Reflection of Creating My Final Project.

     Our final project is a website for speaking class in Future Pioneers School. Before start working in the project , we decided to choose "Weebly site" to create our particular website. After the choice we start to select the important points that website will include, we decided that it will contain 12 sections , we evenly split , each one of us have three sections.

     I faced many limitations and problems while working in the project. The most important is the time. Although the given time  is enough but a lot of projects which were required at the same time didn’t make it enough. cause I had many projects to do ,regardless of assignments and quizzes.

     About teamwork it was good , I worked with my wonderful friends , we were collaborators, and I didn’t face any real problem with them .

    

    Finally the chosen website "Weebly" . Initially it was strange ,difficult and incomprehensible, but with the passage of time it became simple, interesting and free of complexity. I faced a problem in inserting the Voki and in making hyper link , but I learned how to do it . 

     It was a nice and enjoyable experience , which I benefited greatly from it .After we finished ,really I felt that I am so proud of my self and my friends, we worked hard and it took a lot of our time , but the result was satisfactory and amazing, I didn't imagine before that I will create a whole website  .  
     
     I have a single proposal,I suggest that it must take into account that student have enough time ,cause we don’t have one project only, we have many to finish at one time.

The role of WeQuests in learning a foreign/second language

     Webquest is 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 , as Bernie Dodge has defined.

     Webquest helps in developing many skills of learners , as problem-solving skill , it facilitate the learners to be autonomous and independent in solving the problems they may face .Also , it supports collaborative work , students think , discuss and solve the tasks together . instead of using school books , Webquest helps students with using computer and provides them different webs to find and get information , and provide them with different references which help them in doing the task. 

     Because we live in the age of technology , teachers try to exchange the traditional ways of teaching , webquest is one of the technological technique they can use, it makes the educational environment more joyful for the learners. Also it helps teachers in improve their students motivation.   

     It’s also important component of contemporary language learning methodology, the use of authentic language materials. students can measure their mental skills improvement and evaluate their performance .

     Although we still use the traditional way of teaching in my country , in my future , if i become an EFL teacher ,I will use this technique with my students , it is more effective , useful and joyful way . Also it support collaborative work which make the students more interested.  

 

Using digital tools to produce speaking/listening

     In my future I will use digital tools to produce speaking/listening activities for my EFL classroom, although there are many challenges I will face, but I will be diligent and try to overcome it. It will not be a lot of drawbacks but may have some barriers which make it difficult to use it as culture, time and other.

     By using digital tools I will make a change in the way of teaching that we use it here in KSA "the traditional way", and try to keep up with the technology age. Using digital tools will improve the learner speech, pronunciation, motivation, critical thinking, listening skill, and vocabulary. Teamwork will help in developing their communication skills. 

     The communicative output activities that I can help my students to produce are discussion, argument, and other , after doing the activity ,they will discuss about the information and the ideas they got , each of them can share with his/her view of point , and give his/her personal opinion without restricting by their peer opinions. 

Evaluating website

We have decided to choose this web site: LANTERNFISH http://bogglesworldesl.com/

It is an educational website for ESL and TEFL teacher.



It contains worksheets, flashcards, games, songs and lesson plans for the English learner. 

It is presented in boring and uncomfortable way because it has a lot of shining colors, 

also the content differs from what is mentioned in the description of the website.

The external documents/links that the website include are critical thinking class,
Glossary of ESL terms, Site search.

It contains useful materials but most of them are unorganized, and showed in 

inappropriate way for target language learners, it should be more organized and more arrangable. 

It attempts to help English language learners, in improving English language.

       The web site offers a lot of practice and exercise like flashcards, which contain
 some arts with different words and sentences, crosswords and games that offer ways 
to play in classroom, and there are neither assessment nor feedback.

       This web site is not easy to use, because the contents are unconnected and 
there is a gap among ideas and between given information.

The page looking confused and difficult access to information, it has some of broken links, which 
make the learner feel lost. The colors of background are not comfortable for the reader eyes. 
Graphics chosen randomly, and they are low quality; many font style and size are used.
About the strengths of this website, although there are a lot of negatives in this website, 

there is some positives, the importance one offering a good materials, games and ideas 
for English learners, especially the beginner learners.

Some suggestions for this website to be improved:

-It should be more arrangable and organized.

-It should have comfortable colors like bright ones.

-Graphics and images should be there in organized way with the offered ideas.

-It is better to used one font style.

        -Focusing in spelling, grammar and punctuation.

·      This website is for and educational purposes. The publishers are group of ESL teachers from Asia and North America. ·      They provide “contact us” link. ·      They didn’t mention the author's credentials. It is not created or sponsored by a reputable organization.

·      There are a lot of English learning aspects not there. ·      The website used a wide variety of fonts, styles and point sizes. ·      There are more than 5 errors in spelling, punctuation or grammar in the final draft of the Web site. ·      There are media elements, but it was used randomly. ·      Actually the website is not organized. It is hard to navigate. ·      There are some ads, which distract the learners. ·      It can be loaded quickly. ·      We did not found any date for created the website and last updated. ·      The links work but we should open in a new tab. ·      This website is useful for the learner because it have a lot of worksheets and exercises. They can find what they want about the education purpose. ·      This site is very good for the learners and the teachers to use it in the classroom, but it needs some organization and arrangement.

