Evaluating Websites

The website we decided to choose is Wacky Web Tales and the URL: http://www.eduplace.com/tales/ This website is for kids who are in the third grade and above! Each of the many tales offered let you fill in blanks to help create the story plot.

The purpose: The purpose of this website is educational, and to provide tales for kids in order to make them learn new vocabulary and listening to these words and try pronounce it in different ways and what kids prefer it. This website can keep kids entertained for hours.

Clarity: The website is very clear and somewhat colorful and visually appealing. The tales are written in a clear way. The page and the links are well organized and there are many pictures. There is no spelling, grammatical or word-usage mistakes.

Accessibility: The website is open, free to use, and everyone can access.

Goals : The website goals is to teach children a new vocabulary and learn in funny way. and it is really effective and useful especially for those who are 3 years and above.
Information and resources the site provide :

• The information is objective.

• The site provides thorough coverage of the topic.

• The information on the site well written and there is no misspelling or grammatical error.

• The site provide a works cited page.

• The site include multimedia elements that help explain the topic.

Navigation :

• the site is organized but not clear to those how use it for the first time.

• the design suit the purpose

• No ads that might distract me

• the site does not take a long time to load

• the site does not indicate when it was first created and last updated

• the links work, and do not lead to error messages, such as “Page Not Found”

• the extension in the URL is eduplace.com/tales/

• the extension tell me about the source of the site

• most of the resources on this site meet all my needs

• this Web site has a variable tales and offer it in a good ways for this , it considers as a better research source than some of the other sites I've already visited.

Name of the group: Rise in Glory

Wordle in EDU401

The role of WeQuests in learning a foreign/second language

 

The first time when i heard about schoology,delicious, and scoop. it., i feel like ohh my god should i do all this work even though i dont know what they are and how people use them. But when i searched about them in google i found  enough information which were really helpful. Now with Webquest i faced the same problem and also i used google to help me identify what is this website and how to use it.

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing. There are at least two levels of WebQuests that should be distinguished from one another.

 

As a future EFL teacher, in shaa Allah I'll use WebQuest because it is really an interesting method of teaching a lesson. But first i will teach them how to use it.

 

How would English language teachers use blogs, wikis and delicious with their students?

World has totally changed and education and teaching must also be change. As an English teacher I have been thinking of a new method that can help my students to get a new information with an interesting and simple way. If i think of these days i see that technology is everywhere around us. We can simply say that we couldn’t live without technology. So, we agree now that technology is something extremely important, especially Social networking and blogging, wiki, delicious. So,We should engage them in our teaching EFL.

Blog is one of the most important website that can develop students writing. I would use Blog and teach my students to use it to be able to communicate with others and to improve their writing skills. I may ask them to write a post about their daily live, or about their interests and hobbies, this can make them write freely. Also I may ask them to read their friends posts and comment on them. Blog will definitely be an amazing site that will develop my students writing and reading skills.

Wiki is a perfect source for sharing information. Wiki gives EFL students a chance to add and discuss whatever information they learned. To use wiki with my students, I would divide the class into groups; each group will have their wiki. I’ll post assignments and online quiz or topic to share it with them. To be honest I don’t think that I will use it a lot, I think it is not so much helpful.

Delicious
Is a bookmarking tool that every EFL student would need. It is an amazing site that help teachers and students to share information. I may ask my students to make their own  Delicious account and after each lesson I would ask them to bookmark any website that may help them or help their friend also I may invite them to share links that they might be useful and helpful

Finally, I would really like to say that; Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. We should know how to use it in a proper way and of course we must teach our students how to use to have a complete benefit from this great gift.  

Stephan Bax in the article “CALL—past, present and future

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

The changes which Bax suggested and the means

proposed of achieving normalizations:

Stephan Bax in his article “CALL—past, present and future” suggested that we are currently using the second approach which is Open CALL, but that our aim should be to attain a state of ‘normalisation’ in which the technology is invisible. Stephan Bax suggested three step in which we can attain a state of normalisation in which the technology is truly integrated. The first step: is to identify the criterial factors which normalisation requires. The second:  is to audit the practice of each teaching context in the light of these criteria. The final step: is to adjust our current practice in each aspect so as to encourage normalization. Also he mentioned the 7 stages of normalization in CALL from early adaptors, ignorance/scepticism, try once, try again, fear/awe, normalising, normalization.

How these changes and means could be applied to our Saudi context?

Saudi Arabia has already started using technology in school. They change the way of teaching and change the book also they start using technology like smart board, computers, internet,  and projectors. In some school the government give the students laptops in the first day of the school and of course the students have to return the laptops to the school at the end of the year. So, we can say that Saudi Arabia used technology in the schools but In each case, we hope for something more technological and modern and we will see by the next few years insha Allah.

Why is it possible?

Because it is not something hard and impossible for country such as Saudi Arabia.

When is it possible/reached/achieved?

I think this is a perfect time to start using technology in the school, because these days everyone used technology even kids they know how to deal with laptop and ipad and other technology and they definitely prefer using it instead of  books and notebooks.

How will it be reached?

We can follow some steps to reach this goal:

First of all: teachers will not be replaced by technology, but teachers who do not use technology will be replaced those who do. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

Second: we should teach students how to use technology in a proper way.

Third: in order to attain a state of normalisation in which the technology is invisible we should use technology in every possible way, in the classroom, research, libraries, homework, exams...

Finally: we can make a group for every school and for every different levels this will help student to communicate and help each other.

videos about technology

Top 10 Reasons to Use Technology in Education: iPad, Tablet, Computer, Listening Centers


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzi2RIt8_nk&feature=player_detailpage




5 Best Apps for iPad to help you with your studies / education


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9sVowrk_B8w





have a nice weekend