NAME : MUHAMMAD RAHIMAN BIN ABDULMANAB
MATRIX NUMBER : WIF180046
FOREWORD
Assalamualaikum and hello everyone! My name is Muhammad Rahiman bin Abdulmanab. I'm a first year undergraduate student taking Software Engineering at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) at University of Malaya.
I am writing this first entry of a series of blog entries for my GIG1005 Social Engagement course that I'm currently taking in my second semester.
So before I dive in any further into my writing, any outsiders reading this blog might be wondering:
WHAT IS SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT?
Social Engagement (GIG1005) is a compulsory university course taken by all University of Malaya students. It is managed by Centre for the Initiation of Talent and Industrial Training (CITra) and has 80 hours of student learning time.
This course exposes us students on social engagement and our role as volunteers. Each student needs to plan their social engagement programme within their own groups and will be placed at a specific location based on their programme. This includes carrying out fundraising and searching for sponsors alongside choosing the type of programme to execute.
It is 100% continuously assessed, meaning students will be wholly evaluated based on how they carry out their social engagement programme and the written report on their experiences conducting said programme.
FIRST SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT LECTURE
The Social Engagement lecture for the Department of Software Engineering is set on Friday, 3 P.M. until 5 P.M. I remember that during our first Social Engagement lecture at Dewan Kuliah 2, we were told by our lecturer and programme coordinator Dr. Nazean Binti Jomhari that we have the freedom to form our own groups, each with 8-10 group members. I've already planned to form a group with my Software Engineering friends, along with others that I've never met before. Coincidentally, we all sat nearby so when Dr Nazean instructed us to sit according to our groups, we didn't have to move as much. One of our course-mates, Danish Rashidin was chosen as the class representative while my friends unanimously elected me as our group leader, which I didn't mind albeit the huge responsibility that I had to bear.
I heard from my seniors during the last semester that one of the hardest and most painstaking parts of the Social Engagement course is the process of fundraising for the activities to be held or organised by the groups. Thankfully for our department for this session, Dr. Nazean informed us that she has managed to secure our sponsor beforehand, which is Sasbadi Online. Hence, the whole department didn't need to scout for sponsors or find ways to fundraise. We were extremely lucky for this and we're indebted to Dr. Nazean for her assistance in finding our sponsor even before the first lecture.
Since our Social Engagement programme is sponsored entirely by Sasbadi Online, we have to follow the programme that has been pre-determined by Sasbadi. We will be conducting a 2-day Techno-Study Camp at schools, where each student will be supplied with a RM 175 worth of 6-months subscription of their online learning website called ilearnAce. Each of us will have our own "adopted brother/sister" in which the ilearnAce account will be given. It is our responsibility to guide our little brothers and sisters and to take care of them throughout the programme. This camp accounts for 16 hours of our community engagement hours. The remainder of the hours will be evaluated based on our communications and interaction not only with our step brothers and sisters, but also with their parents or guardians.
My group and 5 others are assigned to SK Bangsar, where we will be conducting the camp among Primary 6 students on the 23rd and 24th March. Initially I had problems on that date as it clashed with a college project that I'm involved in. Hence, I asked Dr. Nazean to change our group to the second school, Darul Ummah Akademik Tahfiz (DU'AT), Sijangkang, Teluk Panglima Garang on the 6th and 7th April. However, in a last minute change of plans, my friend, Nur Afifah and I were instead available on the previous date and had conflicting schedules on the 6th and 7th April. Eventually, the two of us had to be transferred to another group. We were sad at first that we had to be separated from my original group, but eventually we just moved on and tried our best to work with our new group members.
PREPARATION BEFORE D-DAY
In my new group, there are a total of 10 group members. On our second last lecture before we're off to SK Bangsar, we were instructed by our lecturer to start forming our group organisation, which is as follows:
Group Leader: Wan Nasrul
Assistant Group Leader: Syaqil Aizat
Secretary: Nur Afifah
Treasurer: Rusyaidi
Food Committee: Omar, Hafizul, Ajwad Alias
Photographer/Videographer: Muhd Rahiman, Fahad
Our group has 3 international students. Omar is from Egypt, meanwhile Fahad is from Yemen and lastly Marijana is from France. So evidently, one of the biggest obstacles within our group is the apparent language barrier between us local students and international students. I alongside my other local teammates assured them that we will try our best to not only communicate with them in English and involve them as much as possible within our discussions (can't help but admit there were times where our discussions were done in Bahasa Melayu) but more importantly is on helping them communicate and relay the informations necessary to their step brothers/sisters, whom may or may not be able to easily understand them, even when they converse in English.