Creating web-based language activities in Saudi Arabia: the why

In general ,it is important for teachers to create their own web-based. In my opinion, in K.S.A as an advanced country which dealing with technology in all aspects of life and offers many different ways to help in the use of the Internet in simplified way for each individual , it is so important for the Saudi teachers to have their own web-based language activities/quizzes/materials, to keep up with the times . these web-based allow them to get different resources which help them in their educational plans and curricula and give them a new ideas for teaching , also they can get benefits from different educational newspapers ,magazines , journals and websites easily.

Web-based offer many unique advantages like accessibility, renewability, and adaptability. Also help and play large role in learning and improving basic language skills “writing, reading, listening, speaking, comprehension, grammar and vocabulary” for both teacher and learner .Teacher can use these websites to put activities and exercises of the lessons and ask the students to solve it.

After previous simple clarify, deduce how important of having web-based for teacher in K.S.A as an individuals who lives in an technological environment. and how it can play a large role in their teaching role.

How podcasting, delicious, twitter, blogs and wikis can be used with my future Saudi EFL students?

Internet made a great development in all aspects of our life, especially in education , it made a quantum leap in educational field .

About LEFL ,There is a lot of websites which can help in acquisition and learning of English language as a foreign language. For example, websites  as podcasting, delicious, twitter, blogs and wikis can used in teaching ,learning and   improving English language and the basic language skills “writing, reading ,  listening and speaking”. Students  can practice different activities of  these skills, not only in the class but also outside the class “at home”. 

In the future inshaAllah if I become a teacher , I will use different websites in my profession to sharing with my student  and to not working individually but in group , to help each other and to exchange of their experiences. for example, we can use blog to discuss the lessons , or to practice different activities as writing activity , students will asked to produce themselves or to talk about their holidays…etc.

Podcasting can be used and helps in listening skill, I may play video or any audio clip which talks about story or conversation between several people or something else , and then ask my students to discuss or give a summarize about what they heard and understood .

Twitter is one of the simple and useful programs, I really like it , as a tool in education ,it can be used to make a connection between students and their teacher  . I can make special hash tags for our courses to discuss and analyze it, students can bring videos , images and tweets that can supports the topic their ideas.

Wikis is a useful tool in education. I may ask my students to use it to provide them with a syllabus, outlines and notes, it can be a great opportunity for them to collectively build a website, share our thoughts and questions on lessons and work together on projects.

Delicious is useful for reading skill , I may name some books that are related to our courses for my students and ask them to bookmarked it , and read it daily to discuss it in our class.

Wordle in EDU 401

EDU401 and Wordle

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?

CALL has three new categories— Behavioristic, Communicative and Integrated CALL. Behavioristic CALL, is the most acceptable and would engage most agreement. But the other two categories are far less morbidity.
In this view the obvious way of determined the goal of CALL is through the notion of ‘normalisation’. This notion is relevant to any kind of technological invention and refers to the stage when the technology becomes invisible, embedded in everyday practice and hence ‘normalised’ like pen or shoes. They are all technologies that normalised to the range that we hardly even realize them as technologies.
In this article, they determined a possible future agenda for CALL , which aims to the normalisation, in which CALL becomes invisible, serving the needs of teaching and learning.
Surely, this will require changes in technology, in attitudes, in approach and practice amongest teachers and learners.
 Also they determined the means of achieving this goal by doing more ethnographic studies of individual environments to describe the relationship between the factors just mentioned.

In my opinion, CALL in Saudi Arabia is start in the last few years, and the level of education is improved and became depends on using technology. But before these years, we were use the traditional way of education. But Saudi Arabia still need many efforts to reached "normilasation" to achieve the required level.

 

My reflecting on reading 2

Ttechnological Change and Tthe Future of CALL

Technological determinism define as the introduction of new technology automatically brings certain results. The main distinction between hard determinism and soft determinism is that Hard determinism supposes strict causation, and it is a concept refused by most scholars. Soft determinism more sensibly suggests that while technological development does not automatically cause outcomes, it does enable new processes and outcomes.

The role of ICT in enabling change must be studied at the individual level. There are ten developments in ICT.

The expected effective of CALL is no longer a matter of using e-mail and the Internet to help teach English but is increasingly directed at teaching English to help people learn to write e-mail and use the Internet.

CALL have three stages:

First stage : Structural CALL “1970s-1980s”

Technology used is mainframe. 

Second stage: Communicative CALL “1980s-1990s”

Technology used is PCs. 

Third stage: Integrative CALL “21st Century”

Technology used is Multimedia and Internet.

Saudi Arabia has witnessed the same ten developments in ICT,and  the five areas that mentioned are emerge in the Kingdom.

 Growth in the number of broadband subscribers more than 30-fold in less than 4 years (2005-2009)

Represent about digital subscriber lines (63%) of the total broadband connections.

There are still good opportunities for growth in the coming years

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Hi everybody , this is my blog of our course "educational technology", it will include reflecting on my reading .I hope you get interest in my blog .