The website was designed for primary school students, since all the developers were primary school teachers. The website designed could therefore be a platform of resources for the students to continue self-studies beside classroom time. The main focus is to train their reading skills since reading plays an important role in the new English curriculum. There were ten sections in the website.
It is hoped that the website can bring about a multi-dimensional learning environment to the students and the students can learn how to read, interact with digital texts in such context. It is expected that the students will take a more autonomous role and use more of their creative mind, with the help from teacher-facilitator, using our website as a tool for reading texts, researching more about the texts in related links and admiring each others’ written work (tongue twisters).
This website can be used by the students for self-learning. Students can choose a particular text type to read and complete the online quizzes related. They can click on a particular word to learn its pronunciation. In addition to self-learning, this website can also be used as an assisting tool in classroom teaching. Some teaching plans were provided online under the section “Let’s teach”.
After developing this project page, we found that technologies were not difficult to use, Dreamweaver and Hot Potatoes were both user friendly. A website developed by teachers would fit learners’ need since teachers knew their students better than other program developers. Students learn very fast, they learn to use new technology, such as forum and guestbook, quickly. CALL can not only be used to assist classroom learning, it can also be used by students for self-learning. A well-designed CALL could make learning more efficient. You can feel free to browse our website.
Dora, Fiona, Paul & Venus
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Technology in testing: the present and the future
Testing is an important part of learning. That's why we've the course "testing and evlaution" this semester. Using IT in testing isn't a new thing. TOEFL and GRE changed to computer-based a few years ago.
Computer-based tests had received quite a lot of research these years. Some people commented that these tests had limited item types (MC, cloze, gap filling) and the test might not be valid enough. The positive point of view is CBT makes scoring much easier. The computer can report the result right after the test-taker completes the test. For paper-based test, we always need to wait for months. However, the test-taker can't skip an item or change their mind afterwards. The technique for taking a CBT is different from paper-based test. In class, we always teach our students exam strategies in addition to language skills. We teach our students to skip difficult items and try the easy ones first. We teach our students to read the questions before reading the comprehension passage. These exam strategies may not work for CBT. So, if our students need to take CBT, we need to teach them other exam strategies.
I think CBT maybe useful for low stake quizzes. But for high stake exam, paper-based test will still be my choice (in local primary schools).
CBT is good for testing receptive language abilities, but I wonder if it works for productive language abilities. Some people tried to develop CBT for assessing writing and speaking. The most important step is to train the computer to do subjective scoring. I don't think the computer can do it well at this moment. Maybe after ten years, the computer can replace human markers.
Computer-based tests had received quite a lot of research these years. Some people commented that these tests had limited item types (MC, cloze, gap filling) and the test might not be valid enough. The positive point of view is CBT makes scoring much easier. The computer can report the result right after the test-taker completes the test. For paper-based test, we always need to wait for months. However, the test-taker can't skip an item or change their mind afterwards. The technique for taking a CBT is different from paper-based test. In class, we always teach our students exam strategies in addition to language skills. We teach our students to skip difficult items and try the easy ones first. We teach our students to read the questions before reading the comprehension passage. These exam strategies may not work for CBT. So, if our students need to take CBT, we need to teach them other exam strategies.
I think CBT maybe useful for low stake quizzes. But for high stake exam, paper-based test will still be my choice (in local primary schools).
CBT is good for testing receptive language abilities, but I wonder if it works for productive language abilities. Some people tried to develop CBT for assessing writing and speaking. The most important step is to train the computer to do subjective scoring. I don't think the computer can do it well at this moment. Maybe after ten years, the computer can replace human markers.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Project Page Updated
Project page updated but not finished.
https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Group6/index.html
https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Group6/index.html
Friday, April 4, 2008
Learning Management Systems: The wrong place to start learning
The author mentioned some flaws of learning management systems. The developers of the LMS assumed that learning would happen if students were exposed to the content. The author criticized this assumption and stated that learning should be driven by needs but not LMS design.
The first LMS I encountered was Blackboard. When I first used Blackboard, I saw it as a file server for me to download lecture notes and materials. Although there's a discussion board on Blackboard, I don't see it as a place to connect with other learners/instructor. I see it as a medium to submit my homework (weekly discussion).
