Deliciously Delicous !

The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw we had to use delicious was this

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Delicious is a café in Malaysia well known for its desserts especially ‘The Pavlova’. As I clicked the link on this course’s webpage I was directed to a new site specifically about bookmarking (at that time I had food in my mind! Pfft). The newly found delicious bookmarking service eases the norm of bookmarking before which was only saved on a specific computer that we tend to use. Before this I only bookmark things in my computer at the office but when I borrowed my brother’s laptop I would only save the links in my email’s notepad. Now voila, bookmarking will be an easy task on any computer! A big hand to the inventors for such a genius idea.  Do visit mine at delicious/missafz .


Moving on to the oral/audio skill building website, it was a never ending search that reflects that there are so many websites that we can use to adapt for our class. The 3 issues that I had after reading the articles provided were
1. A dilemma for some teachers might be a) whether they want to modify the lesson to a communicative approach lesson and try fun listening activities or b) stick to the routine of chalk and talk (teacher centered) and follow strictly to the syllabus laid out.  
[This falls back to sufficient facilities and creativity of the teacher] Sometimes, if the teacher is not creative listening activities alone can be a boredom for teachers as it requires students feedback on the issue discussed.
2. How far will language practitioners use these sites in their class to promote listening /speaking activities? 
If a teacher is not used to student centered approach/ have students with minimal knowledge of the subject question and answer session after listening can be less interactive due to the lack of response. 
3. Should we wait for all teachers and schools to use CALL or further advance the technology to feed advanced computer/Internet learning users due to the different level of computer literacy/access?

Pennington (1995) as cited in Busa’s article mentioned that speech analysis technology is highly motivating, even learners who had formerly shown no inclination to work on their

pronunciation will often willingly spend time working alone or with a trainer using this computer-based form of input and practice.

1. students must be taught on how to work/study independently using a computer
2. school or parents should invest to upgrade the use of technology in classrooms i.e computers, CDs
3. Website developers should also keep up to the requirements of advanced learners

At the end of the day, no matter how much we are exposed to these resources it depends highly on the teacher to use his/her effort and creativity to integrate listening/speaking activities in class, to evaluate the feasibility of using technology in class and enforcing the activities for students.

*This week was very tiring for me as I’m feeling a bit under the weather. Once the medication kicks in it makes me drowsy instantly . I spent most of the hours sleeping which was a waste of time especially upon knowing I haven’t done much for this week. Here’s for the hope of recovering and for good health for everyone!

Cheers. 


Signing off with another dessert from delicious  cafe. Yums!!

Google no more, say hello to other search engines!

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Searching on the Internet can be a difficult task for some especially when we can’t find what we hope to get. This must be a common phenomena for teachers around the world where we frequently need to work on projects for students and vary the types of exercises depending on our student’s needs. Realizing the source of availability the search engine iSEEK comes in handy where there are various lessons to choose from for lessons focusing on different styles specifically on Education.

Websearching before this used to be based on the most popular engines that I know such as Yahoo and Google [Read Search Engine Ranking]. As I widen my virtual circle of friends I found out BBC and IDEA search engines that I frequently use to gain videos and written materials for class. A few days ago, upon clicking the sites given by the instructors, to my surprise thanks to the Noodletools there were plenty more of search engines the web had to offer.

While trying the various search engines and reading the articles for Week 2, these are a few things that I’ve learnt:


 1. Be ready with several alternative search terms before searching.  Sometimes when searching we could not find the exact word that we are looking for. So before typing in the query we need think about the topic to ensure that the closest synonym /exact word in typed in the search box so that the results can be promising.

[Teachers need to teach students synonyms, group/families of words to widen their vocabulary when searching for information]


2.Usage of Boolean “” + - OR. To provide us with specific results pertaining our query which will indirectly save our time to go through the entries.

     [Teachers should introduce Boolean operators to beginners so that they practice quick searching techniques online]


3. Compare the list of entries.  When the entries are given, users must be able to choose a reliable fact which they can trust as a source for the information required as the sources from the Internet might be inaccurate/altered with.

[Teachers can teach the students on how to evaluate a text and measure reliability of data via comparison and differentiation of various search results

Aside from the list of search engines provided, I am eager to find out more search engines for shortvideos or listening exercises which can be downloaded. As teachers we often look for ideas to teach and lesson plans that we can adapt and adopt to what our class needs so I hope to find one so that I can play movies and videos in class easily to cater for auditory and visual learners.   

I also learnt about the ABCD Objectives for our lessons and by having that keeps us on track of the degree and the measurement procedures can be observed by the teacher. Both teachers and students can be aware of what they are learning about via this ABCD objectives.  The Bloom Taxanomy of measuring students and the text on Taxanomy for Technology shows that if we are trying to apply technology in learning both students and teachers must be able to understand about technology. “The teacher must stay abreast of the continual growth in emerging technologies and how these technologies will influence the classroom”.  So they must be on the same page and understand their objectives and what is at stake when learning.

[Here’s a site that I refer to for learning objectives: Learning Outcomes ]

I also tried to update some settings of my blog, read and commented some of my friend’s blog too for this week.  Unfortunately, ass I visited several pages I couldn’t link to 2 blogs maybe due to their privacy settings. : ( 

That’s all for Week 2, I’ll strive to contribute more in future discussions.

~Life and time are the world’s best teachers. Life teaches us to make good use of time and time teaches us the value of life.~

Bye,
Nur

Two.Zero.One.Two

 

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Happy new year to new friends!

I hope it's not too late to wish you guys a blessed year of 2012!

I think this year is heading to a good start especially with this course rolling in. There are so many things that I need to add on my checklist and let's pray that all the things that I've planned can be accomplished soon. Personally, Week One of this course gave twitches here and there for me especially to adapt and reschedule my timetable for work and also for this online course. As this is also my first time in distance learning course, I am trying very hard to cope and catch up on tasks and readings. 

Since I am an anal kind of person I had to form a checklist and compile all the tasks on paper and tick each one upon completion. My approach for the first few tasks was to do one task a  day. I guess the approach might be a bit too slow resulting me to lag a lot for this last task to complete a blog post. Sigh..I'm sure after I publish this entry I can sleep soundly tonight as my mission for this week has been completed!

I have learnt a few things upon completion of Week 1. Firstly I learnt that we can use Google Docs to create our own online survey which is amazing for me to do a small scale research online instead of handing or posting the questionnaires to our subjects individually which is time consuming. I recalled a time during my studies where I had to gather 100 subjects and the distribution and collection of the questionnaire became the most painful period indeed (apart from analysis) since we had to wait and use our energy and money. The second medium which was introduced to me is Nicenet which had cool navigation too. I hope to master how to use it first before introducing it to my students. We are currently using something similar to moodle called MyLine to learn English online that serves as a platform for students to share information regarding the subject during the semester. Students are automatically registered for the programme but to avail not all of them are active to use the medium for their studies. 

Iguess that's a little bit of a review that I have for this week. For a start of a new beginning this year I hope I can be able to appreciate everything in life whether it's big or small, be wiser in decision making and become a better person each day. So, cheers to sharing knowledge! With that I would like to welcome everyone to this blog and let's hope both you and me will learn something from it. 

Peace.

*Nur

Hello world!

Hi there
Let's start the day with a small cup of love!

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