is this tagging??

Academic detail:
1) Gender: Female
2) Program : ED 220
3) Major : TESL
4) Minor : Counseling
5) Point of entrance into Faculty of Education : SPM
6) CGPA : 3 >
7) Was your major your own choice or that of others (i.e: your parents)? : my choce =)8) Do you hold any scholarships (KPM, KPTM, Yayasan, etc)? If so, please state.: none

Family background:
1) Father’s occupation : retired
2) Mother’s occupation : retired
3) Annual family income (approximate) : RM 2k

Teaching experience:
1) Succinctly describe your experience throughout practicum.

boley laa..
2) Do you plan to teach in schools upon graduation (assuming that the post is there for you)?
Yes

3) If YES, please state specifically reasons behind your decision, specifically indicating major motivation for servicing in schools :

I am planning to further my Ma. in Curriculum and iinstruction. thus, I think it'd be better for me to blend myself in the curriculum first. =)

4) If NO, kindly list and explain your reasons.

5) Did your practicum experience deter you from serving as a teacher in Malaysian
public schools?
ermm..not really
6) If teaching is still a choice, where (and at what level) do you plan to teach?:

i'd love to teach in the rural area. any level would be fine. but I prefer to go far from the urban schools as I think (wish) and positive that the students appreciate the teachers more, and they really really want to learn. the only source of education is the school. like in urban school, they have tutions. who cares if they don't come to school?

7) If teaching IS NOT your choice of a profession, what are your plans upon graduation?:
err.. if. I don't know. I can't imagine myself doing anything else. working in an office, perhaps?

Hot Potato

ho ho ho. obviously I don't update this blog as I do to my other blog. but this time lesson is really interesting! it is Hot Potato!

haha! in my CALL class today we learnt on how to use J CROSS, one of the Hot Potato learning games. I think this is the most exciting game that we can have here. the application is good for teachers who like to use technology in the class room.




my crossword puzzle is about SHOES! :D

J Mix.
J mix is about reshuffling words in a sentence. I think to prepare it is a bit complicated as compared to J Cross, J Cloze and J Match.

J Cloze.
J Cloze is easy to prepare, and it is just another mode of the traditional exercise which is cloze passage. but it is good tho. we can have a new method of drilling in the classroom!

J Match.
this one is also easy to prepare. the activities can be constructed up to the teachers.

how I wish I know all these during practicum. I heard about it, but never tried it - my bad. oh, no use. because the school runs on the conventional learning method. they are more to Newspaper in the classroom!

Task 2 : ESL Website Evaluation

http://a4esl.org/

1. What does the application attempt to "teach"?

This website caters a wide range of aspect in English learning. It varies from the basic which is grammar, vocabularies to the general knowledge in English. It also teaches the users about conversation, abbreviations, proverbs and other subtle additional input of English. It uses exercises and drilling techniques in most of the activities. For each activity, there is percentage of the users achievement in finishing that activity. for example, out of 7 questions, the user has reached 100% as there are still no wrong answer at question number 3. the percentage will go down if the user answer one question wrongly. This is a good drilling technique as users will try not to do mistakes.

As for parents and teachers, this application can be used as a guidelines on teaching the students/kids in a different and more fun way. It gives wide range od creative ideas for questions and techniques such as games, matching the pictures, reshuffling words and so on.

2. What sorts of things is the application users expected to do with regards to learning the content?
Other than need to have a good basic of English, users of this application are expected to have a intellectual bond with general knowledge at least about their own countries. For example, a Malaysian are expected to know places in Malaysia and a Bulgarian is expected to know places in Bulgaria. Another example I would like to share here is for one of the crossword puzzles game (click). The game is about "Countries Where English Is Spoken". For this game, users are expected to have a vast general knowledge on other countries rather than just his/her country. It is because this website is a collaborative project of the Internet TESL Journal (iteslj.org) that has thousands of contributions by many teachers, that I believe are from all over the world. It is not that all users are required to do the same activities. They can use activities from any country they wish for than only their own county. In short, I would say that this website caters learners from the whole world who wish to learn English language, authentically. Besides, this application also provides bilingual activities that makes English can be learnt by everybody in this world, who speaks different languages easily ans effectively. Personally, that is why I am interested to choose this website after browsing almost ten other ESL websites.


