" The role of WeQuests in learning a foreign/second language?”

According to Dodge, web quest described as " an inquiry oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the web. Web Quests all have the same basic elements. These include an introduction, task, information resources, processes, learning advice, and evaluation. Web Quest is designed to focus on using information rather than looking for it losing  the time, and to enhance learners to be critical thinking . Web quest is useful and has its role in learning second or foreign language. Web Quests promote high-level thinking and problem-solving skills. Moreover, Web quests offer an organized approach to using the web. The role of Teacher is to teach her/his students and explain the lessons through web quest providing real resources, activities which enhance student's critical thinking & motivation. Students can share materials, activities and ideas that are not available in our standard text and are highly meaningful. For class environment there are new possibilities for combing real-world experiences with electronic resources such as new wireless networking options, including 3G (third generation digital phone networks) cellular and wide-area Wi-Fi networks. students are equipped with mobile computers as well as recording devices.

Web quests as  inquiry oriented , engaged students into activities, search for information and debate, discuss or defend a particular stance with classmates. Learners are given specific assignments related to the site they are visiting; these are typically group tasks.

Web quests foster cooperative learning through guided discovery, they do not generally provide a means for the individual practice of communication skills.

 for cooperation and collaboration :

-        Portable computing devices (hand-helds, PDA cell phones, Tablet PCs), combined with wireless networking, can connect participants in geographically diverse locations, offering as well the opportunity for cooperation and collaboration among schools and students in different countries.

* web quest is a great tool for promot students' learning language. i will use Webquests for my future EFL students.

Website Evaluation

"Activities for ESL students"

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

Learning language on the web is a source characterized by flexibility. It represents

 a powerful resource for the development of creativity among users of the network and especially the students.

- Assistance to cooperation and competition among students because the network provides them with a golden opportunity to compare and balancing their work of others in the world and benefit from it.

- It provides an easy mechanism for students and teachers to publish their creations and their actions on the network. And facilitate access to sources of information, where some researchers called: a great library in the sky of knowledge.

- To provide an atmosphere of excitement and motivation for students and they know that the Internet is the end of the technology to their colleagues Honors and adults successful in their studies.

What we can teach on the web?

-we can teach the language skills such as reading, writing, listening, speaking and how to develop  them via practices and activities.

Challenges in Creating Web-Based Activities:

 I believed in what  Mary Hricko wrote about  Challenges in Creating Web-Based Activities

" Creating a successful interactive web-based learning environment can be a challenging task. There are many issues to consider in the design, development, and delivery of a web-based course. Instructors must rethink the way that they teach to create an interactive learning environment in a web-based format".

Finally, The world can be your classroom—through home or school.
Explore these options to find strategies of learning and using a language that match your interests, strengths and challenges. Use the Internet and technology as an environment to make your tasks fun and interesting.

Assignment 3

Assignment 3

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

Digital Immigrant teachers are those teachers who think or 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.

the people sitting in their classes grew up on the “twitch speed” of video games and MTV.

Digital Native students: are the students in the system  of the traditional fashion.

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

 Digital Immigrant teachers:

1.they speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age).

2. Digital Immigrants don't believe their students can learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they (the Immigrants) can't.

3. Digital Immigrants think learning can't (or shouldn't) be fun.

 Digital Native students:

1. they can recive the information quickly from multimedia sources.

2.they like to learn with kind of  fun.

3.they like to contribute working with others.

 

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

Digital immigrant accent can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for information second rather than first, or in reading the manual for a program rather than assuming that the program itself will teach us to use it. They include printing out our emails, "did you get my email " in phone call, going step by step using outlines for organization, reading manuals, etc..

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

is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.

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

just forget about educating Digital Natives until they grow up and do it themselves, we had better confront this issue. we need to reconsider both our methodology and our content.

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

-  As educators, we need to be thinking about how to teach both Legacy and Future content in the language of the Digital Natives. The first involves a major translation and change of methodology; the second involves all that PLUS new content and thinking.

- we have to invent, but not necessarily from scratch. Adapting materials to the language of Digital Natives has already been done successfully.

- We need to invent Digital Native methodologies for all subjects, at all levels, using our students to guide us.

- All their students 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.

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

It is useful for both teachers and students in learning purposes. and used as  material to contribute and facilitate learning a second language. For instance, in my collage we use to share various of  information's through these kinds of websites to support and engaged each other in learning English and being as native speakers. 

wiki :  is the simplest collaborative content management system that could possibly work.

delicious:  is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarkrs.

blogger:  is a blog-publishing service that allows private or multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries.

Educational Technology..

      
     The way students learn is fundamentally changing. A flexible, blended classroom model is replacing
the one-size-fits-all classroom approach that was confined to set hours and locations. Teachers are using digital technologies to engage students with more personalized learning experiences. Students are collaborating across geographical boundaries, and consuming and producing innovative education-related content.

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

In brief, paraphrase the changes which Bax suggested and the means proposed of achieving normalizations.

Normalization means: involving  the acceptance of people with disabilities.

How these changes and means could be applied to our Saudi context?

In my opinion, these changes have been applied to our Saudi context, but  not that much because we need time to attain high level.

When is it possible/reached/achieved?

I think In 2009  and after .

 Many schools and universities in Saudi Arabia have been started using some technologies like smart boards, laptops, projectors.