Friday, 27 May 2016

Define VIRTUAL LANGUAGE LEARNING)

 Define VIRTUAL LANGUAGE LEARNING)

Virtual worlds are playing an increasingly important role in education, especially in language learning. By March 2007 it was estimated that over 200 universities or academic institutions were involved in Second Life (Cooke-Plagwitz, p. 548).[1] Joe Miller, Linden Lab Vice President of Platform and Technology Development, claimed in 2009 that "Language learning is the most common education-based activity in Second Life".[2] Many mainstream language institutes and private language schools are now using 3D virtual environments to support language learning.

Onlinequize creator

Websites of English language learner and its review

Websites of English language learner and its review
Easy World of English
easyworldofenglish.com
An attractive, user-friendly website including grammar, pronunciation, reading and listening practice and an interactive picture dictionary.
Many Things
manythings.org
This website includes matching quizzes, word games, word puzzles, proverbs, slang expressions, anagrams, a random-sentence generator and other computer-assisted language learning activities. The site also includes a special page on pronunciation, including practice with minimal pairs. Not the fanciest or most beautiful website, but with lots to see and use and no advertising.
Dave's ESL Cafe
eslcafe.com
A forum for both ESL teachers and students around the world. Includes quizzes, grammar explanations, and discussion forums for students. For teachers, includes classroom ideas on all subjects as well as discussion forums.
The California Distance Learning Project
cdlponline.org
Read and listen to a news stories on topics including working, housing, money and health, then work on activities based on the stories including matching pairs, vocabulary, and quiz questions. Some stories also include videos.
BBC Learning English
bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish
An array of wonderful activities for practice, some relating to current events. Includes videos, quizzes, vocabulary practice, idioms, crosswords, and much more, though all with British accents.
Activities for ESL Students
a4esl.org
Grammar and vocabulary practice for all levels, including many bilingual quizzes for beginners. Also includes a link for teachers, with conversation questions, games, and many other ideas to put to use in the classroom.
ABCYa
abcya.com
This is a website for kids, but who says adults can't use it, too? The site includes educational games organized by grade level, from 1st to 5th, and is particularly good for spelling and phonics. There are games to practice vowels, uppercase and lowercase letters, Dolch sight words, synonyms and antonyms and more.
TV 411
tv411.org
This site includes videos with native speakers explaining key reading concepts like critical reading, summarizing and scanning, and key life skills like signing a lease and reading a medicine label. Following each video is a comprehension quiz. Click on the blue tabs across the top lead for lessons on reading, writing, vocabulary and finance.
GCF Learn Free
gcflearnfree.org/everydaylife
A well-designed site with interactive tutorials for everything from operating an ATM machine to reading food labels. If you click on the main page icon and then click on reading, the site has resources for English language learners as well, including stories to listen to and read along, and picture dictionaries.
Language Guide
languageguide.org/english
This is an online picture dictionary, with everything from the alphabet to parts of the body to farm animals.
Oxford University Press
elt.oup.com/learning_resources
This site from Oxford University Press has activities to practice spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and listening. A bit difficult to navigate, so more suitable for advanced learners and savvy internet users.
Also, don't forget YouTube. Whatever you'd like to learn — an explanation of a grammar term, idioms, a set of vocabulary — enter it in the search field and an array of videos are sure to come up. I hope some of these sites prove useful. Enjoy! And please add your own


