the functions of self-selected websites in CALL essentials

1. Word Games:
Reading and writing skills, Creativity and production.
2. Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab:
Reading skills, Listening skills, Inquiry and problem-solving.
3. Time for kids:
Reading and writing skills, Communication and collaboration, Creativity and production, Content-based Instruction.
4. The Virtual Insectary:
Reading skills, Inquiry and problem-solving.
5. NASA for kids:
Reading and writing skills, Listening skills, Communication and collaboration, Creativity and production, Content-based Instruction.
6. Blackboard:
CLT classroom, Reading and writing skills, Communication and collaboration.

BlackBoard (ch 4)

Chapter 4 talks about “Communication and Collaboration,”

offering some websites for this subject, just like BB system, Msn messenger,

yahoo groups, etc. We students are all familiar with these,

so I just pick up one. That is, blackboard system.

Goal:
Blackboard (also know as BB) is a software company, whose product can provide learners with a space to raise their discussion in reaching the function of communication and collaboration. It’s like an online conference, which can be the platform of different topics to be discussed in different forums. It might be the practice of e-learning. Learners can learn anywhere and anytime. This Company develops with software applications and related services to thousands of education institutions in the world.

Presentation:
I’m not talking about the official website of BB, but my authentic experience in using it in reality. First, basically, it offers the guideline for the key features and functionality. There are also a place for announcements from the classes we choose, a calendar of one’s own to mark out the personal events of learning, a place for courses links, and quick tutorials for learners to understand more about this tutorial system.
In each course section, there are “announcement,” “course information,” “staff information,” “course documents,” “assignments,” “communication,” “discussion board,” “external links” and “tools.” The function is just like the name. However, I want to mention about “discussion board” because it fits the subject of this chapter. This is made for learners to have a platform to express or respond the ideas of one issue.

Appropriateness:
This system, out of question, is suitable for every learner to learn everything. After all, it is designed to help the class in the school.

Outcomes:
In my opinion and according to my experiences, BB is just a system with a format to help learning so that the learning can be more flexible and available. Therefore, it probably should be use with extra content according different courses.

Evaluation:
The evaluation, of course, should depend on the interaction of the classmates, tutors, and the teacher, especially in “discussion board.” In there, learners are expected to have a great interaction and feedback from others. That is the evaluation for learners themselves.

Notes:
I’ve used it for a long time since I got into NCU. I think BB is great because it can offer a space for students to catch more beside classes. I can discuss with other people there, notice the announcement of the teacher, and download the documents in class so that we can facilitate the learning more. It has some short points, but it is great enough for me.

NASA for kids (ch 7)

NASA for kids

Goal:

As everybody knows, NASA is The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, responsible for the nation's public space program.

This NASA's public Web Portal offers users with multiple paths to information. And of course, NASA sets up a specific section for kids with access to thousands of resources. It can be educational, entertaining, and appropriate for children.

Presentation:

It is very complete with introduction, guideline for parents, teachers, and children, links to other related websites. As to the main content, there are “Games,” “Art & Stories,” “Activities,” “Kid’s club.”

“Games” surely attract kids’ attention. From this, kids can learn something about astrology knowledge by playing those interesting games. “

Art & Stories” provides pictures or drawings with different topics, which can give kids the visual enjoyment.

“Activities” teaches several simple experiments for kids to do it on their own. “Kid’s club” offers five levels to play some games or testing, which can evaluate their learning from this website.

Besides, this website includes some cool stuff for kids to adventure, like video showing, or Q and A. there are even some news for kids to update their cognition about NASA or astrology.

Appropriateness:

I think each of the section is appropriate for any kid to experience the astrology adventure. Kids can see the news, play the games, accomplish some experiments, and have several evaluation tests according to the level. This website facilitates kids to understand something seemed difficult to them. And it is complete enough to give kids a whole learning to a specific subject.


Outcomes:
I believe that it is quite useful for teachers or parents to let the kids learn something. Therefore, this website can offer the content-based learning with a wonderful content. It will be perfect if it is used to help the science class.

