6th Posting: BLOG QUESTIONNAIRE-SKBP 1023

Age: 22
Tutorial Group: 3
LECTURER: Assoc Prof Datin Dr Norizan Abdul Razak

1. Do you enjoy blogging? YES
IF YES OR NO please explain why:Because it is quite hard to finish the assignments and at the same time I have to decorate the blog, but i really enjoy doing it. New experience for me.

2.Based on your experience what is the benefit of blogging?
a. Encourages students to go online and meet with virtual friends.
b. Students have more skills to online search and reading.

3.Do you need more assistance to set up your blog ? YES
If YES Please explain on what aspect : The settings and the stuffs wanted to be in the blog.

4.Do you have any memorable/favorite topic in your blog? YES
If YES Please list which topic ? Hitler. Now I know who actually he is.

5.List 5 advantages of blogging for you.
a. Improve online skills.
b. Students are introduced on online basis teaching.
c. Share comments and views with the followers.
d. Students are more alert on online articles.
e. Posting can be edited at any moment.

6.List 5 disadvantages of blogging.
a. Wasting time.
b. Not interesting, not all people enjoy blogging.
c. Need skills in order to make the blog looks interesting.
d. So many things to be done.
e. Boring.


7.Will you continue blogging after the course? YES
If Yes or No Please explain why : Blogging helps me to improve my online skills.

8.Do you think that blogging improve your writing? YES

9.Do you think that we should continue with blogging activity for the next batch of students? YES

10.Will you recommend your friend to blog? YES

11.Can you teach a friend to set up his or her blog? YES

5th Posting: Concordance

Article 1: by Tim Johns

A concordancer is basically a tool that allows for "researching the company that words keep" (Tim Johns). It provides access to any electronic text, i.e. a text available on the computer or from a CD-ROM based corpus or database or the Internet and searches for the occurrence of particular words or structures or combination of words (e.g. verbs and prepositions or an adjective and a noun separated by one or more words, etc.). These are then listed in one-line contexts. Thus its basic function is to extract lists with sample contexts of any word or structure entered into the search option

Concordancing tools represent a special kind of application as their use does not necessarily require the use of computers with the learners themselves. Rather, it is more feasible that with the help of the computer the language teacher creates innovative worksheets to be discussed in class rather than have learners, particularly at lower levels, use the software hands-on. Both uses have been described in great detail in a book on the subject of concordancers in language learning by Chris Tribble.

The results of the search can then be used as a basis for what Tim Johns (1994) refers to as data-driven learning. A learners task might be to deduct themselves the exact difference in meaning, connotation, and grammatical features of words. Language material can then be acquired in a discovery-based or exploratory mode, which follows constructivist paradigm, thus enabling learners to develop language awareness in addition to structural knowledge of sets of meanings.

http://www.ecml.at/projects/voll/our_resources/graz_2002/ddrivenlrning/concordancing/concordancing.htm

Article 2: by Gregory Hadley

Concordancing is a technique in which a large body of text (called a corpus) is analysed by a computer program to discover the regular patterns and lexical sets that are associated with a specific word or phrase. By studying this data, teachers and students can make certain generalisations as to how a certain lexical item is normally used.

The data can be manipulated, depending upon the complexity of the program, to display the concordanced word (called the key word) in complete sentences, or to show frequently-occurring words (called collocations) that occur only on the left or the right of the key word. Concordancing is often used by teachers as a means to provide hard data to either back up or refute their subjective judgements on difficult questions of a grammatical nature. Students with access to concordancing data normally use it for error analysis or as an aid to improve their reading and writing skills.

http://www.nuis.ac.jp/~hadley/publication/jlearner/jlearner.htm

REFLECTIONS:

The benefits of concordance in language learning and teaching are huge. Using concordance, learners can compare different usage of the same word, analyze keywords, analyze word frequencies and creating indexes as well as word lists.

#The teacher can use a concordancer to find examples of authentic usage to demonstrate features of vocabulary, typical collocations, a point of grammar or even the structure of a text

# The teacher can generate exercises based on examples drawn from a variety of corpora, for example gap-filling exercises and tests.

# Students can work out rules of grammar or usage and lexical features for themselves by searching for key words in context. Depending on their level, they can be invited to question some of the rules, based on their observation of patterns in authentic language.