How to computer use in English language learning

How to computer use in English language learning

Computers have made a triumphal entry into education in the past decade, and only a dyed-in-the wool Luddite would deny that they have brought significant benefits to teachers and students alike. However, an uncritical use of computers can be just as disadvantageous to students as a refusal to have anything to do with them. In this article I discuss some of the ways that computers can be used in English language teaching, with a view to helping colleagues make the most of the opportunities they offer to ESL students.
It is helpful to think of the computer as having the following main roles in the language classroom:
  • teacher - the computer teaches students new language
  • tester - the computer tests students on language already learned
  • tool - the computer assists students to do certain tasks
  • data source - the computer provides students with the information they need to perform a particular task
  • communication facilitator - the computer allows students to communicate with others in different locations
Computer as teacher. In the early days of computers and programmed learning, some students sat at a terminal for extended periods following an individualized learning program. Although we have come a long way from the rather naïve thought, held by some at that time, that the computer could eventually come to replace the teacher, there has been a return to a much more sophisticated kind of computerized teaching using multimedia CD ROMS. In such programs, students can listen to dialogues or watch video clips. They can click on pictures to call up the names of the objects they see. They can speak into the microphone and immediately hear a recording of what they have said. The program can keep a record of their progress, e.g. the vocabulary learned, and offer remedial help if necessary. Many of these CD ROM programs are offered as complete language courses. They require students to spend hours on their own in front of the computer screen, usually attached to a microphone headset. For this reason alone I prefer not to use them in my language teaching. Another of their serious drawbacks, in my view, is the fact that in many cases the course content and sequence is fixed. The teacher has no chance to include materials that are of interest and importance to the particular students in his or her class.
As an alternative to large CD ROM packages, there is an increasing number of useful sites on the World Wide Web, where students can get instruction and practice in language skills such as reading, listening and writing. Some examples.
Computer as a tester. The computer is very good at what is known as drill and practice; it will tirelessly present the learner with questions and announce if the answer is right or wrong. In its primitive manifestations in this particular role in language teaching, it has been rightly criticized. The main reason for the criticism is simple: many early drill and practice programs were very unsophisticated; either multiple-choice or demanding a single word answer. They were not programmed to accept varying input and the only feedback they gave was Righter Wrong. So for example, if the computer expected the answer "does not" and the student typed "doesn't" or " does not" or " does not ", she would have been told she was wrong without any further comment. It is not surprising that such programs gave computers a bad name with many language teachers. Unfortunately, there are now very many of these primitive drill and kill programs flooding the Internet.
Despite their obvious disadvantages, such programs are nevertheless popular with many students. This is probably because the student is in full control; the computer is extremely patient and gives private, unthreatening feedback. Most programs also keep the score and have cute animations and sounds, which many students like.
There are some programs which do offer more useful feedback than right or wrong, or that can accept varying input. Such programs blur the role of the computer as teacher or tester and can be recommended to students who enjoy learning grammar or vocabulary in this way. If two or more students sit at the same computer, then they can generate a fair amount of authentic communication while discussing the answers together.
Computer as a tool.
 It is in this area that I think the computer has been an unequivocal success in language teaching. Spreadsheets, databases, presentation slide generators, concordances and web page producers all have their place in the language classroom, particularly in one where the main curricular focus is task-based or project-work. But in my opinion, by far the most important role of the computer in the language classroom is its use as a writing tool. It has played a significant part in the introduction of the writing process, by allowing students easily to produce multiple drafts of the same piece of work.. Students with messy handwriting can now do a piece of work to be proud of, and those with poor spelling skills can, after sufficient training in using the spell check, produce a piece of writing largely free of spelling mistakes.
Computer as a data source.
 I'm sure I don't need to say much about the Internet as a provider of information. Anyone who has done a search on the World Wide Web will know that there is already more information out there than an individual could process in hundred lifetimes, and the amount is growing by the second. This huge source of information is an indispensable resource for much project work, but there are serious negative implications. I shudder to think of how much time has been wasted and will continue to be wasted by students who aimlessly wander the Web with no particular aim in mind and with little or no guidance. I generally do not turn my students free to search the web for information. Instead, I find a few useful sites beforehand and tell the students to start there; anyone who finishes the task in hand can then be let loose!
As an alternative to the Web, there are very many CD ROMs, e.g. encyclopaedias, that present information in a more compact, reliable and easily accessible form.
Computer as communication facilitator.
 The Internet is the principal medium by which students can communicate with others at a distance, (e.g. by e-mail or by participating in discussion forums). In fact at Frankfurt International School the single most popular use of computers by students in their free time is to write e-mails to their friends. Some teachers have set up joint projects with a school in another location and others encourage students to take part in discussion groups. There is no doubt that such activities are motivating for students and allow them to participate in many authentic language tasks. However, cautious teachers may wish to closely supervise their students' messages. Recent research has shown up the extremely primitive quality of much of the language used in electronic exchanges!


Wednesday, 25 May 2016

Moodle reovew

                                                 Moodle review

We’ve grown Moodle since 2001 as an open source platform for educators to develop and manage courses online.
Moodle is a modular system based on plugins, which are like lego blocks that you put together to build whatever you want.  There are plugins for different kinds of content, and plugins for all kinds of collaborative activities, which is where Moodle really shines.  As an example our Workshop plugin manages a full peer assessment process, so you can get hundreds of students accurately grading each other’s assignments (that can save you a lot of time!).  Add some tracking and reports and the ability to add more plugins from the community or even ones you write yourself, and you can build some pretty amazing education environments.
The Moodle project is run by Moodle HQ from Perth, Australia, but would not be what it is without a huge community of users.  Our community work together and help each other on moodle.org (itself a Moodle site), where they’ve taken Moodle’s founding principles of feedback and collaboration online and practice it in our Moodle forums, our wiki-based Moodle Documentation, our Moodle Tracker for bugs and new features, our course-sharing site Moodle.net, and our Moodle Translation portal (which means you can use Moodle in over 100 languages!).

General feature of moodle

Thursday, 19 May 2016

Definition evaluation and its type

Definition of evaluation ?

Evaluation is the process of finding/ determining the worth of anything.

Educational Evaluation

Educational evaluation is concern with finding the worth of instruction teacher, curriculum, and school administration.

Types of evaluation


Evaluation Type
Definition
Uses
Examples

Formative
  • Evaluates a program during  development in order to make early improvements
  • Helps to refine or improve program
  • When starting a new program
  • To assist in the early phases of program development
  • How well is the program being delivered?
  • What strategies can we use to improve this program?

Summative
  • Provides information on program effectiveness
  • Conducted after the completion of the program design
  • To help decide whether to continue or end a program 
  • To help determine whether a program should be expanded to other locations
  • Should this program continue to be funded?
  • Should we expand these services to all other after-school programs in the community?

Process
  • Determines if specific program strategies were implemented as planned
  • Focuses on program implementation
  • To determine why an established program has changed over time
  • To address inefficiencies in program delivery of services
  • To accurately portray to outside parties program operations (e.g., for replication elsewhere)
  • Did your program meet its goals for recruitment of program participants? 
  • Did participants receive the specified number of service hours?

Outcomes
  • Focuses on the changes in comprehension, attitudes, behaviors, and practices that result from programs activities
  • Can include both short and long term results
  • To decide whether program/activity affect participants outcomes
  • To establish and measure clear benefits of the program
  • Did your participants report the desired changes after completing a program cycle? 
  • What are the short or long term results observed among (or reported by) participants?

Impact
  • Focuses on long term, sustained changes as a result of the program activities, both positive/negative and intended/unintended
  • To influence policy
  • To see impact in longitudinal studies with comparison groups
  • What changes in your program participants’ behaviors are attributable to your program? 
  • What effects would program participants miss out on without this program?