These are the answers to your questions sir....

QUESTION 1:

If you had the chance would you utilize ICT (CALL) in your teaching?

If the opportunity is there, I would definitely utilize ICT in my teaching. It has been proven time and again that the usage of ICT garners better interest from students and the increase in interactivity on the student's part promotes more efficiency in the learning process. In addition, the use of ICT can save a lot of precious time and energy for the teacher and can induce better teacher and student contact level by utilizing blogs and emails in the learning process. In short, ICT in the classroom can truly streamline what was once a tedious and time consuming process by letting the teacher focus on what's important instead of worrying on other things.

QUESTION 2:

How do you think it would help (or would not help) your students to learn English?

I believe that the process of learning English can be made painless and interesting if we can find a way to stimulate the students' interest in the subject matter. The problem with this is a lot of students have an aversion towards learning English. Most of them have the misconception that English is a difficult language to learn and even though they can actually do better, their lack of self-confidence drags them down to a lower level than they can actually achieve.

From my experience, the ability to slowly make their own way in learning English with minimal supervision from the teacher is invaluable. A teacher's focused attention on a student can sometimes have an intimidating effect that actually hinders their learning. It also helps that using computers usually require the students to grasp some of the basics of the language as virtually all of the contents, be it in the Operating System or the World Wide Web is presented in English. My only reservation is the unfiltered nature of the Internet and this is where teacher supervision is really needed. Depending on the level of student, they may not know right from wrong and can easily be led astray by misleading information. Primary school students are certainly prone to this and they are also apt to pick up slangs or improper words from the Internet.

QUESTION 3:

What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of implementing CALL in the Malaysian schools?

It would be foolish not to admit that implementing CALL in Malaysian schools can help overcome the problems students are having in learning the language. As I have stated in the previous answers, the advantages are certainly numerous, better teacher-student interaction, more efficiency, freedom to explore, igniting the student's interest in the language; those are just some of the advantages.

However I have also noticed that the vast Internet is simply begging to be explored and it is easy to get sidetracked. Even at the university level, lecturers are having a hard time controlling the students in a computer lab with internet access. Some of them can be playing games, listening to music online, or god forbid, even chatting with their friends. Granted, there is the possibility of content filtering done by appointed network administrators such as the one done in UiTM labs that block non-academic contents, but the sheer size of the Internet makes it hard to be 100% effective.

For example, we can block access to a site that has Flash-based games in it, but some other sites are bound to slip through the net. This means that a class using CALL will also need careful monitoring to make sure the students are accessing relevant information, which actually defeats the main purpose of implementing CALL in the first place; requiring less attention from the teacher towards a specific student.

QUESTION 4:

What are the barriers in implementing CALL in the Malaysian classroom?

Malaysians have a wide variety of backgrounds. Having taught at a school in Shah Alam, I found that most of the students respond well to computer based learning as they are already computer literate and most of them have Internet access at home. However if CALL is to be fully implemented in the school system then the fate of students in rural areas will come into question. The imbalance in teaching tools available in rural areas compared to urban areas has been discussed many times over the year and this will only add another issue to the problem. It would not be unthinkable for this to be seen as widening an already considerable gap in standards at rural and urban schools.

What will become of the schools that are situated in areas with no Internet connection? Even worse, there might be schools out there that do not even receive steady power, water or phone connection (which entirely throws the possibility of having a computer lab out of the window). Moreover, providing a fully functioning computer lab is not simply buying a whole bunch of computers and putting them in a room together. There will be a need for trained staff for operating and maintaining the computers. In addition, if we are to concern ourselves with Intellectual Property laws, the expense on computer software can be astronomical and it might put a big dent in the annual budget for education which could have been put to better use elsewhere.

QUESTION 5:

Please also include any other comments/thoughts/ideas on this topic

In my personal opinion, implementing ICT in education can bring lots of benefits not only to the students but also to the teachers. If the opportunity is there, why not use it as a tool for teaching. It has been proven that students will become more interested towards the lesson if technology is used. It can save lots of precious time and energy for the teacher as well as their students.

WWW LESSON PLAN

PET SMART

LEVEL: Form 3

TIME: 30 minutes

AIMS:

a) To find information about pets on a website
b) To practice and discover new vocabulary associated with pets and anything related to it.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

One computer per group of 2 -3 students with an Internet connection and a Web Browser.

Website: http://www.pets.com/

PREPARATION:

Find a website related to pets.
Using the information on the site, prepare a lesson and a worksheet.

PROCEDURE:

1. Ask students how many of them have their own pet at home. Ask them for the types of pet that can be adopted and write them on the board.

2. Ask them what they know about pet such as pet care, how to choose the right pet, how to groom your pet, what are the suitable food for your pet and so forth.

3. Give the students the web address that is related to pet, which is http://www.pets.com/.
Explain briefly about the website and let them explore the rest on their own.

