My Research + Mom Journey @momandresearch - Tumblr Blog

finishing my 2nd year of phd

I never knew I was already near finishing my PhD's second year. so many things have I learned during this second year. how time flies.

even though there are so many things i want to update here. but for now i just want to put here.

Insyallah you can do this mama. you can do this

#phdmom #phdblr

eko-ile

Education for the 21st Century

As I have noted I am currently completing my service year teaching in a public school. This experience has really opened my eyes to the many inadequacies of the educational system in Nigeria. One of the things I am finding disheartening is not at the secondary school level but at the tertiary level. A lot of students that finish secondary school never quite make into university because of many barriers. I feel like a fraud sometimes when I tell my students that they just have to pas WAEC and JAMB to make it into university or polytechnic.

The truth is that the tertiary institutions we have in this country do not have enough space to handle the glut of students that are completing secondary school in this country. Admission is like a golden ticket that only a few and privileged get to have. These students left behind form a cadre of talented individuals who never quite the get the chance to develop skills that would allow them to fit into 21st century careers. Even among those that make it to university in Nigeria, there are many who are not able to get the quality of education needed for modern jobs.

Something finally made sense to me today! I had just started reading an article on The Guardian (here), when something clicked. What if we directed these students through e-education channels? Instead of insisting students go through brick and mortar institutions, how about we tap into open networks of courses? There are many firms that are now challenging the notion that university education should be done in physical buildings. The United Kingdom of course is groundbreaking with its internationally recognised Open University. There are open education resources like Udacity, Khan Academy, Coursera that are popping up to offer these online classes for free. Coursera for example offers classes directly from some of the best institutions in the world. The teachers in most of these free classes are passionate academics that are leading within their fields.

For third world countries like Nigeria where resources can be quite limited, these firms offer an opportunity for world-class education to a group of students that may otherwise not have a chance to be educated. Of course, there are barriers to entry into this free education for Nigerian students. First is that many students are not computer-literate. This is not a massive hurdle because many of these online courses don’t require you to be able to perform miracles on PC. Plus, their literacy would improve as they spend time completing their e-classes. The big hurdle though is the lack of access to computers and internet to complete coursework. Equipment is a massive infrastructural hurdle in Nigeria’s education system. However, if this hurdle can be addressed, it opens a path to knowledge for these students.

Although these classes don’t grant credits or degrees, obtaining knowledge even without formal certification can make a big difference.

startartchallenge

I’m giving another free online class a go, this time “Intro to Computational Arts”.

This is what I came up with for the first assignment, coding different objects/basic shapes in Java using a really cool free program called Processing (processing.org)

It’s actually very cool so far, and I was embarrassingly proud to show this to my professional programmer husband, as it’s my first time really coding anything that wasn’t very basic HTML.

elarohh

Gosh this social psychology course has barely started but I’m loving it

infoneer-pulse

Online education providers may very well disrupt the higher education establishment, but, first, these for-profit companies need to find a way to finance the mammoth technical infrastructure needed to support millions of students. It’s a challenge that all mission-based businesses wrestle with, and why many have wondered whether Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) providers will ever become big business — or be around in five years — let alone “transform higher education,” as they’ve so often promised.

Today, one of the biggest MOOC providers on the Web, Coursera, showed skeptics that it has indeed found a way to monetize free educational content and may just be on the road to riches. In a blog post this afternoon, Coursera announced that it has raised over $1M for paid certifications, which verify that students passed (an otherwise free) online college course.

infoneer-pulse

» via TechCrunch

maddiemoate

Learning for the sake of Learning

Hello Team,

I have just found out that I passed my “Coursera”, online course in Animal Behaviour with distinction! (96% but who’s counting).

It might seem strange to some that for no real reason or necessity would I choose to partake in further education and put myself through 8 weeks of quizzes and written assignments. I chose to enroll in Animal Behaviour for a number of reasons and based on my experience I cannot recommend Coursera enough.

The great thing about Coursera is that even after you have enrolled in a course, you have absolutely no obligation (and you wont get in trouble from the lecturers!) if you decide at any point to stop, miss a week, or even start the course! You are in complete control. Whilst some students may be taking part in the courses to further their knowledge of subjects they are studying at university or work, there is no pressure. If you wanted to, you could just watch the video lectures and nothing else. It really is just learning for the sake of learning and you get as much out of the course as you put in.

I have been fortunate enough to have always enjoyed school but it’s amazing how much more fun it can be when you take the pressure of grades, exams and obligation out of the equation. I thoroughly enjoyed the eight weeks and really threw myself into the course. I dedicated my sunday evenings to watching the lectures, taking notes, doing the quizzes and would download the extra reading for the train if I fancied. I was also really impressed with the activity on the social networking pages set up for the students. All of a sudden I became part of a group of like minded people who, for their own reasons, had decided they wanted to learn something new. Not because someone had told them they had to, but because it genuinely interested them. As a result, the facebook page was flooded with cool videos relating to the subjects we were studying, the community were really supportive and when it came to peer graded assignments, you trusted that your written articles had actually been read thoroughly and fairly.