Evaluation:

In the part of “Kid’s club,” there are several tests or games for kids to evaluate themselves. The topic and the level are different. There are just simple words like “correct” or “try again” to remind or mark the performance. But I think it’s enough for kids.

Notes:

I really like this website for its beautiful format and design and its wonderful and complete content. By experiencing it, kids not only learn to gain more understanding about the subject, but also polish their language ability at the same time.

The Virtual Insectary (ch 6)

The Virtual Insectary

Goal:
The website is made for people who are interested in insects. Like an insect zoo, this is a unique place to study and observe a few insects with pictures and the information of them.

Presentation:
This website provides images of some common insects, and also includes information on the foods which they eat as well as the habitats where they can be found. There are many pictures of insects which can be chosen by the learners. And the individual page offers the information and the knowledge of the insects with hyper links of the key words.

Appropriateness:
Here the learners can get the information they want to know more about the insects they are interested with. However, the quantity of information seems not enough because it just offers the brief introduction. The usage of words is also simple. Therefore, I think it just can facilitate the problem-based learning as an information provider instead of an independent website for learners to learn.

Outcomes:
I think this website, as I mentioned before, is a place to facilitate the learning; therefore, if it works individually, the effect won’t be great. So, I think this website should be viewed with an intention and other documents to be at hand to enlarge the knowing.

Evaluation:
There’s no place for the learners to interact or to do some activities. It’s what I think of the pitiful part about it. It’s too simple and easy with little content in it. Learners can only use it when there’s a problem-solving project to do. Of course, there’s no feedback if there’s no activity for viewer to click and play with.

Notes:
It’s a website mentioned in the example of chapter 6. Thus, it’s not a really good website to browse through initially. It is just a kind of dictionary of insects. People can just view it with eyes instead of involving in this website with games and activities.

Time for kids(ch 5)

Time for kids

Goal: The website is for a weekly classroom news magazine that motivates kids to read. The issues cover a wide range of real-world topics kids love to learn about. The website also provides the materials.

Presentation: There are sections for k 1-6 learners, including Worksheets, Mini-lessons, Graphic Organizers, the news part, and the small games.

“Worksheets” is a kind of teaching resources for parents or teachers to have some materials to teach.
“Mini-lessons” includes lots of activity instructions. Each lesson provides the questions as the pretext, then the activity and the part for kids to think. The last is the advices for extensive learning.
“Graphic organizers” is also the teaching resources, providing some graphic papers for kids to fill up the graphic papers with thinking.
The news part provides articles with the related activity sheets and materials for download.
The games are related to the reading and questions and information behind are provided at the same time.

Appropriateness: I think it’s more like to provide scaffolds for teachers or parents to use in their teaching. The focus of this website is still the magazine, but there are still materials for reading and activities. Learners can use those materials in learning which fits their degrees. Especially the mini-lessons part, I think it can provide a complete learning process.

Outcomes: I think the website can be used independently, and it can also be used with the magazine to enlarge the range of learning so that the learning can be more complete and integrated.

Evaluation: The games part for learning includes the questions and the answers with more information below. After the learners answer the question, the correct answer and feedback words will show up with more information about the topic, then, the learner can go on to the next question.


Notes: Though the website is made for the magazine, I believe there’s still the scaffold for people to help themselves in learning. Like the readings, is made for kids with the topics they may have interest in, and the Worksheets, Mini-lessons, and Graphic Organizers, are all the useful and interesting resources in language learning. Although it is not organized as a whole, the materials are still great and convenient to help kids in learning.

Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab(Ch 3)

Goal:

a website with a lot of material of listening training

Presentation:

There are sections for:
General Listening Quizzes (easy/medium/difficult),
Listening Quizzes for Academic Purposes (medium/difficult/very difficult), 20-Minute ESL Vocabulary Lessons (medium),
Language Learning and Life Tips (medium),
Long Conversations with RealVideo (easy/medium/difficult).

