SIXTH POSTING - BLOG EXPERIENCE

Hello everyone! This is my last posting regarding my experience on blog. Before I proceed, let me explain briefly on what is meant by blog. Blog can be referred as the base form of a website. Many people out there have the dreams to create and possess their very own website and absolutely, blog fulfills their dreams. Comparing to websites, blogs are the simplest to have and to create. Within few minutes, it will give you professional looking site of your own choice. Blogs are very easy to create. One does not need any of the advance computers to create a blog. All you need to do is to sign up to any of the blog providers such as Blogger (like the one that I am having now!), Word Press and Type pad. Just follow the 3 very simple steps; name the blog, choose the template where varieties of templates will be provided by the blog provider and then start posting. Creating a blog is as easy as that!

I would say that blog improves my writing skill. People say that practice makes perfect and I totally agree to that. Almost every week, we have something to do. From finding information, talking about the resources, finding for appropriate software to explaining what you have got in a whole. By doing this, I have to say that I have actually improve my vocabulary skills and able to express my ideas and thoughts easily. I feel more confident and proud of myself when it comes to the posting my own view. Thanks to the coordinators to come up such thing! Just imagine, people around you read the information that you have. That is certainly interesting, isn’t it? Keeping that in mind, I will always remind myself to come up with proper words without any mistakes. Blog offers option of enabling a comment field to posts where viewers or readers can actually give their own feedback. This comment-enabling section will not only make the viewer and readers to comment back on my work but at the same time it is giving me a great change to get to know them better on what they prefer in my blog.

Now when asked about whether is the blog a useful learning experience for me or not, I would definitely say it is. Personally, I had never thought that blogging would be so interesting. Those days without having the knowledge of blog, I used to write about each single thing and then get it printed. Just imagine if you have some mistakes, there is nothing you can do about it whereas when the same work done in a blog, you can always edit it at anytime of the day. All the content would just remain the same and it is well organised. The reason I am saying the blog is interesting because you can decorate it with variety of colours. Not only that, you can actually add music, links and almost whatever you want in your page (bare in mind, it is beyond the limit).

There are certain things that I have to know before publishing the blog which involves elements regarding the colours, templates, how does the function works in certain areas and all. If I were to tell you guys the truth, I did face some problems when completing the blog. I had difficulties when it comes to the inserting video and songs section. I did not know how to upload song into my blog. After several tries, I managed to get through with it. All this is a very good experience for me. Before getting a blog, you should equipped yourself with the all the features that is needed.

I will tell to my friends to create a blog because it is so fun. One thing that made me to be very excited is the unlimited space that blog providers provide. Blogs are free and the space given is unlimited. I can make as mush as posts I want in my blog. It can be thousands or maybe millions, blog will still support it all! Besides that, I can even upload numbers of videos and images that I want. If a single image can be uploaded in the size of 1024MB (1 GB), think how much space and size provided by the blog.

I will definitely continue using this existing blog of mine in the future. I can go around and tell people that I have a website that has my own Universal Related Language (URL). Connecting yourselves with the presence of technology and go with the flow is amazing. It would be such a waste to just keep it without any changes. I will continue posting up interesting stuffs that can be viewed by people of all ages. My advice to you guys out there. Do not just stop blogging once the course is over. Keep in touch with it and have fun!

Last but not least, thanks to everyone that has offered me a helping hand when I am in confusion. Have a nice day!

FIFTH POSTING - ONLINE TEST

Electronic Malaysian English Competency Test - Reading Test (Set 1)
Score : 23 out of 35 - 66%
Time Taken : 40m 30s

Online Quiz Results :: Kemahiran Asas ICT

Your Score : 23/30
Online Quiz Results Summary

Your Attempts : 1
Total Class Attempts : 577
Your Quiz Score : 23/30
Your Highest Score Ever : 23
Note: This may not be your final marks. Due to some of the subjective and semi-objective questions (short essay and fill in the blank).

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PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ON TAKING ONLINE TEST

Good day everyone. Well this is my fifth posting and it is about the results that I have obtained from the online test. For the first thirty minutes, all of us are required to complete the test online called the Electronic Malaysian English Competency Test. In this test, I was required to answer four passages and answer the questions accordingly.

Taking the online test is my first ever experience and I have to say that it is very interesting indeed. Though there are some contras in it, we cannot deny that it is much better compared taking the test manually. Let us take a look at this clearly. Taking test online serves you the infrastructure and facilities of Information and Communication Technology in depth. Not only that, it allows us to go forward with those existence. With this, we will not be left behind by any means and thus creating a sense of awareness in ourselves.

Task becomes much easier when one takes the test online compared to those who were not. The amount of work and unattractive way of checking answers that were written on the paper - offline test, might not be that interesting for some educators. Taking test online does not only conserves energy on daily basis but also very efficient. What I meant over here is the results obtained are very quick and it is easy. All you got to do is to submit your answers and within few seconds, you can see the results displayed on the screen. By comparison, the offline test does not give us the answers on that time itself and might take up some time.

Sticking to same point, I would like to emphasize on the other part. The reason I am saying it is very efficient because online test has time frame stated in the screen. Students or anyone in that matter that are taking up this online test will stay focus and not get engrossed in their own world like what we can see in the offline test. I am not saying that almost all of them do this but seriously they do! While trying to attempt the questions, they some how lost touch with their task – answering the questions. When this happens, they will be running out of time that will be resulting in failure to complete the questions.

Taking test online also can be accessed in anywhere around the world (only if you have the Internet connection with you!). One is not required to travel up and down the street just to take a particular test in that matter. All you need to do is just get accessed to the address and it will take you there. Thus, it is more convenient. Apart from that, one does not have to tense up themselves or in other words in that matter get worried just for the test.