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

This website requires a very minimal computer skills as it only involves clicking and typing to answer the questions. The application is very easy to access as every activities are labelled according to different levels of difficulties - Easy, Medium and Difficult. For each category, there are almost hundreds of subcategories to choose on. Here is where the users might become agitated as there are so many activities can be done. It did happen to me as i was browsing over this application. Despite having too many choices to choose that make it quite difficult for some users, i think it is a good method if users have this application as their own ongoing process of learning. Each activity tests the the users in different aspects of knowledge, using the same context of English compartments (grammar, vocabulary etc.). With that, a user can do one activity at a time according to the level of difficulties, and different choice of topics. That will make it less boring. As for teachers, it is about choosing the right topics to the students in order to make sure that the contents of the activities are within the students' schemata.

Moreover, there is no other existential installments needed for this application. The application use a simple JavaScript, HTML and Flashplayer which are common in every house computer. The Flashplayer, for example; gives responds to any correct or wrong answers by flashing out a signs of "CORRECT" for the correct answers and "WRONG" together with the correct answer when the answer chose is wrong. After that, users can proceed the activity just by a click on the provided button. The same goes to the crossword puzzles in which it provides a clickable "hint" when users need one. The wrongly filled boxes will be blanked if the answers are wrong when users check the answers. It is that simple. And it is free!

4. While you are "playing"/"accessing"/"assessing" the application, does it remind you of anything you do in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?

Yes. I have experienced a few events that can be related to the activities in this application. Even though this application does not provide so much interesting and more happening games but the crossword puzzles, it still reminds me of my attempts to learn new vocabularies via crossword puzzles years ago; on newspapers. My point is it is so impressive that now we have crossword puzzles on computers. Besides reflecting that we are running parallel with the technology, it shows that difficult things like crossword puzzles can be fun too - as it provides hints which is one way of motivating learners to keep on trying and guessing.
Other than that, the questions from other countries in the application reminds me of the game "Geo Challenge" that I play in my facebook. The game emphasizes on the general knowledge of the players about other countries by matching the flags with the shape of the country on the map. Although this application does not provides such games for its users, it is more or less the same in terms of rather than merely learning English, one can also gain general knowledge. Or in other hand, English can be learnt by playing game on general knowledge. It is undeniably fun.

Another experience of mine is when I took the subject "Computer in Education" during my Part 1. At that time, my lecturer, Pn. Jamiah Baba showed us some examples of learning websites that we can use in the classroom. It happened to me that i liked the online educational games that i tried other different websites during my leisure time. Personally, the online based learning does teach me so many things in improving my English.


5. Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teacihng underlying the application?
From my evaluation, I found that there are several learning theories combined underlying the application. They are dual-coding theory, structural theory, cognitive theory, situated theory and constructivism theory.

Dual-coding theory is based from the cognitive theory that was advanced by AllanPaivio of University of Western Ontario( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_coding_theory ). According to Wikipedia, "both visual and verbal codes for representing information are used to organize incoming information into knowledge that can be acted upon, stored, and retrieved for subsequent use". To begin with, regardless of the countries the questions are from, each activity requires students to do a activities on grammar redundantly but with different patterns of questions. This is when the users have to remember the mistakes done earlier before proceeding to the new task as they must redo the wrongly answered questions again at the end of the game before they get their marks. In short, users receive information (which one is right and which one is wrong), store them (remember it) and retrieve them back (to answer another question or to redo it).