For our first meeting, we discussed on the proposal for the activities we will be conducting at SK Bangsar. The programme will last for 2 days, from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Since I had experiences on facilitating programmes at school and the fact that I joined a facilitator's club at my college, I helped proposed much of the planned activities.
My friend, Nur Afifah and I volunteered ourselves to help prepare all the necessary materials for the game activities held. For example, one of our proposed activities is *Kotak Beracun*, where students will pass around a box containing lists of funny or random actions while the music is playing. The student who hold the box when the music stops has to pick one of the lists of actions from the box and do it in front of everyone. So, Afifah and I brainstormed for said list of actions.
On our last meeting, I briefed about the activities proposed to everyone, especially the international students. Then, we finalised and confirmed about our food and transport. Thankfully for our group, some of our group members have their own transports. Rusyaidi, Syaqil and Nash will be going on their own via their motorbikes, while the rest of us will be carpooling with Marijana, who has a Toyota Avanza.
DAY 1
We agreed to arrive at SK Bangsar around 7:30 A.M. so that we have ample time to prepare ourselves and scout for locations at the school. Ajwad, Fahad, Hafizul and myself gathered at the faculty as per our planned yesterday to wait for Marijana to pick us up. Then, we fetched Omar and Afifah from KK12. After that, we're off to SK Bangsar!
Apparently, the school was even closer from UM than I thought. Big thanks to Afifah for guiding us to a shortcut to the school when Waze and Google Maps gave us an even longer route!
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On our way to SK Bangsar!
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When we arrived, we unpacked our stuffs such as the box of mineral waters and food for breakfast and gathered at the school canteen. We began writing an A4-sized banner for our kids, something that Dr. Nazean wanted us to do so that the kids can recognise their "step-parents" easily.
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Marijana and her little banner for her kid!
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The students began sitting in a line waiting for us.
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Afterwards, we rendezvoused with the rest of our group members who came via the main gate at the main hall. There, we saw several kids already sitting in a line along with their teachers standing in front. Some of these students sat at the open hall while some sat outside (for reasons that will be explained very shortly). Several other groups of our department also arrived at the main hall. All the groups gathered at the back of the hall so as to not disturb the teachers coordinating the kids.
One of the teachers suddenly approached us at the back and asked among the rest of us, who's in charge at the moment. I told him that our lecturer hasn't arrived yet, but he insisted on having one representative to discuss something urgent. I realised that our main group leader, Danish, wasn't going to SK Bangsar, so I had to volunteer myself to become the de factor main group leader for the 6 groups who came to SK Bangsar today.
You see, before this Dr. Nazean had given us a list of 60 students along with their details of those who will be coming for our programme. Each of those kids have been assigned to each one of us. However, I was informed by the teacher that apparently, not all of the 60 kids who were supposed to come, did come today. In fact, only 33 of them came. There were issues such as the students not informing their parents and whatnot. Add in the fact that the weekend in which we're conducting the camp was the beginning of their school holiday. Hence, the school had no choice but to call other students to help replace the kids who didn't come today in order to fill in the gaps. He asked for my confirmation and permission. Even though it wasn't my position to confirm, I told the teacher that it's better to have the missing kids replaced rather than having only 30 students participating.
After that, I went to the back and called out the other group members to inform them about what happened. "Phew, crisis averted!", I thought to myself.
I went to approach my group and told them that I wanted to brief them about our tentative and plans for our first day of the programme. Even though Nash is the group leader, but I've taken the liberty to help brief the rest about our activities since I helped drafted the activities myself.
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First day briefing with the facilitators!
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After that, each group took turns and made a roll call based on our previous list of students. My group was the first one. We called out the names of our group's students one by one. The names of students who got called were asked to line up at the side. Fortunately for our group, our of the 10 original students in the list, only one got replaced last minute. When I called out my step brother's name and saw him rising his hand, my first impression of him was that he's such an adorable kid!
