Internet and Education

The Internet has become an increasingly important feature of the learning environment for teenagers. Research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in November and December 2000 shows that teens use the Internet as an essential study aid outside the classroom and that the Internet increasingly has a place inside the classroom. The Project surveyed 754 online youth ages 12-17 and their parents. Teens and parents report that Internet is vital to completing school projects and has effectively replaced the library for a large number of online youth. 71% of students report using the Internet at their primary source for their last major project, and they also report accessing online study aids like Sparknotes or CliffNotes. Beyond legitimate assistance with studies via websites, or email or Instant message communication with teachers, students also take advantage of the Internet to cheat, with 18% of students reporting knowing someone who used the Internet to do so.

Internet-Based Education: Some Guidelines

By Hilary McLellan

The Internet offers many powerful resources for implementing distance education. Internet-based education can take many forms, including: (1) tutorial, (2) virtual classroom, (3) correspondence course, (4) project-based education, and (5) event-based education. Internet-based education can also provide a valuable supplement to more traditional approaches to education. And as Internet technologies develop, more possibilities emerge. An overview of issues related to designing and implementing Internet-based education will be presented here.

One fundamental concept to understand is the contrast between synchronous and asynchronous communication. Synchronous refers to communication that occurs instantaneously, in real time. The telephone is an example of this --- both participants in a telephone conversation are present --- at their respective locations -- simultaneously. Asynchronous communication refers to communication that does not take place in real time but is delayed at the receiver's end. A telephone answering machine is an example of asynchronous communication. Electronic mail is another example. The concept of synchronous versus asynchronous communication is an important fundamental parameter in Internet-based education since many patterns are possible, as we shall see.

Another essential concept for Internet-based education, one that requires a major shift in thinking is for educators to recognize and harness the vast array of resources that are now available on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. In addition to selecting a textbook, the instructor should now consider incorporating a Web navigation guide tailored to a particular subject or at least some student exploration quests on the World Wide Web into many classes, especially Internet-based classes. Gaining awareness of these resources and facility in navigating them is a critical component of information literacy and basic technological competence for today and tomorrow. Related to this, Nicholas Negroponte, in his book Being Digital, reports: "Today kids are getting the opportunity to be street smart on the Internet, where children are heard and not seen. Ironically, reading and writing will benefit. Children will read and write on the Internet to communicate, not just to complete some abstract and artificial exercise. What I am advocating should not be construed as anti-intellectual or as a disdain for abstract reasonings --- it is quite the opposite. The Internet provides a new medium for reaching out to find knowledge and meaning. (p. 200)" Not only children, but adult learners should be encouraged to reach out to these resources.

                           

                         

Virtual Reality and Education

   Today, technology has achieved great influence in the world, especially computers that have been a great utility for all of us.  The U.S. Department of Education in late 2003 reported that 90 percent of people aged five to seventeen use this equipment, mostly in school but also in libraries or at home. For this reason, teachers struggle to find teaching strategies, create instructional materials, and implement a technological infrastructure based on today's schools, and the most innovative has been virtual reality (VR), but What is it? according to Giti Javidi (1999), The term "Virtual Reality" has been applied more widely to include graphics applications that allow users to walk through a simulated environment and, possibly, to interact with objects in it. Also, VR technology is an integrated technology of computer hardware and software that requires the user to be fully immersed into the computer-generated, real-time, and 3D virtual environment as an inside participant to look, listen, manipulate, interact, feel, speak, and even smell if it is possible. It may be a networked or a stand-alone technology.

   This technological tool is a major support and advance for education that offers different benefits such as: to promote current educational thinking that students are better able to  retain and develop new knowledge; enhancing certain skills, for example, effectively coordinating sensorymotor skills; gaining situation awareness through use of simulations; and training in design skills. Also VR permit to visualize abstract concepts, visit different environments and interact with them, that for reasons of distance, time or safety are not available.

