The Summary/ Reflection 8

The Summary and Reflection of Vocabulary Teaching

            As the language teachers of today, we have a lot of web-based possibilities and we should be aware of these privileges for us, and s it can be easily guessable, this writing is about vocabulary teaching and how we can manage this by using various vocabulary teaching tools.  While doing this, we will focus on Wordchamp (www.wordchamp.com), Gerry’s Vocabulary Teacher, and Text-to-speech technology.

         Firstly, I would like to tell bout Wordchamp (www.wordchamp.com). It is a web-site that enables all the learners from every proficiency level to learn or practice their English at their home. There are many activities and tools, and you can decide on what you want to learn and how you can learn. It is also possible to contact to the teachers and other learners so that you can ask and answer the questions. I think it is very important for a language tool to enable members to communicate with each other to help one another. When we come to the features of this tool, it presents 130 different kinds of language to us to learn and practice the language activities. There are language drills in this tool under the name of flashcard tab so that you can create your own flashcards and also use the existing flash cards. In the Web-Reader section, it enables the learners to develop their reading skills in the foreign language that you want to learn. You can also translate the complex or unknown words by using the tool existing in the web-site. In addition, you can find a language partner and a tutor. Another feature of this tool is to be able to create your own class and your students. Therefore, you can compose an interactive studying environment about the assignments. You can invite the students by using the tool to your online class. Also you can follow the progress of the students’ situation. However, you should pay a bit fee about $12.50.

The second tool that we can use during the vocabulary teaching is Gerry’s Vocabulary Teacher. It is a new program for the users to learn the words in their contexts i.e. a sample sentence. Unlike Wordchamp, this tool is suitable for intermediate –advanced second language learners. You can use this program to review and to develop your vocabulary. As a teacher you can prepare vocabulary tests to improve the students’ vocabulary skills. This program presents Gap-fill sentences, Crossword puzzles, Discussion topics, Proverbs & Quotations, Web-based exercises, Different parts of speech, and Find someone who. All these sub branches of the tool are very useful for both the teachers and the students to develop the vocabulary skills. You can improve the students’ vocabulary knowledge by teaching them the words with their use in the sentence.

            As for the last tool we will mention, Text-to-speech technology, it has been created especially for the blind people; however, it is also very beneficial for the language learners to improve their listening skills and pronunciation in the target language. This is a computer-based system that reads the texts aloud. While using this system you can decide the fast of the speech of texts so that you can have a chance to listen the texts according to your proficiency and pleasure. You can choose the voice gender of the speech such as female voice or male voice. In fact, one of the disadvantageous sides of this system is the lack of intonation. Despite that, I think it is very useful to improve listening skills at least in terms of pronunciation because you can save the audio files of the parts of speech to listen later them.

         As you can see, all these tools and systems are very practical for vocabulary teaching. Of course they have some limitations of them, but I believe that nothing is perfect as nobody is.

The Summary/ Reflection 7

The Summary/ Reflection of Content Management Systems

This writing focuses on understanding content management systems and to figure it out better we will benefit from three content management systems as following: Dokeos (www.dokeos.com), Nicenet (www.nicenet.org), and Moodle (www.moodle.org).

Firstly, let me mention Dokeos. Dokeos is among the largest and most famous content management systems. The principal product of this system is a SCORM open source learning environment which is used many users all over the world. The products of Dokeos provides learning management that includes “SCORM import, edit and export, social interaction, sophisticated test and surveys”, Oogie Rapid Learning that “build SCORM courses online from templates, from PowerPoint...”, Accurate reporting which is for you to “export to Excel, Business Objects...”, and Videoconferencing which helps “virtual meeting and virtual classroom for live training sessions”. It has a free version for the users but it is composed of just Learning Management System and SCORM and surveys reporting. In order to use the other qualitative features we should pay enough money.