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Myself and Afifah calling out our kids' names.
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After we identified our kids, we all gathered at the canteen where we distributed them their breakfast. For the first day, we had fried rice with anchovies for breakfast. We tried to find the switches for the fans, but there were in the kitchen's room which was locked. Unfortunately, we all had to have our breakfast in the morning heat, alongside the slightly spicy fried rice we're eating.
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The kids having their breakfasts.
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Once we're done with our breakfast, we asked them to line up and walk back to the main hall area for our first game activity. There, we all sat in one large circle, where students and facilitators (that's how I call each and every one of us group members) sit alternate to each other.
The first game activity is actually our ice breaking and it is called "Tak Kenal Maka Tak Cinta". Basically, each students and facilitators will be asked to introduce themselves, such as their full name, nickname and ambition. However, at the end of their introduction, they have to come up with a style based on their name, and everyone else have to follow. The next student will also introduce him/herself, but before he/she can do his/her style, he/she has to repeat the style of the previous students. This will go on until the last person has to repeat the action of every single person in the group. The perk of this activity is that when everyone else repeats the style of others, it helps everyone indirectly memorise each other's names.
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Me leading the ice breaking activity.
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Everyone sitting in a circle for the ice breaking activity!
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Initially the students were very shy and awkward, but as the we progressed one by one, they began to slowly adapt and break the ice.
Once everyone sort off knows each other's names, we proceeded to our next activity known as "Radio Rosak". We asked the students to line up into one straight line and choose one person that they trusted the most. This person will stand at the back and will be given a script containing a Malay tongue twister. He/she will be asked to memorise the text within 30 seconds. Afterwards, the person will then whisper what was memorised to the person in front, also within 30 seconds. This goes on and on until the last person at the front has to tell what the scripted message was. Almost always, the person in front will never be able to guess the text word by word.
Initially, we did the activity in one big group, as a warm up. Once they got the idea of the game, we split the students into 2 groups of five and made it a competition. These students were really damn competitive. They all had fun as they attempted to pass the information from one person to the other. It's incredibly funny and entertaining at how the students try their best to relay the information, and how the actual message got disrupted along the way.
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The students' reactions during Radio Rosak.
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After a few rounds of "Radio Rosak", we moved on to the next activity which shares the same elements as "Radio Rosak" but instead of using speech, this time it involves drawings. The activity, which is called "Lukisan Karat", requires the students to redraw what the previous person has drawn within 15 seconds. One of the facilitators will tell the person at the front on what to draw and will be given 15 seconds to complete their drawing. Then, the drawing will be passed to the person at the back and he/she has to draw based on the drawing passed, also in 15 seconds. The process will repeat until the last person has to guess what the drawing is.
For this activity, the students had a hard time trying to consistently draw based on the theme given. In one of the rounds, we asked them to draw a scorpion. But somehow as the drawing progresses through the line, the drawing morphed itself from a scorpion, to a mole and lastly an eel. Us facilitators all exchanged so much laughter as we tried to comprehend how did their drawings changed so drastically. It was only during the last round (and with a bit of guidance and hints) that the last person managed to guess the drawing/theme (which was durian, easy peasy) correctly.
I noticed that the kids began to familiarise themselves with us facilitators up to the point where they feel comfortable sharing jokes (albeit very cheesy). For instance, the kids gave me a pickup line which I couldn't help but laugh. They also joked about how I couldn't exactly pronounce the letter 'r' properly. I didn't mind the jokes at all. What's important is that they had fun and we managed to make them enjoy our activities. A sigh of relief!
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Students with their pencils and A4 papers for Lukisan Karat
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Once we wrapped up our first series of game activities, we began our ilearnAce briefing and hands on with the kids at their computer labs. The computer lab wasn't that big, and since they only have 2 of them, most of the students had to cramp a bit in order to use the mini laptops provided. It got pretty noisy and in-conducive, since so many people are talking at the same time. And of course, when everyone's accessing the same website, the Internet speed was so slow, the homepage took a few seconds to load. I had to use my own mobile data hotspot in order to circumvent that issue. Nevertheless, we had to make do of what we have.