   An article called "The Virtual Classroom: Virtual Reality in Training and Education" gives one example of a school virtual reality program that is called Touch the Sky—Touch the Universe.  It uses an interactive 3-D model of the solar system to help students learn about astronomy. Students fly a virtual spaceship through the model, looking at it from different viewpoints. They watch eclipses and changes of phase as the planets and moons move through their orbits. They can zoom in on individual planets, moons, asteroids, and comets to study them more closely. When they touch a planet or other astronomical object with the mouse pointer, the program shows information about the object, such as its size and the time it takes to complete its orbit. Students can speed up or slow down the movement of the system and find out how these changes affect the movement of particular planets or moons.

   In conclusion, VR is an effective tecnology that influences in the educational change and offers a number of benefits to both students and proffesors. This one should be implemented in schools because it makes easier process of learning.

   In the following video, you will see an example of virtual reality used to teach a brief overview of science and research education.

 

Ruth Méndez

References:

http://www.scienceclarified.com/scitech/Virtual-Reality/The-Virtual-Classroom-Virtual-Reality-in-Training-and-Education.html

http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/7338/virtual%20reality/virtual%20reality%20in%20education.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfsSGBraUhc&feature=BFa&list=PL3B0A78D77156035B&index=76

 

Tutorial, Daniel Craig

http://www.danielcraig.com/call/summer2005/tutorials/word-reviewing-feature.wmv

COMPUTER-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING TEACHING

Language teachers have been users of technology to exploit the power of their students’ minds; some of technological aids that have been used in the foreign language classroom include slide projectors, film-strip projectors, film projectors, videocassette recorders and DVD players, among others.
Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) programs for multimedia computers that were published for multimedia computers on CD-ROM and DVD, CALL programs are still being published on CD-ROM and DVD, but Web-based multimedia CALL has now virtually supplanted these media.
Following the arrival of multimedia CALL, multimedia language centers began to appear in educational institutions. While multimedia facilities offer many opportunities for language learning with the integration of text, images, sound and video. However, the use of technology in the area of education depends on the material human resources of educational institutions; this is a downside because not all institutions have these resources.
In conclusion the advantage of using multimedia technology and computer assistance in the teaching of English as a foreign language; is that many people can access to information from remote locations, the content is available 24 hours per day and throughout the year. Besides this students and teachers are also forced to keep abreast of new resources using technological peak for working





REFERENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_language_learning#Human_Language_Technologies
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Computer-assisted_language_learning
http://www.fusionbposervices.com/blog/education-for-call-center-agents.html

C.A.L.L Computer assisted LAnguage Learning (xman Edit)

KEHYLEE DEGANO

What Computer-assisted Language Learning is?

In the previous text already read which talked about Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), we have seen the and know more about tendency of the "communicative" or "enabling" potential of the computer as a way of improving the linguistic competence in a foreign language, in this case English. The integration of the computers as a beneficial way to learn a foreign language, as English, is more and more extended to courses and language material sellers and of course professors. On the other hand, there is a great insistence on the necessity of more communicative skills in a foreign language method, meaning communication as a primary function of language. Computer assisted language learning (CALL) refers to a set of instructions which need to be loaded into the computer for it to be able to work in the language classroom. It should be borne in mind that CALL does not refer to the use of a computer by a teacher to type out a worksheet or a class list or preparing his/her own teaching alone. Computers, which have entered the school life in the 20th century in developed countries, are still developing day by day throughout the world. Today, they have become more powerful, faster, easier to use, more convenient and cheaper, and they can process and store much more data, as well.
Kehylee N. Degano, S.

REFERENCIAS:
http://kholidah2010.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/248/

How can Computer-assisted Language Learning be used to teach EFL?

  Nowadays EFL teachers should use and include in their classes, different types of technological tools that help as students as teachers to facilitate learning language process, in this case, English as Foreing Language (EFL).

   In my opinion, Computer-assisted Language learning (CALL) is one of the practical tool to teach English in classroom because it helps teachers to make easier the language learning process, through   technological programs which include interactive whiteboards, computer mediated communication learning language virtual worlds and mobile-assisted language learning.

In conclusion, this is an effective method that allows students to work independently and also awaken in them the interest in learning because the class will be more dynamic.

In the nex video, you will see a teacher with her students using CALL in the classroom.

Ruth Méndez

References:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIuYS6mljDY&feature=related
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_language_learning