These sections, like the names, are designed for the people with different purposes and needs. Each section can provide lots of resources for learners to train the listening ability. Besides, it also has the differences about the degrees from easy to very difficult. The learners can mainly choose what they want to train and what degree that fits their own ability. And, there’s also the quizzes section and post-listening exercises in each listening page. Still, this website provides other related websites for learning.


Appropriateness:

The learners can easily use Windows media or RealPlayer to have an English listening, then, they can do the quizzes and have a check. They can listen to it several times of they want. In the end, it scaffolds the learning with an opening activity called post-listening exercises, that learners can choose to do or not.

Outcomes:

The learners can have a purely listening training, but they can also enlarge the learning with the post-listening exercise part. This part can give learner a direction for what to do to go further with the topic. Therefore, there are a lot of documents and resources for them to do with. I think the outcome is pretty great for learners not to limit the learning with only listening and quizzes.

Evaluation:

After the listening, the quizzes part is for learners to check if they understand the content or not. The system will give learners a score and the correction. Learners can choose to listen to the content again or not. After that, the page offers the post-listening exercises but there’s no feedback so that the learner have to do it actively by their own.

Notes:

I think it’s a great and fantastic website for listening training. It provides lots of topics and degrees to choose from. And the website offers the other websites for listening. It’s quite complete. The listening content won’t be too long and the degree fits the content very much. The quizzes can let learners do with their comprehension and spelling. The post-listening exercise is the section that I admire most, because this is designed especially and individually for that content. It’s not just about the content. It goes further with exercise directions for learners to learn with other language skills. It’s a wonderful job for listening training!

Online learning activity (Ch2)

“Word Games” from “East of the Web”

Goal:

Some games for the players to practice the word spelling.

Presentation:

There are night games: Cryptoquote, Multi popword, Eight letters, Multi eight letters, Difinetime, Popword, Storyman, Word search, Codeword.

Cryptoquote is for players to uncover the codes of one quotation by selecting the alphabets for each code. There are different quotations changing day after day.
Multi popword is for players to drag the letters-which are next to each other-to create a word. The longer the word is, the more the point you will get.
Eight letters, as the name, players have to reconstruct the eight letters into some meaningful words in a limited time. The longer the word is, the better point you will get.
Multi eight letters is just like the previous one, but players have to compete with other players.
Definetime has four choices for players to define the meaning of the words it gives.
Popword is like Multi popword, but when players are creating the words, some letters are falling down at the same time so that if one letter reaches the top, the game will be over.
Storyman has lots of topics to choose from and players have to reconstruct the words related to the topic in a limited time.
Wordsearch also has the topics but use different ways for people to play with. Players have to drag the adjacent letters to create all the words in the bar.
Codeword is like the word guessing. Players try hard to guess the five letters to create a meaningful word, and the system will inform the situation of the selected letters and their positions each time.

Appropriateness:

Cryptoquote, Storyman and Wordsearch are more suitable for the native speakers or the sophisticated EFL learners, because those games involve something about the culture or life, like classical quotation, fictions, movies, etc. However, the rest is nice for the learners who just want to increase the competence of spelling.

Outcomes:

I think there’s no additional document helpful for the learners.

Evaluation:

None. But correct answers can be found immediately in each game.

Notes:

Quite interesting. Especially Cryptoquote and Storyman, Cryptoquote provides lots of quotations with its origins, which can help learners to understand more beyond the language itself. Storyman also can let the learner pick the different topics, like Lord of the Rings, Greek mythology, and Beatles songs, etc.

However, the degree of the words or the answer is basically difficult for the EFL learners. Take me for example, sometimes I even feel nervous and frustrated due to the limited time, and in Storyman, I can’t even offer most of the correct answers.

But I think those night games are just for fun. I can’t judge it as a wonderful learning webpage, but indeed it is really interesting to play with the words and knowledge. As to the function, I think the sense of interest is deeper than what learners absorb from the games.