This slot was the first time I had a one-on-one meet up with my little step brother, Hakimi. I preferred to call him Hakim though. He was very enthusiastic about ilearnAce. For this first ilearnAce slot, I introduced to him about the basics of ilearnAce. This encompasses everything from his account details (user ID and password), the monthly rankings and friends list, to one of the main features of ilearnAce which is the Notes section. There, students can browse through the notes of all the UPSR subjects (Year 4-6) and is based on the latest KSSR syllabus.
One good thing about our group compared to the rest is that we've planned and discussed on what to teach or demonstrate to the students during each ilearnAce slot. We did this so that everyone is on the same page and synchronised. Besides, each ilearnAce slot is 1 hour and we want to ensure that we strategically arrange what to teach so that we can maximise the allocated time. Teamwork, 100%!
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First ilearnAce slot at the computer lab!
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When I introduced that section to Hakim and demonstrated some of the additional features (e.g: dictionary, sticky notes etc.), he was super excited. So excited that he actually took out his notebook and jotted down his own notes based on the online notes prepared by ilearnAce. I was shocked and astounded by his diligence as compared to other kids who were still playing and exploring around with ilearnAce, he decided to study. Despite the noisy environment
When the 1 hour is up, we walked back to the canteen to have lunch. Knowing that the canteen's fans couldn't be turned on, our group cleverly reserved the teacher's luncheon room instead, as they have fans and big round tables. We prepared a special meal for lunch. Ajwad, who's part of the Food Committee and stayed in KK7, decided to buy the famous (and slightly overrated) Nasi Kukus KK7 for lunch.
Before we started eating, I asked one of the kids to recite the du'a. Hamizan, which is Afifah's kid, volunteered to lead the du'a. Then, we all enjoyed the steamy and spicy and low key celebrated that we managed to survive half of the day.
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Lunch with Nasi Kukus at the teacher's luncheon room!
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Afterwards, I asked the students to gather at the surau for a mass Zohor prayer. Since Marijana was the only non-Muslim in our group, she volunteered to help take care of our stuffs. In the surau, some of the kids were very hyper and naughty. They even peeked at the women's saf which made the girls justifiably furious. I scolded them and told them to sit down and behave.
Right after we all performed our Zohor prayer, we gathered at the canteen, packed our bags and materials and walked to an empty class which was on the 3rd floor for our next game activity.
Remember the "Kotak Beracun" activity that I mentioned earlier on? Well this was the slot where we did that activity. We asked the students to put aside their bags and sit in a circle on the floor. I briefed them about the game and many of them already knew how the game works.
When the music was played, the students began passing around the container. Of course, knowing how hyperactive these kids can be, we outlined several rules, such as not allowing them to throw the container at someone and not intentionally delaying on passing the container to the next person. One of the students, Daim, had his face drawn using a marker when the container was passed to him and the music stopped. Meanwhile, Mumtaz, a son of an Indonesian immigrant who by the way told everyone during "Rantai Nama" ice breaking activity that he wanted to be the Indonesian president, had to do frog jumping based on the viral-ed Bahenol song. Hakim on the other hand had to have a tape sticked to his face. Contrary to our expectations, the kids actually wanted to hold the container and had them do the actions listed in the container instead of avoiding it. Kids these days are weird, honestly.
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Kotak Beracun
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Next, we had them play Music Chair. A bit cliche and boring, yes I admit. But we wanted to include some activities that the students are already familiar with as well. The activity was self-explanatory, and after having the facilitators fetch several chairs from other classes, we began playing. The students were super excited and competitive. Daim notably, walked in such a weird manner where he aimed his bottom near the chair so that it's easy for him to sit. We all had a good laughter looking at him circling the chairs in said manner. One by one got eliminated and eventually a girl named Aisyah won.
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Music Chair
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The last game activity of the day involved a bit of teamwork, cooperation and ultimately patience. It's called "Cross The River". We randomly divided the students into 2 groups and gave each group 4 A4 papers. Each group were asked to line up outside the class, near the front and back entrance. The goal is to bring every group member to the opposite end of the class without ever having their feet touching the ground.
