Technology Information System SCSP1513-08

On 26 September 2018, members from Group 4 had visited the New Academia Learning Innovation (NALI) Exhibition and Competition 2018 organised by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) in Dewan Sultan Iskandar (DSI), UTM. NALI 2018 is a platform for the sharing of innovative products in teaching and learning from Malaysia as well as other countries. NALI promotes student-centred learning, multiple learning modes and materials to be in parallel with the learning practices in the 21^st Century.   

            In this year, there are 86 participants from different universities including Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) as host, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) and others joining this exhibition. From virtual mobile applications to tangible games and prototypes, participants share large varieties of their researches and products.

NALI 2018

Our group picture in NALI Exhibition

NALI 2018 successfully presents the spirit of emulation into teaching models and practices. It also provides a platform and framework for all the participants to display their own version of teaching models from all kinds of academic fields in a meaningful and interactive way. The general trend that we are able to observe in NALI 2018 is that most of the learners start to go digital and utilize the resources from the Internet to deliver more efficient and quality education practices to masses. We can also see that some of the projects use augmented and virtual reality technology to increase the student's engagement in learning the materials provided.

We can see that each of the projects in NALI 2018 does not compete with each other but intended to complement with each other and to educate as many people as possible no matter their background, races and ages. For example, the Kembara Nombor targets children with mental disability, Google App Online Classroom targets students who currently in their tertiary education and Tangible Education Game targets children currently in their early education. They differ in demographics targeted, levels of education and how each of the projects itself works.

The first booth that we had visited was Kembara Nombor which is a mobile application. This mobile application was developed in order to facilitate the learning process of primary school students especially those who suffer from intellectual disabilities. The mobile application emphasized the principle of gamification, hence suitable for those who are able to handle a device.

We in front of the EduTainment booth

The second one is Google Application Online Classroom which takes an initiative to transform the traditional teacher-centred learning mechanism into a modern student-centred learning to increase the engagement between teachers and students. The objectives of the app are to promote personalized, creative and collaborative student-centered learning model and to empower the students to be able to show off their novelty, creativity and innovation.

The app can be accessed with a personal computer, laptop, mobile phone, tablet or any other gadgets that support Wi-Fi or internet connection. This has allowed teachers and students to be connected and communicated wherever and whenever they need. The registration of account for this app can easily be made with an email and a phone number. This app features class virtualization which will enable lecturers to create a virtual class if needed to not only save time and energy but will also allow them to maximize the resources that can be used on the internet. Lecturers can also upload their teaching slides in case students need to revise their past lessons after class.

Google Apps: Online Classroom 

Last but not least, Tangible Educational Game (TEG). It is a physical play set targeted for children who are in early education. It integrates tangible objects with a mobile application with a concept that allows the kid to play beyond the screen. TEG uses augmented reality as the core of the mobile-based games application that combines with mobile devices as a display. 

This game is a very straightforward yet interesting word game. The developers design distinctive pattern for each card to indicate different characters (same as the concept of QR code). It uses a mirror as a reflector and mobile gadget built-in camera as a scanner to scan each card to distinguish the input from each card. Players have to spell the correct word shown in the picture by putting the correct alphabet in sequence under the reflector. In the current stage, the application can read the English alphabet, Jawi alphabet and digit. 

Tangible Education Game booth

From our visit to NALI 2018, we gain some insights on how our education industry begin to improve by involving digital platform in our educational system. As we shift towards the modernization, automation and online platform for nearly all aspects of our lives such as business, communication and economy, it is only natural to take the same step further for our education industry. It is really an unforgettable experience from what we initially thought to be a regular industrial visit. It turns up to become an information-filled event that makes each of the members of our group that started with zero knowledge about the on-going trend of our education industry to become intrigued by the innovations behind it.

 All the participants of NALI 2018 are really friendly and helpful to deepen our understanding of the specifics and details of their projects. We gain knowledge about the implementation of digital education and how it will complement with its physical counterparts. We hope that this event motivates each one of us to become hard working in our current studies and hopefully able to contribute to the education industry and conceivably to join the future NALI Symposium.