Online test requires the users to come up with their passwords before taking the test. The passwords are meant to be key in the provided box by those who are taking up the test and only they can get accessed to the particular page which means those who are not having the password cannot get accessed. By this, I can say that online test serves very good security features whereby you can keep your results or anything got to do in the page private and confidential without having anyone to look at it.

In conclusion, it is safe to say that online test is very effective and convenient. Please drop your comments if there are any. Thank you!

FOURTH POSTING - SUMMARY OF AN ARTICLE

In this week’s task, we were required to read and summarize an article from our OTL book titled “beyond concordance lines: using concordance to investigate language development” by Arshad Abdul Samad from University Putra Malaysia (UPM). This posting was done with pair and my partner is Revathy.

This article highlights the importance of concordance and the benefit of using this software in analyzing language data on how words and grammatical constructions are used which proves to be very useful to teachers, students and also researchers.

According to Schmitt (2002:34), using a corpus in language learning language captures students in a whole new way instead of making them just memorizing rules of English, as what it has been done all this while. A lot of studies have been done regarding concordance and how it helps but the one that is discussed in detail in this chapter is EMAS corpus which was investigated by researchers from UPM, on language development using language production and lexical variety.

EMAS corpus was collected in 2002 and it consists of almost half a million words in the form essays written by 800 students from year 5, form 1 and form 4. Topics that were selected were based on the amount of language certain topics could take. This was why narration topics were taken because students were expected to write better based on the things that they were familiar with such as incidents at a river.

Various methods can be used to investigate the development of language. But however, here, the research was based on the assumption that development of language patterns can be seen from comparing language usage of 3 different age groups. The performance of students was valued from various aspects such as language productivity, range of vocabulary and sophistication of vocabulary.

If seen from the aspect of language productivity, it is indicated by the number of sentences per essay and words per sentence. The analysis showed a figure of gradual increase as the age group increases. Moving on to the other aspect which is from the range of vocabulary, it involves calculating the ratio by dividing the number of separate words in a text by the number of words in the text. A larger type of ratio shows a wider range of language inclusive of many uncommon words while a lower ratio shows the usage of limited set of words in English. As far as EMAS is concerned, type to token ratio gradually increased as the age group increased. But however, the increase was not a solid one; because of the type of essay that was given which was narration based which require constant reference to the same objects, thus bringing down the ratio.

A specialized software, example RANGE known as a vocabulary analysis program allows users to decide the complexity of the vocabulary. This software gives us further information on the type of vocabulary that is used. Text is compared with the base lists and frequently used words where the primary base list includes the most frequent 1000 words in and the secondary includes the second most frequent 1000 words in English. The tertiary includes the words that are not seen in the primary and secondary words. All the base focuses on the base and derived forms.

Talking on the EMAS sub corpus, data regarding this information has shown in a table form. Here, we can say that the there is an obvious increase in the complexity of vocabulary used. If we take a look closely to the data provided in the table, we can say a there were a large amount of words by 63.5% used by the primary students in the primary category whereas in the Form 1 and Form 5 category, the percentage of words being used is at 57.9% and 44.5% accordingly. The number obtained from this data clearly shows that there is a wider range of words are used. Not only that, the words used much more complex. Form 4 students on the other hand showed lower percentage in both categories. The number in the academic wise shows there were more academic familiarity among them.

In a nutshell, the use of a corpus in language teaching and learning mainly focuses on how it can actually be used. We cannot deny the fact that concordance software helps us to analyze the words in certain language text but when there is a huge amount of words available in a particular text, it is certainly not a very good idea to be made. The main thing that this article focuses on is to attempt the existence of corpus data in language development. The result that is within the data shows significant relationship in the terms of language production as well as the vocabulary. And apart from that, this corpus can also be analyzed to inform language educators of the language improvement. Practically, we can say that this corpus can be used to make a comparison in the future groups and also to review the language development in our country.

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APPLICATION OF CONCORDANCE IN CONTENT ANALYSIS

Welcome back! Now have you guys ever wonder how it would be if you were asked to analyze any kind of text that is extremely long by just looking at it? Going through all the words and then listing them out one by one for the analyzing process is not an easy task. Not only that, it is definitely takes loads of time and apart from that makes our life miserable! With the use of a concordancer, this task becomes easier. Concordancer is software that is used to make a concordance. Concordance in our opinion is meant by the listing of certain words in a row. Concordance makes it easier for us because it will only list down the words that we want in an alphabetical order. In addition, the words can be seen clearly without any complications.

There are numerous articles regarding to the subject of concordance in language learning. But one problem that we faced in the search of articles on the application of concordance is the language itself. Most of the articles are constructed in a complicated language of English, thus proving it difficult to understand concordance and the application of it in today’s world. However, we managed to come across an article that is written in simple English which can be understood by all. The concerning article is taken from http://www.bhashaindia.com/Patrons/LanguageTech/Textanalysis.aspx and gives a very good explanation on concordance starting from the basic.

According to this article, concordance is “an alphabetical list of the principal words used in a book or body of work, with their immediate contexts. That is finding and tabulating all the key words in a book or any large written work”. Based on this article too, utilizing concordance in a database brings a lot of easiness and comfort to the user because concordance software informs a user of many aspects of words and the usage of it in a text. For example, few of the uses of concordance are:

• Comparing the various functions of a word from different perspective.
• Analyzing key words.
• Finding out frequency of a word
• Analyzing phrases
• Improving vocabulary
• Translate a word from on language to another

This computer tool is called “Concordancer” whereby it creates database from any Text that is chosen to be concordance. This database is named “corpus”. Concordance is something that is best to be mastered by students especially language students due to the fact that Concordancer can provide many answers regarding the usage of any language in depth.