If is far easier to stay a life-long learner when plugged into a community or learning network, rather than having previous learning confined to a content-locked LMS. (George Siemens)
At work we learn more in the break room than in the classroom. (Jay Cross)
LMS maybe useful for highly motivated learners but not for normal learners nowadays.
The first LMS I encountered was Blackboard. When I first used Blackboard, I saw it as a file server for me to download lecture notes and materials. Although there's a discussion board on Blackboard, I don't see it as a place to connect with other learners/instructor. I see it as a medium to submit my homework (weekly discussion).
If is far easier to stay a life-long learner when plugged into a community or learning network, rather than having previous learning confined to a content-locked LMS. (George Siemens)
At work we learn more in the break room than in the classroom. (Jay Cross)
LMS maybe useful for highly motivated learners but not for normal learners nowadays.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Learner Autonomy and Tandem Learning
The author first clarified a few misconceptions of learner autonomy. Then he defined learner autonomy as a learner's capacity for critical self-evaluation and self-determination, an ability to take control over and responsibility for her learning.
Next, the author described and evaluated two tandem learning projects. He mentioned that problems in tandem learning could occur if learners placed more emphasis on personal learning objectives rather than collaboratively negotiated goals.
Tandem learning is a good idea for L2 learners to communicate and learn with an L1 expert. However, it may not be practical in primary schools, since teachers need to monitor the communication between the tandem partners.
Learner autonomy now becomes a hit topic even in primary schools. Young kids in my school are required to fill in a reflective report after the teacher finishes a mathematical topic (e.g. equation). Students write about their feelings in the report, also the classroom activities they like most. Some of them ask questions in the reflective report. A reflective report is a good way for the teacher to know a student's progress and thinking. However, if the students are required to write in their L2, they may feel a bit painful. I think.
Next, the author described and evaluated two tandem learning projects. He mentioned that problems in tandem learning could occur if learners placed more emphasis on personal learning objectives rather than collaboratively negotiated goals.
Tandem learning is a good idea for L2 learners to communicate and learn with an L1 expert. However, it may not be practical in primary schools, since teachers need to monitor the communication between the tandem partners.
Learner autonomy now becomes a hit topic even in primary schools. Young kids in my school are required to fill in a reflective report after the teacher finishes a mathematical topic (e.g. equation). Students write about their feelings in the report, also the classroom activities they like most. Some of them ask questions in the reflective report. A reflective report is a good way for the teacher to know a student's progress and thinking. However, if the students are required to write in their L2, they may feel a bit painful. I think.
Video Editing
Last night, we learnt to use Windows Movie Maker to edit video. I tried to use Movie Maker before, but I didn't like it because of the low video quality and limited functions. I learnt to use Ulead VideoStudio and Adobe Premiere. I think VideoStudio is easier to use than Premiere.
I've edited a few videos before, some for my school (mainly for recording an event, such as the sports day) and one for my friend's wedding. I think video editing is time consuming. To make a three-minute video, you may need to spend three whole days. So I have never edited one for classroom use. I may try to edit a video for classroom use if I have plenty of time and nothing to do or the lesson is really important.
What's your experience with video editing? Did you edit any video for classroom use?
I've edited a few videos before, some for my school (mainly for recording an event, such as the sports day) and one for my friend's wedding. I think video editing is time consuming. To make a three-minute video, you may need to spend three whole days. So I have never edited one for classroom use. I may try to edit a video for classroom use if I have plenty of time and nothing to do or the lesson is really important.
What's your experience with video editing? Did you edit any video for classroom use?
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Action Research Reflection
The aim of this action research project is to use an existing website to enhance teaching and to evaluate its effectiveness. The results showed that students were willing to spend time using online resources to learn English than using paper-based supplementary exercises. Also they preferred writing a story online than on paper.
The tasks, Writing a story: beginnings and endings and Writing a story: planning, on the BBC Bitesize Primary website are chosen to help students write a story. The School Intranet is also used for posting the drafts, comments and final products online.
