Reflection 6: Islamization of Knowledge

Have you ever think about the intention of acquiring knowledge? What will benefit us if we do well in studies? To do so, we need to integrate the teaching of Islam. It is important for us to realize that not all knowledge is beneficial to us. Some of them need to islamicize.

We have many experience on Islamization of Knowledge (IOK) throughout our studies at IIUM. I bet you might want to know about this business of Islamization thingy. One of the subject that teach us about IOK is 20th centuries and contemporaries. For instance, many Western poets glorify love so much that sometimes they are too exaggerating.  They put their love ones at the utmost level and forget Allah as the Most Powerful.Therefore, as Muslims, whatever that we learnt, we need IOK to balance it. IOK in this sense is practiced in the course whereby out lecture, Dr. Mahmudul Hasan had included the teaching contained in Al-Qur'an and Hadith. In short, we can explore on Orientalist poets and writers but at the same time we need IOK to balance it. 

Another subject that we learn in IIUM which practice IOK is Literary Criticism. We learn many theories brought up by the Westerners and some of their beliefs are opposite to Islamic teachings. The practice of IOK in this subject helps students to think critically about what they learn. The inclusion of IOK in this course causes us to think which is right and which is wrong according to Islam. We are exposed to the teaching that we should not just "parroting the ideas of the Westerners".

Reflection 5: Basic Criteria for a Good Language Learning Site

Yesterday, we had been exposed to basic criteria for a good language learning site. After listening to the lecture delivered by Dr. Rozina on criteria of website on specific language skills, we feel ...

 It is such a detailed guideline and we realized that we actually need to check the website thoroughly before using it… phew !

Before learning this topic, we have the opinion that Websta.me is the most suitable website to be used in our teaching session. Later, we learned that our chosen website is interesting but not really effective.

This is because a good learning site for writing skill must provide a guided composition activity. The site must provide its users steps on how to use it. Sadly, Websta.me does not fulfill this criteria. This is because no guideline on using it is provided on the website.

We also found out that, a good learning site should offer examples of various literary genres. Biography and poetry are some of them. Once again, our website is in a sorry state.

We learned it should also offer other resources related to the writing topic. There should be examples of vocabulary and sentence structures. In this case, Websta.me provides stimulus in assisting the students. We thought that providing stimulus is sufficient for the students, but showing examples of sentences is actually more appropriate.

There is at least one good news for us. Dr. Rozina told us that a good learning site should have a feature where it encourages learners to communicate in English on the discussion board. We think that, our chosen website can encourage students to communicate in English. They will feel excited upon seeing the interesting pictures on Websta.me and thus, they tend to express their ideas with their friends. 

After all, we are so so grateful that our group manage to find an interesting website. Even though it is not really a good learning site. I guess if we would know the guidelines on choosing a good learning site at first hand, we would go hair wired. Luckily, its not happen that way !