This article also highlights the definition of “text analysis”. It is defined as “analyzing the given data in form of text and retrieving the information needed by the system from it”. Among the aspect that can be analyzed are words and phrases.
According to another article from http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej36/m2.html by Roland Sussex from The University of Queensland, Australia, combination of concordance as well as other tools, QQ+Concordance, proves to be very useful in analyzing texts from “a to z” to students of language. Hereby, she says using concordance in analyzing texts is recommended because “concordancing software is able to extract from machine readable text not only words and phrases of raw data, but also tags which have been inserted into the raw text to identify different kinds of linguistic, pragmatic and other evidence.” Analyzing texts using concordance puts researchers and students in a position where they can familiarize themselves with computer and texting skills thus, being able to think critically and creatively about texts and how they work.

We chose to explain on the applications of concordancer in content analysis. Let us give you guys a brief information on what is understood by content analysis. Content analysis is also known as textual analysis. Content analysis has said to be used in the mid 1940’s. Content analysis is divided in to two forms conceptual analysis and the relational analysis. Conceptual analysis shows the number of words that is occurred within a text and then gets it recorded. Before getting into depth, one should clearly define the aspects before the counting takes place. The text should be coded or break down into convenient content categories. On the other hand, relational analysis builds on conceptual analysis by examining the relationships among concepts in a text. In this section, it is very crucial to first decide the concept that will be used throughout the analysis. In the process of identifying the words or phrases in that matter, there are few steps that you should take in order to get your work done systematically. One of it is to see which word is analyzed and how the word is used in the particular text.

Content analysis involves textual type of information and at the same time identifies the properties. In other words, it focuses on the basic form of certain words. Relationship between words and concepts are looked into depth, as in how does a word acts in the particular phrase. Texts that basically have writings on in it basically in letters, novels, transcripts of recorded communications - television shows, interviews, books, discussions and even newspapers. One way to conduct this content analysis is to break down those words in smaller forms which include words, phrases and also sentences. Let us explain briefly in this section.

There are few steps in the content analysis. The first thing that you should be doing is to describe the area that need to be studies, secondly select the media that will be used for the data either relational analysis or conditional analysis. Thirdly, choose the category and then count either the presence or absence of the particular category and after that place them accordingly into one category. The categories that have been inserted under one may have loads of data in it. Here, it is very impossible to count the whole thing. What you can and should be doing is that to decide on the sampling strategy before analyzing the data. In addition to that, please take note that you should be looking on the words that gets counted, the level of analysis that is used and the coding frames. Coding frames shows the occurrence of certain words in every 10 pages basically. Few examples on the elements that needs to be counted include items, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, semantics, concepts and also the themes.

Content analysis makes it easier for us because it analyses completely about the word. Not only that, it gives valuable ideas through analysis of texts. Due to the fact that it can be used in any type of writing, content analysis is used massively in large number of fields which includes marketing, media studies, literature and many more. Apart from that the frequency words used can also be identified in this content analysis. More information on how it works can be viewed at http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/socio/kuechler/341/f95/caho.html. Content analysis is thus a very good way to analyze words, phrases or even sentences without having complications.

THIRD POSTING - IMPACTS OF USING ICT AND WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

Good day everyone! Welcome back! Well, let me give you guys a brief information about this task. This task is my third posting which discusses about the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) in few aspects. This informations are based on my findings done in Perpustakaan Tun Sri Lanang (PTSL) - electronic journal. My findings are based on few sites such as SCOPUS, EBSHOST and Pro Quest. To make it easier, you should click on the specific field and it will take you to those references. Just bring yourself to click on the given space about the topic. Within few seconds, you are able to get the information.

ICT has loads of definitions by its own. Based on the link below, http://searchciomidmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid183_gci928405,00.html. ICT is defined as an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning. ICTs are often spoken of in a particular context, such as ICTs in education, health care, or libraries. The importance of ICTs lies less in the technology itself than in its ability to create greater access to information and communication in underserved populations. Many countries around the world have established organizations for the promotion of ICTs, because it is feared that unless less technologically advanced areas have a chance to catch up, the increasing technological advances in developed nations will only serve to exacerbate the already-existing economic gap between technological "have" and "have not" areas.

ICT is always connected to the technology and I have to say that without it, we are nothing. Almost each single thing we do now is depending on the technology existence. Wonder where and how we would be without them! The existence is so very important and it cannot be neglected by any means. Based on the wikipedia, technology is defined as a broad concept that deals with a species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its environment. In human society, it is a consequence of science and engineering, although several technological advances predate the two concepts.

I choose to explain on the impact of using ICT in education. Education scope over here is very general and wide. Here, I am going to explain in detail about everything you guys should know about the effects of ICT in education. ICT has benefits the students in many ways. There are few websites that I have worked on in order to come up with a brief explanation about the effects. One of it focuses on the effects in science education.

Teaching process with the use of ICT has developed changes in few aspects which include the process characteristics, what knowledge and skill were learnt and how it changed their organization, compiled under one by observations, interviews and also document analysis. Reviews such as lab stimulators, various software, sensors, graphic calculator, electronic blackboards and not forgetting the Internet. The Internet is a worldwide collection of networks that link millions of businesses, government agencies, educational institutions and individuals.