# Students can be more active in their vocabulary learning: depending on their level, they can be invited to discover new meanings, to observe habitual collocations, to relate words to syntax, or to be critical of dictionary entries.

# Students can be invited to reflect on language use in general, based on their own explorations of a corpus of data, thus turning themselves into budding researchers.

4th Posting: Online Databases

EBSCOHost is one of the database that were used by many of education institution around the world for educational resources such as journals, academic materials and many more. It is very convenient for research purposes and for information regarding various subjects.

Library and Information Science Abstracts or better known as LISA Net is a database full of references in Information Sciences. LISA Net provide a lot of abstracts from articles, journals and many other materials for various academic uses. This database have many collections from countries around the world.

CALL Bridging Digital Divide Women
Article Summary (Tackling the Digital Divide)

The emergence of an information society has created new social exclusions and aggravated old ones by creating digital exclusion. Many countries have explicit policies about turning themselves into the leaders of such transformations or about catching up with the changes made in other countries. Nevertheless, little is known about their efforts to bridge the gap between the digital ‘haves’ and the digital ‘have-nots’. Governments in East Asia are good examples of those who work on improving their society's digital capabilities. They top most of the related international comparison tables. It is, however, not clear what they have done to bridge the new digital exclusion gap or what the effects of such efforts have been. This paper reviews the digital inclusion strategies put in place by several East Asian countries and discusses a framework for tackling the digital divide, and examines pertinent policies, using Hong Kong as an example. This paper argues that while improvement in information communication technology (ICT) accessibility and knowledge is important, the promotion of community-based ICT user networks for certain disadvantaged groups is crucial to enhance their participation in the information society.

Rapid development in computer technology, infrastructure, content and applications has placed ubiquitous access to the internet within reach. However, as great strides are made in the development of the information society, the effects of exclusion and marginalization are becoming more aggravated for those who still do not know how to use the new technology and who cannot, therefore, become effective e-citizens. Some aspects of the digital divide can be bridged by providing free access to the public, particularly to disadvantaged individuals. All four East Asian ‘little dragons’ have developed plans to promote technology usage among children because they consider these efforts to be an important investment in human capital, and they have been very successful. Younger people, even among those in the low-income category, have an above-average level of knowledge and usage as compared to the general population in their regions. However, the barriers preventing older people, persons with disabilities and people with lower levels of education from taking part in the information society are still high. Our suggestions for improvement are as follows: improved designs for content and applications; better support; better organizing at the community level to mobilize volunteers, peers and leaders and match them with those who need IT support to promote digital inclusion among them. A multiple-stakeholder approach that includes the efforts of the government in collaboration with civil society and the private sector is important in promoting a truly digitally inclusive society for everyone.

ICT e-Learning
Article Summary (e-Reference: The Real Just In Time Training)

Just-in-time learning promised a short and focused learning intervention, not a 10- to 40- minute lesson that includes extraneous information typically way beyond the scope of the problem that learners are trying to solve. Enter e-reference. While this creates yet another category, it also helps to weed through some of the clutter. E-learning implies instruction— the classic kind, which should include learning objective, examples, practice, assessment and all the other elements learners have come to expect when attending formal learning. E-reference has a whole different meaning. I never expected to learn creative writing or phonetics from a dictionary, but it sure was helpful when I needed just-in-time support
with spelling or comprehending a word. E-reference has emerged in the same area, and many organizations are starting to look at it in a whole different way. There are a number of emerging technologies and solutions out there that are coming to the forefront to help occupy this space.

The most common tool found in this category is online books that are fully searchable and can be bookmarked and shared. Some even provide the option for learners to create their own chapters. These make sifting through the libraries of books most organizations have bought a breeze, and it takes learners right to the page and topic they need. Electronic performance support systems (EPSS) also are getting better. Many have matured far beyond the days of pressing the F1 key to bring up the generic help menu. EPSSs now allow learners to create their own custom help systems, which involve every form of media from text to streaming video. They can be intelligent enough to follow along with learners as they navigate a system and pop up when they do something wrong, or ask if they need help in the middle of a process. If a quick reference is not enough, the EPSS can escalate the learning, providing access to varying degrees of formal instruction, including tutorials, FAQs and even live conversations with a subject-matter expert or peer. It’s all in the learner’s control and scalable based on the need. The best aspect of these tools is that they start at the problem and work backward, as opposed to assuming the learner knows nothing and needs instruction to get to the point of intervention. It’s not that this type of instruction is invalid or unhelpful. It’s just that when it comes to just-in-time learning, the goal is more about solving a specific problem in the context of doing real-world work, and that involves a different type of support.

