Twitter report

An Annotated Bibliography

Computer Assisted Language Learning

Wejdan Ibrahim Shahrani

2014

     Long time ago the use of computers in language teaching was not of a big deal. However, computer has become an important tool as language learning assistant. Actually, educators are now aware of the importance of technology in the classroom. But the main question they must ask themselves about is “What type of technology should be used during a lecture?”. Computer Assisted language learning does not only mean, using computers to teach another language. It involves also using the internet web sites. These web sites can provide unlimited data for the students. Recently, these web sites have been developed to be used not only by computers but also by smart phones. And now people call them social networking technology.  The following references are all about the importance of CALL in language teaching.

Bhatti, T, M. (2013). Teaching Reading Through Computer-Assisted Language Learning. Teaching English as a Second or a Foreign Language, 17(2), 1-11. Retrieved from The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language.

           The problem faced in this study is that children do not have a chance to develop their reading skills. So the study was conducted to prove how students can improve their reading skills through computer. The participants were male students in the age of 15 to 17 from the same secondary school in Pakistan. They were observed for a long time will using the computers to practice reading. Finally, the author has concluded that CALL showed positive results in improving the reading skills. He suggested that teachers should prepare themselves for using computers in teaching.

Chamberlin, L., & Lehmann, K. (2011). Twitter in higher education. Cutting-edge Technologies in Higher Education (pp. 375-391).

        This chapter provides information about the possible ways to use and to take advantage of twitter for beginners and educators. This research aims to use twitter effectively in learning for higher education students. As a result, the authors stated that the positive and negative effects of twitter depend on the personal use. This chapter is very important for students, educators, and beginners. For me, I can use it to improve the use of twitter in classrooms with university students. It can also help me to prove that the use of twitter can be positive only if we use it wisely. Also, it points out the difference between the macro and micro use of twitter.

Hamade, S. N. (2013) Perception and use of social networking sites among university students. Library Review, 62(6/7), 388 – 397. DOI 10.1108/LR-12-2012-0131

          This study aims to evaluate the understanding and use of social media applications. It also aims to study the influence of this usage. The participants are Kuwaiti students from different universities. The result of this study showed that Twitter and Facebook were used a lot. It also showed the positive side of using this technology. The author found some possible solutions for the positive and negative impact of social media in higher education. He concluded that students need to be trained on using social media for learning purposes.

Healey, D., & Warschauer, M. (1998). Computers and language learning: an overview. State of the art article, 31,57-71.

     The aim of this article is to provide a general review about the history of CALL. It also discusses the current studies and practices. It stands on the theoretical basis of the importance of using computers in language teaching. The author concluded his research with the assertion of the importance of CALL.

Hubbard, P.(2014).Lecture 1:CA 94305-2150 [Pdf] [Lecture notes]. USA, Stanford: University of Stanford.

     This lecture aims at discussing certain important points in regard to CALL. It provided some information about the theory of CALL. Also, it debated some studies, advantages and disadvantages of this usage. The role of CALL in developing the second language learning and teaching process. Finally, he stated some of his expectations and hopes concerning the status of CALL in the future.

McArthur, J. M., & Bostedo-Conway, K. (2012). Exploring the relationship between student-instructor interaction on Twitter and student perceptions of teacher behaviors. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 24(3), 286-292. Retrieved from http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/

     The aim of this case study is to find whether twitter is a useful instrument for teaching or not. The methodology of this paper is quantitative in which the study focuses on both teachers and students. The findings of this study show a great relation between Student-Instructor Interaction on Twitter and Student Perceptions of Teacher Behaviors. Another thing is that the result shows how fruitful and important twitter can be for teaching.

Mccool, L. B. (2011). The pedagogical use of Twitter in the university classroom (Iowa State University). Available from Graduate Theses and Dissertations. (UMI No. 11947).

     The purpose of this research is to find how twitter can be used in teaching students. The author uses qualitative methods for collecting the data. As a result, twitter has taken a great position in teaching students. The writer concluded that using the social media in the classrooms will improve the educational process.

Veletsianos, G. (2011). Higher education scholars’ participation and practices on Twitter. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 1-14. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00449.x

     The aim of this study is to investigate scholars' activities using twitter in higher education. The collected and analyzed data depend on qualitative methods. The result showed that scholars participate in twitter for many purposes which led to the need for training teachers to use the social media and twitter effectively while teaching their students.

Yakin, I., & Tinmaz, H. (2013). USING TWITTER AS AN INSTRUCTIONAL TOOL: A CASE STUDY IN HIGHER EDUCATION. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 12 (Iss 4), pp. 209 – 218.

     This case study was conducted in higher education. It aims to investigate the use of twitter as an instructional tool. However, the result showed that through time the students started using it to learn more. They also were able to realize the negative impact of twitter. This case study would be helpful in understanding the advantages of using twitter in the classroom. It also provides tips for using Twitter in an appropriate way.

Jenner, S. (2009). Using Twitter in teaching. Modern English Teacher, 19(3), 39- 42. Retrieved from Modern English Teacher.

