My experience using blogging

I have done all the fifth posting and now I am doing the last posting but it does not mean it is the last posting in my life, it will be continuous process. At the first time I am doing blogging I am not really sure what is blogging but when I had experience doing that, actually blogging is the one medium for person to share his or her idea through writing. For person who does not have confident to speak up their idea during real time discussion they can confidently sharing their idea through blogging.

Base on my experience I can say that blogging activity can improve my writing skills especially in grammar and vocabulary aspect. When I am doing my posting, I write all the idea in blog and the computer assisted me by checking my grammar and spelling aspect so I can straightly change my mistakes and through that I had learned new skills by remembering it. If I am continuing blogging I am sure that my writing skills will be more improve. Besides I had also gain new vocabulary through finding materials from the certain references base on the topic given and the most challenging task is when I need to find materials and references from Tun Sri Lanang Library using online databases.

Blogging is a useful learning experience because it is enjoyable. We can just find the references just by clicking the link at the internet and after that we can start writing our own idea or elaborate the idea in our words base on our reading. Besides that, we can also view each other blog to read the idea that the writer want to show and share. We can leave comment at their blog to give our opinion about the idea or the way of writer’s writing skills whether it is right or wrong. It gives the chance for writer to improve his or her writing skills.

To complete blogging successfully I think I need to read a lot of book that are related to the topic given and also I need to know more about the use of computer application and software because after blogging I realize that a lot of things I did not know about the computer.

I have a few problems while blogging but it is not a big problem. Firstly I had faced the problem on how to write, put my pictures and music in my blog but after I navigate it and asking from my friends, now I know how to do it. Secondly I did not know the right assessments that are required for the blog but I manage to finish it with my first partner Norhasliza. The other small problems that I had faced is to get the internet connections to post materials in my blog because I did not have laptop with wireless and sometimes the cyber café is not open so it makes my work hard but finally I still can post my blog on the time given.

I will tell my friends and recommend to others because blogging is a fun activity for whom are love to write and share idea besides we also can decorate our blog with many features. Now I know and able to blog online, I will still continue blogging after finish this course even I am not doing it often but the truth is I really enjoy blogging and hope that if I had free time I can do blogging.

Electronic Malaysian English Competency Test – Reading Test (Set 1)

Score: 23 out of 35 – 66%

The concordance is a program that looks into each word class in detail and lists in-sequential alphabets as a whole.

The concordance dialogue was with regards to the occurrences of prepositions ‘about’ and ‘above’.

The functions of prepositions ‘about’ can be twofold.

Firstly, the prepositions are used to denote ‘on the topic of subject of’.

Examples: ‘who told me all this about my poor mother’, ‘did not often think about him’, ‘many voices about me’.

Secondly, the prepositions are added to the phrasal verbs functioning as adverbs.

Examples: ‘I tried to move about’, ‘feared that, in moving about…’, ‘when all were running about in wild alarm’.

Third, they are used to refer to ‘approximately’ or ‘not exactly’ and.

Example: ‘When I was about sixteen’, ‘by the road, but only about four’, and ‘an errand to a place about seven miles’.

The function of ‘above’ is to denote ‘higher on a scale of measuring’.

Examples: ‘not above half-an-hour’s walk from…’, ‘might not be above his comprehension’.

The article of Beyond Concordance Lines: Using Concordances to Investigate Language Development written by Arshad Abd. Samad investigates language development based on data in the EMAS corpus. English of Malaysian school students or EMAS corpus used in this study was collected in 2002 and consists of close to half million words (Arshad et al., 2002) It contains written data in the form of three essays written by about 800 students from year 5 of primary school, Form 1 and Form 4 of secondary school. Data in the corpus were taken in three age groups. The article assume that developmental patterns can be implied by comparing the language use of the three different age groups and are examined by studying the language productivity and vocabulary use of the student. The amount of language produce related to language productivity meanwhile vocabulary use more to the sophistication of the vocabulary.

This article wants to show and highlight the relevance of corpus data in investigating language development without having to analyze concordance lines. The results of the concordance and analysis based on written data of the three age groups indicate some form of development in terms of language production and vocabulary range. The most important the article also wants to show that corpus data can be analyzed to inform language educators of language development.

To sum up, from the ‘Online Teaching and Learning’ book states that concordance has been widely applauded for forms of dictionaries and teaching materials. Such examples of concordance programs include Wordsmith, MonoConc Pro and Microconcord. They are also utilized to explain how words and grammatical are constructed and to analyze language as systematic unit, not just a boring rule to to follow. In the study that has been reported, the use of concordance can help us widen our language productivity and expand our vocabulary usage.

Articles on the application of concordance.

http://law.lexisnexis.com/literature/ConcordanceWP.pdf

http://llt.msu.edu/vol5num3/pdf/v5n3.pdf

Example of the applications of concordance in translation.

http://omegatplus.sourceforge.net/applications.html

Reference:

1. Online Teaching and Learning in ELT, Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan, Norizan Abdul Razak, Mohamed Amin Embi (Eds)

Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2006.

    Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been proven to be a very important aspect of the teaching learning process. Numerous studies show that the quality of learning [e.g. Davis et al. (1997)] can be significantly enhanced when ICT is integrated with teaching. Research done by Bransford et al, (1994] showed that ICT can enhance critical thinking, information handling skills, the level of conceptualization, and problem solving capacity. This novel technology is supposed to add value to education and to support more effective pedagogy by providing knowledge for learners and by enhancing communication that promotes learning (Privateer, 1999). Gregoire, Bracewell, and Laferriere (1996) also noticed that the opportunities for networking and collaborative learning indicate that several principles or theories, which promote learning, can be more easily integrated in teaching. It has been identified that “The newest technological revolution” is the convergence of mobile, handheld and wireless communication technologies (Wills, 2001). All the technology has it own impact towards education.

    Mobile phones are available in the wide varieties of capabilities. The growing popularity of mobile phones are because of its small size, personal assistance, pre-installed application for basic function, WAP enabled, connectivity such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GSM, Real player, e-book, dictionary, and extra memory for future applications. The mobile phones are easy to use and handle. The menus are designed and located as text, graphics and icons by which one can easily recognize the associated function. Mobile learning enhances the mode of learning as learning becomes easy. The process of learning can be anytime and anywhere. In mobile learning the role of instructor changes from transmitter of knowledge to supervisor of learning resources. For the growth of mobile learning paradigm E-learning community must target on the issues related to the performance, quality and productivity rather than traditional lecture style training or courseware.    

    Besides mobile learning, other ICT being used in education is E-learning. E-learning technology offers a wide range of new opportunities for development of education. The advantages of the use of E-learning are numerous. One of the advantage is students can follow a course from any place in the world and at any given time so it give independence of time and space for student to learn. Then course materials can be reused and rearranged. E-learning offer opportunities for teachers to give online lectures and offer opportunities for students to follow courses and collaborate online. Learning objects provide the opportunity for teachers and students to reuse and rearrange learning materials in different orders.    

     As we know when using online learning it will provide lack of face-to-face contact. Learning through online learning has difficulty to see, hear or response in a face-to-face situation. Online teachers cannot observe their students, cannot see and interpret their facial expression or note signs of inattention. Feenberg (1998) and Harisim; Hiltz, Teles, and Turroff (1995) make the strongest possible case in favour of online teaching, arguing that the lack of face-to-face contact makes no difference to achieving successful learning and that the quality of online teaching is indeed superior to its face-to-face counterpart. The learners has to become less of passive and more of an active participant in the learning process to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available in the online environment. The online environment offers excellent possibilities for placing students at the centre of learning. Learners are being encouraged to take part by writing comments and summarizing tutorial conference proceedings. Through active participation learners provide valuable comments and feedback to fellow learners, which enhances learner-to-learner interactivity.   

    Online learning requires that learners take an active part in the learning process and participate by posting up their ideas, responding to colleagues and sharing their thoughts and views. Participation requires such intellectual activities on the part of the learner as formulating initial ideas, considering responses, replying to colleagues’ comments and reflecting on ideas in the light of contributions to the discussion. Active participation, with its requirement to formulate and present ideas coherently, enhances the learning process and increases learners’ comprehension and writing skills. Online learning also contribute to creative thinking that required learners to make prediction and hypothesis about situation, as well as to experiment with ideas and communicate results. Learners must do research about their topic given, formulate their ideas and present their findings for comment and review. Learners need to explain with supporting evidence for their findings.    

    In conclusion using ICT can give good impact rather than bad impact. Malaysia has a big vision, known as VISION 2020. It calls for sustained, productivity-driven growth. This vision will be achievable with a technologically literate and critically thinking workforce who is prepared to participate fully in the global economy (Government of Malaysia, 2006). In line with the country’s vision, the Ministry of Education of Malaysia (MOE) has initiated the transformation of the nation’s educational system whereby ICT has become a central concept in Malaysian educational system.           

REFERENCES  

1) Ab. Rahim Bakar, Shamsiah Mohamed_Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia: Teaching     using information and communication technology: Do trainee teachers have the     confidence?

2) Dalsgaard, Christian, Institute of Information and media Studies_University of Aarhus    _Helsingforsgade 14_DK-8200 Aarthus N, Denmark; Pedagogical quality in e-learning    , Designing e-learning from a learning theoretical approach.

3) DOAJ-Directory of open access journals: International Journal of Education and    Development using ICT > vol 4, No.1 (2008)

4) Journal of Information Technology Education Volume 3, 2004, Standfield, Mark,    McLellan, Evelyn and Connolly, Thomas_University of paisley, Paisley, Scotland,UK    : Enhancing Student Performance in Online Learning and Traditional Face-to-Face    Class Delivery.

5) Journal of Information Technology Education Voloume 2, 2003, Trkman, Peter and     Baloh, Peter_Faculty of Economics_University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia : Use     of a Model for Information Technology Education.

Assalamualaikum and hello!,we meet again this is my second posting.This time we will discuss about computer assisted writing or computerized writing. There were many activities that we can use for computerized writing. This activity can help us to improve our writing skill or we can say computer assist us while writing. This is one of the activities you can use to assist us in writing.