3rd Posting: Search Engines

Mamma.com

'The Mother Of All Search Engines'

What is Mamma.com?
Mamma.com is a metasearch tool for finding web pages, news, pictures or mp3. It is a "smart" metasearch engine — every time you type in a query Mamma simultaneously searches a variety of engines, directories, and deep content sites, properly formats the words and syntax for each, compiles their results in a virtual database, eliminates duplicates, and displays them in a uniform manner according to relevance. It's like using multiple search engines, all at the same time.

Created in 1996 as a master's thesis, Mamma.com helped to introduce metasearch to the Internet as one of the first of its kind. Due to its quality results, and the benefits of metasearch, Mamma grew rapidly through word of mouth, and quickly became an established search engine on the Internet. Mamma.com's ability to gather the best search results available from top search sources and to provide useful tools to its users has resulted in its receiving multiple Honourable Mentions in the Best Metasearch category in the annual SearchEngineWatch Award.

http://www.mamma.com/

Google Scholar

'stand on the shoulders of giant'

What is Google Scholar?
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research.

Features of Google Scholar

* Search diverse sources from one convenient place
* Find papers, abstracts and citations
* Locate the complete paper through your library or on the web
* Learn about key papers in any area of research

http://scholar.google.com/

Eric digest

What is Eric Digest?
Eric Digest helps inproviding an access towards the ERIC Digests (education articles) produced by the former ERIC Clearinghouse system. This site provided :-

- short reports (1,000 - 1,500 words) on topics of prime current interest in education. There are a large variety of topics covered including teaching, learning, libraries, charter schools, special education, higher education, home schooling, and many more.

- targeted specifically for teachers, administrators, policymakers, and other practitioners, but generally useful to the broad educational community.

- designed to provide an overview of information on a given topic, plus references to items providing more detailed information.

- produced by the former 16 subject-specialized ERIC Clearinghouses, and reviewed by experts and content specialists in the field.

- funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), of the U.S. Department of Education (ED).

- The full-text ERIC Digest database contains over 3000 Digests with the latest updates being added to this site in July 2005.

www.ericdigests.org

Yahoo.com

What is Yahoo.com?
Yahoo! provides a wide array of internet services that cater to most online activities. It operates the web portal http://www.yahoo.com which provides content including the latest news, Yahoo! Finance gives users quick access to other Yahoo! services like Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo! Groups and Yahoo! Messenger. The majority of the product offerings are available globally in more than 20 languages.

http://yahoo.com/

What are the similarities between these search engine??

Well, as far as I concern, we use these search engine for one absolute reason which is to search for information. Mamma.com, Yahoo.com, Google and ericdigest provide convenient way for us to surf the online articles. The best part is, its just on one simple click. KLIK!!

How about the differences?

These search engines of course have differences somewhere. Like Mamma.com, when you search for a key word, 10 searching site work at the same time that provide you with information you want. Other than that, the sources and links are slightly different.

2nd Posting: How blogging can assist language learners to improve & enhance their writing skills

>>Blogging can assist language learners to improve and enhance their writing skills by:

1. Learners have to post their postings continously. Thus they need to think critically in order to give interesting post.

2. Learners ought to refer to articles in the internet. By doing so, they can learn new terms and words that can be applied in their writing.

3. Other people who follow their blog can give comments on how they write in their blog so the writer can improve by correcting their mistakes from the critics given.

>> Articles related to blogging:

7 Ways to Promote your Site with a Bit of Money

Some time ago I wrote an article titled “Are you marketing your blog?” where I argued that there is a myth around the Internet that bloggers and webmasters should not spend money on advertising. The myth comes in great extent from the success stories of people that managed to create popular websites without spending a dime on advertising or other paid promotion techniques.