Of course, I laid out several rules and conditions. I gave them several minutes to discuss within their groups on their strategies. When the game started, as expected, both groups struggled trying to transport their group members to the opposite end. The trick is to do it 2 people at a time and one person as to come back and pass the A4 papers to the next person for him/her to cross. Knowing that they began to become frustrated and quarrelled among each other, I had to drop some hints and tips to help them out. Eventually, one of the groups took advantage of the slippery floor and dragged their feet across to the end and helped pass the A4 papers to the next person. Eventually, that group won, at the frustration of the other group. One of the members of the losing group, Hamizan argued that I never specifically outlined the rule that you can't drag your feet. Admittedly it was my mistake for not stating the rules clearly. Actually, the activity was meant to be conducted outdoors. Meaning, it would be impossible to drag your feet along with the A4 papers without tearing them up. However, due to the hot weather, we had to do it indoors. As a facilitator, if you made a mistake that was apparent to the students, it is your duty to apologise, and that's exactly what I did.
Nevertheless, I along with other facilitators helped eased the tensions among the two groups and asked them to line up. I told them that this activity tested their ability to listen up to one another and cooperate with each other. This turned out to be an issue that I'll be emphasising a lot again the following day.
When the last activity is over, we went to an empty class to conduct our second ilearnAce slot. For this slot, we introduced them the Mind Maps feature, which allows them to create their own interactive mind maps and even have the ability to share them to everyone else. Hakim was a big fan of this feature. At first, I guided him on how to use the feature. And then, I asked him to try and explore the feature himself. To help incentivise the students to use the mind maps feature, we made an impromptu decision to ask each student alongside their facilitators to present their mind maps on the next ilearnAce the following day. Hakim chose to make a mind map about factors and effects of air pollution. He spent the rest of the hour playing around with the features and discussing about the contents of his mind map with me.
During this slot, I took the opportunity to ask Hakim about whether he has a computer or Internet access at home. Unfortunately, he told me he had neither. His previous computer was broken. Thankfully, he has his own mobile phone and relies heavily on the phone's mobile data for Internet access. This proved to be a challenge for me as he can only access ilearnAce at home via his phone. I also inquired about his family background. Apparently, his dad worked as a personal driver, meaning his time of work varies on a day to day basis. He never really said much about his mom, especially when I asked him on who can I contact and rely upon to watch over him when it comes to his ilearnAce progress. He told me that I can contact either his dad or his cousin, who sometimes helped picked him up from school in case his dad was busy.
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Second ilearnAce slot with Hakim!
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By the time the second ilearnAce slot is over, it was approximately 30 minutes until 5:00 P.M. We packed our stuffs and gathered back at the main hall, where some of the students were practicing their nasyid. I forgot to mention early on that during the ilearnAce slot just now, it began raining heavily. It was a heavy downpour after a hot sunny day. We sat again in a circle and wrapped up by saying thank you for coming for the first day, apologising for any shortcomings and mistakes and stating our hopes that they thoroughly enjoyed the activities held.
When the clock stroke 5, the students were dismissed. Dr. Nazean instructed us facilitators to meet up with the parents when they're picking their children up after the program, so that we can have a face-to-face discussion about ilearnAce and what the whole Social Engagement programme is all about. Initially, Hakim told me that his dad might not be able to pick him up today. But somehow, his parents arrived and with that, I braved myself and asked Afifah to accompany me to meet with Hakim's parents near the entrance gate. His dad, Mr. Rostam looked like a decent, average looking parent. He got out of his car when I approached it and greeted him. I explained him everything that was necessary about ilearnAce and the whole Social Engagement programme, on how his child's account was sponsored by Sasbadi and how I needed his cooperation and help to watch over Hakim's progress for the next 2 months.
Upon my relief, his dad seemed pretty nice and was okay on helping me take care of Hakim when it comes to everything ilearnAce related. His mom, however, remained in the car with a stern face. Was a bit scared about her that I didn't even greet her. My bad, but at the very least his dad seemed to be cooperating, even though I can detect some signs of reluctance.
Once my short meeting with Hakim's father was over, I rendezvoused with the rest of my group members and we had a short post mortem and discussion about tomorrow's event!
And that concludes our first day of Techno-Study camp (Kem Tekno-Belajar) for our social engagement programme and hence my first blog entry for my Social Engagement programme!
See you guys next time!
See you guys next time!
