Podcast - Logic (In-Class Assignment)

The podcast was recorded by Ashraf and Me.

The audio file can be downloaded here.

The casts: Counselor - Ahmad Fahimi

Student 1 - Syafiq Ashraf

Student 2 - Ahmad Fahimi

The audio runs for 3 minutes.

CALL LESSON PLAN

PREPOSITIONS & GIVING DIRECTIONS

 

LEVEL: Form 2 (Beginner to Intermediate)

TIME: 35 – 55 minutes

AIMS:

To find specific information on a Website; to learn and understand preposition and give directions.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

One computer per pair of students with an Internet connection, and a Web Browser.

Websites:          
                               http://www.youtube.com  (Youtube)
                               http://maps.google.com/ (Google Map)            

                               

 

PREPARATION:

1. Find several information from the Internet.
2. Using the information on the site, prepare a worksheet.


PROCEDURE:

Introduction
1.Ask students whether they know or see my missing marker pen which I intentionally misplaced (where every student could see)

2. Emphasized on the prepositions used and thank the students for the help.

3. Introduce the topic preposition.

 

Identifying Preposition

2. Ask students to watch Youtube’s video on preposition (1 or 2)

3. Worksheet1 is given to each student. Teacher asks to tick all preposition found in the video. Teacher will asked the total number of preposition in the video.

4. Next, asks students to stream music video which contains preposition.

5. Worksheet2 is given to each student. The lyric contains missing prepositions. Students are asked to fill in the appropriate preposition based on the music video listened.

6. Teacher asked students to exchange and check the answer paper among them. Teacher corrects any mistakes done by students, and asks students to listen to the music one more time, and sing along. 

 

Give Directions (pair work)

1. Teacher asks students whether they ever been asked on giving directions.

2. Teacher shows a video on giving direction.   

1. Ask students to sign up for a Google Account (optional). Show them the fastest way to register.

2. Ask the students to open the website Google Map.
3. Teacher shows the correct way to use Google map and briefly explain its benefit.

4. Teacher asks students to find their school using Google map.
5. After they have identified the school, they are asked to give directions from the school to Pasar Raya Borong Ssw which is visible on the map.

6. Worksheet3 is given to the students. Students are asked to complete the first question which have been done by the teacher.

7. Based on the example, students are asked to complete the rest of the questions.

8. Teacher will monitor and scaffold students on giving directions. 

9. Teacher will discuss the answer with students.

 

Follow Up Activity (Homework)

1. Teacher asks students to find direction from their own house to other classmates' house.

2. Asks students to send their answers by e-mailing it to the teacher's e-mail.   

Worksheets:

In-Class Assignment : Potato Chips

The British, Japanese and other nations seem to have a wild streak when it comes to the humble potato chip (or crisp as they're called in the UK and, more and more, in the US). Most of the truly madcap chip sensations are British and Japanese but the US and India are moving up strongly. Americans eat 6.3 billion dollars in potato chips each year but we Yanks have always preferred our chips on the mild side, rarely straying outside the safe circle of Sour Cream and Onion, Barbecue, Cheddar Cheese, and a tiny handful of others. But since #1 on our list is an American chip, we are becoming truly competitive in the field of taste bud terrorism.

Well-known for truly bizarre potato chip/crisp flavors is the legendary Walkers company of the UK and Ireland. They recently had a "Do Us a Flavour" contest for the craziest sins to commit against the humble spud. Among the entered flavors (all produced for incomprehensible consumption) were Crispy Duck and Hoisin, Cajun Squirrel, Chili and Chocolate, Onion Bhaji (Bhaji is an Indian dished made of onions mixed with chickpea and gram cracker flour then deep fried ... one assumes the chips taste like it), and Builders Breakfast, a crisp and light little crisp tasting of eggs, bacon, sausage and ... beans? Must be a UK thing. Anyway, the Builders Breakfast was the winner and is now a permanent part of Walkers' mutant brood. Cajun Squirrel and the others are happily no more. Since that was a contest, those flavors have been placed in their own category of weirdness. We're not finished with Walkers yet though. More chip perversion to come.

