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

Teaching Reading Through Computer-Assisted Language Learning

Teaching Reading Through Computer-Assisted Language LearningTariq Muhammad Bhatti 2013

›Introduction:

     The field of computer assisted language learning (CALL) is concerned with the skills related to language learning. One important skill is reading. Since the early appearance of CALL reading activities have existed. That time, it was known that computer assist in developing reading skill in three ways; 1) promoting reading strategies and automatically by controlling what the readers saw and how long the saw it, 2)providing comprehension and exercises. 3) and by presenting glosses and comprehension aids(Hubbard, 2014) . In this presentation an experimental study will be discussed in relate to using computer to teach reading a foreign language.

 

›The aim of the study:

- 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 methodology:

Subjects:

Ø  The participants were Male students from the same secondary school in Pakistan.

Ø  They were two groups (the experimental group and the control group) each group was comprised of 30 students.

Ø   All participant were from the 9th grade in the age of 15 to 17.

Ø   A year long study 2010 – 2011.

›    

The procedures of the study:

1- a) 24 lessons on reading skills were offered to the experimental group with the help of computers including images, sounds, graphs, and animation.

b) The same 24 lesson on reading skills were offered to the controlled group with the help of simple texts were given in a traditional instructor led- class.

›    

2- a) The students were given pre- and post- tests and demographic questions.

b) The students were given developed pre- and post- tests and demographic questions.

-” The specification of the test was that there were five passages used in the pre-­‐and post-­‐tests, for which 16 items were used. Out of the 16 items, eight items were on a literal level, five were on an inferential level, and three were on an evaluative level. Participants also filled out forms to provide data about their social status, use of computers at home, access to computers in school and their medium of instruction.”(Bhatti, 2013).

›     The result:

 - According to The null hypothesis, both groups showed the same readability index    of the text and the same results out of the tests.

- According to the alternative hypothesis, both groups showed statistical differences in the pre- and post test.

The Findings:

 - CALL provided a self-­paced and motivating language‐learning environment.

- The use of computers can promote the effectiveness of reading material in terms pronunciation, vocabulary, use of words in different contexts, and comprehension.

- CALL approach assisted students more in developing three levels of reading skills i.e., literal level, inferential level, and evaluative level.

- CALL still demands more efforts on the part of the teachers, especially in the selection and use of application software.

 Conclusion:

     The author has concluded that CALL showed positive results in improving the reading skills. He suggested that teachers should prepare them selves and use computer in teaching.

My Conclusion:

      I think this study can be of a great benefit to develop the educational process. Because for me as a student or even as a teacher I find learning through computers very entertaining and motivational. And I suggest that learning should done through CALL in every country not only in Pakistan. 

›      

References:

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

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

                                                  

                                                    By: Jood-San

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Keep going

The Role of CALL in Classroom

Nice advice

Smile

Test your self

The New Generation

     As we all can see our children are fond of technology. So, using computers or any kind of the recent technology in teaching those children would be of a great help. Children are using technology smartly but still they do not konw how to use it wisely. Teachers in the other hand should be responsible for leading students to use it in an effective way. And they need to be aware of the positive and negative impact of technology inorder to achieve that goal.

                                               Jood-san