Each of the networks on the Internet provides resources that add to the abundance of goods, services and information accessible via the Internet. Through the Internet, the society or better still the students has access to global information and instant communications which certainly helps the students to perform much better in their studies. These teaching strategies used by them for active, authentic, collaborative, constructive and reflective learning. Through the usage of ICT, the teachers perform better lessons, lab exercises and assessment tools. Apart from that, the students showed more motivation, participation, collaboration and learning. Students were said to expand their knowledge in study area. All these happen for one main reason and that is to look ahead the existence and even the instructions are said to be equipped with technological skills.

On the other website, different prospective can be seen. Reports on the outcomes of a British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) carried out a study which emphasizes the views of teacher trainees and their mentors in two different school subjects on what strategies, inventions and resources had a positive impact on their ability to use ICT effectively in subject teaching. All the focuses, studies done on the importance of progression in the ability to organize ICT effectively in subject teaching. It has been said that those entering the teacher profession in the United Kingdom should be able to use new technology effectively. One of the aims of the study is to see the impact of ICT on teaching and learning processes between one subject and another. The usefulness of ICT will vary according to the nature of the school subject to ideas about the nature of the subject discipline and to views about the purposes of inflicting the subject on young people.

Presence of ICT can be seen in integrated learning packages such as ‘Research Machines’ Success Makers Software. These software shows that there are certain increasement in moving students forward in mathematics. Similarly, we should know the situation that has face by the instructors before technology usages seen clearly. Downes survey reported that almost half of the trainees surveyed did not use computer. Not only that, also in the report written by Her Majesty’s Inspectors in schools found that only 6 % of new teachers used computers even once in the year of teaching (HML, 1998). Mary associated research had been done to show the growth of ICT in education. Research done by the National Council for Education Technology reported that some attribution of ICT were well suited to enhancing learning in particular school subjects, data logging in science and databases in history.

Several examples of ICT usages can be detected. Usages of laptop computers have showed the use of ICT. One can access to the Internet at any time of the day with wireless connection. Life made easier when the laptops can be connected to the projector easily and without any complications. Apart from that, ICT has said to boast student’s confidence about the study. Some teachers felt that classroom that uses ICT, such as computer and data projector, offered a more helpful route in many matters. Helping the lessons to be more efficient and attractive also proves the impact of ICT in education. Impacts of using ICT have also improved student learning outcomes and students’ attitude to work in certain subjects.

The other part of the focus is on the impact of ICTs on higher educational sector. As we all know, there are no longer varsities that are not using the technology devices. ICT are currently used for research, for networking and for teaching and finally learning purposes. ICT will enlarge the possibilities for connection between varsities and at the same time give students who are unable to find facilities to travel an opportunity to benefit themselves from that. To be more precise, in 1922 Thomas Edison predicated that “the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system… and in after years if will support largely, if not entirely, the use of textbook.” (Dreyfus 2001:27) claims on the potentials of ICT for education and development need critical experiment. The World Wide Web or known as the Internet is widely increasing among everyone and this can be viewed at this website http://www.mediafire.com/?ixnz2iqy141. Data is shown in a table format. You are required to download it in order to view the data.

By looking at the data, I can safely say that the ICT has improved many people at an alarming rate. Though the Internet, there are loads of stuffs that one can use to develop knowledge and improve insights in certain fields but the question is how many of them really do that? Wikatmojo expresses his concern about the future whereby students will be more prone to use the Internet for fun, like chatting and surfing the porn sites and has also said that recently some of them uses the Internet to hack and buy products illegally.

Along with that, the ICT has connected to the teaching that makes it much more interesting. We cannot deny the fact that nowadays teaching incorporates some of the technologies that has made teaching more easier. Just take a look at the last years where the teachers teach the students by just using a blackboard. Any important data or shall I say information from the Internet cannot be viewed and students knowledge about it would be very limited. Not only that, images and graphics regarding the study in that matter cannot be showed to them. All they can do is to teach them with by using just paper and notes without having sufficient notes.

If we were to take a look at West, the Internet is increasingly being used in teaching. The usage of Internet will be used more frequent and widely to get source of information. Varsities are no longer using blackboard as a medium to teach and this disinterest might emerged from the importance of Internet. Through the existence of Internet, it also makes certain contras to some. Dreyfus for example, argues that distance learning creates more problems to the younger generation, especially students.

Distance learning makes it harder for both students and teachers from the most essential element of education embodied human contact (2001). Apart from that, a study on distance learning in United Kingdom articulates several problems. Problems that involve high cost of expenses, level of skills required and the challenging patterns of styles required. Here, the students are compared to the electronic pets (Tamagotchi’s) that required constant and labor-intensive care (Miller et al 2001).

At these days, the electronic mail (email) has become the most element of ICT in teaching. This is because it enhances students contact between them. Email is used by everyone in this century and I have to say it makes everything possible. Students that are involved in tasks and assignments do not have trouble themselves to print out those sheets in order to hand in. All they have to do is just hand in through online. That is what all of us are doing! Not only time consuming but it is also very convenient.

That is about the information technology. As for the wireless technology, it is said to be very prominent nowadays. The wireless technology has come into its own and has created a very big impact towards the society. In this section, I am going to concentrate on the education aspect. For the varsity students, wireless technology has become so transparent in so many ways. It does not matter whether it includes the hand phones, Wi-Fi networking for laptops, tablet PC or even personal digital assistants (PDA).

According to Wikipedia, tablet PC is a notebook or also known as a slate-shaped mobile computer. This tablet PC was introduced by Pen Computing in the early 90s. Tablet PC has a touch screen or also known as graphics tablet allows the user to operate the computer with a stylus or digital pen, or a fingertip, instead of a keyboard or mouse. For further information about Tablet PC can be viewed at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_PC.