I think these courses are a fantastic way to tailor your knowledge and learning, especially for someone no longer in education. Having graduated with a degree in Theatre, Film and Television, I am repeatedly frustrated with how narrow my skill set is. I had a fantastic time at university and certainly have no regrets BUT despite all my best intentions, perhaps I didn’t choose the best degree for my career now. Had I known when I was 16 and picking A Levels (which would inevitably lead to my degree choice) that I wanted to be a presenter working in natural sciences and technology OR had I known how the industry worked, I probably would have chosen a degree in journalism or a masters in science. However, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I’m starting to rant.

I would love an official piece of paper to qualify me an “expert”, but I’m not in a position to go back into education and retrain. However, I do have enthusiasm, passion and a willingness to learn.

These online (and free!) courses may not provide universally recognised creditations, but they do offer me a stamp of approval from a university, which says I have worked bloomin hard and made an independent decision to study a subject off my own back. Surely one of the best examples of passion and dedication?

My intention is to do as many of these courses as I can. Partly because I feel somewhat responsible. If I am making a living presenting information to a willing audience, then I want to know that I have as much knowledge of the topic as feasibly possible. The second reason is because learning is fun and it’s incredible how much more rewarding it can be when you’re studying for you and no one else.

Have a browse through the upcoming courses on “Coursera” and you might just find that this time next week you’re studying egyptian architecture or canine phychology. I know I will be.

eko-ile

My Musings on MOOCs

One of the difficult parts of living away from home during most of 2012 was the loneliness. I was living by myself in Ibadan in a massive house. I am not a fan of television shows. Plus, you can only stay online for so long and there only so much you can read. However, something happened and I am not even sure how it happened. I discovered MOOC. I discovered the Massive Open Online Courses.

Keep reading

aisyahshakirah

RAMADAN DAY 12 (BACKLOG): THE DARKEST HOURS

Hang in there, verily there is hikmah to everything that god has meant for you <3

physicist-to-be

I can see my progress over these 4 months of programming and it motivates me to continue. Update: I’ll officially be a theoretical physics student in a week (*happy dance*)

islamic-quotes

www.islamic-quotes.com

inksofmythoughts

I Not Stupid Too @ Aku Tak Bodoh

I watched the Malay adaptation of the movie I Not Stupid Too today. I have to admit that I haven’t had the chance to watch the original version, which is in Chinese. It’s basically a movie about family values, friendship and the generation gap. The key thing I learnt from this movie is the art to listen. When we see wrong being done, we often judge without given the ‘accused’ the chance to explain himself. We have lost our ability to listen and we pass judgement based on what we see on the surface when in fact we need to discover what is beneath the surface. We avoid going beneath the surface as it might reveal our involvement and the part we also play.

The mechanics of matters in life are not simply black nor white, most of the time we are caught in between, where it is not easy to simply distinguish whether it is pitch black or pure white. Grey areas dominate our lives and we have to exercise wisdom in handling such matters. We can take the easy route of convincing ourselves that it is in fact white or black. But in the end, we are only cheating ourselves. We are afraid to say that at times we are unable to discern between white and black because we are colour blind. The only colours that we are able to see are and clearly distinguish are black and white. Have you ever wondered why people would ask whether you would like to have black or white coffee? When in fact white coffee isn’t really white? It’s actually brownish, unless I’m colour blind. This pattern of thinking that a matter must be black or white is so ingrained in our minds that we overlook other colours which shape our world.

It is not always a case of battle between good and evil, nor is it a fight between angels and demons. Sometimes it’s a fight with our own conscience. I am not denying that there are matters which are clearly distinguishable, that there is a criterion between truth and falsehood. What I’m trying to suggest is that not all matters fall into such a category. In fact in Islam, clear commandments and prohibitions are little compared to the vast matters in life which are left to our own discernment. In fiqh for example, the fard (obligatory) and the haram (impermissible) are not as many as those matters which are in between and fall under mubah (permissible), mandub (recommended) and makruh (reprehensible).

The Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) was sent to perfect the ethics of human beings, implying that ethics is actually inherent in the nature of human beings and that his (peace and blessing be upon him) role is to mould and exhibit such ethics in a way intended by Allah as revealed in the Qur'an. No wonder then 'A'ishah described the Prophet’s (peace and blessing be upon him) ethics as resembling the Qur'an.

Ethics falls under matters which are grey as it is not stagnant and is often fluid. No wonder philosophers had a difficult time to discern what ethics really is. The tug between consequentialists and non-consequentialists in determining whether and act is ethical or not is not that simple to comprehend on the surface. Instead of siding with either one of the two prevailing trends in ethics, let’s immerse ourselves in the grey and colourful areas which are less explored.

medical-mermaid

Dear fellow biomedical scientists and histology enthusiasts,

This book is life. If you’re learning histology, it’s all you need. I purchased it a couple of days ago and it has been my bible. Buy it. Breath it. Live it.

Kind regards,

Biomedical Mermaid