Variety of topics oe CALL

Learning Management System

•         Learning Management System (or LMS) is a broad term used to describe software tools designed to manage user learning interventions and provide access to online learning services for students, teacher, and administrator.

•         A software system, that allows the development and delivery of educational courses using the Internet as a delivery system.

FEATURES OF LEARNING CUBE

•         Announcement Facility

•         Notes Facility

•         Document Facility

•         Forum Facility

•         Multimedia Gallery

•         Learning Track Facility

•         Links Facility

•         References Facility

•         News Facility

•         Assignment Facility

•         Assessment Facility

•         Portfolio Management Facility

•         LearningCube Portal Facility

ROLE OF LMS

•         Registration and charging

•         Managing the process

•         Testing

•         Mentoring and monitoring

•         User’s function

•         Administrator functions

ADVANTAGES OF LMS

•         Ability of an LMS to allow you to fully manage and track your own learning.

•         Provide support for distance learning.

•         Purposefully designed

–        Mature

–        Safe and Secure

–        Ease of Use

–        Centrally Supported

DISADVANTAGES OF LMS

•         Cost – Expensive to create.

•         Time required to install necessary hardware, software, course and database.

•         Not designed to be stand-alone.

•         Need for a LMS Administrator.

USAGE OF LMS IN LOCAL UNIVERSITY

•         Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS)

–        a course management system designed to help lecturers to create an online learning environment.

–        This system provides functions such as:-

•         register courses online

•         course cataloging

•         bulletin system

•         information searching

•         online quizzes, etc.

Social bookmarking

A method for internet users for share, organize and manage bookmark of web explorers

We can organize, make folder, sub-folders where we can save some links

We can share the links

We can search the links

That particular websites gets, more traffic

Example

Delicious.com

Fliker.com

Knowledge management

A process of capturing developing sharing and using knowledge

1 efficient handling of information and resources

Bookmarks

Record a website address

Types

Offline bookmarking

Online bookmarking

Social bookmarking

Dropbox

Dropbox is a free service that allows you to easily store and share your documents, videos, and photos and always have them on-hand when you need them.

Although, there are other Cloud services available, I use Dropbox because it is simple and functional. I mainly use it store important documents, pictures that I share out to friends, and enjoy the convenience of not having to sync anything.

Here are some advantages of Dropbox.

Ø  Free

Ø  Convenient

Ø  No fuss Backup

Ø  Syncs devices

Ø  Restore Files

Ø  Dropbox App

Ø  Easy Sharing

Free:

Once you sign up for the service you are provided with 2GB of free storage space. Depending on what you want to use it for, it may not sound like a lot, but there are ways to gain additional storage space. Aside from upgrading your account to a Pro or Business, you can invite friends to join, connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and tell them why you love them.

Convenient:

If you thoroughly enjoy simplicity like I do, this is a great tool to use.

No fuss Backup:

Be confident in knowing Dropbox securely backs up your work so you don't have to worry about ever losing it.

Syncs devices:

Dropbox saves your files throughout all of your devices. Know that all your work is readily available to you no matter what device you are using at the moment or where you are.

Restore Files:

Deleted something? No worries, anything in your Dropbox folder can be restored. Dropbox stores your folder for 30 days before it is gone forever. This amazing feature will save you tons of hours reworking or re-adding documents.

Dropbox App:

Tablets and smartphones can do a lot, but what they can't do is store massive amounts of data. It is not what they are meant for. With the Dropbox app, you can easily use your device to work or view only the files you need.

Easy Sharing:

Share those images from your job, an event you attended or images of the field trip you chaperoned with other parents.

Disadvantages

For one, Dropbox doesn't support the creation of private encryption keys, which are basically passwords that you create and that only you have access to.

Encrypt owner right

Additionally, Dropbox does not own or operate its own data storage centers, but instead utilizes a third party.

Security

This leaves physical security out of its hands and in those of another company, which could leave your files at greater risk.

No live chat

There are a great number of online resources to find answers to questions about how Dropbox Pro works, but there is unfortunately no live chat, and only business customers have telephone help center options.

Feedback

I am using drop box for educational purpose. I found it very beneficial for my study task. Now I have my own online save where I can store all my official and private data. I cane easily share my assignments and notes with my fellows as well as teachers. It is very reliable online source of sharing and storing.

What is my browser?

A browser is software that is used to access the internet. A browser lets you visit websites and do activities within them like login, view multimedia, link from one site to another, visit one page from another, print, send and receive email, among many other activities. The most common browser software titles on the market are: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google's Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple's Safari, and Opera.

What is a video lecture?/Tuterial

A video lecture is essentially an educational video; an academic lecture of the type given at university level, recorded and published online. Audiovisual, on-demand and off-the-page

—   they make an excellent pedagogical tool.

Advantages of video lecture

—   Easy to access anytime

—   Can be viewed on many devices.

—  Learn whenever you want

—  Can be delivered online at almost no cost

—  Can be translated and subtitled

—  Good video lecture Sound better than from back of a lecture hall

—  Students can take the lectures again and again until they understand fully.