The reality is that most of those successful websites were pioneers on their niche, hence why they became popular without spending money on advertising. Now a days the market is crowded and you have thousands of websites and blogs even for small segments. As a consequence paid promotional techniques are becoming an important factor of any successful marketing strategy.

Below you will find 7 ways to promote your website or blog with a bit of money. You can use them to generate raw traffic, improve your search engine rankings, gain visibility on your niche and so on. Despite the initial investment most of those techniques will pay off on the short to medium term. If you are expecting to make money with your website there is no reason to assume that you will not need to spend some as well, right?

1. AdWords: Google make billions of dollars every year from the AdWords-AdSense combo. Why is that? Because they work. Adwords is probably the most efficient method to generated raw traffic for your website. In order to get started you should create an account, add lots (by lots I mean hundreds if not thousands) of keywords that are related your site and set the maximum Pay-per-Click rate at $0.01. After that raise the rate by $0.01 every week or so until you start getting the desired amount of daily clicks. Notice that at lower bids the keywords will be reported as “Inactive for Search”. Do not worry about it, it just means that your ads will not appear on the search network (Google’s search results), but they will appear on the content network (websites of people that use AdSense).

2. Site-Specific AdWords: if you pay attention to the AdSense units you will see that most of them have a link titled “Advertise on this site”. This feature enables AdWords advertisers to create customized ads that will be displayed only on specific websites. Those ads work on a CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) rather than a CPC (cost per click) basis, but they can generate a good amount of very targeted traffic since you will be in control of where the ad will be displayed and of the message. You can get even better results if you use some creativity when designing the ads, click here for some examples.

3. StumbleUpon Ads: StumbleUpon is a very innovative social bookmarking site that allows users to discover great websites by using a browser toolbar. When the user clicks on “Stumble” he will be delivered a website that people with similar interested rated positively. The user is also able to give positive and negative ratings to any website that he visits on the Internet. StumbleUpon also offers advertising campaigns, called StumbleUpon Ads, where you can deliver your website directly to those “Stumblers”. It costs $0.05 per page delivered, but since the websites that appear on StumbleUpon usually have a high quality it is very likely that part of that paid traffic will convert into regular readers.

4. Text Link Ads: if you are trying to increase your search engine rankings to leverage organic traffic you should consider buying some text link ads. While those text links can also generate direct traffic the biggest benefit you will have is an improvement on your search rankings, specially if the links are placed on authoritative and relevant websites. There are several places to buy text links, including specialized companies like Text-Link-Ads and Text Link Brokers or online forums like Digital Point’s market place.

5. Direct Banner Sales: most established websites sell banner ads or sponsorship plans directly. Those advertising deals usually are structured with weekly or monthly fees, regardless of the number of impressions or clicks that you will get. Despite this characteristic a banner placement can represent good value for money because apart from the direct traffic you will also create visibility and brand awareness. Readers of the website where you will display your banner will associate the message on the banner with your site or blog. Should they come across that banner or message two or three times it is very likely that they will get curious and decide to check what the buzz is all about. Another advantage of banner placements is the fact that people will unconsciously think that the author of the website endorses your content or product.

6. Sponsored Reviews: buying some sponsored reviews is a good way to kick-start a website. They will bring backlinks, traffic and RSS subscribers. There are many market studies confirming that “word of mouth” is the most efficient way to capture people’s attention, and that is just what you get with sponsored reviews. You can either pay a low price (sometimes as low as $5 per review) to get a large number of reviews from small sites or you can focus on large players (which can charge several hundreds of dollars for a single review) that are authorities on your niche. The best way to purchase sponsored reviews is through sites like SponsoredReviews.com, ReviewMe or PayPerPost.com.

7. Blog Networks: there are several blog networks founded around a traffic exchange principle. Basically you create an account for you blog and you earn credits by surfing other members’ blogs. Afterwards you can use those credits to make people visit your blog or to display your banners around the network. The interesting part is that most of those blog networks allow users to purchase credits with money, and the price is really convenient. You should be able receive hundreds of visitors or to get thousands of banner impressions for less than 10 dollars. Some blog networks that sell credits include Blog Explosion, Blog Soldiers and Blog Advance.


>>URL related to blogging:

http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/blog/
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/

>>Blogs that I enjoy reading:

http://thestar.com.my/
http://www.wonderclub.com/AllWorldWonders.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/hitler_adolf.shtml

1st Posting: Adolf Hitler

"Great liars are also great magicians".
Adolf Hitler


Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), popularly known as the Nazi Party. He was the ruler of Germany from 1933 to 1945, serving as chancellor from 1933 to 1945 and as head of state (Führer und Reichskanzler) from 1934 to 1945.

A decorated veteran of World War I, Hitler joined the Nazi Party in 1920 and became its leader in 1921. Following his imprisonment after a failed coup in 1923, he gained support by promoting nationalism, antisemitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and propaganda. He was appointed chancellor in 1933, and quickly established a totalitarian and fascist dictatorship. Hitler pursued a foreign policy with the declared goal of seizing Lebensraum ("living space") for Germany, directing the resources of the state toward this goal. His rebuilt Wehrmacht invaded Poland in 1939, leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

Within three years, Germany and the Axis powers occupied most of Europe and large parts of Africa, East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. However, the Allies gained the upper hand from 1942 onward and in 1945 Allied armies invaded Germany from all sides. His forces committed numerous atrocities during the war, including the systematic killing of as many as 17 million civilians including the genocide of an estimated six million Jews, a crime known as the Holocaust.

During the final days of the war in 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress Eva Braun. Less than 40 hours later, the two committed suicide.

>>>The article above is meant to get general information about The Great Dictator Adolf Hitler. I am kind of interested with this guy after i watched Valkyrie movie (starring Tom Cruise..luv him!!)at cinema recently.

>>>Can you find the meaning of certain difficult terms used in the article?

a. nationalism
b. antisemitism
c. charismatic oratory
d. propaganda
e. totalitarian
f. facist dictatorship
g. atrocities
h. genocide
i. the Holocaust...

>>>I have prepare few simple questions for you guys to answer:

1. Hitler was Chancellor of what country?
a. Germany
b. France
c. Poland
d. England

2. What country did Hitler invade, that began WWII?
a. Belgium
b. Poland
c. Italy
d. Austria

3. In what country was Hitler born in?
a. Germany
b. France
c. Italy
d. Austria

4. When Hitler was a boy, he wanted to become a painter when he grew up.
a. True
b. False

5. The country that was NOT part of the Axis Powers is which?
a. Germany
b. Italy
c. France
d. Japan

6. The first time Hitler realized he hated Jews in a racial sense and not only a religious sense was when?
a. When he read the work of Karl Lueger
b. He always hated them
c. The first time he saw a true Orthodox Jew in person
d. He didn't hate Jews

7. While a soldier in WWI, Hitler was unpopular with other soldiers. Why?
a. He was racist against many of them
b. He never criticized anyone
c. He moved up the ranks so quickly
d. He was falsely honored

8. Hitler "discovered" his purpose in life in 1918 in a hospital. What was it?
a. To help anyone he could
b. To be promoted to top ranks in the army
c. To become the richest man in Europe
d. To save Germany

9. Hitler became a German citizen when he was in his early twenties.
a. True
b. False

10. The swastika is common in all these elements except where?
a. A good luck charm
b. Basket weaving
c. Religious ceremonies in India
d. Symbol of the Nazi group

11. All of these groups of people were killed in the Holocaust except?
a. Communists
b. Physically and mentally challenged
c. Jehovah's Witnesses
d. All Roman Catholics

12. Adolf Hitler was born in what year?
a. 1900
b. 1889
c. 1872
d. 1924

>>>Try your best.. The questions are quite interesting and easy.. If you really Hitler die hard fan, you should find it very easy to answer.. Dont you think so??

mY dEePeSt FeELiNg...

Assalamualaikum and hi guys...

This is my first post for my first ever made blog. New experience for me i guess.. Hehe.. Eventhough blogging is common in our society nowadays, but i still not interested in using and exploiting this friendly tool in my daily life..

Thanx to Datin, my Language & ICT tutor who has high determination in teaching me all this while, who is also the responsible person in introducing this blog use to me in the course.. Not to forget my tutorial mates - Aida, Airin, Teh, Yan, Zara, Evon, Khai @ road bully (dont get mad ya!!), Davin, Lan & Shaffi.. Without you guys i am nothing.. (really..)

So feel free to visit and give comments on my coming posts..

Hav a nice day...