On Monday, 24^th of October 2018, a talk on Global Online Workforce (GLOW)  has been given to all of the first year students of School of Computing from 4:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. in Seminar Hall, located in the N28a building. The speaker is one of the successful person from e-Rezeki programme which is under GLOW itself named Miss Nor Ashikin binti Halil, a graduate from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) in diploma Office Management and Technology. Now, she has being a part of a company and she works as a virtual assistant, writer, translator, social media manager and voice over once at a time. She is gaining US$35 per hour and her monthly income could reach RM23 808. As during her training only with e-Rezeki, she generated her income in about RM114 980. She said that e-Rezeki taught her effective techniques and good ethics in managing clients, and in maintaining professionalisms as a digital freelancer. Below is her generated incomes in this chart:

                       Miss Norashikin annual income

Global Online Workforce is one of the programme developed by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) which previously known as Multimedia Development Corporation Sdn. Bhd. There are three platforms created for Malaysians by MDEC, eUsahawan, eRezeki and obviously Global Online Workforce (GLOW). Generally, the main purpose of this GLOW program is to assist Malaysian by coaching, mentoring and nurturing on leverage crowdsourcing platforms in generating their own digital income consistently, and on a full-time basis.

The concept used in this program is ‘Sharing Economy’- an economic system which assets or services are shared between private individuals, either free or for a fee, typically by means of the internet(definition by google dictionary). As in this program, they provide a platform for us, Malaysian in offering our own skills to be shared and used by people or company in need. Not just our skills, but also our spaces and stuff. So basically, GLOW is one of the alternative ways to earn money digitally. They are earning not just through the domestic platform; such as Kerja Digital, 123RF LIMITED, Supahands.com, Ezyspark but also international platform; such as Freelancer International Pty. Limited, Upwork Global Inc.

                                       Sharing Economy 

Global Online Workforce (GLOW) program has produced so many Malaysian who had successfully transformed their lives from such a different type of background story and most of them were just a university student in our country. The first person I want to share is a beginner of this program as he managed to earn  RM2000 in his first month of working, February 2017 as a programmer and transcriber. He is Norman bin Dambul, a master student of UiTM in Computer Science. The highest income earned by the freelancer in this program was recorded as RM23 808 on September 2017. She is our speaker of this talk who get paid  US$35 per hour or in Ringgit Malaysia, she might get RM145.15 per hour. She started her first job in this programme as a ghostwriter and got US$20 for the job. As her second job, she just posts some quotes on social media and she managed to get US$700. And now, she is working on her ongoing job in a contract with a company from Korea to translate the film and drama script to English.  

From those examples of the successful person in GLOW, some of them travel around this country to share their inspiring story to inspired Malaysian out there and help them get the job. From this program, we can see Malaysia is going forward in achieving Vision 2020 with this kind of program.

First of all, I have already known about Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation Sdn. Bhd. (MDEC) since my matriculation last year. They came to my college, Kedah Matriculation College and give a talk to all of the module II students; students those who took Computer Science. After that program, honestly, I dreamed to further my study in UTM because they said that they partnered with UTM and some of the IPTS. I knew that this company is gonna make a big change in my life, and help me to be employed after my graduation.

            As on 24^th September 2018, I once again got a chance to meet MDEC but in that day, I have got new knowledge about a program, Global Online Workforce as known as GLOW. From this industrial talk, I think that Malaysia has a big potential to achieve the Vision 2020 in 2 more years as they, MDEC is really running on the path. They helped a lot of Malaysian out there to survived in this challenging millennium era especially for people like me, those who studied in Computer Science and Information Technology courses. We don’t have to worry about our future careers as there are already millions kind of jobs available in our scope of studies. I hope that MDEC would always go higher to drive Malaysia to achieve Vision 2020.

Design Thinking Project was the last project for our group. For our group assignment, we gave it a name, The Dominators which shows that we are gonna be the dominators and conquered the top of the best group for this semester. We got a new group member named Reihan Rexy, an Indonesian. We managed to attend to the talk about what is Design Thinking all about before we started our project. The talk has been delivered by one of the lecturers on 19th of November 2018. 

