Saturday, May 16, 2009

My Projects
Tech 2212
Asmahan Al-Belushi (68702)
2- Gimp Project:-
3- Audacity Project:-
3- Captivate Project:-
(Thank you for taking the time to view my projects)

Ulead project

This is my ulead project which is about the body lunguage

This is gimp program photo before modifying





This is gimp program photo after modifying


Saturday, May 9, 2009

our portfolio
TECH4102 course



Asma AL Hadi- 68700
Zakia AL Mubehasi- 68705
Suhair AL Kindi- 67097

(Thank you for taking the time to view my portfolio)


1- http://www.slideshare.net/u068700/studeis

2- http://u068700-u068705.blogspot.com/2009/02/multi-channel-approach-for.html


3- http://www.slideshare.net/u068700/actions-1408924


4- http://u068700-u068705.blogspot.com/2009/05/applying-evaluation-strategy-on.html


5- http://u068700-u068705.blogspot.com/2009/05/colour-world-software-this-software.html
http://www.surveyconsole.com/console/TakeSurvey?id=559051

6- http://u068700-u068705.blogspot.com/2009/05/overview-of-english-for-educational.html
http://www.surveyconsole.com/console/TakeSurvey?id=570726


7- http://u068700-u068705.blogspot.com/2009/05/comparative-comparative-studies.html



Overview of the English for Educational Technology course:



This course available in Sultan Qaboos University in language Center .the teacher of this course is Evelyn Stirrat. It consists of four unit. The first unit is change of education , the second unit is personal Production, the third unit is The Ubiquitous Computer and the fourth unit is Marvellous Media .Also , we can find icons for "Forums" and we can find in it a Robot Forum , Quiz Forum , Introductions Forum , error correction Glossary ,Study in Japan Forum and Reading Test 2 Forum. The first unit consist of Video Activities ,Video - Project Based Learning - on Model file , Video - Project Based Learning - on Edutopia web site file , Quiz - PBL Video , The Project Based Learning Quiz ,Feedback on The Project based Learning Quiz Forum ,Vocabulary Exercises , vocabulary quiz , Feedback on vocabulary quiz Forum , Grammar Exercises , Quiz - Error Correction Verb Forms Unit 1 and Quiz - Error Correction Sentence Writing Unit 1.
The second unit consist of Video Activities , Multiple Intelligences Video file , Multiple Intelligences file , My Quiz - Multiple Intelligences ,Feedback on My Quiz Multiple Intelligences Forum ,Vocabulary Exercises , Feedback on Quiz Unit 2 Vocabulary Forum and Grammar Exercises.
The topic of third unit consist of Video Activities , Laptops in Maine, USA file , Laptops in Maine quiz , Feedback on Laptops in Maine Video quiz forum , Vocabulary Exercises , vocabulary quiz , feedback on vocabulary Quiz Forum , Quiz one , Grammar Exercises , Example Computer Skills Handout Word document and Grammar Quiz .
The fourth unit consists of Interactive Radio file and Reading Quiz. Also, this course has icons for test, presentation skills and IT skills. In addition, there is a discussion board to let the student to make discussion together.
This online course help student to discus some topics that they take in their classroom and discuss it in discussion board. Also, the instructor can send the announcement to students if they have quiz and test.

Problem of the study:

The problem is the need to know the real benefit and effectiveness of interaction tools in online courses that provided by Sultan Qaboos University. There is a need to know if the interaction tools like discussion forum do it’s purpose .The purpose of interaction tools in online courses is to allow learners to share their experiences and knowledge, allow students to learn from each other and cooperate in solving each other problems. The purpose behind this study is check if this course accomplishes the purpose and goals for offering interaction tools.


Question of the study:

Do the interaction tools used in English for educational technology course are effective and facilitate the interaction purposes for all the students? Do these tools increase student’s motivation to interact with their each other?


Purpose of the study:

This study aims to determine how the interaction tools are able to motivate learners to participate and interact with their colleagues. It purposed to find out the effectiveness of the interaction tools that English for educational technology course provide. This course is an online course provided by language centre in Sultan Qaboos University. The study objective is to evaluate whether the course learning environment is providing effective interaction or not.