—  Students can Watch videos when in right attentive state for learning

Disadvantages

—  Video lectures are time taking.

—  Students cannot ask question.

—  the absence of a direct contact and immediate response to the learner's need.

—  Some videos need special software's and devices to open.

—  For this first we should have some technology.(computer,laptop etc)

Feedback

—  Video lectures are very useful for learning. We can understand different concepts easily.

—  This process make our listing skills and develop confidence.

—  This process take time but get good concept by them.

—  For this you should know where to get videos of lectures and how to access.

Snipping Tool is a screen shooting utility included in Windows Vista and later. It can take screenshots of an open window, rectangular areas, a free-form area, or the entire screen. Snips can then be annotated using a mouse or a tablet, stored as an image file (PNG, GIF, or JPEG file) or an MHTML file, or e-mailed.

Online website making process

Ten steps

1 open web browser

2 open access yala.com

3 choose start for free

4 provide name, email and passward

5 choose template

6 write website name

7 provide your personal information

8 customize your website

10 choose yolasite. Com as website domain

E portfolio

E portfolio is the area of educational assessment.

"In general, an ePortfolio is a purposeful collection of information and digital artifacts that demonstrates development or evidences learning outcomes, skills

·         It is relate to achievement level also with observation (assessment)

·         Assessment for learning (Formative assessment)

·         Assessment of learning (summative assessment)

Make a website for assessment

www.onlinequizecreator.com

quizstar.4teachers.org

goconqr.com

CMC

Stand for computer mediated communication

Types of CMC

Synchronous

Sender and receiver both are present at time of communication.

Asynchronous

Sender is present but receiver is not present at that time.

Criteria for evaluation

Context	Multimedia	Pedagogy	Assessment
Context and quality of information	Pictures	Objective	Quiz
Relevance	Diagrams	Sequence	MCQs
Level of language	charts	Examples	True/False
	Clip art	Integration	Matching
	Own voice recording	Relevance	Scoring
	Button/Icons		Positive/negative
	interactivity		Reinforce

Using Games in Language Teaching

The purpose of this paper is threefold: to discuss reasons for using games in language, to give suggestions on when and how to use games, and to explain categories for classifying games.

Why use games in language teaching

Games have long been advocated for assisting language learning. Here are some of the reasons why:

1. Games add interest to what students might not find very interesting. Sustaining interest can mean sustaining effort (Thiagarajan, 1999; Wright, Betteridge, & Buckby, 2005). After all, learning a language involves long-term effort.

1. Games provide a context for meaningful communication. Even if the game involves discrete language items, such as a spelling game, meaningful communication takes place as students seek to understand how to play the game and as they communicate about the game: before, during, and after the game (Wright, Betteridge, & Buckby, 2005).

1. This meaningful communication provides the basis for comprehensible input (Krashen, 1985), i.e., what students understand as they listen and read, interaction to enhance comprehensibility, e.g., asking for repetition or giving examples (Long, 1991), and comprehensible output, speaking and writing so that others can understand (Swain, 1993).

1. The emotions aroused when playing games add variety to the sometimes dry, serious process of language instruction ((Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000) Ersoz, 2000; Lee, 1995).

1. The variety and intensity that games offer may lower anxiety (Richard-Amato, 1988 ) and encourage shyer learners to take part (Uberman, 1998), especially when games are played in small groups.

1. Games can involve all the basic language skills, i.e., listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and a number of skills are often involved in the same game (Lee, 1995).

1. Games are student-centered in that students are active in playing the games, and games can often be organized such that students have the leading roles, with teachers as facilitators.

1. Many games can be played in small groups, thereby providing a venue for students to develop their skills in working with others, such as the skill of disagreeing politely and the skill of asking for help (Jacobs & Kline Liu, 1996). Other advantages of games played in groups include:

a.       The team aspect of many games can encourage cooperation and build team spirit (Ersoz, 2000).

b.      Although many games involve competition, this is not necessarily the case (Orlick, 2006).

c.       In most games, everyone has a turn, encouraging everyone to take a turn, rather than letting others do all the talking and other actions, and discouraging one or two people from shutting out others.

1. As many games can be played outside of class, they provide a means for students to use the language outside of class time (Ellis, 2005).

1. Games can connect to a variety of intelligences (Gardner, 1999), e.g.,
1. Games played with others involve interpersonal intelligence
2. Games involving drawing connect with visual/spatial intelligence
3. Games often have a hands-on element, such as cards, spinners, or pieces, which connect with bodily/kinesthetic intelligence

To achieve the above-mentioned benefits some thought needs to be given to when and how to use games. That is the focus of the next section of this paper.