                            Our assignment group: The Dominators

Empathize Mode

Observation

Based on our observations, many people tend to forget of drinking water when they are focusing on a certain task. For example, when students are doing a task that requires high concentration such as programming, they are more likely to forget of drinking water. This can be observed by seeing their water bottles are still almost full after they complete their tasks.

Engage

For a better understanding of users’ problems and requirements, interviews are conducted through both scheduled and short spontaneous (intercept encounter). Generally, most interviewees show that they do not have to acknowledge how exact amount they should at least drink every day. In fact, they will only drink water when they feel thirsty. They are comfortable with the Aqua Intelligent Bottle as long as it will not interrupt and bring troublesome to their daily lives. Some of them concern about the size of the bottle so it is easy to carry around and suit for daily routine.       

        Interviewing a student about his problem while studying

                Interviewing student session

Immerse

To experience the problem what users are having, we have challenged ourselves to drink water regularly for every hour. However, we find it very difficult to fulfil as we always forget when we are concentrating on other tasks. We are only able to remind ourselves for drinking water when we happen to come across with the scenario of people around us drinking water or when we feel thirsty.

Define Mode

To develop a deep understanding of our users and the design space, all group members of five have undergone analysis, research and discussion. We have come up with an actionable problem statement with our points of view that focuses on the users. After we have uncovered the needs of users in the empathize mode, we find out that a constant reminder is needed for the user to solve this problem. We have come to an agreement that we need to craft a design that can be implemented in the water bottle and connected to smart devices as the solution.

Ideate Mode

We kicked off our designing and crafting by brainstorming ideas. We have discussed the main features of the Aqua Intelligent Bottle and managed to come up with some workable ideas. For the designing part, each group member has sketched the few desirable designs. In idea selection phase, each team member has voted based on a few categories including the most rational and workable idea, the personal favourite, the most likely to be executed and the long shot (having the slightest chance of succeeding). To finalise our choices, the idea with most votes regardless the category (except the long shot category) is chosen. 

     Ideas produced after brainstorming

Prototype Mode

In this phase, we have made our ideas into a physical form. For a user to understand the concept of this design, we have made a mock application to show some features. We also made a water bottle prototype using cardboard. In the early stage, the prototype was rough to allow us to make amendments and investigate in other possibilities. 

Preparing the Prototype

Prototype of our product 

Prototype of the apps

2-D drawing of our product

Test Mode

To refine the design and make it better, we have explained our product to the user for responses. We asked for users’ experiences in order to establish a more comprehensive way to solve the problem. Test mode helps us to identify previously unconsidered problems.

In this project, we manage to strengthen our soft skills, competencies and abilities so we can achieve our personal goal and potentially overcome the causes our exclusion and suffering. We learned to be more flexible and adaptable. We are willing to go for the extra miles to show our commitment to this project and to perform our works with excellence.

            During the discussion, we have gained the ability to build and maintain relationships, be tolerant, develop rapport and use diplomacy. While conducting interviews, we also learned how to accept constructive criticism, be respectful regarding the opinions of others and empathize with them.

The discussion on Aqua Intelligent Bottle and the application reveal the contribution of this innovative product to the users’ problem. First and foremost, it gives clue users for the better understanding of the amount of water they should drink every day. Aqua Intelligent Bottle can also ease the problem of users’ forgetfulness in drinking water due to over concentrating on a certain task. This can prevent them from getting themselves dehydrated. Features offered in this product offer assistance and solutions to the existing problems that might bring harm to our body health.

On the 3rd of December 2018, our students from section 08 of Technology and Information System (SCSP1513-08) has had an industrial visit to Senai International Airport to see how actually they operate day-by-day and month-by-month.  There were about 40 students those went on the trip with 2 lecturers, Dr Azurah be A Samah and Sir  Hairudeen. At 1.30 pm, all of the students involved gathered at the bus stop located in front of the CICT. We started our trip to the airport at 1.50 pm by bus provided by UTM. The journey from UTM to the airport did not take long as at 2.15 pm we already arrived.