Participants:

The participants of this course are students of Instructional and Educational Technology major in Education Colleges. These students are required to take two courses from language centre that are English for Educational Technology 1 and 2. These two course aims to enhance students’ language in what is related to educational technology field. 18 students are enrolled in this course. Most of these students are on the first or second studying year at the university. Because of that they are still beginners on learning by the online courses. Some of them still don’t know what online course is and how to enrol to it. Also their experience on using electronic recourses is low. Also they are beginners on using interaction tools like discussion forums and chat. Some of them will consider this interaction is not significance to accomplish the course objectives. Because of that the participations frequency is low.

Interview:



We will interview a student learning this course in order to know her view about it. We will ask this student about the advantages and disadvantages of the website and her suggestions to solve the problems that students face during this semester. In addition to that, she will give us her opinion if this website effective in learning process or not.
Questions of the interview are:
1. Do the interaction tools offered by the course benefit you in your learning?
2. Do you learn anything from your interaction with your colleagues?
3. Do these interaction tools facilitate for you to interact with the instructor and your colleagues?
4. Are you interested in using these tools?
5. Do theses tools motivate you to interact and cooperate with others?
6. What are the obstacles that make the interaction tools not effective?
7. What your suggestions to improve the interaction tools job?



Results:

In this section the results of conducting the interview will be presented. After the interview was conducted I get the following answers needed for each of the above question:

1. The interaction tools offered by the online course are benefit the students in their learning and accomplishing the course objectives, the student said. This is because the instructor offers some quizzes and activities to be discussed among the students. This enhances students learning because through the students discussions will let students to learn the attended concepts.

2. The interaction through the discussion forums let the students learn many things. It makes the students acquire communication and collaboration skills. That’s because the discussion asked students to apply the needed communication skills. Also through the discussion students will be asked to help each other in deferent fields.

3. The offered interaction tools facilitate for all the students the need to interact with the instructor or other students for any help or question. The instructor offer a discussion forum specialized for the help questions with the instructor. By that the students will find it easy to interact with the instructor any time.

4. The student is interested in participating in the course because it facilitates for him a lot in the course. Also he found that the interaction help him to improve a lot of learning skills and behaviours.

5. The discussion forum offered in this course motivates the students to participate because it counts for each student his participation and login to the course. Also the participation in the course has some degrees counted by the instructor, so that increase the motivation to participate.

6. There are no obstacles faced by the student because he found the interaction tools used in the course are affective.

7. the student suggest some recommendation to improve the interaction tool job in online course and they are:

· Increase the number of the topics that suggested by the instructor to be discussed in the online course.
· Specify time weekly to let students to work on the online course because that makes students more commitment to participate.
· Increase number of activities and tasks that motivate students to participate in discussion forum.


Findings:

The online course English for Educational Technology offer a very active and effective interaction among students and their instructor. The students find it easy to interact with their instructor or with their colleagues using the discussion forum offered by the online course. So the students are very actively interacts with instructor for any help or question. The students are so motivated to interact in the discussion because the instructor uses many methods to increase their motivation. The discussion forum accomplishes its gaol to make students sharing their help and experiences with others. These tools increase students interest on participating with others in different topics.

Advantages and limitations:

From the findings I realized some advantages and limitation of the course. The advantages are:
Activating the discussion forum by providing some activities and quizzes.
Activating the discussion forum by allowing students to generate a new topic to be discussed.
The instructor motivates students to participate by sending some messages to students that ask them to participate.
Student who has more participation will gain more degrees.
Attract students to participate by including videos.
Providing “any question” forum to allow students to ask about any thing.

The limitations are:
· The course only uses the discussion forum as interaction tool and not activating any chat or electronic mail.
· Only the students who are generating the topics of the discussion, the instructor not generating topics.
· Sometimes students discussed on topics are not related to the course.

Screenshots of the online course:






Applying an Evaluation Strategy on educational technology project

Applying an Evaluation Strategy on educational technology project:

I suggest to apply student rating strategy in my educational project. The aim is to allow students to evaluate the teacher teaching and to try to make the needed improvement in the teaching process. The following survey used to gather data from the students on the teacher behaviour and effectiveness.

STUDENT SURVEY OF TEACHER

The purpose of this form is to allow you to give ideas to the teacher about how this class might be improved. You are encouraged to add your comments and suggestions on the back of this survey.

TEACHER­____________ DATE_________________ SCHOOL________________ CLASS________________

CHECK ONE

In this course, the teacher . . .
Yes Somtimes No

1. clearly explains the objectives, requirements and
grading system of the course.


2. explains assignments clearly.


3. sets high standards and expectations for everyone.


4. makes class interesting and relevant.


5. uses class time effectively.


6. knows the subject matter.


