WEEK 7

Examples of Digital Language Learning Material

-          Facebook

-          Twitter

-          Blogger

-          Prezi

-          Wordpress

-          Tumblr

-          Youtube

-          Edmodo

-          Schoology

List down SLA theories and principles

-Interactionist theory (Long, 1985; 1996)

-Sociocultural theory

-Communicative language teaching

-Comprehensible Input theory (Swain, n.d.; Krashen, 1991)

-Affective Domain (Krashen, 1991)

Principles:

- Materials should help learners develop confidence

- What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and useful

- Materials should require and facilitate learner self-investment

- Materials should expose the learners to language in authentic use

- Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use TL to achieve communicative purposes

- Materials should take into account that learners differ in learning styles and affective attitudes

- Materials should provide opportunities for outcome feedback

Criteria of technical usability:

-Errors

(i) Less serious errors = affect the work of the user

(ii)More serious errors = endanger the preservability of users’ outputs

-Efficiency

·Refers to how well experienced users can operate an application after they have mastered it.

-Learnability

·How long beginners’ use of a system before they learn the essential skills necessary to perform their tasks

-Memorability

·Ability of an occasional user who previously used the system to remember its operational system

Criteria of pedagogical usability

-Feedback

(i) The system or learning material should provide the student with encouraging and immediate feedback è encouraging feedback increases learning motivation; immediate feedback helps the student understand problematic part in their learning

(ii) Learning is based on the fact that mistakes are corrected immediately and progression cannot happen when corrections are not done.

-Motivation

(i) Affects learning and makes people behave the way they do

(ii)Motivation = the way to do things by reference to instincts, desires and reinforcement; support the direction on one’s general behavior

(iii)Motivation affects alertness and vigor

-Goal orientation

(i) When the goals of teacher, students and LM are closely aligned, best results are obtained

(ii)Goals should be clear cut and able to motivate them to achieve them

(iii)When the students themselves do not set their goals, their meaningfulness should be justified from the point of view of motivation

(iv)Students should be able pursue their own interests in relation with learning goals

-Learner control

(i) Learner’s memory should be pushed to the limit when learning a new topic

(ii)Materials should be broken down to be learned into small meaningful units

-Applicability

(i)The approach taken in learning material should correspond to the skills that the learner will later need in everyday and working life

(ii)The skills or knowledge acquired should be able to be transferred to other contexts

(iii)Learning something new can be accomplished effectively by relating it to practical tasks

(iv)LM should be at appropriate level from the point of view of learner’s learning process

- Added value

(i)Induce creativity in learners when using DLLM

(ii)Other kind of added value: adaptability to individual needs, number of flexible options, learning is controlled and initiated by learners, interesting contents, development of communication, active participation of students

-Learner activity

(i)Learners’ independent activity may increase when a teacher stays in background; a facilitator

(ii)Learning materials can support learner’s activities by being interesting and based on real life

-Cooperative/collaborative learning

(i)Studying with others to achieve common learning goal

(ii)Instead of just acquiring personal knowledge, learners construct knowledge as members of community in practice

-Valuation of previous knowledge

(i) Previous knowledge from the learners are assumed to be possessing some skills that previously been presented

(ii)LM that respects learner’s previous knowledge takes account in differences of skills and knowledge in learners and encourages them to take advantage of it in learning.

-Flexibility

(i)Learner’s learning differences should be taken into account.

(ii)Information gained in pre-test can be used to provide learners with different routes or methods of studies.

Rough outline of DLLM

-          Using Prezi as a platform to develop the DLLM

-          Includes 6 activities; each according to the levels or bands according to the School-Based Assessment (SBA) that the MOE developed

-          Using a chapter from the English Form 2 textbook; making sure the chapter is interesting and relatable to the students thus relevant to be used in their everyday and working life

-          Each activities are different from each other; might include one language skills, might be more than one (e.g. reading and writing in one activity)

-          Might be focusing on linguistic, thematic or both types of content

-          Each activity is a progression of the previous one; the first activity (band 1), increasing with each activity progresses

-          Making sure the materials follow the criteria of technical and pedagogical  usability

Visual design

a)  Harmony

- the manner elements of a display interact together in a pleasing manner.

- it pulls the pieces of visual image together.

- can be achieved through repetition and rhythm, where rhythm is the flow depicted in a visual and

helps direct eye movement.

-to ensure harmony 3x3 grid must be used.

-rhythm should either be a clockwise or counter clockwise.  

b) Balance and symmetry

-we can bring balance to the elements of different sizes by either moving them closer of father from

the center of the page.

-symmetry is when one half of a visual display is a mirror image of the other half.

-types of symmetry: horizontal, approximate horizontal, radial and asymmetry.

 c)  Emphasis

- create dominance and focus in their work.

- it emphasize colour, value, shapes or other design elements to achieve dominance. For example

“facebook” page used dark colour as their background and the symbol “f “for “facebook” in light

colour. 

 

d)  Alignment

- alignment of elements within a screen is important part of organizing and grouping.

-should visually maximize differences between text, label and pictures. 

e) Unity

- relationship among visual elements that helps all elements to work together.

- gives a sense of closure or oneness to a visual image.

- can be achieved through use of similar shapes, common pattern or use of a common background.

Reflection

How does the lesson affect me on my study?

It helps me to understand what digital language learning materials are. Textbooks are not the only

thing that we can use to teach students because now we are in the modern era and we have lots of

other materials that we can use to teach students.

Does the tutorial helps me on increasing my prior knowledge?

Yes! I really need this kind of knowledge so that I can use them in the future. Before this I never

really learn to create digital language learning material and I did not realize that I am actually

surrounded with digital language learning material for example facebook and twitter, both of these

thing are something that we can use to teach students.

Can I use this knowledge later on?

Being a teacher nowadays is a tough job. Therefore this tutorial is one of the most important things

we should know. Creating digital language learning material will absolutely helps us as a teacher to

teach students in the future. Imagine teaching using boring stuff? Students will be bored with our

lesson. Implementing interesting stuff in our lesson will increase students’ interest in learning to our

lesson.