Name of the ESL website:
Lauri’s ESL Website (http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~lfried/)
Description of website:
The application is basically an ESL website moderated by Lauri Fried Lee where it focuses on teaching the 6, 7 and 8 grade students. It is actually an additional class to the involved learners as the class is like two classes in one which is on Monday and Tuesday, and the respected learners will be in a computer room doing reading, listening, and grammar exercises on the computer, as well as using this website. While Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, they will be in Room 104 for a more traditional classroom experience.
1. What does the application attempt to “teach”?
This website is specifically made for the purpose of teaching and learning platform to all ESL teachers and learners. It is made not only to provide tutorial and exercises but also can become a non-formal educational center as it provides guideline and easy instructions which can be assessed by the learners without any supervision. Students can learn from this website accordingly as there is a complete schedule for them to follow. It is also can best perceived as an additional class like a tuition center as it provides a mixture of activities and exercises of grammar, writing, listening and reading. Other than that, the webmaster does not forget in providing the interesting way of learning by equipping the website with other learning activities using animations, graphics and quizzes. The target learners for this website are also very wide as it provides drills, practices, tutorials, and test that suits to the low to intermediate level of students. It also provides related links to another website in order for the users to access simulations, educational games and any other interactive lesson.
2. What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with regards to learning the content?
When using the website, the first thing that the users will be presented with is the list of lesson such as grammar section, students writing section, reading section and listening section. They are free to decide or choose which section they wanted to browse first. For learners, it is suggested that, they follow one by one, just exactly what the website has provided which is reading all the tutorial first then when they have understood and have a clear understanding about it, they can proceed to answer or do the exercises or test provided. They can choose to re-do the exercises or tests that they feel need to be done again as the control over the pace and the movement of the lesson is within their own demand. The users of this website also can decide whether they want to follow the section of the tutorial/ drill of the current lesson or follow to the website classes which they can view both current or past lesson. With that, it shows that, even though, learners have left their previous lesson before, they still have the chance to learn it again as past classes are still posted on the website. What they need to do is just click on the lesson schedule page provided and proceeds with the learning session.
3. What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/access/use the application?
In order to operate/access/use the application, the users need to understand the concept of using hyperlinks as each section of the website is interlinked with one another. Therefore the users need to be familiar with the usage of internet as this page requires a basic way of browsing the internet. For example is when you need to go to the main home page back after completing the exercise, the only thing that you need to do is just by clicking the back button as certain pages do not have specific hyperlink provided but not to worry as, the website is established as a user friendly where in order to operate it not much computer skills needed as the webmaster has provided the easiest way as well as extra help and guideline so that the users can access/operate/ use the application provided with the maximum without having any obstacle and difficulty.
There are also exercises that can be downloaded by students or teachers. What they need to do is just click the download button provided. However, if they find any difficulty regarding downloading with all those stuffs, they can make request to the webmaster to post it right directly through email.
4. While you are “playing”/ “accessing”/ “assessing” the application, does it remind you of anything you do in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?
The website at certain point, does remind me of the learning session and activity that I did in classroom either with a teacher or with fellow classmate. It also does remind me of the self study that I made. For example is the way where I have to refer to a note or a reference book in order to answer the question sheets given by teacher. It is similar to the approach of learning done in the website where I have to read the tutorial first for some knowledge that I am not quite familiar with before taking or proceeding to the test or exercise provided. However, the clear difference between the lessons that I did in classroom with the lesson in the website is the different method, approach and style of presentation towards learning. For example with teachers, classmates or in self study, I still can be flexible or undisciplined in my learning session where for example I can choose to answer just a few questions from the exercises without finishing it right on the specific time when there is a chance to do that. However, in the website, most of the exercises require learners to finish it all together in one particular drill as it provides answer, feedback and score instantly for each question that we have answered. This is because, if we feel lazy to proceed to answer all the questions provided, we will fail to get the full score and answers provided.
5. Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?
Some theories of language learning and teaching underlying the website are the Skinner’s Operant Conditioning theory where as stated by C. George Boeree (2006), “A behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future”. It is the same like the learning process where Skinner does believe that learning process can be successful if it is strengthened by the reinforcement that the learners receive. This is correlated to the website approach in drilling where every exercises that are incorporated in the learning session provides instant feedback, responses and answer immediately right after learners or users have answered it. It also gives a good reinforcement to students in terms of answering the questions when there is instant score or percentage given to each correct answer. This will motivate learners to try the best and answer the questions till the end in order to get a satisfied score.
Another theory that I discovered from the website is the Experiential Learning Theory by Carl Rogers. According to Rogers as stated in the website: http://tip.psychology.org/rogers.html “Significant learning takes place when the subject matter is relevant to the personal interests of the student”. Thus in the website it is clear that the contents provided are derived from various aspects of topics that is related to our own daily life experiences. Therefore the students can assimilate better to the learning process and precede learning faster as they are familiar with the learning context. Further more, according to Rogers, learning is facilitated when the student participates completely in the learning process and has control over its nature and direction. This is absolutely precise to what have been implemented in the website as the power and control over the lesson are put under the learners’ power where mostly learners are the one who seeks for the website, learn it by themselves and very open to change by assessing their own progress of success.
6. How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website (s)?
Constructivist Learning Theory.