7. presents material in a variety of ways (hands-on, group, written, orally, etc.).


8. provides a variety of ways to measure what was learned (tests, projects, discussions, etc.).


9. recognizes and acknowledges effort.


10. keeps me informed of my progress.


11. is approachable and willing to help me.


12. encourages and accepts different opinions.


13. manages a classroom that allows me to work and learn with few disruptions.


14. has the respect of the students.


15. enforces rules fairly and consistently.


16. encourages cooperation and participation.


17. provides opportunities for student choice.


18. communicates with my parents.


19. is involved and supportive of students within the school setting.


20. encourages me to think for myself.



21. Is there anything about this class that frustrates you?


22. What do you like best about this class and/or teacher?


23. What do you wish this teacher would do differently that would improve this class?

Friday, May 8, 2009

Comparative &non comparative studies

Comparative Study:

Name:
A comparative study to evaluate the effectiveness of computer assisted instruction (CAI) versus classroom lecture (CRL) for computer science at ICS level.

Authors:
Tayyaba KAUSAR, Bushra Naoreen CHOUDHRY and Aijaz Ahmed GUJJAR.

Types:
This study categorize as Learners’ perception and performance study because it aims to investigate the effectiveness of technology in students’ perception and learning outcomes, in comparison with traditional method.

The purpose of the study was:

to evaluate the effectiveness of CAI vs. classroom lecture for computer science at ICS level. The objectives were to compare the learning effects of two groups of learners studying the same curriculum. One group used traditional CRL; the other used CAI format instruction.

The question of the study was:
How able to determine the relative feasibility of the two methods by comparing:
· To compare the effects of CAI and CRL in terms of cognitive development.
· To illustrate the results of learner knowledge gained through CAI and CRL.
· To measure the development of comprehension skill by CAI and CRL.

The problem:
determining the most effective learning method to achieve a cognitive development in student learning.

Method:
The research design followed by researcher is the Pre-test - Post test Equivalent groups Deign. The test was a multiple choice question test containing 45 items that constructed and pilot tested.


Participants:

All students of computer science from all colleges of Faisalabad in Turkey are the participants of this study. In order to get wide random samples, 20 students from each of the following neighbour colleges were selected for this study:
· College for Boys, Samanabad, Faisalabad
· College of Science, Samanabad, Faisalabad

Advantages:
1. It provided a detailed description on the statistical results.
2. State a clear list of the objectives of the study.


Disadvantages:
1. It is not provided a clear statement for the problem of the study.
2. It is not provided a clear statement for the question of the study.


Result:

1. Total gain in cognitive domain by CAI was significantly superior to the total gain in cognitive domain by CRL teaching method.

2. The application of CAI teaching method to experimental group led to a highly significant increase in knowledge skill of students then students having CRL treatment.

3. Inter teaching method variations were non significant with respect to comprehension. Students significantly gained comprehension skill as observed in post- test compared to pre-test with the two methods respectively.

References: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/42/a0/12.pdf


Non comparative study:


The name of study:
Measuring Learning Effectiveness

Authers:
Ernest H. Joy II, Ph.D & Federico E. Garcia, Ph.D.

Question & purpose:

"What combination of instructional strategies and delivery media will best produce the desired learning outcome for the intended audience?"


Advantage:
1- The researcher analyze 12 studies to get more information about computer-aided instruction and take more opinion in this issues.

Disadvantage:

— 1- It toke a long period of time (four semesters) to complete the treatment, so this effect in negative way in study.

Instrument:
The researcher used a pre-test to control for prior knowledge and attitudes .To measure attitudinal changes, he compared test scores using the same assessment test both before and after treatment .The number of students are 40.

Result:
1- ALN practitioners should not assume that students would learn better from technology delivery systems
2- ALN practitioners should adhere to their time-tested instructional design strategies, regardless of the medium they choose.
3- It is widely accepted that learning effectiveness is a function of effective pedagogical practices.

Reference:

http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v4n1/pdf/v4n1_joygarcia.pd

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

COLOUR WORLD SOFTWARE



This software produced by AL AREES Company. It is also appropriate for students or children from 3-5 years old. This software contains activities in which students learn the basics skills in Arabic & math by relating it to colors. Its purpose is to encourage individual learning.






This observation sheet is used to monitor privet school students. It measures the interactive & user friendliness of the color world software. It include three scale which are (yes, moderate, no). Also it includes open questions. This observation will apply in a class with six students to facilitate the observation process.
you can see the survay by clicking on this link: