Through a grant from U.S. Embassy Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian OPEN alumni have come together to organize a series of virtual professional development talks for educators worldwide. The first session on June 3 was “Bringing TEDEd into Your Classroom” and aimed to expose educators on how to integrate and use TEDEd in their classrooms. Participants were exposed to TED, TEDEd Lessons, TED Talk videos and TEDEd Club as well as how they can use TEDEd using the four language skills and assess students’ engagement with the material. The session was a success and attracted participants from countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Morocco and India. Magdaline Muuk, an OPEN alumnus and ESL teacher from Borneo led the session in partnership with the Kuching District Education Department and the Kuching Chapter of the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA).
Ms. Farah Jasmine Hui Abdullah, Malaysian OPEN alumnus and English specialist coach continued the second live webinar via the Malaysian OPEN Alumni Facebook page on June 27, 2020 at 10.00 (MYT). Her Ed Talk on ‘Pedagogy over Technology for Student Engagement’ aimed to share some practical strategies with educators to alleviate the overwhelming effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. Farah Jasmine introduced participants to theories on remote teaching and gave guidance on addressing common challenges in the area. She also spoke about lesson structure in both synchronous and asynchronous learning to promote student engagement. The live session and subsequent video recording received strong support from educators especially in the Southeast Asian region. The session reached 4,100 viewers with more than 1,000 people viewing the live session.
There are six webinars remaining in the series including two sessions by former English Language Fellows for Malaysia. The Malaysian OPEN Alumni are continuing their collaboration and doing their best to ensure quality online content for educators.