PDA is a handheld computer. They were designed as personal organizers whereby all the tasks can be done in a very appropriate manner. There are few features of PDAs. The basic features include a date book, address book, task list and memo pad. Data that is stored into the PDA can be done by using a desktop computer. Communication to PDAs is provided by the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). More details about PDAs can be viewed at: http://www.pdaed.com/vertical/tutorials/whatispda.xml.

Basically all the telecommunication courses are incorporating the wireless technology in their study. In addition to that, some varsities have made some commitment by establishing wireless programs and provide significant hands-on laboratory experience with the course work. One of these applications can be seen in the University of South Florida when it required students from the Electrical Engineering course to take up a two credit wireless and microwave laboratory course.

In conclusion, we can say that either the information technology or wireless technology has brought upon several importances and created a positive impact to many of them. The existence of these both features has created an impact on education which makes it more outstanding that before. Though some may think that the ICT and wireless technology have contras in few of the application, the postive impact still wins. What matters here is how you take it and apply those features in daily lives.

References on this information can be viewed at the websites below:

http://www.infomuworld.com/smpp/content

http://www.springerlink.com/content/j340w01503830r35/fulltext.html

http://www.springerlink.com/content/r777x6072773u667/fulltext.html

http://www.springerlink.com/content/pq66400qh831n143/fulltext.html

http://www.scopus.com/scopus/record/display.url?view=basic&eid=2-s2.0-

Any doubts about the impacts of using ICT and wireless technology in education can be clarified at the websites above. Hope you guys have a brief knowledge on what is posted. Feel free to leave your comments. Thank you!

SECOND POSTING - ONLINE AND OFFLINE LEARNING & USAGES OF COMPUTERS IN WRITING

Based on my reading on ONLINE AND OFFLINE WRITING COURSE in page 7 (Online Teaching and Learning in ELT Book) I can say that computers have change peoples’ life better mostly the students. Educators or shall I say instructors used many ways to make teaching more attractive and fun. Through the amazing technology, online learning which includes several materials such as the electronic mail, bulletin board, chat room computer conferencing and web-based online learning system has been practiced to make the teaching more effective.

We cannot deny the fact that it has influenced the teaching system in general although some of the contras can be seen. Students that are involved in the discussion type of education find themselves uneasy when dealing with the electronic environment because it written format seemed to be so public compared to discussion. Students’ participation in learning through online has greatly increased.

If we were to see the comparison between the online and offline learning styles, there are few views that appears to be important. Students are said to excel much better in the online mode and this has proved by the studies done by Thirunarayanan and Perez-Prado (2001/2002) at the College of Education in Florida.

Apart from that, the online language learning has said to improve the students’ writing skills that lead to improvement in their communicating skills. Not only that, they are said to have practiced themselves in active learning, critical inquiry and reflective thinking.

This type of learning is very efficient but however some of the studies reflected on the contras in it whereby it is said that there was no significant difference in the performance of online and offline students. Barry and Runyan (1995) conducted their study in military settings whereas Johnson et al (2000) compared a graduate online course with an equivalent course taught in the traditional way – face to face format. At the same time, Johnson (2002) analyzed the performance of Introductory Biology students in the two modes of instruction whereby the results show that there is a little difference in the performance of students taking face to face classes and students taking online courses.

The online courses can be in few aspects and therefore to explain in detail would be rather difficult. The study that was carried out at International Islamic University Malaysia gives us brief explanation on what is meant by these two terms. The course is known as English for Academic Writing (EAW) where all the students are compulsory to enroll themselves in. Students from different faculties and courses are required to attend. This module prepares students with skills that include many areas.

Because the numbers of students is large, it has come up with an alternative way of delivering the course and that is online and offline mode. Though they have two different modes, the main course content, objection and assessments of both modes remains the same. Few differences can be detected from the online and offline modes. This can be shown at the description below:

ONLINE MODE

The duration of lectures and tutorials are basically three hours. In the lecture session, it provides students with the techniques, theory and mechanics of writing. All this are based on the requirement in the module. As for the tutorial session, it provides students with group and individual attention. Apart from that, individual and group activities are also organized for the students.

OFFLINE MODE

The students are given four hours of on site sessions and two flexible hours. On site are referred to the tasks that are assigned in the computer lab. Here, the students are to gather information on the techniques, theory and mechanics of writing as required in the module during the four hours on the sessions from the online module provided. In addition to that, chat facilities are provided for students and instructors to discuss the areas covered by the module. Both the online and offline modes ensure students to be equipped with the necessary computing skills.

From this, a section of the questionnaire focused on the factors that might influence students’ process of learning. It has been said that the results that students obtain are all depending on the amount of hours spent with their instructors. It was assumed that the more time the instructor spent interacting with the students, whether through online or offline, the better the results would be.

Assignments that required the lectures or even the instructors to look on showed no differences in the results between the different modes. Apart from that, through the T-Test, the same results could be seen. There was no significant difference between the two modes of instruction. Although it is argued that online teaching can accommodate the needs of individual students (Lau Seng & Fitri Suraya, 2002), it is yet to be studied whether this possibility has been exploited by the online teachers. Hence, the online and offline learning is very important and has created a big impact on decision-making.

Below are the sites that you guys can look on for further information regarding the online and offline learning:

http://campustechnology.com/articles/39789/

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Departments/eLearning/?article=5OnlineMyths

You can also refer to the Online Teaching and Learning in ELT Book in page 7.

In the importance of a computer wise, it has served us a bunch of benefits. Students can improve their writing through computer in many ways. One of it is improving the grammar and vocabulary wise. The reason I am saying this is because Word Processor in that matter has software which is known as tools right under the title bar column. In this tool bar, students can have their work checked in the spelling and also grammar.

