Sixth Posting (Assignment Number 6)

MY HONEST AND TRUTHFUL ANSWER REGARDING TO MY EXPERIENCE USING BLOG….

For this last and final posting, we are required to answer all six questions prepared by our lecturers, Ass. Prof. Datin Dr. Norizan and Pn. Zaini. Below are my honest and truthful answer regarding to this matter.

In my opinion, blogging activity does improve my writing skill as it helps in enhancing my grammar and vocabulary proficiency. Why do I say so? This is because most of my blogging activities required me to write in English and when this happen, I found that my grammar and English vocabulary are becoming better and better as the day goes by. Besides that, I am able to think wisely in what I want to write before I publish my post and know how to write efficiently using the right tools like putting the appropriate reference, quotations and so on.

To me, blog is a useful learning experience as it is something new and interesting to explore. Here is the right place to publish all your useful thoughts, ideas, advice, hidden talents and many more to all the peoples around the world. If you are lucky and fortunate enough to make peoples love your work and writing, then you can make big profit out of it:) Peoples who viewed your blog can put their comments then you will be able to know whether what you are doing is appropriate and suits the circumstances around. Moreover, if you received hips and tans of feedbacks, then you will have the spirit to become a better person and always loves to improvise your writing. This is a good thing in order to become a successful person. Besides that, by using blog you are able to become creative and innovative types of person. This is because, you can decorate your blog using all the tools that are available as well as putting some audios, pictures, videos and many others interesting features that are available. It is a waste if you do not grab this golden opportunity.

In order to make your blog a success, first thing you need to know is, sign in to appropriate blogger like the wordpress or blogger. After you’ve sign in, get used with the elements that are available in your blog especially on the posting part. After you have completed doing that, then you have to know what materials you want to put in your blog. For example, you must know what you want to write and who’s your audience is. This is important in order to know whether your writing suits the audience levels of thinking or not. When you know what you want to write then go and do some research and reading on your topic so that you will have broad ideas on that particular topic. After completed with your post, you can decorate your blog using the appropriate tools so that your blog will appear great and lovely.

I must admit that, even though using blog is interesting, there are some problems that I encountered at the beginning of using and creating my blog. Such problems are, difficulties in changing the layout that are provided outside of the blogger like the ‘pyzam’ and many more. At first I change my blogger layout to pyzam layout, then it turns out to be all my posting were gone. It does not appear together with my slideshow, audio and pictures. Then what I did is, I change back to my old templates, then the posting appeared together with my slideshow, music’s and pictures and everything is back to normal. Besides that, I found it hard to insert slide show in my blog at first. Then what I did in order to overcome this problem is I asked my friends then applied what I’ve learned from them and thank god I managed to overcome it. So far that was the only problems that I encountered during my blogging activities.

After my great experienced using blog, I will definitely tell the rest of my friends not to miss this whole new and exciting technology! I will recommend them to use these facilities and see how effective it is without any doubtless. I’m pretty sure my friends will love my idea since they are rich with useful thoughts that are just waiting for the suitable time to be publish to public. Besides that, I am sure that after I’ve told my friends about this, then there will be tans of peoples blogging since most of my friends are the types that will tell straight away to others about something that are new, exciting, and worth of trying and learning.

Frankly speaking, I’m not sure whether I will continue using blog after SKBP 1023 is over. At first, I was thinking that this blog are just for the evaluations for this particular course, but eventually, I found that, blogging is a good mediums of instruments in order to enhance my writing, vocabulary and thinking skills. Besides helping me in expressing my ideas and thoughts, I am able to get supportive feedbacks from expert peoples like my lecturers and beloved friends regarding to my work. Insha’Allah, with god will’s I will continue blogging. If not now, maybe perhaps when I am already a carrier woman.

I would like to take this opportunity to thanks my lecturers Ass. Prof, Datin Dr Norizan Abdul Razak and Pn. Zaini Ahmad for their supports, guidance and bless that they gave to me. Insha’Allah I will do my best in this subject as well as the rest and will always remember your words and advise to me:) Once again, THANK YOU so much for everything.. Until we meet again… (SYAKIRIN 08)

Fifth Posting (Assignment Number 5)

Electronic Malaysian English Competency Test - Reading Test (Set 1)
Score: 24 out of 35 - 69%
Time Taken: 39m 51s

Online Quiz Results
Results Summary

Online Quiz Results :: Kemahiran Asas ICT
Your Score : 19/30

Online Quiz Results Summary

Your #Attempts: 1
Total Class #Attempts: 566
Your Quiz Score: 19/30
Your Highest Score Ever: 19
Note: This may not be your final marks. Due to some of the subjective and semi-objective As you all can see, abquestions (short essay and fill in the blank).