    This article presents how twitter has been used in the educational system. It shows different ways for using twitter in teaching English. The findings of this article rely mostly on a study by an MA student who wrote a project depending on his own experience of using twitter as a student.

Classroom Technology Observation

Smart Board-Interactive Whiteboard

Wejdan Ibrahim Shahrani

2014

Introduction

     In order to write a report about the technology used in the classroom, I went three times to Bany Mazen school, in Abha. It was a quite long journey for me since I live in Khamis Mushait. When I entered the school, I met the principal who welcomed me and introduced me to Zana Saeed Asiri an English teacher. I sat with her and asked some questions related to the technology used in the classrooms. She told me there is an overhead projector in each and every class. Besides, they have two Smart boards, one of them is old and the other one is developed. They also have the interactive CD book.

      Actually, I went there on the 30^th of October, the 2^nd of  November, and the 3^rd of November. The first time, I attended a class where a Smart board (SB) was used as a teaching tool. In the second session, the teacher used the Advanced Smart Board (ASB which is pretty much similar to the smart board but it contains some developed features). In the third session, the teacher used Interactive CD Book (ICDB). In each lesson I took some notes that I have observed during the lessons.

Class Information

     I observed classroom technology of the 3^rd grade high school. The class included twelve students. The students were divided into groups and they were very active in the class. Zana has been teaching for about nine years. I asked her what does she think about the old curriculum and the new one? She said that she prefers the new curriculum because it provides the needed items of language for the students. And when she was asked whether she uses the technology in every lesson or not? She said that it depends on the lesson it self. Because sometimes the lesson does not require her to use technology. And sometimes, she faces some difficulties which prevent her from using technology. Due to such problems, power outage or technical obstruct.

Class Content and Organization

     The students' book was Mega GOAL. In the first session the lesson was about writing a dialog about certain situations. The teacher has presented some pictures by using the SB. The students were looking at the pictures to write conversations for each picture. The teacher was using the pen to change the pictures. After that, Zana opened a page for the students to write their answers on the board. She has divided them into three groups. Each group will choose a picture to write the dialog. Then, she opened a PDF file to show the girls some activities from their books. She gave them five minutes to think about the questions presented and find answers for them. When the girls were answering the activity questions the teacher changed the color of the font and attracted the student's attention to a new grammar used in the lesson.  

     The second lesson included several activities. The first one was reading and the second one was grammar. Zana has started her lesson with a general review of the previous lesson using the ASB. Then, she showed the girls the reading passage and started asking some questions. The students pointed at the answers on the Advanced Smart Board using their fingers. To write on the advanced smart board the teacher and the students can use either the pen or their fingers. Zana did the same thing she did in the first session. She opened a page for each group, has changed the font color and she has given the girls a chance to use the ASB. Some students were able to apply the grammatical rule by forming some examples.The other students were correcting their friends' mistakes on the ASB.

      The third session was a conversational lesson. The content of the book was very good and clear. Zana used The interactive CD book. This CD gives the students the opportunity to instruct themselves by their own. The teacher has used the computer to open that CD and the SB and overhead projector to present the content. Zana has played the Interactive CD Book and has presented the lesson. The lesson started with a conversation followed by some activities. The students were able to replay the conversation many times, until they get the accurate pronunceation of the words. They were also able to repeat after the native speakers' dialog.  The answers for the activities were hidden. They answered the questions first. Then, they were able to touch the questions to reveal the model answers and compared them to their answers.

Students Response

     Generally, the students were attentive and alert. They were active and they tried to respond to every question. By looking at their faces, anyone can tell how excited they were. They used the technology very easily that they were able to change the font color and size. Moreover, they opened new pages to write down their answers. They used the eraser  to delete their mistakes. However, before I left the class I asked the students the following questions;

How do you feel after this lesson?

Do you think it would be better if you take the lesson in the traditional way?

Which technology do you prefer (SB, ASB, or ICDB)?

      All the girls were happy about using the technology and they thought it was much better than the traditional way of teaching. For the last question the girls preferred the (ICDB) because it provides an opportienty for them to  apply autonomy learning because they felt free while learning the lesson by themselves.

Use of Technology

     In each class Zana has chosen certain technology and when I asked here about the reason, she said that each lesson needs an appropriate method. So, in the first and the second lessons she used the SB and ASB to enhance the students writing and reading skills. And in the third one she used the interactive CD book to develop the students listening, writing and speaking skills. In spite of that, I think that the technology was not used effectively. Although the teacher and the students were able to use it very easily. Yet they were not able to use all the other good features of these technologies. For example, the teacher did not use the puzzle icon, although it was available.

Overall Reflections

     Each class was unique and different from the other one. They were interesting and exciting. In fact, using technology in the classroom is fruitful. Students in primary level can learn better through these kinds of technology. Another point is that two teachers can work together in one class. Also, the teacher and the students can use the pen to write on the board or if needed they can use the keyboard. However, with all the benefits these technology can offer there are unavoidable flaws which might stop the teacher from achieving the goals of the lessons. First of all, if the teachers are not well trained in using these technologies they will not be able to use the best of them. Secondly, the smart board takes more time to be operated and that could waste the time of the class. Thirdly, it will not work if there is no electricity. Finally, it jams sometimes during the lesson. So, in my opinion I think using technology in the classroom to teach English language is very useful, interesting and funny. However, every teacher should train her self on using all the positive features of that technology and prepare her self for any possible problem. For example, if the electricity is off then she should use other prepared aids for teaching.