Apart from that, students can recheck their work by just looking through the page and say if there are any mistakes, they do not have to delete the whole thing but just have to edit it. Not only that, it conserves much more time compared to writing it in a paper where it messes up the paper if there were any mistakes done. Students also can have many copies of the essay in printed version instead off writing the essay for so many times. This simplifies the task and no one would face any form of stress.

In addition to that, students can come up with amazing work whereby they can include certain graphics in their task. Not only that, they can insert pictures at any time they want as the data would just remain there. Therefore, we cannot deny the fact that computer in that matter has make students’ life much more easier.

Further information on how computers help in writing can be viewed at:

http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/computer.html

Hope you guys understood what is meant by online and offline learning, not forgetting the usages of computers in writing. Have a nice day reading and see you the next time!
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COMPUTERIZED WRITING

Welcome back! Hello to everyone. This task is about computerized writing. Here, I am going to focus on what is understood by computerized writing and how it works towards the students.Computerized writing is about the writing and the computer, whereby to show the connection between both of them. As far as we are concern today, there are certain students that have fears in coming up with essays whether it is involving the formal or the informal ones. Having such fears can bring down their confidence in writing and thus makes it a very big problem. In these days, students are required to write an essay with very little information provided by their educators. Not only that, some of them have very little basics on essay writing which drives them harder to come up with the final product.

Some of the students might have natural anxiety while writing an essay. Essay writing involves many stages that vary from the introductory paragraph, the body and finally the conclusion. The structure of the story has to be in an appropriate flow and should not have run-on sentences. The other aspect that should be focused on would be the grammar and language. Here, computerized writing has a good solution for these where a student can improve their skills and also avoid them from doing mistakes.

Computerized writing helps students to produce an effective essay. Computer acts as a workhorse and no longer seen as tutors and drillers. In the Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) there are three phases whereby computer that acts as a tutor falls in the first category – BEHAVIOURISTIC CALL. This phase focuses on the drill, reward and punished aspect and the example of it can be seen in the studying system.The reason I am saying that computer acts as a workhorse and not as a tutor because of its usefulness. Let us take Word Processor. In the Word Processor, the task becomes much more easier compared to write using a pencil and a paper. This software enables us to enhance our language production and also able to show us the connectivity between reading and writing. Hence, students can experience be successful in writing.I have to say that students should not only depend on this software in order to write successfully. It has been said that write as much as possible can actually improve our writing skills. One should be doing this repeatedly to gain success in it. Practice makes perfect, heard that before? Well, it implies in this situation. This has been proved by Newman (1984) where he said that “writing improves more by experimenting with many aspects of the process at the same time than by mastering separate skills and blending them.”Newman's second point is that there is a difference between using computers for drill and practice and using them for word processing. In the drill and practice software, the computer is in charge whereby this software tells the user what to do and controls what is being learnt.

With word processing, however, it is the user who makes full use of it and that is in using the computer and learning to write.Writing in Word Processor allows rapid alteration and manipulation of the text that is able in helping students to sustain the mental images they are trying to capture while experimenting it with language. The thesaurus capability encourages synonym replacement, and many other possible tasks that involve the organization of the paragraph, the language used, deleting the errors much easier and loads more. Hereby, I can say that computerized writing has benefited the students in various ways.

There are few activities connected to the computerized writing and can be viewed at the websites below:

http://www.essay2review.com.

This website has loads of categories that you can look on. Computerized writing gives priority on writing and the links that you can actually look at would be the essay writing. Under this category, it explains about many things such as the rough draft, editing and the tips on writing an essay. One can look and study thoroughly to get the picture of it. The other part of it would be the essay types. In this category, it explains how to write a particular essay effectively. After clicking to this link, several types of essays are displayed and we are able to choose one based on our choice. The points given are very straight forward whereby in other words it is understandable. It does not only explain about how to write but also give appropriate approach that students can practice in their writing.

http://www.eslgo.com/classes/write/application_essays/.

This website serves almost the same thing exactly like in the first one but here it emphasizes more on how to produce an essay. There are few steps that you should be following to come up with an effective and attractive essay. I can say that these website suits the beginners compared to the ones that are used to essay writing. All the lessons given will take you to the different portions of essays. There are several links under the main link where you can look on. It does not only help us in producing an essay but also has lessons regarding the grammar in essay writing which includes the word choice and few exercises that you can try on. This website will also be a very good one for those who cannot arrange their ideas well.

http://www.buowl.boun.edu.tr/students/ESSAY%20DEVELOPMENT%20EXERCISES.htm.

This website can help the students to perform better in essay writing. This website mainly gives priority on the exercises with the appropriate answers. Students can try on the exercises given and view the correct or possible answers. Not only that but it also helps the students in introducing them to various methods of writing introductions. This website explains on how to start off an essay and serves practices on how to write introductory paragraphs for their essays. Apart from that, explanation on how certain essays should be produced has also given. Try those activities out and you will be able to see the difference.As for the softwares, there are many types of softwares that you can look on in the essay writing category but needs you to purchase it. For making your life easier, I have entitled a website that can be used for free. In this website, you can know or equip yourself with almost all the aspects that you should know in essay writing. This website gives explanation on how to write a particular essay and has loads of important points. In addition, it also provides sample essays that can be read at any time of the day and gives additional information on how you can improve your writing. This software is very useful and everyone should try to attempt it. Just click on it and it will give you wonders!http://www.toeflessays.com/download/nextgen_preview.pdf

More information about computerized writing can be viewed at the websites below:
http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde21/articles/Semire.htm

http://www.digitalwriting.org/overview.html

FIRST POSTING - READING FOR PLEASURE

Hello Datin and of course, to all the readers who are currently having a glimpse at my latest posting here. This is one of the assignments given that is meant to be posted on blogs. Here I am! This assignment was done in pair whereby my pair was Revathy d/o Letchumanan. Before I go on, let me just brief a little on what we were required to do. The task was to find an example of an online text that can be used to explain on of 5 types of reading which are reading for pleasure, reading for information, reading for task completion, reading for instruction or incidental reading. We decided on doing reading for pleasure as we found it interesting and an assignment that was FUN to do, actually!