As you all can see, above is my results on the Electronic Malaysian English Competency Test - Reading (EMECT) and Ujian Kendiri ICT test. I took the test together wih the rest of my coursemates on Monday, 31st Mac 2008 during our tutorial session.

This was my first experience taking online test. At first I was very nervous but at the same time very curious to know how these online tests will looks like. Overall I must admit that it was quite difficult and challenging as I had no experience at all in taking online test before. The major problem was the time consuming. I found that the time given was not sufficient enough. Perhaps they should provide more time so that I can really concentrate and understand the passages given even better. Besides that, I can’t actually highlight the important points or the keywords of the particular sentences when doing this online test. When this happen, I had to keep on opening the questions tab, read back everything from the beginning then switch back to the answer tab. Apart from that, it is a bit risky taking online test because when I accidently click the ‘X’ button of the questions page, the whole thing vanished then I had to restart everything and do it all over again.

That was the disadvantages of EMECT online test. Now I will explain on the weakness of Ujian Kendiri ICT Test. First of all, I could not perform well in this test as it was done in Bahasa Malaysia, (Malay). Even though I used Malay in almost of my daily conversations, I still find it hard to understand because before this I had been exposed to the English term of all the computers literacy then suddenly when it was tested in Malay, I get that ‘culture shock’ kind of feelings as I’m not used to it. They can still test us in Malay but at least provide some English glossary in it so that it is easier for me to understand.

That was some of the weaknesses and disadvantages of taking online test. However, I must admit that online test do have its own advantages. For example, I can get immediate feedback straight after I had completed my test. Besides that, they did not only provide the results, but also the time taken in completing the test. This is a good thing because I do not have to wait for quite sometimes in order to know my results. Moreover, online test are useful in providing and marking objectives kinds of question. It is guaranteed that they will not make mistake in correcting this kinds of questions.

In conclusion, online test has its own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, in order to make online test as one of the useful and beneficial means, the particular people who are in charged in making this a reality have to always improvised and standardized these online test so that it will have zero disadvantages:)

Fourth Posting (Assignment Number 4)

(1) Beyond Concordance Lines by Arshad Abd. Samad (UPM)

For this fourth posting, we are required to do it together with a partner and my partner is Farhana. Below are the gist of summary on article in page 70 of the Online Teaching and Learning in ELT, (OTL) text book.

Based on the article written by Arshad Abd. Samad, UPM (OTL,70), concordance program like Wordsmith, Monoconc Pro and Microconcard is used to analyze the language data as well as to show how words and grammatical constructions are used. The benefit of using this program according to Schmitt (2002:34) is, it help students to look at the systematicity of language as an interesting linguistic puzzle.

In Malaysian context, the use and analysis of language CORPORA is limited because it is unavailable even though there is an effort being done by researchers from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) regarding to this matter. When this happened, other researchers from UM and UPM make an effort to produce useful corpus, for example the UM researchers produce a corpus entitled ‘Malaysian learner’s corpus’ while the UPM researchers produce a corpus called ‘English of Malaysian School student’, (EMAS).

EMAS CORPORA was collected in 2002 with half a million words (Arshad et al., 2002) that contains written data that consists of three essays written by 800 students from year 5, form 1 and form 4. The first essay was based on picture series of a fishing trip event, while the second essay was entitled ‘The Happiest Day of My Life’ and last but not least; the third essay was selected by teachers according to the students usual schoolwork.

Investigating Development.

The investigation starts by comparing the language use of the 3 different age groups based on their language productivity and vocabulary use. Below are the gists of the results:

(1) Language productivity

productivity= number of sentences per essay and words per sentence.

results= older students produce longer essays and complex sentence.

(2) Range of vocabulary

Number of separate words (type) DIVIDED Number of words in a text (token) X100

results=older respondents use a wider range of vocabulary in their essays.

Apart from that, EMAS corpus also retained the students spelling and grammatical errors as well as deletes the nonsensical words and proper names done by the students. Lastly, EMAS corpus also corrected the students’ misspelled words.

To sum up, the methodology that the researchers used in order to produce this COPPORA are based on comparison methodology where students from various ages starting from age 11, 13 and 16 were chosen to be apart of the researchers experiments work in order to make this program success.

2. Applications Of Concordance in Language Teaching and Learning.

A “concordance”, according to the Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, is defined as “An alphabetical list of the words in a book or a set of books, which also says where each word can be found and often how it is used. It is known that concordance can be applied in many fields such as language teaching and learning, translation, content analysis, corpus linguistic and etcetera. Thus, in this posting my partner and I will explain regarding the applications of concordance in language teaching and learning.

By using concordance program such as corpora, the teacher can find examples of authentic usage to demonstrate features of vocabulary, typical collocations and a point of grammar or even the structure of a text. The teacher also can generate exercises based on examples drawn from a variety of corpora. On the other hand, students will be able to work out rules of grammar or usage and lexical features for themselves by searching for key words in context. This depend on their level, student can be invited to question some of the rules, based on their observation of patterns in authentic language. Besides, student is more likely to be active in vocabulary learning depend on their level. Among of the activities student can participate are, they can be invited to discover new meanings, observe habitual collocations, relate words to syntax, or to be critical of dictionary entries. Students also will be able to reflect on language use in general, based on their own explorations of a corpus of data, thus turning them into growing researcher.

In addition, another interesting feature of concordance is to compare texts produced by native speakers of a language. By doing this way, user can study way students position words in sentences and compare this with native speakers. Students also can use this feature so they will be able learn more about language.

Large computerized corpora of English, which were created in 1960s, show there has been a steady increase in the number of publications devoted to their use in the context of language teaching and learning.

Chambers (2005) suggest that, “corpus consultation as a language-learning activity has many positive, features particularly in a language-learning environment which favors learner autonomy and discovery learning.”

References:

ICT4LT Module 2.4: Using concordance programs in the Modern Foreign languages classroom. http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-4.htm [viewed on 27 March 2008]

Chambers. 2005. Volume 9, Number 2. Integrating corpus consultation in language studies. http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num2/pdf/chambers.pdf [viewed on 27 March 2008]

Online Teaching and Learning in ELT, (OTL,70)

Syakirin & Farhana(2008)

Third Posting (assignment number 3)

THE IMPACT OF ICT ON BUSINESS

For this third posting, I had to go to the online journal at Perpustakaan Tun Sri Lanang in order to search for the online databases. I decided to choose the topic on the impact of ICT on business for my third posting. Below are some of the necessary details and information on this topic.

According to the online journal entitle ‘Integrating Local and Global Knowledge through ICT- implication for Rural Business and Development. By: Anand, Sandip; Parashar, Vinayak. IIMB Management Review, Mar2006, Vol. 18 Issue 1, p85-93, 9p; (AN 20388367), ICT are designed to strengthen this capacity for development. This online journal is mainly focusing on the impact of the interaction between global and local knowledge. Besides that, it also tries to understand the role of ICT in the process of integration.

Overall, the impact of ICT in business is mainly effected the life of the farmers and the fisherman’s as it helped in the processing of the material in transactions to buy or sale livestock as well as in payment to them and in massive saving in time. Apart from that, it also enables communication of information like the weather forecasts, market price quotes, advice on farming practices and specific training to the farmers and fisherman’s. They can get this information through the internet or from the fixed or mobile telephone. Apart from that, with ICT the troubles of lack of transport infrastructure are not a problem anymore because ICT invention can help in overcoming these barriers.

Bill Barton12 said that the internet can make significant impact on agricultural distribution channels in three ways. Firstly, it brings greater transparency to market since it is easier to share information. Secondly, with internet access, the price can be posted on auction sites and lastly, it can lead to inventory visibility and affects the industry structure.

Development and Resource Poor Farmers

Computer and Internet led technologies in villages are likely to create a material culture of their own. Farmers or villagers are likely to adopt this culture quickly, if they receive enough attention and respect from marketers, which seems to be happening at present17. However the extent to which dignity is created among farmers through e–initiatives in India has to be further explored. Today eChoupal is considered one of the most successful business models that has also fulfilled its social responsibility of meeting developmental objectives.

An analysis of Habermas’s critical theory by Fritjof Capra18 indicates that emancipation happens whenever people are able to overcome past restrictions that resulted from distorted communication, and ITC has been successful in removing those distortions. Evidence suggests, not surprisingly, that richer farmers and fishermen as well as middlemen are faster adopters of such technologies, but falling access costs through innovation, such as those of the IIT-Madras group (Telenet) should broaden information access and its benefits. Though the eChoupal model has been able to increase the prosperity of villagers, it may be important to understand which sections of rural society it has impacted. Is it the small farmer, the middle level farmer or large farmers who have been impacted positively by it? We need to understand whether the profile of ITC eChoupal’s suppliers as well as customers is homogeneous; if not what is the nature of its heterogeneity? In the long run will the eChoupal model create inequality in the village or will it lead to equality of opportunities? Will the gap between the rich and the poor increase or decrease?

