nilofarnader

GOODBYE

2007-02-02T11:21:00.000+10:00

It is time for me to go home. Thanks for everything. I learned a great deal from each one of you. I would never forget my memories from here and I guess Australia would always feel like another home to me. This is my email address
m_mashoufi56@yahoo.com

I will send you photos from Iran.

BEST WISHES

My Reflections on the Friends' Comments

2006-11-03T11:08:00.000+10:00

Thanks everyone for all your positive and constructive comments.

I will first state all the constructive comments and then give my own opinion about them.

The match activity was a bit hard to do.

I think, as I have stated in my rationale too, this activity is hard for people who are not familiar with the topic but I am quite confident that it will not be so for my students because the monuments are quite famous in Iran. Students will match each definition to the related picture using their ability in finding the key words in each text. So they have the benefit being familiar with the topic.

The pictures in the match activity are too big. So it is hard to work with them.

I absolutely agree with this because I had this difficulty too! I will edit as soon as I can!

Activities are challenging but not impossible.

Yes, I think the activities are a bit hard especially in terms of vocabulary, they are for advanced learners and are supposed to help them in doing the WQ module, which involves searching lexically dense WebPages and writing an academic assay. So I think they need to get ready, don’t they?

You could have added some extra definitions to match activity to reduce the chance of guessing.

I do not think that adding extra information will be necessary, the activity is already challenging.

The literature crossword was hard to do.

Yes, so I think I will need to change the instructions for that activity a bit and ask the students to read the original text first. There is a link to the original text in the activity.

It would be good to add a button, back to top, for easier navigation.

Yes,

It would be good to change the position of WQ, if it is the first activity to introduce to students.

Yes, it would be if this was the case, however, I will introduce the website first.

Instructions could be clearer on how to go to HP activities and how to come back. It would benefit the learners with less computer skills.

Yes, I was really amazed by how some of us had thought about all these details. Some of WebPages can be done individually very easily and without any help because of all of the clear instructions.

In order to avoid spelling mistakes, it would be good to have the website proofread.
Yes, Absolutely right
How would you mark the students’ work?
I actually thought about it a lot, and in the end I decided not to mark it because I really did not know how we can make the testing reliable and valid. Monitoring might be a good idea but how you do it where, fortunately or unfortunately maybe, by the help of technology, getting the answers can be a mater of one click? So in real situation, I will introduce the website at the beginning of a course, a writing course most probably, and strongly persuade the students to do the activities and visit the links because it will be a lot easier for them when it comes to the WQ module, which is of course marked and taken into account when students are given their certificate.

Will the students be working individually or in groups?

They can work individually or in pairs. They can do it in their own time or in the institute. If the later is the case, they will have to book for the computer lab.

I also received nice comments from CLN 618 colleges on design and content:

Including the original text was a good idea
Color, pictures and the lay out is good and relevant.
The WebPage gives the immediate clues about the topic without reading the content
The additional links to different websites were appreciated
The language and the instructions are clear
The topic is good and interesting and provides useful information. and therefore
Can be used for ESL students as well.
The instructions for HP activities are clear.

Thanks again every one for all the nice and helpful comments.

I must also admit that after seeing all wonderful websites, the designs and the thoughtful pedagogical approaches I felt like I have done nothing!

Finally, I think this unit was one of my best experiences in QUT. However, it did not seem like that at all when we first started the course, and I believe we all have come a long way and learned a great deal.
Thank you
Mahsa

2006-10-25T11:29:00.000+10:00

My website finished! Iran Zamin
Thanks to any one who will give me some feedback. It is designed for a group of EFL learners (adutls, adnanced level).

2006-10-18T20:42:00.000+10:00

Here is a link to my website. I have been trying to add "next exercise" and "main page" buttons to my hot potatoes activities but for some reasons they won’t appear. I will have to solve this on Friday. I should start writing the rationale

Some points for the article Communicating and Interacting: An exploration of changing roles of media in CALL/CMC (Debra’s 2006 article

2006-10-06T09:49:00.000+10:00

The main discussion in this article is about the nature of changes in media use for language learning and what does it mean to us as teachers.

According to Hoven (2006) before the advent of multimodal CMC, computer-mediated communication, the following three areas were the major focus of the use of multimedia for language learning:
1. The media available or used (what could be done with it and activities based around it),
2. Skill development (listening and viewing comprehension and the related sub skills), and
3. Media as illustration or enrichment-bringing authentic aspects of the real world into the classroom to promote target cultural and language awareness.

But now that Non-educational uses, email for example, have influenced how we see the capacities of the Internet and the teaching and learning opportunities it can make available to us, the greater emphasis is on the use of the media for

4. Exploratory learning such as web quests

5. Learning through communication involving negotiation of meaning as exemplified in e Tandem projects, discussion lists, etc.
6. Collaborative and negotiative learning, often problem based, such as CMCL (computer-mediated collaborative learning)

7. Composite forms which are derived from or built on instructionally oriented CALL, but which now employ features of these three newer approaches
(points 4-6).

The article goes on discussing some related issues including some considerations for the teachers.

· It is teachers’ responsibility to choose the best possible and available options that will best meet their students’ need and learning styles. They also need to be aware of their own learning and teaching style.

· They need to know that computers do not teach the students. Students learn through thinking. Therefore, what teachers should be more concerned with in designing and choosing these programs is the process of thinking that the learner goes through not the technological design.

· A realistic assessment of Web-based teaching is that it is not a time-saving approach, but rather a time-shifting one. Teachers will save on the time they would otherwise spend preparing elaborate materials, but they will also have to invest time in assisting in the organization of tasks and projects, moderating communication, and creating sound assessment strategies (236).