The pedagogical use of Twitter in the university classroom by Lynn Beth McCool

OIntroduction:

     Nowadays, educators are aware of the importance of technology in the classroom. But the main question they must ask themselves about is “What type of technology should be used during a lecture?”.

OThe aim of the Dissertation:

OIt aims to discover how Twitter might be used pedagogically to assist students in communication, collaboration, and participation within an ecology of practice.

OThe methodology:

OUsing a qualitative approach, data was gathered from personal interviews, academic Twitter feeds, course websites, instructors’ blogs, and published scholarly research.

OThe theoretical basis for exploring Twitter usage in the classroom rests heavily on Selfe’s and Vie’s admonishments that educators must pay attention to technology and specifically the technology that students are using in their everyday lives.

OThe author did the interview with an instructor who was using Twitter in his speech communications class. He met him in his office on campus for about 30 minutes. With his permission, the session was recorded for the purpose of transcription as part of my data collection.

OThe Findings:

     some of the frequently employed pedagogical applications of Twitter were to…

Oencourage class participation and provide feedback in both traditional and distance learning (Dunlap & Lowenthal; Eller; Jaworowski; Lane and Lewis; Mann; Pignetti; Rankin; Wolff)

Oconduct rhetorical research by aggregating news sources (Farwell and Waters; Fernheimer; Jaworowski)

Ocollaborate with peers and encourage classroom community (Dunlap & Lowenthal; Farwell and Waters; Fernheimer; Jaworowski; Mann; Pignetti)

Oincrease social presence through ambient awareness especially in distance learning (Dunlap & Lowenthal; Farwell & Waters; Jaworowski; Pignetti)

Oenhance literacy by providing opportunities to acquire technological skills (Farwell & Waters; Jaworowski; Silver; Wolff).

O develop a critical stance on New Media technologies (Silver; Wolff).

Conclusion:

      The writer has concluded some points:

OEducators differed on whether it was ethically acceptable to require students to use Twitter for class. Two approaches emerged from this discussion.

OThe first, more conservative approach was to offer Twitter as a voluntary means of communication.

OThe second, professors such as David Silver believe that students should be taught how to responsibly use public media, and one way to do that is to require them to publish using their real identities as part of the course syllabus.

OGenerally, the implementation of Twitter into classroom pedagogy was more successful when the professor had specific goals in mind for its use and created detailed instructions for students to follow in their integration of it as a part of their course work.The first, more conservative approach was to offer Twitter as a voluntary means of communication.

OIn the case of distance learning, instructors found Twitter to be a means to enhance ambient awareness and build classroom community.

My opinion:

     I think using Twitter to assist the educational process can be very helpful, but we should all remember the circumstances that might affect this use. We should lead the students to use Twitter positively instead of wasting their time and effort.

References:

OMccool, L. B. (2011). The pedagogical use of Twitter in the university classroom (Iowa State University). Available from Graduate Theses and Dissertations. (UMI No. 11947).

                                    By: Wejdan Ibrahim Shahrani

Alice in Wonderland

This novel is very interesting, I want to share you some parts I like.
-In the first pic, I like the sense of humor. --The second pic, I like how the author used "not".

Perception and use of social networking sites among university students

Introduction:

     Computer Assisted language learning does not only mean, using computers to teach another language. In fact, it includes also using the internet web sites. These web sites can provide unlimited data for the students. Recently, these web sites have developed to be used not only by computers but also by smart phones. And now people call them social networking technology.

The aim of the study:

Ø The goal of this study is to examine the  understanding and use of social networking among university students in Kuwait.

ØStudy their negative and positive impacts.  

The methodology:

Subjects:

oParticipant are Kuwaiti students from different universities.

Methodology:

oThe methodology here is descriptive.

o Five section questionnaire distributed among the students. Each section focuses on certain goal.

oThe first section consisted of demographic data including gender, marital status, work and educational status. The second section explored the students’ involvement in SNS including their privacy settings and network connections. The third section discussed the frequency of using SNS for viewing and posting information. The fourth section was to examine the impacts of social media; students were allowed to choose more than one positive and negative impact. The fifth section was to study the perception of students in regard to the type of information that interests them the most.

The Findings:

-Vast majority of the students are using social media.

-The positive impact is better social life.

-The negative ones are

a)Despising work and school.

b)The time wasted.

Conclusion:

     The author has concluded that students need to be trained on using social media for learning purposes.

My conclusion:

     According to the statistics in this study, I believe that using social networking web sites for the educational process will be come an easy task. Because a lot of the students are already familiar with using social media. 

References:

•Hamade, S. N. (2013) Perception and use of social networking sites among university students. Library Review, 62(6/7), 388 – 397. DOI 10.1108/LR-12-2012-0131

                                                       By: Jood-San

The sea in the sky