Secondly, as for Nicenet, it is a free web based virtual classroom. The members of the groups can share information and ask questions for further help. It is kind of computer mediated conferencing system and in that way is resembles combination e-mail and bulletin board. If we want to have or attend a special for us and our group members we need to have a private password or code. There is a section for new users and it enables the students to join a new class and the teachers to create a new class. It is a kind of internet classroom assistant and the features of it are as following: Conferencing which enables us to create our own conference between us and our students, scheduling that enables us to be able to schedule our class and assignments i.e. so that people can see upcoming events, document sharing which is for students and instructors to publish their work in HTML format without knowing what it is, personal messaging which resemble classical email apart from the other featured characteristics, and lastly link sharing which enables us to share links among our class. It is mostly similar to the tool that we have been using in FLE 318 Audio Visual Aids in ELT; however, Nicenet has some disadvantages. For example, you can share images or files which are already on internet; that is you cannot attach and post the files that is on your PC. I think, one of the good sides of this tool is its being free to use.

Lastly, Moodle is a content management system and freely available open source software package and it has been designed according to pedagogical principles in education. It helps the teachers create effective online learning environments and new online rich contented courses. There are so many users all over the world, because it is systematical and well-organized. Moreover, we can participate in international discussions, and it has featured plug-ins: Activities, resource types, question types, data field types (for the database activity), graphical themes, authentication methods, enrollment methods, and content filters. It provides both students and teachers with adjustable learning environment. Furthermore, we can adapt Moodle in accord with our educational needs. These all things are thanks to Martin Dougiamas. Like Nicenet, we need a code to join a class and as the students of the FLE 318 we know much about what Moodle is. To sum up it is Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment

The Summary/ Reflection 6

The Summary/ Reflection of Creating Blogs and Wikis

The point of this writing is about creating blogs and wikis in terms of second language teaching and learning, and I will summarize and discuss an article named Emerging Technologies, Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-Line Collaboration.

(http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/pdf/emerging.pdf )

At the beginning of the article, Robert Godwin-Jones from Virginia Comonwealth University introduces the topic to the reader, and mentions how much the language professionals have seized the opportunities of the Internet and many things in related to Internet such as “e-mail, discussion forums, chat” and “blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds”. Then, he has made a classification about Web to express the importance of the today’s situation about the tools in concern with the language education. His classification is as following: First-Generation Web including asynchronous tools and synchronous tools, and Second-Generation Web including blogs, wikis, and RSS.

In First-Generation Web, asynchronous tools are about to disappear, but e-mails have been protecting their usability in classroom exchanging and tandem learning. Later, in the article the author goes on with the facilities of e-mails and has told about how it can work, then he mentions why many instructors preferred discussion forums to e-mails. According to the author, most of the instructors start to use discussion forums because of their facilitation properties. After that, he has talked about some discussion forums used in the past. As for synchronous tools, the author continues with the use of instant messaging on Internet by the instructors and the learners. The instructor started to incline the use of chat due to its being more practical and effective tool. Then we see some types of instant messaging tools on the article.

In Second-Generation Web, the author mentions how blogs were composed, and continues with the beneficial, extra and useful sides of the blog for the individuals in terms of their educational senses. He also mentions what the blogs are for and what we can do by using blogs. As for RSS and Wiki, blogs have some limitations in contrast to RSS and Wiki; in other words, blogs are organized in a chronological way, but not in content, and it is a limitation. Then, some actions to enhance the abilities of the blog are among today’s interests. After that, RSS is mentioned in terms of what it means; it means "really simple syndication" and it helps sort of info coming from multiple blogs and alters the users about the coming messages and new postings, and RSS is an application of XML and firstly introduced by Netscape. If we come to Wikis, it is another collaborative environment. It means “quick” in Hawaiians. Originally, WikiWikiWeb project is devoted to software programming but expensive. Contrasting to Blogs, Wikis are highly collaborative but blogs are personal. In other words, everyone can add something the collection of the web pages and can edit them. By this way, it creates collaborative community. To sum up, Wikis are a simple data base of the information on Internet.

In the conclusion part in the article, the author gives the reader some collection of resource list (Computer-Mediated Communication, Chat and Discussion Forums, Blogs, Wikis and RSS lists).

The Summary/ Reflection 5

The Summary/ Reflection of Creating Hot Lists

The topic of this writing is about creating hot list by considering the following web-sites: www.filamentality.com, Del.icio.us - http://del.icio.us, WebQuests- www.webquest.org, and Podcasting - www.podomatic.com. By examining these web sites we can understand what creating hot lists.