An understanding of the gap in the distribution of newly generated wealth is essential for corporate houses as it informs the key business players and competition about the potential of various products and services in villages. Further, it also needs to be explored how ITC with its well established electronic and human network could include resource poor farmers, develop knowledge linkages with them and adopt native capability building. The current business model seems to be evolving towards a holistic model where knowledge linkages could be established with the resource poor farmers. However, its relationship with farmers has to be further grounded in the social space which includes resource poor farmers who represent a system of knowledge and wisdom. This has to be done by building social contracts. Such social contracts are likely to create business relationships which are more contextual and embedded in local cultural systems. Because of their evolution from their own roots, they carry varieties of information with them. Their traditional knowledge also brings many ‘tools and techniques’ from local memory, as well as cultural aspects. The cultural memory interacts with digital memory and that interaction is likely to strengthen the knowledge base of organizations. Plurality of health education, particularly HIV/AIDS awareness.

However, the planning and implementation of e-hubs and kiosks require in-depth understanding of rural India and its ability for e-learning. ITC’s experience suggests that e-learning may not be directly correlated with the formal literacy level of villagers. The ITC e-hubs could be further studied and analyzed from the training point of view to throw light on the challenges in the area of e-learning. Further exploration is required of the symbols of information sharing, such as the platforms that can be used for learning apart from the choupal. Understanding the factors affecting the synergy between local knowledge and global knowledge is likely to be helpful. In the context of learning and knowledge, areas of memory need to be explored to understand what forms the basis of local and global memory.

These experiments in the twenty-first century, particularly in the context of rural India, have created demand for innovations for business enterprises. There is great potential for innovation in the area of mobile and internet technology. However, those innovations have to be triggered within communities to embed them in the local context. Needless to say, this demands openness and willingness on the part of all stakeholders viz. the community, business enterprises, IT firms, government and policy makers, and also makes heavy demands on basic infrastructure, such as power.

In conclusion, ICT brings a lot of good and beneficial impact to the business industry especially to the life of the farmers, fishermen and the agricultural sector as it is focusing on the rural business and development.

Besides that, this journal also tries to understand the role of ICT in the process of integration. Below are examples of the differences between knowledge, ICT and business in the context of the network society:

Visvanathan1, referring to Castells’s work, argues that there is no single form of knowledge, but a variety of knowledge existing across the world. Visvanathan contends that to define knowledge as formal and abstract able is to impoverish knowledge and deny the existence of tacit, embodied and alternative knowledge. His intention is not to negate the importance of abstract able knowledge but to emphasize the importance of sensory or intuitive knowledge. Sensory or intuitive knowledge evolves in one’s life through encounters with information which one processes in order to adapt, heal and renew.

Van der velden5 further argues that designs strengthening a community’s capacity for self-organisation help to cultivate the diversity of the knowledge found in that community. ICT designs are required to strengthen this capacity for development. Centralised systems provide efficient consistency and quality control in the global context, but lack effectiveness when it comes to adaptation to local contexts. Centralised systems lack sharing of information in local formats and languages or connectivity with existing local media such as radio. Further, centralized knowledge-sharing systems are designed for the discussion and transfer of codified explicit knowledge or information6. Diversity does not refer only to plurality of expressions of explicit knowledge, but more importantly to different ways of knowing. ICT-based systems for knowledge sharing both for corporate as well as development programmes need to embed diversity, self-organisation, and the understanding of knowledge as situated and gendered, in order to support the cultivation of diversity and the self-organising capacity of knowers7. The above debate between local and global knowledge and development has started gaining prominence in organizational strategy.

Stuart L Hart8 argues that multi-national corporations must combine their technology and global reach with in depth understanding of local knowledge. The combination of local and global knowledge requires the development of native capability, a strategy that is well illustrated by Honey Care Africa. A partnership between three constitutive sectors, it harnesses the private sector’s marketing prowess, the development sector’s social capital and microfinance expertise, and the local community’s entrepreneurial spirit. Replacing the earlier crude technology to produce honey, Honey Care makes advanced, yet context specific beekeeping equipment available to small farmers. It procures and sells all of the equipment required to establish a beekeeping enterprise to a development sector partner. In turn, the development sector organisation capitalizes upon its local social capital to provide microcredit financing to small farmers for the purchase of the equipment. Honey Care deducts a designated percentage of their earnings and uses it to repay the farmers’ loans. It thus ensures microfinance loan returns and guaranteed earnings. Honey Care is today the largest producer of high-quality honey in East Africa and has been able to promote sustainable community development, building on native capability and local knowledge related to harvesting and producing honey9.

Native capability building seems to be emerging as a successful business strategy. The strategy is built on the fact that business expansion has not only to take the needs of the communities into account but also the local context, in that it has to go beyond mere integration of the local context and create synergy with it. While global knowledge has to be embedded in the communities, it also has to assimilate the context. The localized knowledge and traditional wisdom of the communities while transforming global knowledge is also likely to undergo metamorphosis and create constant interaction as seen in the OKN and Honey Care contexts.