When and how to use games

Games can play a range of roles in the language curriculum. Traditionally, games have been used in the language class as warm-ups at the beginning of class, fill-ins when there is extra time near the end of class, or as an occasional bit of spice stirred into the curriculum to add variety. All these are fine, but games can also constitute a more substantial part of language courses (Lee, 1979; Rixon, 1981, Uberman, 1998). In the Presentation-Practice-Production framework (Mauer, 1997), (in which language items are first presented for students to listen to and/or read, then practiced in a manner in which the language used is controlled, e.g., students read out a dialogue from the textbook in which the two characters compare study habits, and then produced by students in a less controlled manner, e.g., two students discuss their own study habits), the games can be either for practicing specific language items or skills or for more communicative language production. Similarly, games can also be used as a way to revise and recycle previously taught language (Uberman, 1998).

Children often are very enthusiastic about games, but precisely for that reason, some older students may worry that games are too childish for them. Teachers need to explain the purpose of the game in order to reassure such students that there is such a phenomenon as “serious fun.” Also, older students can be involved in modifying and even creating games. Furthermore, adults have long participated in games on radio and television, not to mention the fact that popular board games, such as Monopoly, are played by adults.

As with other learning activities, teachers need to pay careful attention to the difficulty level of games. Part of the appeal of games lies in the challenge, but if the challenge is too great, some students may become discouraged. The challenge can be of two kinds: understanding how to play the game and understanding the language content. Some suggestions for promoting both types are understanding are:

a.  Demonstrations of how the game is played. The teacher can demonstrate with a group of students or a group can demonstrate for the class.

b. A kind of script of what people said as they played or a list of useful phrases. Similarly, key vocabulary and concepts may need to be explained.

c.  Clear directions. Demonstrations can accompany directions, and directions can be given when needed, rather than explaining all the steps and rules in one go. Also, some student-initiated modifications can be accepted.

d. Games already known to students.

e.  Games used to revise and recycle previously studied content, rather than involving new content.

f.  Groups are heterogeneous in terms of current language proficiency, so that the more proficient members can help others.

g. Resources, online or print, such as dictionaries and textbooks.

Types of language games

Classifying games into categories can be difficult, because categories often overlap. Hadfield (1999) explains two ways of classifying language games. First, she divides language games into two types: linguistic games and communicative games. Linguistic games focus on accuracy, such as supplying the correct antonym. On the other hand, communicative games focus on successful exchange of information and ideas, such as two people identifying the differences between their two pictures which are similar to one another but not exactly alike. Correct language usage, though still important, is secondary to achieving the communicative goal.

The second taxonomy that Hadfield uses to classify language games has many more categories. As with the classification of games as linguistic games or communicative games, some games will contain elements of more than one type.

1. Sorting, ordering, or arranging games. For example, students have a set of cards with different products on them, and they sort the cards into products found at a grocery store and products found at a department store.

1. Information gap games. In such games, one or more people have information that other people need to complete a task. For instance, one person might have a drawing and their partner needs to create a similar drawing by listening to the information given by the person with the drawing. Information gap games can involve a one-way information gap, such as the drawing game just described, or a two-way information gap, in which each person has unique information, such as in a Spot-the-Difference task, where each person has a slightly different picture, and the task is to identify the differences.

1. Guessing games. These are a variation on information gap games. One of the best known examples of a guessing game is 20 Questions, in which one person thinks of a famous person, place, or thing. The other participants can ask 20 Yes/No questions to find clues in order to guess who or what the person is thinking of.

1. Search games. These games are yet another variant on two-way information gap games, with everyone giving and seeking information. Find Someone Who is a well known example. Students are given a grid. The task is to fill in all the cells in the grid with the name of a classmate who fits that cell, e.g., someone who is a vegetarian. Students circulate, asking and answering questions to complete their own grid and help classmates complete theirs.

1. Matching games. As the name implies, participants need to find a match for a word, picture, or card. For example, students place 30 word cards, composed of 15 pairs, face down in random order. Each person turns over two cards at a time, with the goal of turning over a matching pair, by using their memory. This is also known as the Pelmanism principle, after Christopher Louis Pelman, a British psychologist of the first half of the 20^th century.

1. Labeling games. These are a form of matching, in that participants match labels and pictures.

1. Exchanging games. In these games, students barter cards, other objects, or ideas. Similar are exchanging and collecting games. Many card games fall into this category, such as the children’s card game Go Fish: http://www.pagat.com/quartet/gofish.html.

1. Board games. Scrabble is one of the most popular board games that specifically highlights language.

1. Role play games. The terms role play, drama, and simulation are sometimes used interchangeably but can be differentiated (Kodotchigova, 2002). Role play can involve students playing roles that they do not play in real life, such as dentist, while simulations can involve students performing roles that they already play in real life or might be likely to play, such as customer at a restaurant. Dramas are normally scripted performances, whereas in role plays and simulations, students come up with their own words, although preparation is often useful.

Another distinction among games is that between competitive games and cooperative ones (Jacobs, in preparation). Research suggests that learning, as well as affective variables, are enhanced by a cooperative environment (Johnson, Johnson, & Stanne; Slavin, 1995). Millis (2005) outlines a number of advantages of cooperative games, such as appropriate anxiety levels and more constructive feedback.