LESSON PLAN FOR STORY WRITING
Aim: To improve pupils' story writing skills by integrating technologies in the classroom
Level: Primary 4 to Primary 6
Materials needed: Internet connected computer for each student
Objectives:
The learners will be able to
1. analyze key elements of a story.
2. develop a story from the scene-setting through the action to the end.
3. do peer-editing.
4. publish the final version of their stories.
Activities:
1. Teacher explains the structure of a story using the BBC Bitesize Primary Website, Writing a story: Planning. Pupils finish the online quiz as homework.
2. Teacher explains the development of a story using the BBC Bitesize Primary Website, Writing a story: Beginnings and endings. Pupils practices with the online activities in the computer room and finish the online quiz as homework.
3. Pupils work in groups to generate ideas and finish the mind map. Then they write up the story map based on the mind map at home.
4. Pupils do an individual writing, which is based on the story map. Then they post their draft for peer-editing on the Intranet.
5. Teacher demonstrates the editing stage. Pupils get into pairs to have the peer-editing and post their comment on the Intranet.
6. Pupils modify their story based on their peer's comment and publish their story on the Intranet.
In this project, the teacher conducted six writing lessons by using the BBC Bitesize Primary website and the school Intranet. The lessons were predominantly constructivist in nature. After evaluation, the students showed improvement in their control of story writing except the ending. The learning materials were found to fit the learners, but sometimes they needed aid. On the discussion board, the learners used the target language to negotiate. The technology supported tasks had a positive impact on both the students and the teacher. The CALL tasks were found to be practical regarding the software and hardware supported. However, the tasks were not authentic to the learners at this moment. To conclude, the use of technology to support process writing was successful and should be promoted to the whole institution in the future.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
My harddisk crashed >.<
My harddisk crashed two days ago. I lost all the files. The harddisk has been used for almost eight years. And I lost my memories in the past eight years too. Luckily, my finished homework was also saved in my USB memory stick and my photos (NOT similar to Edison's) were saved in another harddisk. However, it may cost me a few thousands to recover the files and the result is still unknown. I need to wait for a few days.
I suggest you to backup your harddisk regularly. Although computer is helpful, it's not always reliable. This is what I learn from this expensive lesson.
I suggest you to backup your harddisk regularly. Although computer is helpful, it's not always reliable. This is what I learn from this expensive lesson.
Practical Considerations for Multimedia Courseware Development
The project mentioned was about developing a courseware with multimedia. It was an old project (implementated in 1991) when Windows 3.1 was still common. At that time, multimedia or even computer was not popular. The author/researcher put a lot of time and labor in developing the courseware. In addition to the film, background information, vocabulary, online help, instruction and exericses were provided. The author saw the projecct as an individualized instruction system which can be used for cooperative learning. He also claimed that the project was not only a stand alone activity outside the regular classroom activities but can be intergrated into classrooms. However, I wonder whether it is practical to intergrate a whole film into classrooms.
When I was a secondary student, I remembered that my English teacher played a film to us. I forgot the name of that film. It was about aeroplanes and airport. I remembered that the main characters fell asleep on a plane. After they woke up, they arrived at an airport but there're no one there. The airport was attracked by some strange insects and the characters tried their best to go back to the real world. It took a long time for us to finish the film. We spent a week watching the film. It seemed to me that my teacher was trying to teach language with the film but I can't remember what he taught. I can remember the film but I can't remember what I learn. So is it sucessful or not?
Recently, when I was teaching Present Perfect Tense to my Primary 5 class. I played a short movie to them. It is a short subject of a recent teleplay. I used the movie to arouse my students' motivation. I asked them to listen to what Kevin Cheng said and tried to write the sentence (Have you seen this girl before?) from memory. They were excited to do this.
When I was a secondary student, I remembered that my English teacher played a film to us. I forgot the name of that film. It was about aeroplanes and airport. I remembered that the main characters fell asleep on a plane. After they woke up, they arrived at an airport but there're no one there. The airport was attracked by some strange insects and the characters tried their best to go back to the real world. It took a long time for us to finish the film. We spent a week watching the film. It seemed to me that my teacher was trying to teach language with the film but I can't remember what he taught. I can remember the film but I can't remember what I learn. So is it sucessful or not?