Vague ideas about the third assignment

2006-09-25T14:11:00.000+10:00

Third workshop once again was pretty good. We learned a lot of good stuff about hot potatoes, we created our e-portfolio, we also were about to mess Basim’s blog but thank God Yvonne helped us out.
ALSO I saw Robee yesterday, she showed me how to work with some of the hot potatoes’ exercises…So thanks a lot Robee,
I think I am going to continue with the same topic as in my WebQuest.

My WebQuest advanture (2)

2006-09-19T14:47:00.000+10:00

Thank you Nilly!
It is finished now, but for me it was quite an adventure. In my lab tab at home, I have got too many pages that I have created for my WebQuest in Dreamweaver. Now I know that my only problem with dreamweaver was the linking process. If I knew how to link the pages properly I would not have to do every thing from scratch in quest garden. However, I am really grateful that I had Nilly to help me out, I would not be able to work on Quest Garden if it was not because of her. So thanks a lot Nilly!

My Web Quest adventure (1)

2006-09-11T00:27:00.000+10:00

Well, I thought it is about to Finnish. But, for me it has not even started yet. Now I have all of my writings in a word document. Using framesets did not work for me after all and it is all my own fault, I am so glad that no one has taken my suggestion about using framesets seriously. I have gone to imaginary with the pages; I spent great deal of time for just designing the pages and was pretty happy with the result. I had some of them ready and tried to link them together and save them to the H drive. But they appeared so messy and all over the place!! So I had to change all of them. I created some other pages using HTML, I linked them, at home, this time it worked, BUT when I went to the Uni on Saturday and saved them to the H Drive, it was all complicated and messy again! I went to the It desk and asked for help, I was told “Sorry, I am not an expert in using Dream weaver,……….So now here I am frustrated and hopeless. But tomorrow is another day, I have asked Nilly to come to the Uni tomorrow and tell me how to use quest garden. Wish me luck!!
My eyes are burning and I can not see any more, I am going to bed now. Until tomarrow

Inserting a photo in wiki

2006-08-28T14:53:00.001+10:00

I found this Friday session extremely useful. Thanks to Basim and Jeff.
If you are using dreamweaver for webquest, try using framesets instead of HTML. That way it is much easier to design the pages.

I also learned how to up load a photo to my wiki. Try the following steps and good luck!!:

go to your wiki and click on “ up load files”
log in and return to the main page.
go to your wiki again and click on “ up load files”
Browse and find the photo that you like to put it in your wiki. You should have resized the photo and have saved it to some where. Up load the image. It (hopefully) will appear.

Now the tricky bit

1. under the image there is a link, which is your image name for example: xxx.jpg. copy it and return to your wiki.
2. click on edit, click on one of the icons that says “imbedded Image” . now you have some thing like this. [[Image:Example.jpg]]
3. Paste what you have copied, for example xxx.jpg, in stead of Examlpe.jpg, and save the page. You should have the picture in your wiki.
4. if you want your picture appear more sophisticated, with a frame and a name, paste your copy in this:
[[Image:Example.jpgthumbrightthe name of your image]]

I hope this makes sense, if not have a look at my wiki. I have two photos there.

Good luck!!
Mahsa

My Lovely Nephew

2006-08-23T20:11:00.000+10:00

This photo belongs to my lovely little nephew. He is four years old now but I haven’t seen him for two years. I uploaded it to my blog the other day so that I can have the URL and post it to my wiki (but I could not). Helen has kindly commented on that so I think I am going to keep here.

2006-08-22T11:06:00.000+10:00

An exhausting Saturday full of input (workshop 2)

2006-08-20T17:50:00.000+10:00

I think we all found yesterday’s workshop very helpful, didn’t we? For me, however, the amount of new information was too much. I wonder how much of that I have been able to take in?
Let me think what I learned yesterday !?
• The first happy thing is that the vague, blurred images that I had in my mind about web quest finally are becoming clear. Now I know why I am supposed to create one!!
• I think I will use dreamweaver for creating my webquest, so I need to download it to my computer. What else?? I also should try again and change the photo in my profile. I couldn’t do that yesterday. And I also should put one on my wiki?? Allright, I have to go now, wish me lock!
Oh! about the photo below! Debra! You must be thinking
“Surly, it means something to Mahsa but what on hearth is this? “
This is a photo of an old bridge (around 800 years old) over a river in Esfahan (Iran). The river runs through the city and there are twelve BEAUTIFUL bridges over the river: aged from 500 years to 3000 years. Every year, they attract many tourists from around the world especially Europe. I had an old friend in Esfahan, he used to call the bridges Esfahan’s twelve beautiful daughters.

First meeting for creating a webquest

2006-08-05T13:28:00.000+10:00

Nily, Basim, Yvanne and I got together to work on our webquest today.
But we were not that lucky. For some mysterious reason!! We could not log in. However, we could find something about design, thanks to Kylie, which gave our ideas some sort of a pattern.

Now I can understand why Debra believes it is a group work and the best results, hopefully, will be achieved if we do it as a group.

By the way, I do not know what we are supposed to do with Colour Design? Or Put it in this way: how we are supposed to use it ????

2006-08-01T12:12:00.000+10:00

First workshop

2006-07-31T19:04:00.000+10:00

The first workshop for this unit was really stimulating but at the same time a bit daunting, to be honest with you, because I realized just how much I do not know about technology.
I have always been avoiding technology hoping that I will never need it. However, this time I decided to be BRAVE and just do it.

I really enjoyed the workshop. Creating our own blog, visiting others and leaving comments were very exciting. On Friday, I learned how to add an image to my blog and now I have some sort of an idea, very vague though, about web quests and what were are supposed to do for the first assignment. Thanks to the last semester’s students.

Naghshe Jahan Squre- Esfahan-Iran

2006-07-29T22:51:00.000+10:00