amarshaufy1023

3D ANIMATION.....

2007-04-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

MEMORIES...

2007-04-12T06:46:00.000-07:00

MY ONLINE QUIZ RESULT AND EXPERIENCE....

2007-04-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

Online Quiz Results Summary

Your #Attempts
: 1
Total Class #Attempts
: 374
Your Quiz Score
: 18/30
Your Highest Score Ever
: 18
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).

Based on my experience doing this Online Test, I can say that this is a very interesting kind of test compared to the tests we have done in the class even though my marks are not very good for my first attempt, but I shall be back. Doing this test can tell how much you know about computers and ICT. This test gives the marks you gain and it will tell what band you are at right now. There are 3 levels of questions. The first level is the basic question, novice, and expert question. This test are in Malay language so it quite difficult for me to understand some of the terms that are used in computer language in Malay is so different than the regular terms that I usually used when using the computer. For example the term Hamparan elektronik actually means Spread Sheet in computer term when we use the Microsoft office.

In my opinion, this test is good but there are certain weaknesses that this kind of test has. I think that the test must use English language because I can hardly understand certain terms of the computer when they are converted into Malay. Online test is not very secure because test takers can and might cheat in the test. For example, they can ask their friends, finding the answers from the internet, using hand phone to SMS their friends, and lecturer and so on. This situation is absolutely different compared to the test in a class or lecture hall, which is more secure because they have invigilators to watch the test takers. Besides the low security level in online test, the test does not show the correct answer for the questions that have gotten wrong. This is really disappointing.

After attending all the lectures and tutorial and also doing all the assignments given, I rate the LANGUAGE AND ICT course with the scale of 10/10. This course is very informative, useful and interesting. Even though there are still assignments to do, but it is not a heavy burden for me. Besides that, this course has opened my mind and my heart on the many usage of ICT and how ICT and language can be combined to help me as a student of English. One more thing, my lecturer for this course, Datin Dr. Norizan is a good lecturer especially in helping people like me who rarely uses computers to understand what needs to be done. Thanks to her, I learn more about ICT and also its usage in developing my English language skills. For the time, I would like to suggest that it is better if this course do more practical rather than theory. I also think that the final exam for this course should be replaced with self development practical itself. As the goes by for me, so does this course, but my interest for ICT and language will never left my mind and my heart. I can only hope that this course can help other people like me in the future and to all the lectures who are teaching this course to always keep on improving this course from time to time and thank you for your teachings. Last but not least, I would also like to thank all my friends that’s been helping in this course and don’t forget to study for your finals. Always remember that our journey in this world is still long and never give up until that journey is over.

ONLINE LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT….

2007-04-04T05:01:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, mastering English is often associated with leading edge scientific, technological and economic development and this has made the English Language as an international language for global communication with the help of information technology (IT). The English Language is reintroduced as a medium of instruction for science, mathematics and technology related subjects back into the education system in 2001. this is to ensure that Malaysia can gain competitive edge in the global market and knowledge-based economy with a world-class workforce. But, it is important to remember that the English Language is only to complement and supplement but never to replace the role of the national language, Bahasa Malaysia.

The most immediate challenge is to develop or in some cases to reactivate the English Language skills in educators to enable them to teach effectively using English as an medium of instruction. Teachers of mathematics and science are receiving English Language training through the English of Mathematics and Science (ETeMS) conducted by the Ministry of Education.

Public universities such as Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) also tailor make professional development programs that aim to prepare lectures trained in Bahasa Malaysia, as well as those who have been lecturing in national language to conduct their lectures and tutorial in English by 2005. In this new millennium and the onset of globalization, UKM in its efforts to remain competitive in a borderless world has now given emphasize to the use of English for academic and professional purposes even though UKM is the pioneer in providing higher education based on nationalistic endeavor, adopting Bahasa Malaysia as a medium of instruction.

Central to these plans is the English Language competency of practicing academicians or in-service lectures who have been subjected to this change, particularly the medium of instruction. The cognitive processes and academic literacy skills that these educators need to engage in, employ to translate their knowledge gained, and understood in Bahasa Malaysia into the English Language is still unclear. A language competency profiling of these lectures will be useful as the information will guide and inform in their placement of language learning modules. For this purpose, the English Language competency test should profile the lectures general English Language proficiency and instructional language control in the target language. Given these aims, the test development is guided by the communicative competence theoretical construct within the “target language use domain” framework (Bachman & Palmer, 1997).