Recently, when I was teaching Present Perfect Tense to my Primary 5 class. I played a short movie to them. It is a short subject of a recent teleplay. I used the movie to arouse my students' motivation. I asked them to listen to what Kevin Cheng said and tried to write the sentence (Have you seen this girl before?) from memory. They were excited to do this.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Copyright Law -- a Guide for Teachers and Students
The copyright has been a popular subject of talks. However, it's my first time to read it.
I'm surprised to know that it's not "fair" for a teacher to play a DVD of a currently shown movie in class for students' entertainment after exams were over. The law states that it's not fair dealing because it is a currently shown movie and it was not used for an educational purpose. How about if I play a DVD of an old movie, is it fair?
Campus TV is common among schools. When producing the programme, music or video are always included. So if we play the campus TV program to our students, is it legal?
It seems that there're a lot of traps.
I'm surprised to know that it's not "fair" for a teacher to play a DVD of a currently shown movie in class for students' entertainment after exams were over. The law states that it's not fair dealing because it is a currently shown movie and it was not used for an educational purpose. How about if I play a DVD of an old movie, is it fair?
Campus TV is common among schools. When producing the programme, music or video are always included. So if we play the campus TV program to our students, is it legal?
It seems that there're a lot of traps.
Hot Potatoes is useful
I heard of Hot Potatoes for a long time, but it's my first time to try it. It's not difficult to use and I'm able to produce different kinds of quizzes. That's great. Our project page is now filled with Hot Potatoes quizzes. ^_^
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Our Project Proposal
We are going to design a CALL website to assist our students in learning English as a second language. Since CALL has a lot of benefits such as arousing students’ interest and enhancing communication among learners, we hope the website designed can respond to the current CALL trend and enhance teaching and learning in real context.
All of us are teaching Key Stage 2 students in local primary schools. Three of us even teach in the same primary school. Many of our students are quite willing to learn English, but they lack adequate resources to enable them to further practice the four skills at home or after English lessons. Many of them can master basic skills but need further enhancement. The class web page can be a platform of resources we intend for our students to continue self-studies beside class time. Our focus is training their reading skills since past TSA results indicated students need reinforcement in this aspect. Moreover, reading plays an important role in language learning process. As suggested by EDB, we have to place around 40% of the lessons in reading in the new English curriculum.
It is important for us to choose readings which can align with the Key Stage 2 genre of texts in the new English curriculum. After thorough consideration, we decided to link our page to the Starfall website as it includes a wide range of text types, such as plays, fiction and non-fiction, comics, folk tales, Greek myths and Chinese fables. These readings cannot only broaden our students’ horizon but also arouse their interest to engage in training of reading skills. In addition, the wide range of text types could fulfill different students’ needs as some of them like reading stories while some of them like reading nonfictions.
After reading the passages, students have to complete online quizzes. The questions will not simply ask students the meaning of the passages, they also need to pay attention on the pictures. Thus, while attempting the questions, students need to apply their comprehension skills, as well as their high order thinking skills which could help developing their reading techniques.
In order to make the texts more attractive, all the texts chosen are shown using Flash. Students could decide how many times they will listen to it and how long they will spend on it. There is no time limit and thus, if students have learning difficulties or those who read slowly, they don’t need to push themselves to read faster. Moreover, they could click the icons so that they could listen to the texts while reading it.
Meanwhile, a variety of activities will be provided to students. For instance, they might be asked to complete different tasks, such as filling in the blanks, answering MC questions, matching and cross puzzles. They are also invited to discuss or share what they have learnt in the guestbook. The idea of implementing a guestbook is that it could promote interactions not only between teacher and students, but also students to students.
All of us are teaching Key Stage 2 students in local primary schools. Three of us even teach in the same primary school. Many of our students are quite willing to learn English, but they lack adequate resources to enable them to further practice the four skills at home or after English lessons. Many of them can master basic skills but need further enhancement. The class web page can be a platform of resources we intend for our students to continue self-studies beside class time. Our focus is training their reading skills since past TSA results indicated students need reinforcement in this aspect. Moreover, reading plays an important role in language learning process. As suggested by EDB, we have to place around 40% of the lessons in reading in the new English curriculum.
