Drop by to say bye!!

All posting from 1 to6 are done as the course requirement for SKPD1023 Language and ICT under Ass. Prof Datin Dr. Norizan Abdul Razak. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my beloved lecturer for her guidance as well as my fellow friends who helped me a lot in fulfill my tasks. I also would like to show my gratitude to all the sites which provide me relevant information on various aspects. Thank you and meet you all soon.

Launching ceremony of 1nita

Group photo of PBL lecturers and students at 1Nita program

Banner of 1Nita program

Me, Asha and ELIT  friends at Berjaya Times Square Hotel

Oopss..I have forgotten to tell about one of our enjoyable day at 1nita launching ceremony which held on 9th Mac 2010. We, all the 1st year ELS and ELIT students attend this program at Berjaya Times Square Hotel. The ceremony was launched by YB Dato Seri Dr. Maximus  Johnity Ongkili, minister of Science Technology and Innovation and organized by .mydomain registry. This program was fruitful for us where we were exposed to  entrepreneurship aspects as well as uses of ICT in advertising products. We were so proud to see our beloved lecturer DR. Norizan delivered a talk on workshop activities. The exhibition of products by women entrepreneurs also attract most of us where we were exposed to different types of creative products. In short, it was a great time at 1nita program because we got opportunity to meet with a well–known minister besides upgrade our knowledge on entrepreneurship. Last but not least, we had delicious meal for breakfast, lunch and also high tea.

Final posting -Concordance

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/english/conc2.htm

http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/scripts/WConcApp.dll

3. If you are going to use computer to teach language one day, which language learning website will you recommend? Elaborate why do you recommend that website. If you dont have any recommendation and would like to develop your own website explain what, why and how.

I would like to recommend http://www.usingenglish.com/for English learning. I believe that this website provide a large collection of useful resources for students as well as teachers to upgrade their knowledge on language. There are language notes, forum discussion and also worksheets as well as quizzes to ensure our understanding on various aspects of English language. This website will be a good guide for language laerners in learning English.

Posting 5-Online English Test…Let’s see how it works!

According to Taylor,1980 computer plays role as a tutor. It is proven true when it comes to online English test. I found out a few URLs which provide online English tests.
i) www.world-english.org

ii)www.english-test.net/

POSTING 4- ONLINE LITERATURE LEARNING

Based on my search I found out two URL which provide interesting and fruitful info on literature. My choices are:
i)http://www.shakespeare-online.com/

This website gives us up-to-date information about all time hero ‘Shakespeare’s’ arts and poems. The information from this site brings us back to the 18th centuries. This site will be a good guide for students as well as teachers in literature learning since it reveals A to Z of The Great Shakespeare’s history.

ii) http://www.literaturecollection.com/
This is another URL which offers free literature collection from famous authors. There are more than 70 books and 600 short stories in this online library the administrators are adding new literature classics daily. We just need to click on the author’s list and we will be served with all kind of information on their writings.
Now, let’s recall one of our secondary school literature component which is our famous Shakespeare’s SONNET18.

iii) http://www.gradesaver.com/the-pearl/

This URL contains relevant information on ‘The Pearl’. This webpage contains a full biography of the writer, John Steinbeck, major themes, characters, quiz questions and a full summary and analysis. This URL will be a good guide for students to understand this literature component better. I think these URLs that I’ve stated above are effective and useful to understand literature better.

Posting 3-CMC…is it calcium monosodium carbonate???

CMC…do you have any idea on what is CMC? I’m sure this is not something related to chemistry(carbonated monosodium carbonate) or food manufacturing (CMC powder). If you are user of facebook, twitter or other social networks then you are a part of this term. Yes, CMC stands for computer-mediated communication. According to Levy (1997:79), CMC is one of the concern with communication between two or more participants via computer covering technological platforms such as e-mails, bulletin board, discussion list, and computer conferencing, both text and video based. I would like to quote some of the uses of CMC in facilitating second language acquisition as well as in literature reading.

Advantages of computer mediated communication in second language acquisition are as follows:

i) Provides a more equitable platform and less threatening forum for second language discussion. (Warschauer, 1996)
ii) Increases participation among students. (Kem, 1995;Kelm 1995; Beavois 1992)
iii) Results in a more decentralized role of the dominant teachers. (Kem, 1995; Warschauer, 19980

Second Posting-What is NETSPEAK?

Hi everyone, I’m glad to meet you all again. For this week, we are required to refer to David Crystal work and writing on Netspeak and discuss it.