The School of Language Studies and Linguistic views language learning as a continuous development for all motivated learners. In the spirit of this principle, the School is committed to develop new approaches to help support and harness that learning. The development of English Language training modules for in-service lectures and construction of the on-line English placement test are significant example epitomizing lifelong learning practices valued by the School. This inspiration is made into reality by the provision of excellent IT infrastructure and agenda in UKM.

LearningCare PLATFORM: LearningCare is a web-based fully integrated e-learning solution which provide UKM community a tool to develop, implement and share effectively the use of web-based technology for intra and inter organization learning process. This system includes Portfolio (Courses) Management System, LearningCare Resources and LearningCare Portal System. UKM community is able to subscribe, create and manage the portfolios (courses) available from anywhere in the world.

LearningCare ASSESSMENT FACILITY: LearningCare Assessment module allows the portfolio to create and manage questions. The question can be programmed in several forms, which are

· Fill in the blanks;
· True and false;
· Multiple-choice;
· Multiple answer;
· Matching;
· Ordering;
· Short essay.

All the questions and result of the test takers are kept in a database built in the system. Portfolio owners can select and make informed choices on whether to display certain quiz or test on certain time and date only and the duration of the quiz taken can be specified and controlled. Test takers need specific password to take the assessment exercise. This system also provide randomization of questions, and shuffling of the question which are the basic principal of on-line testing.

ONLINE TEST DEVELOPMENT…

Online test construction:

Using the LearningCare web-based system.
Compromise on some features of the online test, as well as other language skills that would have liked to test given more sophisticated technology such as voice recognition and automated oral and written essay marking capabilities since this platform is not build specifically for testing purpose.
LearningCare does provide a relatively simple interface for test development, scoring and statistics keeping, which made it a good platform for the development of the pilot phase of the online test that is linked to the website of the Centre of Advance Development UKM.

Online test specifications:

Information on content, format and timing (Hughes, 1989).
Criterial levels of performance and scoring procedures (Hughes, 1989).

Content:

Styles and topics of texts will reflect the kinds of written text that are to be found in teaching materials of the various training modules.
These include grammar and vocabulary items for general English proficiency, domain language use and instructional language control.

Format and timing:

Cloze type text-testing overall comprehension
Also called “selective deletion gap filling” (Weir, 1988)
Conversational cloze rate the oral ability of test takers because a direct measure of oral ability is not feasible.

Criterial levels and performance:

From five passages that were originally chosen to be pre-tested on the modering group, only three were selected and the cut off scores were determined to help test takers into the appropriate modules.

Result reporting:

Can be obtained immediately.
Test result summary and details on the number of user attempts, total test takers attempt, user average score, class average score, user highest score ever and overall high score.
The result are kept in an online database, with is linked to the lecturers’ personal files.

Result on the trial session of the online test:

During this trial session, many of the lecturers took the test just for familiarization purposes and not to self-gauge their language proficiency .
The database showed that until June 2004, a total of 59 attempts have been made by 22 lecturers with an average of 2.6 attempt made by each lecturer.
The highest number of attempts made by a single lecturer is 7. The total average score of the test takers is 17.72% and the highest overall score is 86%.

CONCLUSION:

The development of the online test is important for the UKM academicians so that profiling of their English language proficiency can be conducted. There are many limitations with the present web-based system especially in the test design and reporting of the scores. The limitations in the computer technology used, which is unable o assess styles of writing and performance of oral ability calls for immediate research in the area. There is also suggestion that in ensuring the validity of the online test, the test needs to be administered in a controlled environment within a specific time frame. It is also recommended that the UKM community be given exposure and training in taking the online test to get them to be more familiar with the test system and technicalities.

A summary on the “ONLINE LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT“ from the ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ELT book, page 299 ( Norizan Abdul Razak, Hazita Azman, Sallehuddin Abdul Aziz, Wong Fook Fei and Afendi Hamat).

SMILE....

2007-03-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

E-LEARNING FOR LANGUAGE STUDIES.....

2007-03-28T04:20:00.000-07:00

As we know, E-learning has been around for ten years or so. During that time, it has emerged from being a radical idea, the effectiveness of which was yet to be proven, to something that is widely regarded as mainstream. It is the core to numerous business plans and a service offered by most colleges and universities. Electronic learning or E-learning is a general term used to refer to computer-enhanced learning. E-learning is mostly associated with activities involving computers and interactive networks simultaneously. The computer does not need to be the central element of the activity or provide learning content. However, the computer and the network must hold a significant involvement in the learning activity. A definition for e-learning emerges from the parallel concept of e-mail. E-mail is typically described as the activity of transmitting "mail" with computers and networks. In the same way, e-learning refers to learning activities that involve computers and networks. (The Internet and intranets are considered networks.) E-learning does not require learning materials to be delivered by computer, but computer and networks must be involved in this type of learning.