The next theory that I can relate in this application is the structural theory by J. Scandura (http://tecfa.unige.ch/themes/sa2/act-app-dos2-fic-structur.htm ). In structural learning theory, the focus is to propose a single, goal-switching control mechanism with minimal assumptions about the processor and allow more complex rule structures. The theory also assumes that "working memory" holds both rules and data (i.e., rules which do not act on other rules); the memory load associated with a task depends upon the rule(s) used for the task at hand (http://tecfa.unige.ch/themes/sa2/act-app-dos2-fic-structur.htm ). From my assessment, the application provides activities according to units of English. For example, there are grammar that has its own subtopics that are represent by units (e.g. articles, countable & uncountable, etc.), vocabulary that is also narrowed down into its own category (e.g. verbs, nouns, opposite words, at places, etc) and the crossword puzzles by categories. Other than that, all the activities are categorized according to different levels of difficulties - easy, medium and difficult which is one of the three principles in the theory, is to teach the simplest solution path first and then teach more complex paths or rule sets.

Another theory that can be related in this application is the cognitive theory by Jean Piaget. For this application, the theory at concrete operational stage applies. The theory could be seen clearly on the vocabulary part, Nouns (click). For that activity, users are required to choose the name of the animal picture shown at the top of the options. Users are expected to identify and classify the animal before clicking for the answer. This kind of activities represent the cognitive theory of Classification—the ability to name and identify sets of objects according to appearance, size or other characteristic, including the idea that one set of objects can include another, under the concrete operational stage.

As some of the questions in the application are about users' general knowledge on their own countries, the situated theory by J. Lave (click) applies as one of the method used in teaching in this application. There are two principles in this theory that reflect the use of general knowledge questions in this application - (1) Knowledge needs to be presented in an authentic context, i.e., settings and applications that would normally involve that knowledge. (2) Learning requires social interaction and collaboration,(http://tip.psychology.org/lave.html). For example, for the vocabulary activity, one of the crossword puzzles use a context of Christmas Dinner (click) as the theme of the puzzle. This is one of the ways to teach the users authentically in which the users learn things that they have experienced before. Besides, that also makes the learning more meaningful. Another example that I would like to share is the grammar quizzes about places. For this quizzes, there is a long list of countries users can choose from, including Malaysia. For Malaysian users, the questions are authentic in the sense of places stated in the questions in which we are familiar with or interested to know about as it is from our own country. Besides meaningful, this type of questions are also motivating the users to answer as there is no total "lost of context" situation for them to understand it. As an addition, this activity has also used the Grammar Translation Method in which I believe other bilingual activities has also used to cater users form all over the world. for the Malay-English Bilingual Quizzes, the 'nouns' users need to guess in English are written in Malay so that the users would know what they need to guess. That makes learning easier.There are also Swahili, French, Japanese, Zulu and the list goes on. Personally, I think this is so convenience for all the Internet users who intend to learn English online and the most important is, for free. Other than that, users can also get the chance to learn other languages as well. It is like killing two birds with one stone.

6. How well the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen websites(s)?

In my opinion, this application reflects a big portion of the constructivist theory of learning. In almost all activities evolved around the specific aspect of grammar to be repeated that urge users to accommodate and assimilate with the knowledge and teaching users by using examples or clues that are within users’ context. Constructivist Theory agree that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge.

As the application offer activities intensively, users can really learn form their repeated experience and mistakes. For example, when users get familiar with the rules of grammar after doing numbers of mistakes, they learn from it and tend to recall the previous mistakes and be aware of the rules. According to the constructivist theory, “accommodation can be understood as the mechanism by which failure leads to learning: when we act on the expectation that the world operates in one way and it violates our expectations, we often fail, but by accommodating this new experience and reframing our model of the way the world works, we learn from the experience of failure, or others' failure.” Constructivism (learning theory) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Other than that, learning via general knowledge is also one of the concepts of the constructivist theory. It is because, according to Bruner in one of his principles in the theory, instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (readiness). As for this application, the questions that use general knowledge as the theme according to levels of difficulties make users feel connected with the scene and indirectly become interested and motivated to do the activity as the topic used is within their schemata.
In short, this application applied the constructivist theory of learning very well and effectively. Users are motivated to learn and they learn from previous experience on doing mistakes that leads to accommodating and assimilating.