It is important for us to choose readings which can align with the Key Stage 2 genre of texts in the new English curriculum. After thorough consideration, we decided to link our page to the Starfall website as it includes a wide range of text types, such as plays, fiction and non-fiction, comics, folk tales, Greek myths and Chinese fables. These readings cannot only broaden our students’ horizon but also arouse their interest to engage in training of reading skills. In addition, the wide range of text types could fulfill different students’ needs as some of them like reading stories while some of them like reading nonfictions.
After reading the passages, students have to complete online quizzes. The questions will not simply ask students the meaning of the passages, they also need to pay attention on the pictures. Thus, while attempting the questions, students need to apply their comprehension skills, as well as their high order thinking skills which could help developing their reading techniques.
In order to make the texts more attractive, all the texts chosen are shown using Flash. Students could decide how many times they will listen to it and how long they will spend on it. There is no time limit and thus, if students have learning difficulties or those who read slowly, they don’t need to push themselves to read faster. Moreover, they could click the icons so that they could listen to the texts while reading it.
Meanwhile, a variety of activities will be provided to students. For instance, they might be asked to complete different tasks, such as filling in the blanks, answering MC questions, matching and cross puzzles. They are also invited to discuss or share what they have learnt in the guestbook. The idea of implementing a guestbook is that it could promote interactions not only between teacher and students, but also students to students.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Our Project Page
Our group's project page is uploaded.
https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Group6/index.html
https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Group6/index.html
Theory-driven CALL and the Development Process
This paper is about the development process of CALL. The review of literature shows that there are three phrases of development: the analysis phase, the development phase and the evaluation phase.
I think these three phases are common to all computer programme development. It is also valid to all curriculum development.
The author quoted two points of views about at which stage the media is selected. Someone think that it's not necessary to consider the media right from the start. However, some think that having a solid knowledge of the media in the earliest stage is a powerful foundation. I agree with the second point of view, if we don't have any knowledge of the media, the design of the CALL will be in danger. We may need to change the design because it's not practical. Although the author warned that this approach may make the CALL technology-led, I think it's more suitable.
The second part of the paper is about the CALL survey. Responses to the questionnaire are divided into categories. I would like to use my own experience to apply the categories.
It is fortunate that I've participated in the e-schoolbag project in my previous school. I think it's a quite successful project, although I've left for a few years already. We tried to develop some computer activities for our students to learn Chinese, English, Maths and General Studies. Below is the link to one P4 English topic.
http://www.bwcss.edu.hk/~e-schoolbag/english/4a-olympic/index.htm
I will categorize it as "Syllabus specifications". When we had a coplanning on the topic, we wanted computer backup for our textbook. So we (the P4 English teachers) designed the learning activities. We drew our plans on papers. When we designed the learning activities, we considered the media as well. We tried our best to make sure that what we designed was executable. Then we asked the IT technician to do the implementation. This matches with the sequential process in the paper.
1. Conceptualization of learning activity
2. Matching to suitable software format
3. Software specification
4. Programming
However, in this case, the language teachers only did the first step (designing the learning activities). The IT technician did all the other steps.
This kind of CALL is not common in Hong Kong schools. Since most teachers may not have the technique to implement the CALL, even some do have the technique, they don't have enough time to do so. And most of the schools do not want to spend money on hiring an IT technician just for developing CALL. So most of the CALL in Hong Kong are developed by commercial parties. This kind of CALL may not fit the leaners' or teachers' need. So, what can we do to solve it?
I think these three phases are common to all computer programme development. It is also valid to all curriculum development.
The author quoted two points of views about at which stage the media is selected. Someone think that it's not necessary to consider the media right from the start. However, some think that having a solid knowledge of the media in the earliest stage is a powerful foundation. I agree with the second point of view, if we don't have any knowledge of the media, the design of the CALL will be in danger. We may need to change the design because it's not practical. Although the author warned that this approach may make the CALL technology-led, I think it's more suitable.
The second part of the paper is about the CALL survey. Responses to the questionnaire are divided into categories. I would like to use my own experience to apply the categories.