The Constructivist Learning Theory does state that learning is an active process of creating meaning from different experiences. In other words, we can see that students will learn best by trying to make sense of something on their own with the teacher as a guide to help them along the way. This is correlated with the website as one of the sources of learning. By using the website, students can be described as having their own independent learning where students make their own effort to understand the entire tutorial given then apply it in the exercises provided. As supported by Rogers in his Experiential Learning theory “Self-initiated learning is the most lasting and pervasive”.
For example, it can be seen clearly from the grammar exercise where in order to answer it, students need to refer to the tutorial given if they are not clear with the rules first. As stressed in the constructivist theory, all sensory input is organized by the person who is receiving the stimuli. Therefore, it is clear that, it is not necessarily good when a teacher just give whatever lesson or information that she or he wants to the students and always expect them to process it and apply it correctly later. In my opinion, I think we grab and remember better an information when we are preparing and teach or presenting the material by our own self rather than just listen to a lesson in a lecture-type class. This is because we constructed knowledge for our own self.
However, this website does not really apply the concept in constructivist theory where learning is a social activity. It is believed that learning is powerful when people speak and interact with each other. This website does not have the quality where the learners can interact with other learners or teachers. There should be an interactive lesson where teacher and students can discuss the lesson freely and let them share and find out knowledge together. The website for example can include or create a chat room to encourage debate or verbal interaction as learning language through social activity is much more meaningful.
7. In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on ‘whether the computer was “master” of or “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In relation to your evaluation- was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?
In my opinion, I do not think that a computer can 100 percent replace the role of a teacher in terms of teaching. This is because; we should know that nobody or nothing in this world can challenge the creation of God. Teachers are human beings. Even though human beings are not perfect, we are still have our own self value, heart, soul and judgment which made us different from other things that are created by human. It is undeniable that we are a wise creature that is created with emotion and lead our own life with our own values and judgments. It is different with computers. It does not have soul and mind. It is programmed to be what it should be and it is impossible to see a computer that have the value, soul and judgment like what human being is being equipped with.
I know it is possible if one day, computer can challenge human being in terms of teaching. However, does it really understand and can be flexible to the individual differences in cognitive and personality characteristics of learners? Can it include all the emotional aesthetics and values in lesson? What I mean from that is can computer become flexible, considerate, caring, understanding, loving and humorous as same as what human beings can do? Can they cater to the students’ emotional needs? I believe they do not. It is clear that even though computer can become one of the best methods in teaching and learning but still it cannot beat human beings in the aspect of emotional need. For example: computer does not really care, if a student is still in a mood of learning or not because it cannot see or read the nonverbal signs showed by the students. However, at certain level and certain type of learning/teaching, computers can be considered as a good teacher. As it is more precise, organized, rigid, stable for anytime, anywhere and any conditions and it is not easily affected by external factors.
Therefore, I believe computer cannot replace a teacher. It is also not merely an obedient servant to students. It is just can best be described as one of the alternatives or methods to be used to create an efficient teaching and learning session. We have to remember that nobody or nothing can beat the creation of God. It is just perfect in all condition of life. Even though it still has some weaknesses here and there, there will always strengths to cover all the weaknesses.
8. Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?
Yes, I will use the application in the future because the application can become one of the approaches or methods in my teaching. It can become the supplement to the students especially when doing revision or self study. It will be interesting to have two types of classes which are the traditional types of teaching and learning in the classroom and also the teaching and learning using the website/internet. Therefore it will help the students to get a new environment of learning as well as enhance their mood to study well. I will also incorporate the website in the classroom as the tutorial and exercises are very relevant and appropriate to the specific grade level. The contents of this website also are very versatile and cater to all topic of life which made it is suitable to be used in all context of culture.
Other than that, why I will use the website because, it encourages the desire of the students to retake each exercise or test provided if they failed to get the expected score. It can be seen clearly when, the website do include or provide a retake button for each exercises and tests there. By giving the chance to students to re-take the test and the exercises, it shows that the website really stresses on giving reinforcement remedial to students so that they can totally master each learning session. The website is also very user friendly and the most interesting criteria that I like about this website is every section of the tests and exercises are created differently according to the suitable standard style of questions. Certain exercises provide answers and brief feedback instantly so that the users can know the mistake that they have made. There are also exercises that provide the total score and the percentage of correct answer automatically right after when users answered each question. It also provides exercises that are included with notes and tutorials. Therefore students can have a reference while answering the questions. With that I believe it will help the users especially the learners to feel motivated to do all the exercises and the tests.
9. Suggestions/Recommendations.
This website is very good for ESL teachers and learners because it provides alternative ways of teaching and learning English which is using the internet or computer. However, I believe that there is still a lot that can be improved and upgraded in the website such as provide a chat room for example so that the learners can have discussion about learning and change idea about certain lesson. With the chat room also, a teacher can help her/his students regarding learning directly on that particular time.
Other than that, I can see that, there are not much interactive exercises involving games, animations or videos in the website. Therefore I suggest that, the webmaster can add more interesting, fun and interactive activities in the website so that the learners will feel excited to learn and can do all the exercises without feel like they are having a lesson in a common and boring classroom. For example, the webmaster can create an exercise which is based on quiz system or easy to say like battle of learning. It means that two or more different students can link to the same questions and try to beat each other in answering it or finishing it.
References:
1) James Neill (2006) Experiential Learning & Experiential Education Philosophy, theory, practice & resources. Retrieved from http://www.tip.psychology.org/rogers.html
2) Brown, H.D (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Longman.