David Crystal(Crystal,D.2001) has coined a phrase Netspeak. Netspeak refers to the types of communication used in chatrooms and messaging software such as MSN messenger. In short, it is known as computer-mediated language. It is introduced because typing text taking time than saying it out. Besides that, it is difficult to determine one’s feelings and emotions when communicating through text. Thus, a new form of communication required which would be faster to type and can be manipulated to include feelings to words. That new language is netspeak.
Below are some of the characteristics of Netspeak:-
a) inattention to the norms of spelling and grammar
b) infrequent punctuation
c) informal tone
d) the use of all lower-case letters
e) turning nouns into verbs

This language uses a combination of abbreviations (including words created using digits as well as alphabetic characters), acronyms and emoticons. Abbreviations and acronyms are used to save time in typing words. Below are some of the examples of abbreviations and acronyms used in messaging:-

*lol= laughing out loud- it is often used to indicate something that funny
*bff= best friend forever- it is used as an adjective for someone very well-liked by the texter
*idk= i don’t know-it is used to tell that texter not sure or aware of something
*tc= take care
*bf= boy friend
*gf= girl friend
*paw= parents are watching
*c u= see you
*l8r= later

So, netspeak is a code language and it is a practical shorthand lingo too. It is important to learn some of the basic web terms to communicate online with our friends.

First Posting-Similarities and differences between facebook and twitter

OR
Hi everyone, hope you all have a fabulous break for Chinese New Year. For this week I will discuss about two familiar social networks.

Below are some of the differences between facebook and twitter:-

i) The power of search

Facebook is closed, you cannot search any of your own feeds or status updates or comments or likes. You have a basic keyword search that allows to find friends or applications. Twitter on the other hand, allows us to search to find conversation happening on any keywords and subscribe to it as a RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. It is like have a Google SEM (Search Engine Marketing) engine sending you customers to your RSS feed every 10 seconds.

ii) Privacy

Facebook is our real social graph, real family, friends, collegemates co-workers, teachers, colleagues,  fellow parents, friends suggested or referred by real friends. Facebook is also single mindedly focused on offering the best privacy controls to the users so they can share as little or as much of their pictures, profiles, videos etc. with their real friends.  However, Twitter is our public social graph. Everything is open, anyone can follow you and there is lot of chatter anytime you tune in.

iii) The real me, The real Time!

In twitter, you can friend anyone by following them without their knowledge or permission. You allow anyone to follow you and it is optional to friend that person back so the relationship gets mutual and allow them to send you a direct message. This is in contrast to facebook where you friend a person and it has to be mutually agreed and accepted before you can view their profile or post on their wall or see their feeds.

Now, let’s think about some of the similaraties between these networks.

The core part of both Facebook and Twitter surround “status messages” that we and our friends post to stay in touch with each other. Messages like “just got back from the Avatar  movie” will frequently start an online discussion between those you know about how successful the new film was as a “reboot” of the old series. More boring messages like “I just had my lunch” will only stir up the electronic version of crickets and will provoke little conversation.

In the nutshell, I have both facebook and twitter account and I prefer them equally but for different purposes. Facebook is a collection of conversations with  friends and family  but twitter help to make new friends.

Tutorial Week 7

Hello everyone,

As we know, blogs and wikis are two popular tools that play important role in our writing. I’m going to discuss how these two technologies help in writing.

Wikis and blogs is an online workspace that allows people to collaboratively create and edit Web pages without requiring HTML knowledge, using no more complicated technology than a Web browser. A blog  has the advantage of being a live, shared space where all team members can have editing and writing privileges. Its availability and ease of use make all the group members into active participants. The simplicity of a wiki also make less burdensome for members to give and share their ideas by doing small and spontaneous edits. Wikis also afford us the opportunity to write using nonlinear text structures. For example, we can use hyperlinks in wikis writing to create new links. Besides help to learn collaborative writing skills, wiki also help us to learn effective writing strategies and grammar from others.

http://scholar.google.com.my/scholar

Printed materials or digital materials…which I prefer

Living in this advanced high-technology modern world, people seem to chase time and want everything to be done easily. Same thing goes with me when comes to reading. I prefer digital reading rather than traditional reading(printed materials). In my opinion, reading printed materials makes one to stick to the author’s idea all the time whereas digital reading will direct us to other links and provide us more relevant knowledge. Besides that, digital reading will be more interesting with the use of hypermedia such as attractive visual reality and motion video. However, some of my course -mates prefer printed materials because they feel comfortable with their books beside them all the time. There are some disadvantages of digital reading, the most serious is the effects on our sightedness because of straining our eyes sitting in front of computer for a long period. In short, the preferences of reading materials depends on the individual convenience as well as the types of materials.