It is fortunate that I've participated in the e-schoolbag project in my previous school. I think it's a quite successful project, although I've left for a few years already. We tried to develop some computer activities for our students to learn Chinese, English, Maths and General Studies. Below is the link to one P4 English topic.
http://www.bwcss.edu.hk/~e-schoolbag/english/4a-olympic/index.htm
I will categorize it as "Syllabus specifications". When we had a coplanning on the topic, we wanted computer backup for our textbook. So we (the P4 English teachers) designed the learning activities. We drew our plans on papers. When we designed the learning activities, we considered the media as well. We tried our best to make sure that what we designed was executable. Then we asked the IT technician to do the implementation. This matches with the sequential process in the paper.
1. Conceptualization of learning activity
2. Matching to suitable software format
3. Software specification
4. Programming
However, in this case, the language teachers only did the first step (designing the learning activities). The IT technician did all the other steps.
This kind of CALL is not common in Hong Kong schools. Since most teachers may not have the technique to implement the CALL, even some do have the technique, they don't have enough time to do so. And most of the schools do not want to spend money on hiring an IT technician just for developing CALL. So most of the CALL in Hong Kong are developed by commercial parties. This kind of CALL may not fit the leaners' or teachers' need. So, what can we do to solve it?
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Language Learner Behaviour in a Virtual Environment
I can't agree more!
The author claimed that a virtual learning environment may constitute a more relaxed and stress free atmosphere than a classroom. And the findings showed that some students shows a distinct behaviour pattern when working online. Julie and Linda who are considered to be passive in class take the initiative online. They are concluded as flourished in the virtual environment.
I think I am in the same type as Julie and Linda. I prefer asking questions by email than in person. I feel extremely nervous when directly addressed in class. A few years ago, when ICQ was still popular, one of my friends commented that I was much more talkative online. I though he's right. Although my case is a bit different, I am talking in Cantonese instead of English. Some statements from the essay can explain the situation.
It's obvious that virtual environment cannot solve the problem. We cannot just communicate online, however it can work as scaffolding. It lets the anxious students gain confidence. So I agree that virtual learning environment should be used to accompany classroom teaching. It gives chance for shy students to learn and prevent domination.
The author claimed that a virtual learning environment may constitute a more relaxed and stress free atmosphere than a classroom. And the findings showed that some students shows a distinct behaviour pattern when working online. Julie and Linda who are considered to be passive in class take the initiative online. They are concluded as flourished in the virtual environment.
I think I am in the same type as Julie and Linda. I prefer asking questions by email than in person. I feel extremely nervous when directly addressed in class. A few years ago, when ICQ was still popular, one of my friends commented that I was much more talkative online. I though he's right. Although my case is a bit different, I am talking in Cantonese instead of English. Some statements from the essay can explain the situation.
The illusion of anonymity that online work gives is a define advantage to the shy and introvert language student.
A virtual learning environment is likely to lower the level of language anxiety.
It's obvious that virtual environment cannot solve the problem. We cannot just communicate online, however it can work as scaffolding. It lets the anxious students gain confidence. So I agree that virtual learning environment should be used to accompany classroom teaching. It gives chance for shy students to learn and prevent domination.
Internet resources for English Language Teaching
BBC Bitesize Primary
Description
This website is suitable for Key Stage 2 students in Hong Kong in terms of topic covered and level of difficulty of language items. Different types of activities can be found on this website. The colourful and interactive animations can facilitate learning on screen. Commentary feedback is provided after the answer is submitted.
How we can use this website
We can use this website to assess our normal teaching since its activities match well with Hong Kong English KS2 curriculum. For example, the section "Factual writing: instructions" aligns with Primary 4 Instruction writing. The focus is how to write steps. The online task requires students to choose a task and write instructions on how to do it. While choosing the options, students need to exercise their critical thinking to judge which option is the most suitable one. It is an effective way for introduction or recap of instructions.
Pros and cons
We find this website good for introducting text types, grammar points and consolidation. The website can inspire learners to explore grammatical rules. This website mainly focuses on reading and writing, but not speaking or listening.
Description
This website is suitable for Key Stage 2 students in Hong Kong in terms of topic covered and level of difficulty of language items. Different types of activities can be found on this website. The colourful and interactive animations can facilitate learning on screen. Commentary feedback is provided after the answer is submitted.