Before I go on, let me just explain on what we understood by the term of “reading for pleasure”. To us, we interpreted this as a kind of reading that is mostly done during free time or as a time pass and there is no clear objective as to what we are supposed to read or learn about. But this does not mean that this kind of reading is purposeless or is a waste of time as we believe that no kind of reading is a waste of time. Reading for pleasure can be said is one way to relieve stress after a long day of classes or work as it does not require any kind of commitment or effort but only our interest, especially in the reading field. For this particular assignment, we are not going to look into hard-copy reading materials like a novel or a magazine but online texts.

Online texts are texts found online and can be read while one is online. These are texts that are put up by variety of people for the benefit of others and also as a way of introducing themselves to the readers outside. Online texts have enabled many to obtain knowledge in a more convenient way than the traditional way of looking for a book in a library or a bookstore whereby it takes a lot of time and mobility. Thus, online texts have widened the general knowledge of many by just a click.

As we are talking about “reading for pleasure” here, my partner and I have decided to look into poems of olden times as we are fond of the work of literature years ago that are still fresh up to this day and available to many, whatsmore through various of websites.

First, let us look into a brief biography of a great poet named William butler Yeats. William butler Yeats was a very well known poet of the late 1890s and 1900s who hailed from the Ireland and was born on 13th June 1865 in County Dublin. His mother was the one who introduced Yeats to the Irish folktales that he grew to like so much. Yeats studied in the metropolitan school of art in Dublin for a couple of years whereby some of his first works of poems were printed in the Dublin university review. He moved to New York in 1907 and at the age of 46, Yeats got married to Georgie Hyde lees in 1917. They had two children called Anne and Michael. His love for his children made him wrote two poems for them which were titled “a prayer for my daughter” and “a prayer for my son”.

A prayer for my daughter
May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, never find a friend

A prayer for my son
Bid a strong ghost at the head
That my Michael may sleep sound
Nor cry, nor turn in bed,
Til his morning meal come round,
And may departing twilight keep
All dread afar till morning’s back.

These are the two poems written for his children that clearly show how much Yeats loved his children and how he was capable in putting his love in few beautifully written words. Besides that, Yeats was a lover of his country, Ireland as well which prompted him to compose a poem titled “the lake isle of innisfree” which is proudly used in Malaysia’s high school as part of its literature program to the students.

I will arise and go now,
For always night and day,
I hear the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore,
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

On 23rd of January 1939 and at the age of 73, William butler Yeats died in France. His gravestone is engraved with a line “cast a cold eye, on life, on death. Horseman. Pass by!” His last poem was “the black tower” in 1939. One of his poems that caught our eye was the one written below :

When you are old
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep,
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrow of your changing face,
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled,
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid the crowd of stars.

The examples above are just a cist of William butler Yeats’s beautiful work and you can find out more about his biography as well as read his other poems by visiting http://www.online-literature.com/yeats where you can read and feel his wonderful poems of all time.

Another poet who grabbed our attention is an Indian poet named Rabindranath Tagore who was born on 7th of may 1861 in Joransanko, Calcutta, India. He did his early education with tutors at home where he was exposed to a wide array of subjects including science, arts, English and Sanskrit. Tagore started writing poems at a very early age and some were published under his pen name “Bhanusingha” meaning “sun lion”. On December 9 1883, Tagore married Bhabatarini Devi and had 5 children.

Tagore’s contribution can not only be seen through his poems but also through his social work. This is evident in his effort in founding the school, Shantiniketan in 1901 (now known as Visva-Bharati University) in West Bengal. This is a school based on the ashram model with the emphasis on learning in a harmonious setting with a well-rounded education. Indira Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi approved and loved Tagore’s concept.

As a patriot, Tagore composed the music and the lyric for India’s national anthem, “Jana-Gana-Mana” (thou art the ruler of all minds) and also Bangladesh’s national anthem, “Amar Sona Bangla” (my golden Bengal). When Tagore’s wife died in 1902, he wrote the poems in “Smaran” (in memoriam). With a great number of followers in India, Tagore traveled to United States and England to promote his work at Santiniketan. His most renowned work of all time, a song titled “Gitanjali” which Tagore translated into English, was read by many including Ernest Rhys and William butler Yeats and earned him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1931 because of its sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse and had brought Indian literature into the west. Rabindranath Tagore passed away in 1941.

GITANJALI
Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life.

This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills anddales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.

At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart loses itslimits in joy and gives birth to utterance ineffable.

Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands ofmine. Ages pass, and still thou pourest, and still there is roomto fill.

When thou commandest me to sing it seems that my heart would break with pride; and I look to thy face, and tears come to my eyes.

All that is harsh and dissonant in my life melts into one sweetharmony and my adoration spreads wings like a glad bird on itsflight across the sea.

I know thou takest pleasure in my singing. I know that only as a singer I come before thy presence.

I touch by the edge of the far-spreading wing of my song thy feetwhich I could never aspire to reach.

Drunk with the joy of singing I forget myself and call theefriend who art my lord.

I know not how thou singest, my master! I ever listen in silentamazement. The light of thy music illumines the world.

The life breath of thy music runs from sky to sky. The holy stream of thy music breaks through all stony obstacles and rushes on.

