2006. Poverty Alleviation through Access to Educaiton: Can E-Learning Deliver? U21Global. Singapore.

MITRA, S. 2003. Minimally Invasive Education: A Progress Report on the "Hole-in-the-Wall" Experiments. British Journal of Educational Technology, 34, 367-371.

MITRA, S. & DANGWAL, R. 2010. Limits to Self-Organising Systems of Learning--The Kalikuppam Experiment. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41, 672-688.

OECD 2005. Education Trends in Perspective Analysis of the World Education Indicators -- 2005

Edition: Trend in Education Participation and Outputs. OECD Education. OECD.

OECD 2007. Education at a Glance 2007: OECD Indicators. OECD Education. OECD.

SPENCER-OATEY, H. 2007. e-Learning Initiatives in China, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press.

Blended Learning so technifying

Is blended learning just “technifying” what we do traditionally? Can we still call it blended learning if we just add a couple of presentations using powerpoint in the middle of our lesson?

Blended learning has become a new buzzword in education and many are convinced of its benefits. Many educators feel a need to jump on the bandwagon without fully understanding the advantages to blended learning. Some believe that blended learning is about the addition of technology and the internet to traditional classrooms, the incorporation of online components to traditional face-to-face learning. This meant that what they are teaching could now reach a wider audience, and some discussions and teachings can be moved to an online environment.

However it is important that educators start to move away from just incorporating/blending some technology into the traditional classroom (Vaughan, 2007).  There is a need for educators to see blended learning as a pedagogy, and thus revitalising their thinking and use technology to enhance the learning experience.

Children grow up in a different world now, and the way they use technology is different as well. How often do we see them sitting in front of the TV on the phone chatting while surfing facebook on their laptop?

So if this is happening shouldn’t education and learning change with the times, and change with the learning styles of 21^st century students? There are examples of schools throughout America who have taken advantage of blended learning, and education institutions in Pennsylvania are providing “home-schooled students with a viable full-time curriculum, support services, and means of access—along with a legitimate diploma upon completion of coursework” (Stone, 2008). How exciting is the prospect that a home-schooled student can now get the benefits of traditional schooling with the advancement of technology.

Blended learning also allows students to learn in a way that is most beneficial to them. Some students may benefit from learning through gamification (https://www.coursera.org/course/gamification), while some still prefer physical books and working with people. “The beauty of well-blended learning is that people can learn in a medium or media that suits them personally” (Trasler, 2002).

Another advantage of blended learning is the greater time flexibility and improved learning outcomes that blended learning model provide the students. To set up an efficient and useful blended learning model may take time on the teachers and the institution, and students may find navigating and becoming comfortable with blended learning to be difficult initially. But once they overcome these issues, students have found blended learning to be more suitable to their individual learning styles (Vaughan, 2007). Although students in a blended learning environment do have to take greater responsibility for their own learning and learn to manage their time, so putting the initiative back to the learner and promoting active self-directed learning may become an important direction for teachers (Trasler, 2002, Vaughan, 2007).

I think as we enter the world of blended learning, it gives educators the opportunity to update and redesign the current learning programs (Vaughan, 2007). It is possible for teachers and policy makers to identify what works well and what could work better, and use e-learning when it genuinely adds value (Trasler, 2002). Educators can break down “existing programme into its constituent parts and identify the most appropriate medium for each to give greater flexibility” (Trasler, 2002).

As we start incorporating more technologies into our classrooms and our teaching, it is important to realize that not all students see the benefits of blended learning and online collaborations with peers (Ellis et al., 2007). Therefore learners and educators need to work together to evaluate the successes of the program, and together find solutions to problems that arise from blended learning.

2 videos that help sums up blended learning through visual methods for those who prefer visual media, and click here if you prefer info graphics.

To sum up, I’ve listed some advantages of blended learning when done well (feel free to add in the comments if you think there are more)

• Flexibility
• Ability to learn with a media that best suits the student
• Ability to reach a wider audience
• Range of variety that can attract, retain and motivate learners

I think as technology advances blended learning will become an inevitable part of our learning and teaching. We just need to embrace it so we can use it to our best advantage.

Reference

ELLIS, R. A., GOODYEAR, P., O'HARA, A. & PROSSER, M. 2007. The university student experience of face-to-face and online discussions: coherence, reflection and meaning. Research in Learning Technology, 1.

STONE, A. 2008. The Holistic Model for Blended Learning: A New Model for K-12 District-Level Cyber Schools. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, 4, 56-57,60-71.

TRASLER, J. 2002. Effective Learning depends on the blend. Industrial and Commercial Training, 34, 191-193.

VAUGHAN, N. 2007. Perspectives on Blended Learning in Higher Education. International Journal on ELearning, 6, 81-94.