                   Senai Airport

The first place we went to is the information counter. After waiting for a minute, the management asked us to go to the meeting room which placed underground. We managed to go there by a guide from one of the staff though. After that, we entered the room and each of us sat on the chair provided. In this meeting room, we need to hear to the talk delivered by Cik Fatin about Senai Airport.

Information Counter

 In the meeting room before the talk

Senai Airport Terminal Services Sdn Bhd, a member of the MMC Group Companies owns and manages the operation of Senai International Airport. Senai International Airport, (Code IATA: JHB; ICAO: WMKJ) was formerly known as Sultan Ismail International Airport and is the domestic and international airport serving the southern region of Peninsular Malaysia. Built in 1974, the airport was operated by Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad until November 2003, when its management and operation were acquired by Senai Airport Terminal Services Sdn. Bhd. The Airport was previously managed by the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) and later by Malaysia Airport Holding Berhad (MAHB) in the year of 1992. 

Prize giving from Dr Azurah to Cik Fatin

Vision and Mission

Senai Airport does things based on an ironclad. “To be the southern regional hub for commercial and business aviation” a vision for them to become a better company. For them to realize the vision, they must pursue excellence.for that their mission is to provide the highest level of safety, security and facilities to have the best benefits.

Benefits including.

• Customer satisfaction is the priority
• Uncompromised Security and Safety to stakeholders
• Inspired by dedicated employees
• Conducted with integrity

After that, a representative from the ICT Department also gave a talk on how the airport related to ICT. Unexpectedly, the representer is an alumnus from Network and Security course, school of computing, UTM too. She told us about the vision and mission of their department, their scopes of works, their coverage areas, the servers they used in the airport and others.

                            ICT Department

Services were provided all around the premise. These facilities gave everyone the privilege to enjoy themselves and become relaxed and have space for their things – the executive lounge for passengers. There are facilities too for the businessmen, for them to converse and to discuss. That is the open lounge for meter and greeters. Crew rest room as perceive in the name is a place for the crew member to take a nap or to take a cup of coffee. For the luxurious people, private rooms are provided with the extra details of the private washroom. Let’s not forget about our meals because the meal servings and dining area are provided. Car parking lots are provided for easy vehicle access in front of the terminal for hassle-free transfers.

Those are all of the exclusive facilities. Wifi, magazines and newspaper are free accessed by anyone. Free light refreshments are given in a good flow and there is a special arrangement for CQI   facilities. We would not be thinking that there would be 2 boardrooms with 20 seaters capacity provided for us to have the talk. Besides the boardroom, there is a meeting room with 6 seaters capacity not far away from us. Medical Evacuation is a must to have in an airport. Medical evacuation flights are direct and are easy to access. The ground ambulance would also be ready for the lookout for wounded personnel.          

The Senai International Airport consists of just one terminal, but it handles both the domestic and international flights servicing Johor as well as the southern states of Peninsular Malaysia. The biggest achievement of Senai Airport is Senai Airport is the first Airport who used a face detector in Malaysia. All the transactions in the Airport can access by the face detector. Next, Senai Airport also provides a private jet terminal which is called Senai Business Aviation Terminal. It was designed to complement the growing demand of high business profile companies and individuals to Iskandar Malaysia in-line with the current and future growth of general and business aviation industry in the Asia Pacific region.

Besides that, Senai Airport has offered several lands for the use of customers which are:

1. Senai Airport Aviation Park
2. Senai Airport Free Industrial Zone
3. Commercial Land
4. Senai Airport City

Airport Aviation Park is a land development project specifically to cater for business and general aviation activities. Senai Airport Free Industrial Zone is developed with basic infrastructures such as electricity supply, water supply, telecommunications facilities, roads and drainage. All of those lands were built to be able to make Senai Airport as a world-class airport

                                            Thank you Senai Airport for having us!