The synergy has a dual advantage. By strengthening native capabilities, it enhances the purchasing power of the communities. It also generates trust by providing them with a sense of care. At the same time, it creates the market for business expansion. This expanded market cannot be seen as any other mass market, because it does not seek only one point or a few points of interaction with the consumer, but as a market that is created by the company and the community together. It is an exercise in collaboration rather than competition. Collaboration demands sharing of resources and knowledge, and that can be facilitated by ICT. Native capability enhancement through incorporation of local knowledge in plural forms is likely to bring benefits to business enterprises as well as communities. However, it demands facilitation by the government and policy makers. Such collaboration between organizations and communities is likely to provide the genesis for meta-organizations, as exemplified by the interaction between ITC and the agrarian community. Meta-organizations, where communities have become an extended part of the business enterprise and are no longer part of the external environment, are the way organizations are headed in the future and the government and its policy need to facilitate this symbiotic relationship between organisation and community. At the same time, the government also needs to take preventive measures against the pitfalls of collaboration, which could be done through enhanced transparency created by ICT, as exemplified by OKN. In addition, such experiments have to be extended in the context of other services like health and education and may demand collaboration among business enterprises, communities, government and development agencies, facilitated through ICT. ( Ibid3 )

REFERENCE AND NOTES
1 Visvanathan, Shiv, 2001, ‘Knowledge and Information in a
Network Society’, Seminar, July, p. 503.
2 Van der Velden, M, 2005, ‘Programming for Cognitive
Justice — Towards an Ethical Framework for Democratic
Code’, Interacting with Computers, Vol. 17, pp. 105 –120.
3 Ibid.
5 Van der Velden, ‘Programming for Cognitive Justice …’
8 Hart, Stuart L, and T London, 2005, ‘Developing Native
Capability: What Multinational Corporations Can Learn from
the Base of the Pyramid’, Stanford Social Innovation Review,
Summer.
12 Barton, Bill, 2003, ‘The Internet’s Impact on Agricultural
Input Distribution Channels’, Review of Agricultural
Economics, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 14-21.
18 Capra, F, 2003, The Hidden Connections, Flamingo, London,
p. 69.

Second posting (assignment number 2)

ANALYSIS OF COMPUTER ASSISTED WRITING

In this second posting, I was given the task to analyze the computer assisted writing program. It is quite similar from the computerized reading except in this computerized writing, it is focusing on our writing skill where it can help to enhance our writing expertise. As we all know, blogging and Microsoft words or processor are one of the examples of computer assisted writing where it helps us to develop and improve our writing ability.

The example of computer assisted writing program that I found was available in this particular website: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html

In this fastidious website, it facilitates me to improve my grammar as well as my poetry skills. The reason why I choose this website is because I am interested to learn more on poetry because I found that poetry are very unique and fun to learn. Since my experienced on writing a poem are very little, this website are very useful in order to improve my writing skill because it provides information and useful tips on how to construct a good poem without grammatical error. Besides that, I am also able to look at some good example of poem written by expertise in this field. I can also leave a comment and the people in charge of viewing and correcting my writing can assist me to improve certain part that have to be improve by posting my work to their email address.

Below are the gists of the website program that include the entire example that I mentioned above:

Combine Your Grammar and Poetry Skills
Hundreds of poems:Poems received in 2001 Poems received in 2000 Poems received in 1999.Poems received in 1998 and earlier.
Note: Only poems observing the grammatical categories will be published.

Write a 5-line poem in the following constructivist manner:

(1)On the first line write a noun of your choice
(2)On the second line write two adjectives joined by and to describe this noun
(3)On the third line write a verb and an adverb to describe this noun in action
(4)Start the fourth line with like or as followed by a comparison
(5)Start the final line with if only followed by a wish
Below is an example of such a poem (written by the Norwegian pupil Sven Grüner):

Politician

phoney and false

lying desperately

like a mocking bird

if only I had the key to the bird cage

Now it's your turn. Use the white space below to write a 5-line poem of your choice. Whenever you need to, you can call up a search form for

Merriam-Webster OnLine (with sound!) to help you look into and/or experiment with synonyms to the words you first chose (opens in separate window). Make changes and decide which version works best. This is great to discuss and actually sculpt your language. Note that you can also copy (parts of) the text you find in the Theasaurus.