E-learning and learning are examples of recent concepts that acquire their meanings from the related concepts of e-mail, Web, and learning. Much literature associates e-learning with Web-based learning over the Internet (e.g. Rosenberg, 2000; Driscoll, 2002; Horton, 2000). Schank (2001) refers to learning activities involving computer networks as e-learning, and stresses that e-learning is not merely distance learning. Today, e-learning mainly takes the form of online courses. From the resources distributed by MIT's Open Courseware project to the design of learning materials in Rice's Connexions project to the offerings found from colleges and universities everywhere, the course is the basic unit of organization.

How does e-learning work?

A variety of media is used to help with learning and to provide communication between learners and tutors. These include:

traditional written materials, such as books and manuals
television and radio broadcasts
audio tapes and CD-ROMs
online information
online groups
video conferencing
email support

Your tutor can provide support by phone, email, online or by post. You might be able to communicate with other learners by email or website discussion groups. This helps you learn from the rest of the group and comment on each other's work. There is usually a good range of support available to help you organize your time and manage your learning.

In the era of learning technology and Educational Technology, the electronic learning is used generally to refer to the use of technology in learning or some sense of computer-based training. It is also more than On-line Learning or On-line Education which generally refer to purely web-based learning. In cases where mobile technologies are used, the term M-learning has become more common to the people in technology communities.Online language learning and teaching is multifaceted and can take many shapes. Components can be categorized in three areas:
1) Computer mediated communication (CMC),
2) presentation of authentic materials and
3) online interactive exercises.

CMC can be further broken down into asynchronous (e-mail and bulletin board) or synchronous communication (chat rooms, white board and Internet video conferencing) between two or multiple users. Different kinds of authentic materials are available on the Internet. Students can search for particular topics using search engines or sites recommended by the instructor. In addition to text and images, many Internet sites also include video and audio files. By sending students out on their own, they have access to pages created in the target culture, not by the instructor; consequently they are usually more up-to-date and culturally genuine. However, the instructor can also create a learning website, incorporating selected material, which are still authentic, but are more controlled for appropriateness in language and content.In creating online exercises, drills including fill-in-the blank, multiple choice, and matching are easiest to achieve by language teachers. There are a lot of already existing sites that allow for this kind of practice, but instructors can also learn how to create their own course specific Internet exercises, if they use a course management system like WebCT. Moreover, interactive activities and exercises can also go beyond those drills to include pair activities, problem solving, and critical thinking.Computer Mediated Communication has received a lot of attention in the field of Computer Assisted Language Learning, since it fits in well with a communicative approach to language learning. For our research we were looking for more complete uses of all three components in integrated online learning environments. However, articles about online learning in general and those pertaining to more specialized uses are nonetheless included for an overall review of the literature and practice.

E-learning is very helpful for language studies because of its advantages...

Advantages of e-learning..

The most notable advantages of e-learning are flexibility, convenience and the ability to work at your own pace. E-classes are asynchronous which allows learners to participate and complete coursework in accordance with their daily commitments. This makes an e-learning education a viable option for those that have other commitments such as family or work.

Other advantages of e-learning include the ability to communicate with fellow classmates from around the country, a greater adaptability to learner's needs, more variety in learning experience with the use of multimedia and the non-verbal presentation of teaching material. Video instruction provides visual and audio learning that can be reviewed as often as needed. For organizations with distributed and constantly changing learners (e.g. restaurant staff), e-learning has huge benefits when compared with organizing classroom training.

E-learning also has some weaknesses...

Disadvantages of e-learning..

Disadvantages of e-learning include the lack of face-to-face interaction with a teacher. Critics of e-learning argue that the process is no longer "educational" in the highest philosophical sense (for example, as defined by RS Peters, a philosopher of education). Supporters of E-learning claim that this criticism is largely unfounded, as human interactions can readily be encouraged through audio or video-based web-conferencing programs, threaded discussion boards,of fact, many in K12 would support e-learning if it was not associated with the more extreme versions that attempt to cut out the directed teacher-student relationship.

The feeling of isolation experienced by distance learning students is also often cited, although discussion forums and other computer-based communication can in fact help ameliorate this and in particular can often encourage students to meet face-to-face and form self-help groups. Discussion groups can also be formed on-line. Human interaction, faculty-to-student as well as student-to-student, should be encouraged in any form.