How we can use this website
We can use this website to assess our normal teaching since its activities match well with Hong Kong English KS2 curriculum. For example, the section "Factual writing: instructions" aligns with Primary 4 Instruction writing. The focus is how to write steps. The online task requires students to choose a task and write instructions on how to do it. While choosing the options, students need to exercise their critical thinking to judge which option is the most suitable one. It is an effective way for introduction or recap of instructions.
Pros and cons
We find this website good for introducting text types, grammar points and consolidation. The website can inspire learners to explore grammatical rules. This website mainly focuses on reading and writing, but not speaking or listening.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Language Learning & Technology
This is what I read in "Tag Clouds in the blogosphere: Electronic Literacy and Social Networking". I find it useful and intersting.
While language instructors may use blogs for reading/writing practice in the target language, most educational uses of blogs have involved course blogs in which the instructor leads a discussion on course-related topics. Blogs offer interesting opportunities for collaborative projects, debates, or interactive travel logs. They provide an opportunity for students to write in a public sphere and in a more coherent and organized way than in chat or instant messaging. A major benefit of using blogs is to provide an environment in which students engage with the topic and with one another, developing skills of persuasion and argumentation.
It is possible to create a more student-centered learning environment using blogs, particularly if students create blogs that they control and whose content they own.
While language instructors may use blogs for reading/writing practice in the target language, most educational uses of blogs have involved course blogs in which the instructor leads a discussion on course-related topics. Blogs offer interesting opportunities for collaborative projects, debates, or interactive travel logs. They provide an opportunity for students to write in a public sphere and in a more coherent and organized way than in chat or instant messaging. A major benefit of using blogs is to provide an environment in which students engage with the topic and with one another, developing skills of persuasion and argumentation.
It is possible to create a more student-centered learning environment using blogs, particularly if students create blogs that they control and whose content they own.
Evaluation of BBC - Bitesize Primary
My groupmates are Dora, Fiona and Paul. It's the first time that I work with them. Hope we can cooperate with each other.
The website that we're going to evaluate is BBC - Bitesize Primary. There're a few sections on this website. We're going to concentrate on Key Stage 2 English, since we're all teaching KS2 at school.
After discussion, we planned to adopt Hubbard's framework for CALL Courseware evaluation. The framework consists of three main components, namely operational description, teacher fit and learner fit.
Operational description includes activity type, presentional scheme, layout, feedback, etc.
Teacher fit concerns how well the developer's assumptions about language and leanring as manifested in the courseware correspond to those of the evaluator (i.e. ours ^_^).
When evaluating learner fit, we considered whether the website suited the needs of our students and the role of the courseware in class.
Finally, we tried to adopt the website into our teaching. We chose the task - Factual writing: instructions. We are still thinking of how we can use this website in class. It can be used as both instruction and practice. Students can work independently. However, it will be an good idea to work in small groups, so that students can develop their communicative skill.
The website that we're going to evaluate is BBC - Bitesize Primary. There're a few sections on this website. We're going to concentrate on Key Stage 2 English, since we're all teaching KS2 at school.
After discussion, we planned to adopt Hubbard's framework for CALL Courseware evaluation. The framework consists of three main components, namely operational description, teacher fit and learner fit.
Operational description includes activity type, presentional scheme, layout, feedback, etc.
Teacher fit concerns how well the developer's assumptions about language and leanring as manifested in the courseware correspond to those of the evaluator (i.e. ours ^_^).
When evaluating learner fit, we considered whether the website suited the needs of our students and the role of the courseware in class.
Finally, we tried to adopt the website into our teaching. We chose the task - Factual writing: instructions. We are still thinking of how we can use this website in class. It can be used as both instruction and practice. Students can work independently. However, it will be an good idea to work in small groups, so that students can develop their communicative skill.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Happy Chinese New Year
It's the last lesson before Chinese New Year!
See you all on Valentine's Day.
Happy Chinese New Year!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Internet for English Teaching - Sample Web Projects
In this section, the authors list some case studies of incorporating the Internet into teaching. I find this section very interesting and useful, especially those projects for primary schools.