The finished poem can be passed on or published in many ways:
(1)mark the poem (use left mouse key, press down and drag your pointer across the text)
(2)use the edit option or Ctrl-C to copy your poem to the clipboard
(3)start a word processor or Notepad and paste your poem into it (Ctrl-V)
(4)or open your browser's mail option (if present), copy the poem and mail it to someone
(5)why not mail the poem to me

anlun@online.no

Good poems will be published on this website for all the visitors to read!
It is also possible (and fun) to do this exercise in a very low-tech way: Decide on a theme for the noun in the first line. Then let the pupils suggest the subsequent lines, write everything on the blackboard. Make sure you go over the lines again to open up for synonyms, creative imagery and unexpected twists. The next versions will be so much better than first one.

Poems received:
The following poems are published chronologically as I receive them. Class contributions are placed in "boxes" at the bottom of the page.

Ghosts

scary and strange

floating silently

as morning fog

if only I was one too. (by Mads Olavsbråten (walking_zombi70@hotmail.com)

bird

red and sick

flying high

like a plane

if only hogs could fly. (by Espen Herbert (budoboy1@hotmail.com)

blood

red and warm

controlling willingly

like a polluted river into the sea

if only I could go back in time. (by Jesper Scerri (jesperd@maltanet.net)

He

kind and gentle

always patient

as he got the time of the world

if only I could have him here beside me. (by Pranvera Sefaja (pranveras@kujtesa.com)

Love

beautiful and painful

waiting anxiously

like a flower to grow

if only I could tell you my feelings. (by M⮡ªnµ~k ±î®åÐÕ (odarit59@hotmail.com)

Students

responsible and intelligent

working happily

like an army of ants

if only I had the posibility to know all that wait for me to study. (by Judith Keibel (j_keibel@hotmail.com)

Easter sun

Yellow and warm

Shining brightly

like the moon on a cold winter day

If only this weather could stay. (by Bente Amsrud Moen (b-a-moen@frisurf.no)

Child

Innocent and loving

Always bringing peace and hope to the world

Like a good guardian angel

If only adults could have this spirit... to make a different world. (by Marisol, MARISUN_8@hotmail.com)

Teacher

Honest and respectful

Working hard

Like an ant

If only people could be like that. (by Gerardo Peña )

Volcanoes

Dangerous and magnificent

Throwing up violently

like a sick man

If only we could prevent it from pukingby Vivian Tan (vivian1005sg@yahoo.com.sg)

Friends

fun and loving

always exciting

like a child at play

if only we need never partby Alison Toh (alisontoh@hotmail.com)

Mother

warm and loving

encouraging consistently

like a friend to me

if only she will always be there for me. (by elaine ng (el_ng@hotmail.com)

Headache

Painful and Pounding

sneaking up calmly

Like there's a nucLear war inside my head

If only it could leave me ....... alone. (by Mari Haugen (h_mari@hotmail.com)

Hello,
My name is Sílvia and I'm a young English teacher from Portugal. I've recently come across your site, and I've found it really interesting. One of the problems I have here is how to motivate students to learn English, so I thought about asking my young students to write something that could be published in your site along with other students work. The theme we've choosen was computers and here are the results.
best wishes,

Sílvia
Computer

Sensitive and soft

It sounds magically

Like a woman

If only I could understand them…(By Ricardo Gil and Bruno Dias)

Computer

Good and bad

It makes everything quietly

Like a ninjaI

f only it could fight (By Daniel and Luís Chaves)

Computer

Practical and fast

It thinks fast

Like a bullet

If only it could fly…(By Mário and Nuno)

Computer

Good and functional

Speedy and good

Like a woman

If only I could kiss her (By Sérgio Miguel and André Dores)

Computer

Fast and entertaining

It thinks and executes

Like a genius

If only I loved it (By Sérgio and João)

Computer

Intelligent and slow

It helps a lot

Like a book

If only we knew how to work with it (By Vanuza Santos and Sandra Dias)

Computer

Fast and useful

I like to connect to the internet

It has lots of information

I which I could work much better with a computer (By Andreia)

Computer

Intelligent and organized

It speaks Rapidly

I wish it wouldn't speak (By Célia Sobreira)


Updated: Dec 31, 2002

main page] [personal] [workplace]
You are visitor number since Dec 13 1995.

Here are example of a poem that is written by myself:

The moon
shines so brightly last night,
It was very beautiful and bright,
Up and above the sky it slowly moving around,
If only I get the chance to be up there and shone brightly and beautifully like the moon.

In conclusion, this computer assisted writing program really helps in building up my self-confidence in improving and enhancing my writing proficiency.