Web and software development in particular can be expensive as can systems specifically geared for e-learning. The development of adaptive materials is also much more time-consuming than that of non-adaptive ones. Consequently, some of the cost is often forwarded to the students as online college courses tend to cost more than traditional courses. However, there are transportation cost (and time) benefits with not having to commute to and from campus.

HA..HA..HA...

2007-03-28T04:02:00.000-07:00

BLOGGING....

2007-03-20T23:48:00.000-07:00

Good day, for this third posting, I would like to give a short summary on the article "BLOGGING AND TRAINEE TEACHERS' PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT" (Malachi Edwin Vethamani, Universiti Putra Malaysia) from the Online Teaching and Learning in ELT book. In the article, I can summarized that writing blogs is a way for trainee teachers to express their ideas, thoughts and also their feelings without any restriction and fear. They also feel safe and nobody will tell them what is right or wrong when they are writing in the blog.

A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketch blog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.
The term "blog" is a portmanteau, or, in other words, a blend of the words web and log (Web log). "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. "WIKIPEDIA"

Creating this blog is actually quite hard for me because the first reason is I'm not really good using the application in the cyberworld. Second, this is the first time that I heard the word 'blog' which is quite alien for me when I started this course. I think it was boring and also a waste of time for me to do this blog. But, after knowing and learning about blogs, it is actually quite fun and interesting when creating them. The interesting part comes when I can decorate my blog just like the way I want it to be. I also feel very proud when other people can read comments and opinions that I've posted in my blog. Besides that, I also want to thanked my friends for helping me to create this blog. Thanks to them, now I know how to insert background and also music. Creating this blog does give me a new experience especially when I can write and publish my writing where I can share my opinions, ideas and also feelings with other people and this is the most important thing to me.

For me, blogging does have its own advantages. For example, we can express and share our ideas, opinions and also anything that we can think of without any restriction with other. It also can give chances for people who a shy to express their thoughts to the public a place for them give out their opinions and ideas without facing the public. In long term, writing and posting blogs can help this kind of people to build up their confidence to speak in front of the public when people can accept what they propose. Besides that, blogging can also increase our computer skills, ICT skills and last but not least our writing skills.

Despite its advantages, blogging also have its disadvantages. For example, blogs can be used as a medium for spreading rumours. rumours are very easily spreaded using blogs because the identity of the writer cannot be trace and anyone can write anything freely. Sometimes, the things that are written maybe touches the sensitivity of some people especially if the things are related to religion, races or others.

To sum up, creating this blog is the most interesting part of this course (Language and ICT).This kind of activity has raised my interest and also my skills using the cyberworld application. I also can increased my knowledge every time I post a new topic and I really enjoy it.

CONCORDANCE...

2007-03-14T04:13:00.000-07:00

During my recent tutorial which is in 8 Mac 2007, we were put in groups of 4 to discuss for about 15 till 20 minutes about CONCORDANCE and its use in the language learning. CONCORDANCE is actually a software that is developed for analyzing language data. For example, the CONCORDANCE program can help you to find and list down a certain word that you want from a single text or from a of bunch text. For the discussion, we were asked to explain the occurrences that had been listed which is of the article ‘a’, the prepositions ‘about’ and ‘above’ and also noun- ‘absence’ and ‘Adam’.

After the discussion, we found out that the occurrences of the article ‘a’ are in three position. All the article ‘a’ are in the position of a noun phrase, adverbial phrase and adverbial clause. As we can see, the article ‘a’ is found to occur before any other pre and post- modifier of a noun phrase or simply put, these words appear in front of a noun phrase . There are a few examples that we could detect from the list which is ‘a pang of agony’, ‘a word of blame’, ‘a dreary winter’. Besides that, we also can see the article ‘a’ occurrences in adverbial phrases and clauses for example ‘in a drowsy tone’, ‘for a minute or two’, ‘at a pretty quick pace’, ‘with a blow’, and also ‘in a strange kind of vivid dream’.

In addition, we also discovered that the article ‘a’ can also able to change or transform a word which is a verb into a noun. We can observed this transformation in the following noun phrases- ‘a look’, ‘a blow’, ‘a shot’, ‘a cry’, and ‘a fall’. All the words after the article ‘a’ are actually verbs, but they are transformed into nouns after addition of the article ‘a’.