Firstly, by using Filamentality, we can mix our learning aims up many online web sources; that is, it helps us to combine our learning and teaching goals with the available internet contents. We can find useful internet sources and also we can create our lessons without knowing anything about HTML; in other words, we can create our own web sites for our specific purposes about education. We can just start with choosing a topic and related format, collect the related links and give the titles and questions to the links. Its formats are Hotlist, Treasure Hunt, Sampler, Scrapbook, and WebQuest. In this tool, we can find web activities for the students, training, student-created and published work, and collaborative activities.

Secondly, Del.icio.us… It is a social bookmarking web-site and a product of Yahoo. By using this free-charge web-site and simply signing up it, we can start to make our online bookmark lists. We can save any links to our bookmarks and access to them from anywhere that is possible for the internet access. Therefore, it is very useful and practical. For example, you bookmarked a web site on your PC, but you were far away from your PC, what would you do if you had to access that bookmarked link? You should go to use your PC, or simply you used Del.icio.us, which is very practical and economical. In addition, we can share our bookmarked list with any other people that use Del.icio.us, and also we can access their bookmarked list which it is good chance to have a look at what the other people are doing on Internet… and by this way, people become a part of virtual social world. Moreover, it is easy to use. We can edit our bookmarks and enjoy using this useful tool.

Thirdly, WebQuests… it is a kind tool that was developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in February, 1995, and it aims at helping students and teacher in education sense. As a teacher, you can create your online class activities and publish it online, and also you can share it with the other teacher in addition to using their web quests. While creating a new one, you can select different patterns or frameworks for the different education purposes. However, I think all these stuff is very time-consuming; that is, you should plan every detail to publish it and additionally it is boring, I think. Actually, being planned in detail is good thing but we should find people who like to study on that. We can add images and then edit the appearance of our part. To sum up, besides time-consuming like preparing a new course, it is not practical, I mean, it is too complicated to use and more importantly, it is not free-charge, and you can only use it free for a 30 trial days.

Lastly, let’s examine and think about Podomatic which is kind of audio and video casting web-site, to understand better the creating hot lists. Podcasting is a term for audio and video casting, and you can upload your audio and video files to share with other people. Necessarily, you are not just uploading, but you can have an access to other people’s files. Also, you can record videos and audio files online, and by sharing these you can have a enjoyable and educational virtual environment, because we can comment and discuss on them. Of course, we can use it in educational purposes, for example, we can watch Japanese learning videos online, and we can also share some video and audio files to contribute to the learners’ listening skills… By these ways, Podomatic becomes a hot list to explore what we need and we add new things; therefore, it becomes a social and interactive tool.

The Summary/ Reflection 4

The Summary/Reflection of Authoring Software (Quiz Faber and Hot-Potatoes)

The topic of this summary and reflection is authoring software, and to tell about this topic, we should focus two kinds of tools as following: Quiz Faber and Hot Potatoes. To begin with Quiz Faber, you should download it from http://www.lucagalli.net/en/ and install it on your computer. It helps us to create fast multimedia quizzes in HTML and JavaScript. In spite of knowing anything about these terms, Quiz Faber does it automatically for us, so it becomes for the teacher to prepare brand new quizzes. We can create different kinds of questions by using this tool: True/False question, multiple choice and answer questions, open ended questions, gap filling, and matching exercises. At the end of the activities we can have a self-evaluation, because the quizzes evaluate the score and say the percentage of the correctness of our answer. Therefore, it is very successful authoring software, I think.

The other authoring software is Hot-Potatoes. By using this authoring software we can create web-based teaching activities, and these exercises and activities use HTML and JavaScript like Quiz Faber. Again this software is as practical as Quiz Faber, but actually it is a little bit more complicated than Quiz Faber. However, we can make up new teaching exercises without getting through any trouble with it. Just we download it from http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ and install on our PC, then we can start to create new exercises as if we made a fill in the blanks exercise. We fill the blanks with our questions and correct and incorrect answer then we push the save and finish button … We see this new exercise in HTML and JavaScript. That’s so easy, right? All we need are a computer, installation of the software and background knowledge about English, which is required for all the teachers to create quizzes. In the Hot-Potatoes there are five programs which are the JQuiz program for creating question-based quizzes, the JCloze program for creating gap-fill exercises, the JCross program for creating crossword puzzles, the JMix program for creating jumbled-sentence exercises, and the JMatch program for creating matching or ordering exercises.