My Nokia Nseries Advertisement

NATURE OF ELECTRONIC USER

(a) Properties of electronic text.

http://www.usingenglish.com/

In this particular website, there were elements of plasticity because when you click to the link available then you will be able to copy it and paste it in word document. In here you can altered, remodeled and combined the fixed previously record. Besides that, there were also links in this website where you click to certain text there will be picture coming out. There were searchers available in this website like the search engine itself where complex searchers can be done quickly. The frame and material templates are available at the both right and left side of the homepage. Apart from that, there were footprints available in this website where the internet browsers keep records of sites that we visited, for example in history. We can trace and used various types of record later beside copy and saved it. Virtuality elements also available in this website as it provide ESL discussion forums where we can communicate live with other persons. Last but not least, tagging is also available in this website because once you click a word to the search engine, there will be varieties of choices we can choose from.

http://www.manythings.com/

An element of plasticity also available in this meticulous website, where you can copy, paste, altered, remodeled and combined the fixed previously record to word processer. There were many exercises and learning games in this website. Links are provided in this website, for example once you click to one of the hypertext, and then it will go to another website. There were links for students and links for teachers. Apart from that, this website is multi-modal because it has visual and audio in it. Searchers like the search engine also available in this website. The templates like the frame and material are also available at the both right and left side of the homepage. As usual, most of the website has its own footprints that are kept in history because of safety purpose. There were elements of virtuality in this website as it provides information that can be updated automatically from a remote source without human agency. Finally, the elements of tagging also available in this website as we can click to certain hypertext then it will bring us to another site.

Online Learning Games

SCRABBLE (www.scrabble.com)

Scrabble is a great family game for both fun and education. It is the wildly popular classic word-making board game with the use of selection of 7 letters to form the best words that score the highest points. It slowly helps to progress up the skill levels to gradually improve your vocabulary and scoring skill. It is very challenging and suitable for both adults and teenagers. Even those who are in their late 50’s and above also capable to play these games. It is a good games to keep their senior mind busy. You can play by yourself anytime and build up your vocabulary skills. By playing scrabble, you can measure your improvement over time because it keeps track of your scores.

You can choose to play against the spectacular Artificial Intelligence, play against another player, or even play by yourself. When playing the computer, you have the choice of 8 different skill levels which is from the beginner to advance up to genius. Besides that, there is also an official scrabble dictionary where you can find out the definitions of any word played. This is great for anyone who is trying to improve their vocabulary, especially students. Apart from that, it is also enhances your imagination and thinking. There were also similar types of games as scrabble named jamble that are available in www.itsyourturn.com. This one is a little challenging and quite difficult compare to scrabble. I recommend advance learner to try and play this words game.

First posting (assignment number 1)

Analysis of Computerized Reading

Nowadays in the Internet age, computerized reading has become part of our lives. We might carry out the computerized reading activity with specific intention or accidentally when we are surfing the Internet.

www.ulc.edu/studyskill/reading_comprehension.html#activity

Here, my partner and I will explain about the computerized reading based on the website written above. From our observation, the types of computerized reading that were found in this particular website are mixture of incidental reading-all texts on screen whether oriented towards reading or not, reading the text for real purpose, instruction type of reading, information reading, operational tasks and activity completion. As we can see, this website is very useful because it contains varieties of information that can make our life easier.

The purpose of this reading comprehension activity is to enhance our reading skills, giving us extra information and tips on underlining a textbook. It also includes ways of taking notes on reading, suggestions for increasing reading speed and effectiveness as well as ways to read a difficult book. Besides that, after completing all of the reading materials, we can try out the interactive activity and the activity question provided.

Computerized reading can benefit us in various ways. Other than read a book to find information or just for fun; now, Internet has becomes an additional medium for both purposes. Furthermore, the experience between normal reading (i.e. reading a book) and computerized reading is different as the text can be presented with graphics, pictures, video clips and sounds to make reading more interesting.

Here are some of the examples of information reading as it revealed the study or reading method that promote an active attitude toward learning:

Examples of information reading

♥ We called it as information types of reading is because it gives us the method and information in detailed about the learning.

I. SURVEY - gather the information necessary to focus and formulate goals.
*State your purpose for reading the material.
*Read the title - help your mind prepare to receive the subject at hand.
*Read the introduction and/or summary - pick out the chapter's main points.
*Notice each boldface heading and subheadings - organize your mind before you begin to read and build a structure for the thoughts and details to come.
*Skim over graphs, tables, charts, etc. to see how they support and explain the text.

II. QUESTION - help your mind engage and concentrate
*Frame questions - perhaps variations of the headings, sub-headings, or topic sentences, which you make into your personal questions.

III. READ - read actively to answer your questions and to fulfill your purpose
*Set realistic time goals and number of pages to be read.
*Divide chapter into small sections, rather than trying to read the whole chapter non-stop.
*Ask yourself a question before each paragraph or section, and then locate the answer in the text.
*Take breaks when you feel unable to stay with the material due to daydreaming, drowsiness, boredom, hunger, etc.
*Use your hand and marking pen to pull your eyes down the page, marking only the essential words and phrases.
*Think, interpret, and analyze the first time you read, to avoid unnecessary re-reading.