My heart longs to join in thy song, but vainly struggles for avoice. I would speak, but speech breaks not into song, and I cry out baffled.

Ah, thou hast made my heart captive in the endless meshes of thy music, my master!

Above is just a very small example of verse from Tagore’s Gitanjali.
For full version of it, please visit http://www.online-literature.com/tagore-rabindranath

Reading for pleasure helps us to be relaxed after getting ourselves cramped up with work all day long. Hereby, by this kind of reading it is said to set our mind free from stress. Maybe, you guys should try it out some day!

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READING COMPREHENSION

This task is about identifying what category does a particular article fall into. Well, after finding some information through the net, I and my partner, Revathy d/o Letchumanan managed to come up with few interesting stuffs. We focused on the reading comprehension articles. According to our opinion, reading comprehension is defined as the stage of understanding certain texts. Reading comprehension focuses on understanding the topic in order to answer the given questions accordingly. Let us give you guys a clear cut of what is meant by reading comprehension. This particular type of article allows the viewers to understand the message thoroughly and clearly. After getting the gist of it, they are required to answer the questions that are related to the article.


Reading comprehension proficiency is depending on the ability of recognizing the words. For instance, students that have a very good command in English language are able to get the message in just a split of seconds whereas students that in the other way round will have a tough time understanding what is written. What happens here is, instead of understanding what is happening in the article, they will actually use the time to get what it means. Therefore, loads of time will be taken in order for them to understand the particular article and to interpret the data.Hereby, one needs to be efficient and proficient in English language in order to understand the words used in a particular text.

Reading comprehension needs understanding and almost everyone ranging from all sort of ages can do this activity. Here, the basic thing that you should be doing before getting information on what is written in the text is to preview the particular story in your own way and to have a clear picture of it. Not only that, you have to recognize the story structure as it can help you to understand the organization of the story. To make it easier while reading the text given, you can list down all the main points and ask yourself the questions that might occur. For instance - what is happening, where, when and how the activity is taking place, the main purpose and how many of them are involved. Having yourself fully equipped with the possible questions that might occur can enhance your understanding towards the text.In conclusion, reading comprehension suits each and everyone and one can enhance the understanding skills easily. In this task, we have attached one of the examples that can be categorized under reading comprehension.

EXAMPLE OF A READING COMPREHENSION ARTICLE :

THE PEACELIKE MONGOOSEJames Thurber, Vintage Thurber, vol.2Hamish Hamilton Ltd., London."Mongoose" illustrated by Charles Douglasreproduced courtesy of the Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada. In cobra country a mongoose was born one day who didn't want to fight cobras or anything else. The word spread from mongoose to mongoose that there was a mongoose who didn't want to fight cobras. If he didn't want to fight anything else, it was his own business, but it was the duty of every mongoose to kill cobras or be killed by cobras. "Why?"asked the peacelike mongoose, and the word went round that the strange new mongoose was not only pro-cobra and anti-mongoose but intellectually curious and against the ideals and traditions of mongoosism. "He is crazy,"cried the young's mongoose's father. "He's sick, "said his mother. "He is a coward,"shouted his brothers. "He's a mongoosexual,"whispered his sisters. Strangers who had never laid eyes on the peacelike mongoose remembered that they had seen him crawling on his stomach, or trying cobra hoods, or plotting the violent overthrow of Mongoodia. "I am trying to use reason and intelligence,"said the strange new mongoose. "Reason is six-sevenths of treason,"said one of his neighbours. "Intelligence is what the enemy uses,"said another. Finally the rumour spread that the mongoose had venom in his sting, like a cobra, and he was tried, convicted by a show of paws, and condemned to banishment.Moral:Ashes to ashes, and clay to clay,if the enemy doesn't get you your own folks may.
Reading Comprehension - Adapted from the book "Making Sense",G. Capelle, F. Grellet, V. Kay. D. Souliéclasse de première, nouvelle édition.Classiques HachetteQUESTIONS :

QUESTIONS 1/16

1 Cobras and mongooses are animals who

A. get along well with each other.
B. live peacefully side by side.
C. wage war against each other.

2. The word “spread” suggests that:
A. no mongoose was interested in the event.
B. the news was kept secret.
C. they all told each other the news.

3. A coward is a person
A. who can easily control his fear.
B. who likes to fight.
C. who is not courageous.

4. “had never laid eyes” means
A. hadn't seen him before.
B. had already seen him.
C. had been watching him for a long time.

5. Strangers remembered him although:
A. they had never laid eyes on him.
B. they had actually seen him.
C. they thought they'd never met him

ONLY 5 QUESTIONS ARE ATTACHED IN THIS ARTICLE. FURTHER QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS CAN BE VIEWED AT: http://beewebhead.net/exos/mong.html

ADVERTISEMENT

This task is about designing my own advertisement based on the original copy. The advertisement we create are based on our creativity and how it can give impact on the others'. There are loads of ways we can decorate it either by using microsoft word document or microsoft power point.

For your information, I have created my advertisement in the Microsoft Word Document and I must say that it was really fun and interesting! Having your own advertisement is pretty intersting and fun. All of you guys do not miss the chance to try it!

The original copy of this particular advertisement is not colourful enough and apart from that its important information is not highlighted. Therefore, when this happens, it can be said that it would be rather difficult to be viewed and this disables the people around to get the information.

I have designed it in a way that it is colourful and looks more lively. The title or the main purpose of the advertisement has been highlighted which makes people easier to look at. Not only that, I have inserted an image that makes it more understandable for the viewers.

This advertisement can be downloaded at ADVERTISEMENT.doc

Hope you guys will be amazed with my product. Hit me back if there is any comments, alright?

Thank you!!