I love the Primary School Webfolios. I hope that I can try this one out with my class, but I'm afraid that I don't have enough time. The e-mail cultural exchange project is attractive to me too. However, it seems difficult for me to find some native speakers to exchange emails with my students.
I really hope that I can integrated IT into my students' language learning. I created a blog for my students a few months ago and encouraged them to express themselves there. However, only a few students visited the blog and most of them wrote in Chinese or even Cantonese. I am thinking about ways to increase my students' interest in visiting the blog and writing in English. Do you have any suggestions?
I love the Primary School Webfolios. I hope that I can try this one out with my class, but I'm afraid that I don't have enough time. The e-mail cultural exchange project is attractive to me too. However, it seems difficult for me to find some native speakers to exchange emails with my students.
I really hope that I can integrated IT into my students' language learning. I created a blog for my students a few months ago and encouraged them to express themselves there. However, only a few students visited the blog and most of them wrote in Chinese or even Cantonese. I am thinking about ways to increase my students' interest in visiting the blog and writing in English. Do you have any suggestions?
Internet for English Teaching - Learning Goals
In this section of the chapter, the authors discuss five learning goals of English language courses. They are: Active and Creative Mastery, Autonomous Learning, Collaborative Learning, Cross-Cultural Learning and Critical Learning.
The authors suggest that teachers should help their students achieve active and creative mastery of new technologies, otherwise they are shortchanging their students. However, I wonder whether it's the responsibility of the English language teachers or the IT teachers to help students achieve mastery of new technologies.
I agree that mastery is not a onetime goal but an ongoing, liftlong process. Teachers should teach students "learn to learn". So that the students will become active learners not ducks that are waiting for feeders. But the authors did not mention how we can develop the autonomous learning strategies of students.
Collaboration becomes more and more important. Teachers are asked to teach collaboratively, students are asked to learn collaboratively. The authors claim that students cannot really learn to use the Internet well unless they learn collaborative communication and teamwork skills. It's not arguable that students can learn better if they can cooperative with other learners. However, learning from the Internet can be an individual , one-way work. The conclusion of the authors are too hasty.
The popularization of computers and the Internet decreases the distance between people from different corners of the world. It takes only a few minutes or even seconds for people to communicate over the Internet. People from different cultures can contact each other in an convenient way, thus cross-cultural learning is applicable.
Finally, the authors suggest that teachers should help students think critically by analyzing the perspectives and biases of individual www sites. This is extremely important. Students get access to the Internet at a very young age, as young as three years old. However, they seldom analyze the content of the webpages. They always believe what they read from the Internet. When they're asked to seach information from the web, they simply copy everything they see on the screen. Teachers should teach students to think critically when they first teach students to use the Internet. This is what we lack in the current curriculum.
The authors suggest that teachers should help their students achieve active and creative mastery of new technologies, otherwise they are shortchanging their students. However, I wonder whether it's the responsibility of the English language teachers or the IT teachers to help students achieve mastery of new technologies.
I agree that mastery is not a onetime goal but an ongoing, liftlong process. Teachers should teach students "learn to learn". So that the students will become active learners not ducks that are waiting for feeders. But the authors did not mention how we can develop the autonomous learning strategies of students.
Collaboration becomes more and more important. Teachers are asked to teach collaboratively, students are asked to learn collaboratively. The authors claim that students cannot really learn to use the Internet well unless they learn collaborative communication and teamwork skills. It's not arguable that students can learn better if they can cooperative with other learners. However, learning from the Internet can be an individual , one-way work. The conclusion of the authors are too hasty.
The popularization of computers and the Internet decreases the distance between people from different corners of the world. It takes only a few minutes or even seconds for people to communicate over the Internet. People from different cultures can contact each other in an convenient way, thus cross-cultural learning is applicable.
Finally, the authors suggest that teachers should help students think critically by analyzing the perspectives and biases of individual www sites. This is extremely important. Students get access to the Internet at a very young age, as young as three years old. However, they seldom analyze the content of the webpages. They always believe what they read from the Internet. When they're asked to seach information from the web, they simply copy everything they see on the screen. Teachers should teach students to think critically when they first teach students to use the Internet. This is what we lack in the current curriculum.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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