4. Distribute the work sheets prepared and ask them to complete the worksheet by referring to the website given earlier.

5. When everyone have finished, discuss the answer together.

6. The group with the highest mark will be rewarded with some gifts from the teacher.

FOLLOW-UP:

1. Ask the students to go and read the Pet Stories section which is at http://www.pets.com/petstories.

2. Each group is expected to pick one story which they feel is their favorite pet story. They will then have to relate to the rest of the class on why they picked that particular story as their favorite by writing a short essay.

3. Each group will have to present their short essay in 10 minutes during the next lesson.

Hypertext & hypermedia

Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India, on October 2nd 1869. His father died when he was still a teenager. At the age of 13 he married Kasturba Gandhi who was three years younger and the marriage lasts for 62 years until her death in 1944.As a young man Gandhi left India to study law in London. Then he spent two decades working in South Africa securing rights for Indian expatriates.

It was during this time that his political reform through non-violence which he called Satyagraha was born. This movement meant resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa, total non violence, which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

This way, when he returned to India, Mohandas Gandhi emerged as a political and religious leader in the fight for independence from Great Britain and was accorded the country's Father of the Nation. India freed itself from Britain on August 15th, 1947. Five months later, on January 25th, 1948 Gandhi was shot by a conservative Hindu.

CALL / CALLT Website evaluation (TSL 641)

http://www.englishclub.com/index.htm

QUESTION 1:

1. What are the users the website/websites is/are targeting?

The English Club is a website that is aimed at both people looking to learn and teach English as a second language. There is a wide range of activities such as jokes, games, chat rooms, quizzes and forums that are suitable for students. The activities can cater to students at various levels of expertise in English and they also cover a lot different areas. There is even a dedicated section for English in specific jobs like cashiers, hotel staff and airline staff, which I find very interesting and useful. At the same time, there are sections of the website aimed at ESL teachers such as job offers, teaching tips and discussions on education.

QUESTION 2:

2. What sorts of things are the application users expected to do with regards to learning and using (or even manipulating!) the content?

The Website covers the usual grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, listening, speaking, reading and writing but there are some limitations to content delivery using the Internet. For listening, there are some audio sample files that students can listen to and while this is a good idea, there are only a few files available. It is understandable however those audio files can take a lot of storage space and can put a huge strain on the website's bandwidth allocation if the files are frequently accessed. One other problem is that for the writing section, there is really no real way to provide interactive feedback on essay writing. Most of the content here leans more towards guides in writing and articles on the different styles of writing. That being said though, the sheer amount of content by itself is impressive and there are a lot of things that students can do here. The other sections are also full of content and the interactive activities section is of special interest and worth looking into.

QUESTION 3:

3. What sorts of computer skills are the application users expected to have in order to operate/access/use the application?

The interface of the website is really quite simple. There are no fancy Flash animations and the color scheme is a rather bland white background with brown text showing users there is a hypertext link and black text for normal content. This minimalist approach and preference for substance over style means that the pages load quickly and with no hassle. The contents also consist mostly of text and I do think that students can benefit with more pictures to break the monotony. It is likely that students' attention can waver when faced with these walls of text. Overall, provided that the students have rudimentary knowledge of English (as the site is in English), the only computer skills that they need is basic knowledge on using a web browser and they will be able to point and click right away to access the contents. The site also made sure to provide a lot of directions in each section so there is really no problem in terms of accessibility.

QUESTION 4:

4. While you are “playing”/”accessing”/”assessing” the website(s), does it remind you of anything you do (or have done) in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?

The activities, articles and lessons available here are mostly similar to the things I have read in books, done in class and learned in lectures over the years. There is certainly a touch of the familiar as I browsed through the content and tried out the activities like crossword puzzles, quizzes, and playing a game of Hangman. It is reassuring however that the content here is tried and true. The interactive games are actually very interesting and opens up some possibilities of group activities as students can work together to complete them.

QUESTION 5:

5. What setting will the website(s) best used in: independent study lab with no teacher available, lab associated with a class, a teacher-led class with one or a few computers?

The simplicity of the website leads me to think that students can be very self-sufficient in using it, however with the amount of content I believe that a teacher should act as a guide for the first few trial runs until students can get their footing. At the very least, teaches can hold their hands until they have learned to use the ESL Help Desk where they can ask questions and get answers from teachers active on the site, or the ESL Chat Room so they can have some real time help from other users of the site. After that, I do believe students can regularly use the website by themselves.

QUESTION 6:

6. Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?

According to Stephen Krashen, for his monitor hypothesis theory, the language that one has subconsciously acquired "initiates our utterances in a second language and is responsible for our fluency," whereas the language that we have consciously learned acts as an editor in situations where the learner has enough time to edit, is focused on form, and knows the rule, such as on a grammar test in a language classroom or when carefully writing a composition. This conscious editor is called the Monitor.

