Hypertext and Hypermedia

Sugar Glider

The sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) is a small arboreal marsupial that is found in the forests of Australia, as well as in Tasmania, New Guinea, and the neighboring islands of Indonesia. This little creature is a member of the same order that includes kangaroos, opossums, wombats and Tasmanian devils! The sugar glider has very thick soft grey mink-like fur with a black stripe that runs the full length of the body in line with the spine. This black stripe extends up and over the top of the head. The last couple of inches of the tail are also black. The glider also has dramatic black markings on the face, legs and back. The sugar glider's head and body measures five to six inches with a bushy tail of equal length. In the wilds of their native habitat, the sugar gliders are tree dwelling creatures, often living in groups of 15 to 30. They are active by night when they hunt for insects and small vertebrates and feed on the sweet sap of certain species of eucalyptus, acacia and gum trees (also known as their Natural Diet). The sugar glider makes a fascinating and unique pet which becomes extremely friendly when provided daily interaction with humans. In order to become the friendliest possible pets, glider babies should be handled daily as soon as they have emerged from the pouch and their eyes are open.

Task 2: Article Review

Title:Teaching EFL to the iGeneration: A survey of Using Youtube as a Supplementary Material with College EFL Students in Taiwan

Journal-volume: CALL-EJ Online (Vol.10, No.2, February 2009)

Authors: Brent Kelsen, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan

Click here for the link

Summary

The article discusses about the usage of Youtube as a supplementary material with EFL to students in Taiwan. It discusses the issue of authenticity of material (in this case is Youtube) and how it affect student’s motivation in EFL classroom.

The aim of the research

The research aimed to explore the use of Youtube in an EFL situation by surveying student’s attitude towards Youtube usage in studying English. In essence, the research aimed at determining student’s perception on using Youtube as a material in regular classroom. Several research questions were also raised: (1) does the usage makes classes more interesting? (2) does Youtube relevant as a course material? (3) does it beneficial for language learning? (4) does it motivates students to learn in class, and finally (4) does it motivates students to use this material to learn English outside of the class?

The methodology

The research was handled by questionnaire, viewing the video clips as a textbook supplement and several activities (carried out after they viewed the video clips). A set of question was given to determine student’s gender, computer usage and the use of Youtube in and outside of the classroom. It was distributed to students on their first day of class during fall semester. Then, throughout the semester, students were presented with materials, regarding to language learning, from Youtube as a supplement to textbook. All the video clips were showed to them during class hours. The technologies used were computer, high-speed internet connection and projector. After showing them the video clips from Youtube, students would engage in classroom tasks such as cloze worksheet, split viewing, watch and retell the video clips, watching to answer specific questions and open discussion. Background and cultural background were given beforehand. In addition, students were made aware of the website URL so that they can view the video clip before or after the class.

The subject/sample

There were as many as 69 students (52 males and 13 female) from private university in northern Taiwan participated in the research. All of them were from Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science. Their first language was Mandarin and aged from 19-21 years old.

The findings of the research

For the first day of the semester, the finding showed that a large number of students had access towards internet outside of classroom context and they had used Youtube before. Most of them had used Youtube as a tool for entertainment and they didn’t use it for the language educational purpose. The number then increased by the end of the research. As a comparison to textbook, most students agree that incorporating Youtube in classroom is more interesting than using textbook only. Majority of them also agree that Youtube is relevant and beneficial to language learning. In terms of motivation, majority agree that they were somewhat motivated when Youtube was incorporated in classroom. However, not all think that Youtube was motivating when used outside of the classroom.

Reflection

Youtube is an interesting site which promotes video clips and songs from various artists around the world. Most of the artists promoted by Youtube used English as a language for their song. Those western songs are undoubtedly enjoying and a favorite to all people. I like this research. It attracts my attention just by reading the title. From my opinion, to incorporate Youtube as a supplement for classroom material is a great idea. Why? Firstly, different students tend to have different learning styles. By using Youtube, the spatial learner and audio learner would benefit greatly than just using textbook alone. In addition there’s not much of a research done that incorporate Youtube as comparison to other internet sites. Other than that, the research sparks readers, especially, teacher’s idea in integrating internet usage in classroom teaching. I do understand the facilities problem faced by most school in Malaysia. For this, teachers can download the video beforehand and show it to the whole class. Another way is to give students the web URL as a follow-up activity for the next lesson. Not to forget, teachers also need to give task or worksheet so that students have their focus. Adding in computer usage is already a form of motivation for students, even in Malaysia. Students, here, will greatly appreciate it. They will be even more motivated to learn English, as compare to the traditional way, due to its graphic and sound effect. From my view, what this research lack of is the comparison between race. The sample used was only among Taiwanese students. I think they should include other races as well. Other than that, I agree with the researcher that larger sample, different gender, and different faculty (especially language faculty) should participate in so that the finding can be easily generalized.

References:

Multicultural Counseling and Psychotherapy by Leroy G. Baruth and M. Lee Manning, 2004

http://www.lessontutor.com/sm1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

Hot Potatoes Review

Hot potatoes (HP) is a free educational based software. It can be used by teachers, language instructors, and etc. I have never heard of Hot Potatoes before I entered CALL class. The first time using it, I thought, "this is fun and easy". This is somewhat true. HP is very user friendly. We can prepare an interactive exercise using HP. From HP we can prepare fill in the blank exercise, matching exercise, jumbled sentence exercise, crossword puzzle, and multiple choice or short answer quiz.

All of those exercises can be prepare within one hour or less than that. It saves more time than preparing paper-based exercises (not to mention it saves paper thus saves tree! =)). It is an interactive exercise, because we can add pictures, decorate our own background and include sound effects. Those characteristics are enough to make students thrilled and motivated to learn. In addition, HP enables students to get immediate feedback. Meaning wise, they will be able to check their answer without relying only on teacher. Other than that, HP also can be used even without the internet connection. Most of the schools in Malaysia do not have the internet connection especially in the rural areas. Even if some schools are connected to the internet, most of the time, the connection is usually as slow as snail (like my previous secondary school). However, with HP, teacher still can prepare exercises without the internet connection and students are also able to do the exercise. Next, HP enables us to link one exercise to another. It will be useful as to give different exercises on the same or different topic. Finally, HP can also be use to teach other subject such as Science, History and etc. This is in case, teachers are teaching multiple subjects in school.

By including the use of computer in classroom is enough to grab student’s attention. Even to the students who study in urban areas. When student's attention is grabbed, their attention span will be longer. Thus teaching will be at ease. To be honest, while learning on how to use HP in CALL class, I was wishing that I knew about the software during my practicum. My students would be very excited completing tasks given using this software. If I were to be a teacher in the future, I would definitely use HP. And now, I'm visualizing of giving monthly test using HP. ;)

JMatch

An exercise that I've made on simile ;) . Here is the link

SIMILE