“How would you use Real English website with 1st grade students-intermediate school in Yanbu” The level of the students is false beginners.

“How would you use Real English website with 1^st grade students-intermediate school in Yanbu” The level of the students is false beginners.

Real English websites helps teachers a lot in teaching their students and it is very effective it allows for interaction between students and teachers and students among them selves.   Teachers and students can engage in online activities at home using different online tools such as blogs, wikis and delicious. These online tools are very helpful for both teachers and students in many ways.

     As a teacher, I can use wikispaces with my students in various ways. One important way is sharing materials with my class through uploading them and making them available for online download. Moreover, making new announcements online on wikispaces can guarantee that the message will reach all the students. Another way is starting a discussion with my students or extend an existed discussion generated during the class hour.Also ,in wikispaces I can use and put many tech tools for developing the student skills in writing , reading , listening , and speaking . For example ,wordle , voxopop , voki, and youtube. 

Websites Evaluation

Websites Evaluation We found this website for learning English to a foreign language students EFL. http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/ The accessibility and usability of this website was excellent. The text size and style was good and easy to read and using colors was excellent, it was very clear for kids and very attractive. The text and links were good and well organized. The page and graphics were excellent and load quickly. The graphics also very good, it fits with the theme and purpose of the page. The links were good and easy to read. The links good and clearly state what page or site they lead to and they were good when clicked, the links worked correctly. Wonderful things from this site that there was a space for chats and give opinions and this site also supports different languages such as Arabic, Chinese,,etc. Also we found this website. It's for teaching and learning language as a second language.  http://a4esl.org/ It includes activities and quizzes for ESL learners, it was very easy to access and the links were very clear. What we didn't like about it was the style and the colors used in the site were very pale, there was no creativity at all, learners will not find it interesting or attractive. Also, in some pages the font was very small and it will be difficult for learner to read. We found in some quizzes (it was MCQ) that the learner should write the correct answer instead of just clicking it, we didn't like it. In summary, the contents were good but the way it has been presented was very boring. 

Using wordle in EDU 401

“How would I use blogs, wikis and delicious with my EFL students?”Don't answer in general. Specify activities.

Teaching and learning is not any longer a boring task. With the vast development of technology, It becomes something more creative and interesting. Nowadays, learning is beyond a four-walled classroom activities. It takes place even after the school. Teachers and students can engage in online activities at home using different online tools such as blogs, wikis and delicious. These online tools are very helpful for both teachers and students in many ways:

Wikispaces:

     As a teacher, I can use wikispaces with my students in various ways. One important way is sharing materials with my class through uploading them and making them available for online download. Moreover, making new announcements online on wikispaces can guarantee that the message will reach all the students. Another way is starting a discussion with my students or extend an existed discussion generated during the class hour. Also, Other pages than the original one can be created to introduce rules and grading system to my students. Learning will take a place in a small community where my students and I interact. Thus, using wikispaces can help me in motivating my students through various awesome tools found in wiki. To motivate my students, I can create a page and post their goals and ask them by the end of the semester to check whether they accomplished them all or just half of the way. Or asking them to post their own goals in their wikis and cross out the goals they have accomplished. You may wonder why I use this with my students! Well the answers are provided above but I want to add further point. Creating a community on wikispaces can teach my students how to cooperate with each other and interact under my supervision. This interaction and cooperation will help them in their future job.

 

 

Blogs:

     The use of blogs don’t provide interaction as the case with wikispaces. Because the only interaction through blogs can be seen in the comment area. But blogs have a very important role in shaping the students abstracts and communication skills. Having my own blog as a teacher will excite my students to create their own. Then, after everyone of them creates a blog, we can engage in a specific activity or communicate with other learners around the world. Also, they will have the chance to discover the other side of the worlds and make distance friendship. They will also learn how to discuss and share opinions and respect others. Blogs, also, can help me with teaching reading passages to my students where I can post the passage and comprehension questions. My students, then, can answer them in the comment area. It also saves time and effort when making small quizzes and exercises and posting them instead of preparing hard copies. Moreover, I can easily provide my students with reading materials I come across while surfing the net. Similarly, my students will do the same. They will start sharing and looking for materials that are related to the course.

 

 

Delicious:

     My students and I can use delicious to share and organize important links we come across when we are surfing the net. One good example is what we did in the class. Sharing links with specific tags which makes it easier for everyone to search easily. I, for example, can create a tag such as #ImprovingReadingSkills. Then, my students can add links to the tag as well as checking the links added by others. By doing this, we will be able to save time and effort. Using delicious makes me less worried about carrying my lap top everyday. I can simply add bookmarks from home ,and from the computer provided at my workplace, I can access them without any problems.

 

 

 

 

"Application of Bax Normilasation in Saudi Arabia: The how!"

"Application of Bax Normilasation in Saudi Arabia: The how!"

 Paraphrasing of Bax's article
     Since CALL was invented, technology was developing continuously in our lives because of its importance in teaching and learning. CALL was divided into three phases which are "behaviouristic", "communicative" and "integrative". Despite that, Steven changed the term "phases" into "approaches". He said that they were not in three different histrical times so they should not be called "phases". After that, he started to change the whole names of the three approaches. First, he changed the "behaviouristic approach" into the" restricted approach" because he believed that this term is more accurate. Second, he called the "communicative CALL" as the "open CALL" because it is open to all the dimensions. Third, he made the "integrative CALL" becomes the "integrated CALL" and the reason is he thinks that it represents a goal to which we should be working. After that, Steven stated that we did not reach "normalisation" yet. He said that we will reach that point when technology becomes a part of our daily life that is not invisible to us such as anything else that we got used to it in our daily routine. That way, we may say that technologies are "normalised".

- How to apply these changes on our Saudi context?:
     Mainly, we Saudis use computers a lot. We have a good idea about technology. I believe we are able to include technology in our education since we have all the factors and materials to make such a technological educational environment. However, technology is still mostly not used in our education. Learning is still based on the teacher's traditional way of controlling. We have a very small number of schools, mostly private ones, which use computers or technological devices in teaching. This lead me to the fact that it is very difficult to apply the idea of "normalisation" in Saudi Arabia. I believe we need a lot of stages to develop. This development may take years, or even more. Moreover, the ideas of the teachers must be changed as a whole. teachers must take the first step towards "normalisation" by using technology even in the very basic way, as a beginning of the development. In conclusion, I strongly believe that we may apply Bax's idea of "normalisation" one day. All what we have to do is working on developing our selves and have faith in our abilities.

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