Next, our discussion also finds out about another function of the ‘a’ the in noun phrases, adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses in some of the complete sentences analysed. In some part of the noun phrase, the article ‘a’ can act as a subject complement. For example, the noun phrase like (‘I suppose I was a clever lad’ and ‘I sat at a pretty quick pace’). It also can function as an object for example, (‘I plucked up a brave heart’) and also can function as adverbials of manner in adverbial phrases and clauses (‘I could not reply for a minute or two’, ‘I said, in a drowsy tone’, ‘at a pretty quick pace’, and ‘I might greet her with a blow’).

After that, we moved our discussion to the function of the preposition ‘about’. For example, we can see that the preposition are used to denote ‘on the topic of subject of’.‘Who told me all this about my poor mother’, ‘did not often think about him’, ‘many voices about me’ are the examples that we can give from the list. Besides that, the prepositions that is been added to the phrasal verbs functions as adverbs, and we can the examples like ‘I tried to move about’, ‘feared that, in moving about…’, ‘when all were running about in wild alarm’. They are also used to explain something which is not certain like ‘When I was about sixteen’, ‘by the road, but only about four’, and ‘an errand to a place about seven miles’.

Finally, we analyzed the function of ‘above’ which is to denote ‘higher on a scale of measuring’. For instance, ‘not above half-an-hour’s walk from…’, ‘might not be above his comprehension’. There are examples that we can see where the word ‘absence’ can act as a noun and as an adjectives . In the samples given from the list, ‘absence’ acts as a noun and adjective while ‘Adam’ act as nouns respectively. As for ‘absence’, ‘by my prolonged absence’, ‘absence’ is a noun and the phrase ‘looking absent and moody’- ‘absence’ functions as an adjective. In the case of ‘Adam’, they all function as nouns, to refer to a person and act as Object. In the samples included, ‘absence’ acts as a noun and adjective while ‘Adam’ act as nouns. As for ‘absence’, ‘by my prolonged absence’, the word ‘absence’ is a noun and the phrase ‘looking absent and moody’, absent functions as an adjective. For the word ‘Adam’, they are all functioning as nouns. They refer to a person and act as an Object.

From the article on "BEYOND CONCORDANCE LINES: USING CONCORDANCE TO INVESTIGATE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT (Arshad Abd. Samad, UPM) from the ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ELT book, I can summarized that the CONCORDANCE software such as Wordsmith, MonoConc Pro and Microoncord has enhanced the use of the language corpus in helping in tedious tasks. Even teachers, researchers and language learners use concordance software. Schmit (2000:34) also argues that among the benefit of using corpus in language teaching and learning is that it may help student to enjoy the systematic of a language. But in Malaysia, its use is limited and is buy-and-large unavailable.

SOMETHING NEW...

2007-03-12T01:35:00.000-07:00

Muse - Sing For Absolution

Music Code provided by Song2Play.Com

THE OTHER ME....

2007-03-10T02:40:00.000-08:00

THE DIFFRENCES AND SIMILARITIES OF SMS, EMAILS AND CHAT LANGUAGE

2007-03-06T22:46:00.000-08:00

Nowadays, sms, email and chat is becoming more and more popular especilly among youth today.

This is because sending mesagges and information using this three method can be done in a blink of an eye, it also costs you very little and it can be done anytime. SMS is send using a hand phone or smart phone while emails and chat are done with a computer which is connected to the cyber world. This means, you can send emails and chatting with other people not only in Malaysia, but also around the world.

There are some similarities in the characteristc of language that we can see in SMSse, emails and chat which is the usage of informal language that is used widely today. The use of shortforms are also popular as a way to save time and space when writing. In my opinion, shortsforms are new style of writing. Besides that, emoticons and smileys are also used to make the message that is been send more interesting for the receiver to read. The grammatical structure and spelling when writing are not concernd because the messages that are send usally using informal language. In addition, code switching are also used when writing SMSse, emails and in chat. All of this happen spontaneously and the writer just write what comes up their mind without thinking much about the error in the sentences that they wrote.

Besides similarities, there are also diffrences between this three system. For example, the usage of salutations which we can usually see and use when writing emails, but rarely in SMSes and chats. This happen maybe because sending a SMS and chatting is a fast proses

where the sender expect the receiver to reply them on the spot (synchronously). It is just like talking to another person face to face. Meanwhile, an email usually needs salutation because writing an email is like writing a letter on a piece of paper where you have a lot of time to think what to write. You can take your time when writing and sending an email because it is not a fast process where you cant have an instant reply from the receiver unlike SMS and chat.

Eventhough there are similarities and diffrences of SMS, emails and chat in some aspects, but thats what makes them unic from each other.