IV. RECITE - retain your mind to concentrate and learn as it reads
*After each section - stop, look away from the book, recall your questions, and see if you can answer them from memory.
*If not, look back again, but do not go on to the next section until you can recite the answers.
*Also, try to visualize what you have just read.
*Make separate notes or outlines of what you have read (see page 4).

V. REVIEW - refine your mental organization and begin building memory
*Once you have completed the whole chapter:
*Reread your outline, look away, and recite the outline from memory.
*Go back over all your questions.
*Continue this process until you feel that you understand and know the material.
*Take a short break and reward your success.
*Decide when you are ready to work again, center your thoughts, take a few minutes to review the information you just learned, and go on to the next chapter or another subject.

Examples of instruction types of reading

♥We called it as the instruction types of reading because they provide us with instruction on how to read a difficult book.

*Skim the book first:
*Look at the title page and any sub-titles.
*Look at the table of contents to get a sense of the structure.
*Look for things you understand.
*Start Reading.
*Read over difficult material a second time. If you still do not understand it, move on to something else or take a break and come back to it.
*Look for the important words.
*Stop at the end of each paragraph or section and paraphrase in your own words what you just read.
*Read out loud. Hearing what we read is like reading it a second time.
*Meet with your instructor and discuss your confusion. Point out the paragraphs you found hardest to understand.
*Find a tutor.
*Use another text. Concepts are sometimes easier to understand if expressed in a different way.
Read with a dictionary in your lap.
*Pretend you understand, and then explain it to someone else or even yourself.
*Do not get stressed over difficult material.
*Read footnotes, arguments, and references.

Examples of activity completion types of reading are:

♥This is called as activity completion types of reading because it provides question activity and we as the user are required to try and answer it.

Here is passage on the history of Penn State. Use the reading comprehension tips and answer the questions below. (From The Penn State Experience: A freshman guide to life outside the classroom, Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1999)

In 1855, the Pennsylvania legislature chartered the Farmer's High School. At the first trustee's meeting, the main order of business was obtaining a location for the school. The board considered proposals from five people who were willing to provide 200 or more acres of land.

Among the offers was that of General James Irvin of Bellefonte, who could provide a 200-acre tract of land from his large holdings. All five locations were visited, and the committee ultimately accepted Irvin's offer after local citizens sweetened the deal b pledging an additional $10,000 for the school.

An architect was hired to design the main building, a five-story stone structure composed of three wings, with rooms for up to 400 students, faculty living quarters and classrooms. With $100,000 from various sources, construction began. Tuition and room & board charges were fixed at $100 per year, and on February 16, 1859, 69 students arrived to begin their studies. The school's address was simply, "Farm School."

In 1887, the first student newspaper was published. "Free Lance" was a monthly publication and sold for 15 cents. In 1941, the Nittany Lion Shrine was commissioned with the 1940 Class Gift. Heinz Warnake was selected to sculpt the Lion, and he worked on campus in full view of the students. IT was completed in four months, carved from a 13-ton block of limestone. In the 1980s, a cast of the lion was made and stored in an undisclosed location after part of an ear was broken off.

In 1947, Henry Varnum Poor finished the first of Old Main's frescoes, depicting the signing of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 that paved the way for Penn State's land grant mission of outreach to the citizens of Pennsylvania.

In 1982, Penn State won its first NCAA football championship and a second in 1986 to celebrate its 100th Anniversary in the sport. Penn State joined the Big Ten Conference in 1992 in all sports and to facilitate academic progress among the Big Ten institutions.

In 1997, Penn State reorganized its Commonwealth Educational System. In its place, it established a "Commonwealth College" with 14 campuses and allowed the formation of three additional colleges-Berks-Lehigh Valley College, Abington College and Altoona College. These new academic colleges can establish a limited number of four-year baccalaureate programs that will benefit their communities.

Therefore, if there are any comments or room for improvements on this particular information, feel free to leave your comment. Your cooperation and time are really appreciated. Thank you.

Syakirin & Farhana (2008)

Introduction to weblog

Helloo peeps....

Welcome to my very first blog...i am very excited upon this and looking forward to explore this whole new thing!!!
The most important thing that i have to post in this particular blog is my assignment on Language and ICT (SKBP1023).
Besides that, i will also post some good and interesting thoughts, stories and news to all of you. So what are you guys waiting for??? Hurry and check out what's new and fresh on my blog...It won't let you down;)