7. 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 –was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?

We often heard that human resources are now being replaced by machines, robots and such. As in learning, computers have been used widely since years ago in which we can have all sorts of activities and language game in a computer. However, in my opinion, computer is neither a slave nor a master to us in a process of learning.

Teachers are always needed in learning as an effective two- way communication does not occur while dealing with computers. Activities in various websites do provide explanation and knowledge required in learning but the delivery will not be as much effective as a teacher’s explanations and feedbacks. In the other hands, computers can never understand us nor adjust itself to meet to our level of proficiency at times. The activities do respond to our right or wrong answers and even give us the implicit motivation, but it can never be as same as from human who have the empathy towards each other. Meanwhile, teachers have the ability to fiddle with the different situation and feelings within a learning process.

Nevertheless, computer is still relevant in teaching and learning as a complement to the activities. Computers give us fun time in learning. It is more colorful, animate, easy and fast! Computer is like a new medium of fun learning synchronized with the rapid growth in science and technology. Students nowadays are ‘choosy’ and have their ‘taste’ even in learning. They yearn for something lively, fun, and interactive; and I would say up to their pars of a fun learning. Hence, computers come into place and make it a ‘supposed to be reality’ for students – learning is fun, and less boring! For creative and innovative teachers, computer will be their one of the teaching aids and resource rather than just depending on textbooks, books, and newspapers. By that, modern students like we have today will not feel boring but interested to learn. And for diligent students with Internet access, they can monitor their own self-learning by browsing the online learning websites and do the exercises online to test their understanding of what they have learnt at school. This will make learning accessible at anytime out from the school periods.

Conclusively, I believed that computer is a complimentary in learning activities. It is neither a ‘master’ nor a ‘slave’, but a helper and a ‘magic machine’ that helps teachers to come out with interesting lessons and it grabs students’ attention to have a more fun learning.

8. Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?
Yes? Give reasons:
No? Give reasons:

Yes, definitely. I like this application even though it is just a simple application with a simple layout; I like the contents very much. It is not only providing activities for students but also ideas for teacher to have a fun lesson for the students in class. For example, there are ideas of lessons that teachers can use when there is no online activities involved such as of jokes that teachers can use to grab students’ attention, games and activities, and also a list of questions for conversations for ESL students. All these features can be like the emergency resources when teachers run out of ideas for activities or can simply be used for a fun lesson. Besides, when to be used as a classroom activity, this application can be brought as an online test in wchich teacher can instruct stduents to answer the questions in a specific given time. The result can be obtained at the end of the 'test' according to the percentage marks and points culculated by the application. For example, English Grammar quizzes, easy - level 1 :Assorted questions-choose the best answer(click) and in English Vocabulary Quizzes, easy - level 1:Months of the Year (click).

Other than easy for teachers, it is also an organized activity to have in a computer-provided classrrom. all the activities are more or less the same with the typical method but with a different medium, which is computers.


9. Suggestions/recommendations

Personally, I really think this application is a good ESL website, for its contents that cater users form all over the world. I also appreciate the efforts of many ESL teachers who make this application such a benefitial sources in online learning. I kindly suggest that teachers shall take this application as one of their 'think tank' in providing a lesson for the students. In general, this application not only caters us with English Language alone, it also provides us with knowledge about other countries and our own country that I think as a catalyst to a knowledgable individual. However, I still think that this application should use more vibrant colours and animations as the users might varies from every level of age. With its good contents, it will be a waste if not everybody is attracted to use it. As for adult users, all the colours and visual effects might not be a problem as they are willing to learn by themselves. For younger users of age 5-10, this application might not be their first choice. Overall, I am not against online language learning as it provides more interactive, fun leanring.