The Role of the Webquest in Learning Forign / Second Language

Bernie Dodge defined the webquest as " an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing. "

This website is considered as a guide to the students to guide them how to perform any plan with some resources provided. Webquest contains activates and tasks which helps the students to be independent.

Teachers may use the webquest for cooperative purposes. As the webquest that we worked on it as groups, we provides a task with a chosen topic about how to plan a graduation party then we ask the students to find out more about the rolles by surfing the sources that we have provided on the webquest, to come up with the information’s needed. It will enable the students to discover and knowledge about the topic. And the teacher will act as councillor, faciliator and guide to the students. However, the class invironment should have all qualities of technology like internet and computers.

As future English teacher, I will provide my students with this tool because it will encourage them to work in groups.

 

 

Website Evaluation

There are many   ESL/EFL websites founded on the internet which make the teachers confused about which sites they should recommend their students to use. Here we are evaluating   http://a4esl.org/ 

It is an organization website about learning English as second language which contains different resources for quizzes which are related to grammar, vocabulary and crosswords. Students can access all the main sub-menus of the site. Both the grammar quizzes and the vocabulary quizzes are sorted into three levels from easy to difficult. In addition, it has a section for bilingual quizzes.

 The purpose of this website is to help students study English as a second language on the website. It is done by many teachers throughout the world for ESL/EFL students in which different levels of quizzes are offered using various formats and for many languages. New quizzes and activities are added regularly. Moreover, all materials that are of immediate practical use to ESL/EFL teachers who are currently teaching.

The home page colors give relaxation for the eyes. However, it should have any creative multimedia such as graphics, images and recorded sounds which the site lacks of; on the other hand, there are JavaScript and flash versions which can the learner use it. There is no advertising, no Minimal HTML, No Nonsense. [a4esl.org] should work even if your browser is not compliant with the newest web standards. The website has good navigation which allows students to move easily through pages. Moreover, visited and unvisited links do not detract from the content. The fonts are black and blue which makes it easier to differentiate between the link and the title.   Finally, the site doesn't provide inquires and help section which could be benefit for the learners and there is no search section to save the learner’s time when looking for any activity.

        As an English Language teachers, we would benefit from the knowledge about website evaluation by apply it within our teaching and evaluate each and every site before asking our students to go for.

 

 

Interactive Language Learning on the Web

The World Wide Web's rich amount of information allows many valuable capacities to students and teachers; it afford a credible information background, rich learning strategies and activities, creating what we can call: an interactive language learning.

This access represents valuable advantages: accessibility, renewability and adaptability. Creating web-based activities hence can be confronted to many difficulties such as the need to afford activities that match to all types and levels of children cognitive capacities and the problem of accessibility for all children. These activities can be led through interactive web designed rooms or programs that ensure a good contact between students and teachers, based on profiting from technological improvements, there can another indirect method based on blogs that ensures the same communication function.

There is a serious need to learn web designing languages such as HTML and JAVA Script to be able to use all complete functions through the web. Audio new technologies can greatly improve the interactive language learning activity through benefiting from online listened activities and may also afford a best link between them and their teachers. The presence of CGI (Common Gateway Interface) helps a lot also to create an interactive method in improving language learning, as it is used in online surveys, online quizzes and exercises.

Welcome wordle to my world !

Blogs, Wikis and Delicious

 “How can blogs, wikis and delicious be used in the Saudi EFL context?” Please do not answer in general. Specify activities.

From my point of view I think that it is necessary direction to the introduction of new way of education by using special programmes and  soft games and videos in both schools government and private ones, which provides an opportunity for students to learn and create  and succeed in a lot of subjects, especially representing the difficulty in learning and which are not favoured by students. For example, in mathematics If students found educational process has become depend on the vision and animation the educational process , Will become a much easier than ever before. While retaining also the old way of education in some subjects that doesn’t  need imagination to use of modern methods.

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

 

a.Who are Digital Immigrant teachers and Digital Native students as categorized by the author?

The author saw that, students these days are native immigrants from his point of view. Because they have born and grown up in advanced digital Technology environment totally different than the old traditional environment .which their teachers who are a digital immigrant teacher from his point of view and their entire educational process. In his example he mentioned as well for two different kinds which was group  of traditional teachers as digital immigrants, and the team of young people who have been working for him as a native immigrants .that was an example for both.

 

b.      List down 3 differences between Digital Immigrant teachers and Digital Native students?

1-      Today’s students which is the native immigrants ,spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. But teachers or old people spend most of their time grousing about how good things were in the “old country’.

2-      Digitals immigrants had their education in an old stable or in the traditional fashion system.

3-      Native immigrants been twice faster and fixable and like trying not just read and copy than digital immigrant which took much double time and effort to learn and deal with the new application or system .

c.       What is meant by Digital immigrant accent? List down three examples of “digital immigrant accents.”

He meant their way or life style of education and dealing with the outer world now

1-      Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text. Rather than the opposite. He meant digital immigrants They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to “serious” work.

2-      Digital Immigrants, who themselves learned – and so choose to teach – slowly, step-by-step, one thing at a time, individually, and above all, seriously. Digital Immigrants don’t believe their students can learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they (the Immigrants) can’t. and also Digital Immigrant teachers assume that learners are the same as they have always been, and that the same methods that worked for the teachers when they were students will work for their students now.

3-      Digital Immigrant teachers, the people sitting in their classes grew up on the “twitch speed” of video games and MTV. They are used to the instantaneity of hypertext, downloaded music, phones in their pockets, a library on their laptops, beamed messages and instant messaging. They’ve been networked most or all of their lives. They have little patience for lectures, step-by-step logic, and “tell-test” instruction.

 

d.      According to the author, hat is the biggest serious problem facing education today?

He wished that the old tradition educational fashion should be changed, and He thought that they need to invent Digital Native methodologies for all subjects, at all levels, using our students to guide us. The process has already begun – I know college professors inventing games for teaching subjects ranging from math to engineering to the Spanish Inquisition. We need to find ways of publicizing and spreading their successes. Also the Digital Immigrant way is the only way to teach, and that the Digital Natives‟ “language” is not as capable as their own of encompassing any and every idea.

e.       “Should the Digital Natives learn the old way, or should their Digital Immigrants learn the new?”

both ways are important because the new way of native immigrants can work on some subjects but doesn’t much all subjects they need to learn it old way and also it’s important for digital immigrants to learn the new way so they can communicate not just with their student but also with life demands .

f.       What should the Digital Immigrant educators really want to reach Digital Natives?

 

If Digital Immigrant educators really want to reach Digital Natives – i.e. all their students – they will have to change. It’s high time for them to stop their grousing, and as the Nike motto of the Digital Native generation says, “Just do it!” They will succeed in the long run – and their successes will come that much sooner if their administrators support them.

The Possiblity of Reaching Bax’s Normilasation in our Saudi context: Why is it possible?When is it possible/reached/achieved?How will it be reached?

Stephan Bax argues that, "Our aim should be to attain a state of `normalization' in which the technology is invisible and truly integrated".

This article gives historical study of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL).It explains how was the ( CALL) in the past , present and the future.Morever, it explains the three phases of CALL . However, Bax has some argued about this phases and he mention the normalization.

Bax suggested that to achieve normalization , computers should be used every day by language students and teacher in the classroom. Morever, he suggested that to achieve normalization we have to identify what are the criteria we need to it. 

In Saudi schools, I think they have started using  the technologies at some schools and in my point of view, soon all schools will be using the technologies at their classes as soon as the ministry of education will provide it and train the students and teachers to use it well.

 

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