The Computerized Pre-Professional Skills Test in Writing assesses the ability to use grammar and language appropriately and the ability to communicate effectively in writing; these abilities are essential to a well-educated adult in a professional role. The Writing test is 68 minutes in length and has two separately timed sections: a 38-minute multiple-choice section containing 44 multiple-choice questions on the use of standard English and a 30-minute essay section that requires a writing sample based on an essay topic. The multiple-choice section is designed to measure examinees’ ability to use standard written English correctly and effectively. This section is divided into two parts: usage and sentence correction. In the usage questions, examinees are asked to recognize errors in mechanics, in structural and grammatical relationships, and in idiomatic expressions or word choice and they are also asked to identify sentences that have no error and that meet the conventions of standard written English. The sentence correction questions require examinees to select, from among the choices presented, the best way to restate a certain phrase or sentence using standard written English; in some cases, the phrase or sentence is correct and most effective as stated. Examinees are not required to have a knowledge of formal grammatical terminology. The essay section assesses examinees’ ability to write effectively in a limited period of time. The essay topic invites examinees to draw from personal experience and observation for information, examples, and generalizations.

The topics attempt to present situations that are familiar to all educated people; no topic will require any specialized knowledge other than an understanding of how to write effectively in English. Examinees should write only on the topic assigned, address all the points presented in the topic, and support generalizations with specific examples. Before beginning to write, examinees should read the topic and organize their thoughts carefully.

Sample questions.

multiple.doc

Example of software.

You can link to this website to see examples of software for computerized writing:

http://www.cypressmedia.net/editorsoftware/affiliate_index.html

http://www.guilford.k12.nc.us/technology/software.html

http://www.editorsoftware.com/writing-software/stylewriter-writing-software/introduction-to-stylewriter-writers-software.html

http://www.writersupercenter.com/bookarticle/

Example of URL.

You can link to this website that host computerized writing activities:

http://www.ets.org

http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/PRAXIS/pdf/5720.pdf

Blogs and Blogging.

Blog is one of the computerize writing. According to Malachi Edwin Vethamani in Online Teaching Learning in ELT a blog is a ‘web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author” (www.webopedia.com/TERM/b/blog.html). The term itself is relatively new and with the increasing popularity of blogs in the field of journalism, a whole list of terminology such as blogging, blogger, crisis blog, group blog and blogger ecosystem have emerged (www.samaizdata.net/blog/glossary.html). In the field of education, blogging too has brought interest in learners to write. Ward (2004:8) states that ‘students are exited about writing again because the whole world is watching their words, and not just their writing teacher”. Studies indicate that teacher trainers enjoy blogging and it was found to be useful by their instructors. Stiler and Philleo (2003) incorporated the use of weblogs as part of their undergraduate courses with pre-service students for the purpose writing reflective journals.

How can one improve their writing using computer.

Can computer improve your writing?, in this cyber world everyone should think about this questionnaire because almost all people have their own computer at home and connected to internet. For my opinion the answer is ‘yes’, computer can help us improve our writing skill. For examples when writer using word to write, it can help writer to check for grammar mistakes or spelling errors. Besides, writer also can use computerize writing that host in the internet. This activity gives direction to writer to use their skill when writing and guide the writer step by step from the beginning until they can produce an excellent writing skill through the writing process. It has its own software that you can use to run the program. One example of computerized writing is blogging. The writer can give their idea or opinion through blogging. The person who writes in blog is called blogger. When you write in blog you can improve your writing skill. It had been proved by one of the blogger Tan Gaik Khin, he said, “ Writing blogs is a good way for me to express my thought and feelings. I am not brave enough to give my point of view in the class because my English is not good enough. I worried that course-mate may laugh at me. I afraid that lecturer may critic badly on my language in front of my course-mate. I feel save in expressing my feeling by posting blogs”. It shows computerize writing through blogging activity can improve writer’s writing skill and make the writer indicate their personal point of view or opinion without afraid of making mistakes. it is because viewers can leave comment on writers work or opinion by siting to the website and writer can response by changing or make correction for their work base on the viewers comment. At the same time it will improve writer’s writing skill and also build their critical thinking. Quote from Malachi Edwin Vethamani in Online Teaching Learning in ELT book, “For the purpose of this study, proffesional development is described as “the process of reflection, examination and change which leads to better job performance and to personal and professional growth”(Freeman 1982: 21) and in another setting, Vethamani (2004b) worked with a group of in-service teachers who were required to write their own blogs as course work requirement. One of the aims of blogging during the course was to “provide students with the opportunity to reflect on their learning experience” (Vethamani, 2004b: 65) So we can say that computer can improve writer’s writing skill through computerize writing activity.

REFERENCES

1) Nuraihan Mat Daud, Ainol Madziah Zubairi, Online and Offline Writing Course, OTL in ELT book

2) Malachi Edwin Vethumani, Blogging and Trainee Teachers’ Professional Development OTL in ELT book.

      what-is-abuse.doc