Different individuals use their monitors in different ways, with different degrees of success such as monitor over-users, monitor under-users and optimal monitor users.
As you can see, it this website that I’ve chosen it requires users to edit their works in order for them to get an accurate answer especially for composition part. The students tend to become so concerned with correctness that they cannot speak with any real fluency (which is not good).

QUESTION 7:

7. How well are the Vygotsky’s constructivist theory of learning and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory applied to the chosen website(s)?

As for Vygotsky’s constructivist theory of learning, he stated that children develop in social or group settings with the use of technology to connect rather than separate students from one another would be very appropriate use.

A constructivist teacher creates a context for learning in which students can become engaged in interesting activities that encourages and facilitates learning. The teacher does not simply stand by (like a traditional method) but they watch children explore and discover. The teacher will guide students as they approach problems, encourage them to work in groups so that they can discuss, and support them with encouragement and advice as they tackle problems and so forth. This theory is very well effective for this method where teachers can facilitate their students and at the same time use technology for learning activities.

As for Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory, he describes an array of different kinds of "intelligence" exhibited by human being. Gardner suggests that each individual manifests varying levels of these different intelligences, and thus each person has a unique cognitive profile.

The theory suggests that, rather than relying on a uniform curriculum, schools should offer "individual-centered education", with curriculum tailored to the needs of each child. For example, if the kids are very good in writing, the teacher should provide suitable amount of activities related to his/her ability and vice versa. And this can be found in the website that I’ve chosen.

QUESTION 8:

8. In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on ‘whether the computer was “master” of or “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In relation to your evaluation - is the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?

From my point of view, there is currently no possibility of the computer to serve as an acceptable replacement for teachers. Today's computers and programs are a far cry from being completely isolated from needing human input and I doubt they will be in the near future. Saying that the computer is merely an obedient servant to students is not entirely wrong. The computer is a tool in learning. Perhaps a more advanced one than textbooks or other tools of the old days, but a tool nonetheless and it will operate within the designed boundaries set by its programmers. Saying that it is a servant may imply that a computer can do anything a student asks of it, but there will be limitations.

QUESTION 9:

9. Would you like to use the website(s) yourself in your future work? Yes? Give reasons. No? Give reasons.

The answer here is definitely yes. There is a lot of information here that can be very useful in teaching English and for a teacher it is very well organized into the relevant sections. What set the website apart from some others I have seen is that it also caters to teachers. The prospect of meeting other teachers online from all over the world and exchanging teaching tips is an idea that truly appeals to me. I also liked the fact that with minimal familiarizing, students will be able to use the site on their own initiative and provided they have the motivation; it will certainly assist in their learning process. It is also interesting that the site administrators keep it updated with current issues. There are some information on the environment and the Beijing Olympics as proof of this.

QUESTION 10:

10. Suggestions/Recommendations.

This website is quite comprehensive and I highly recommend it to other teachers looking for an online resource to complement their teaching. However, I do advise that teachers accompany their students when they first access it and show the way around, especially the interactive sections so students can become self-sufficient as soon as possible.

MURNIHAYATI NEK KAMAL

2004327428

~U8A~

Another Microsoft Words exercise...

Okay, here's another Microsoft Words exercise I created during our last class last wednesday but I couldn't be able to publish it because of technical problems. I don't know what was wrong with that computer. Well, this is a 'copy and paste exercise' originally created by me and it is suitable for form 1 students.

Basically, the students just have to read the question, choose the best answers provided in the box and then highlight it and press right click to copy. The next step is, they have to paste the correct answers to the right place by clicking right click (again) and choose paste. It's dead simple and I'm pretty sure even a 1-year-old can remember the steps and do this kind of exercise with only one eye... :p It's as easy as eating an ice-cream...
Till the, see ya...hehe...

My very own Microsoft Words exercise!

Here's what it looks like before and after....

Hey ya! During our previous lesson, we learned on how to create English exercises (of course) using Microsoft Words. It's actually a very easy peasy piece of work. Here, check this out. This is what I managed to come out with sir.... (btw, this is for those who were absence and also for those who were present but have a very short term memory.. :p)....

Word Snake exercise:

It's basically a word recognition exercise for elementary level students. It is very suitable and useful for teachers to introduce new vocabulary to their students. Students have to break down the snake into its component words using the given formulas.

Okay here's how you do it. According to my not-so-good memory, firstly you have to type the texts. Then click on edit (if I'm not mistaken), and click replace and in the 'find what' box enter a space. Leave the Replace with box empty. Lastly, click on Replace all and then you're done... Told ya! It's easy peasy....

Excel exercises!

On the 23rd of July we learned about how to do exercises using excel. It’s pretty interesting and easy to create. I think we've learned this a couple of years ago when we were in Part 1. Never mind, where was I? Oh yeah, we had to write all those formulas such as (ermmm...I can't really remember but I saved it) in order to make the results appear. Here’s a piece of my work sir...(huhu it's too small and i saved the wrong part of the exercise...) I hope it's okay coz at least I have something to show ya... :p