Beyond those, the top ten weirdest chips:

1) Cajun Crawtator! Our number #1 is American, oddly enough. A Louisiana bayou blend of boiled seafood-ish gastronomical bombast. Straight from Zapp's, it's hugely successful and apparently much beloved by everyone in creation other than this writer.

Now, let us try to make one. Watch and learn. 

CALL Article Review

A. The Article

a. Title: Video Games and the ESL Classroom

b. Journal: The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 3, March 2007.

c. Johansen Quijano Cruz, radiant80@hotmail.com

Centre of Multidisciplinary Studies (Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico)

Link: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Quijano-VideoGames.html

B. Summary

The article is about the potential of RPG video games in helping young generation to learn English language and, the strategies to apply it in the classroom. Video games provide extra motivation for students and also give a platform for educators to enhance course content. Professional organizations have started using video games for simulation and as part of their curriculum. RPG or Role-Playing-Game is the most popular genre in gaming industry. A player can take various roles of character and go through journey of great adventures. Players will be shown a lot of real dialogues, subtitles and written text throughout the game. The games can be used as a catalyst to motivate students to share the learning content they found in the games during class. The nature of RPG games which involves deep characters and storyline and real settings and environment makes it suitable for it to be used in the classroom. In order for RPG games to be more effective in improving students’ speaking and listening skills, it has to be complemented with group activities which involve discussions and exchanging of ideas. Teachers can integrate literature, cultural issues, journal, and character analysis through oral presentation and quizzes. Violence and social content in video games are always an issue. One cannot entirely put the blame on video games when other types of mass media could also play a role in promoting violence. In general, there is no evidence showing video game as the sole reason of violence among youth. Several RPG games that are listed suitable for students are generally Square-Enix’s RPG series such as Final Fantasy and Arc the Lad. In conclusion, video games have more advantages compared to traditional books. Students are more motivated and learned pronunciation faster when they learn language through video games.

297 words

C. Reflection

The main reasons I review this article are because I truly believe in the use of video game as one of the more effective medium in improving one’s language, and I am one of the many successful testimonials of this fact. In order to attract kids and teenagers to get involved more with the target language, we need to use a medium that is close to their heart, something that is part of their fun and interactive life. That is, video games. Ask any kid in the world, they could not live without video games. An avid gamer would do anything in order to finish a game, which requires understanding of the plot and what is going on in the game. Even though the goal is to finish the game off, along the way gamers will come across weird vocabularies and challenging tasks which in return polishes their understanding of English language. Almost all video games are in English, and this in a way forced a player to learn Basic English before he/she can play the game. It doesn’t matter whether the intention of playing the game is to improve one’s English or not as long as it DOES improve the player’s knowledge on English. Although I agree that video games can greatly improve one’s English language, it should not be limited to RPG games. RPG could be a better choice for literature lessons, but for other aspect of English, other genres such as Adventure and Simulation should also be considered. Some video games nowadays are full with violence and social degradation, but I don’t believe that it is the main cause of violence among the youth. For these games, there is nothing we could do to stop them from going out into the market. What we can do is to choose what is suitable and best for the students according to their level of competency and maturity. But if we couldn’t find one, we should make one. Since our country are now in the broadband age, and with all the hype and mushrooming of MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), this can be a starting point for us to produce our own local products, instead of adopting others such as Jin Online, Ragnarok Online, etc. Our educators should collaborate with up-and-coming local gaming programmers to produce educational video games that are fit with our history, culture, syllabus, and educational philosophy. Like any MMORPGs, we could create a server in school to run such games. Since the game is according to the syllabus, all school across states could participate together. Therefore, there will be interactivity between schools, with students’ participation in the forum where they could discuss on how to solve puzzles and quests within the game. Of course, teachers and senior students will be the moderator. The game will replace the old traditional textbook. As such, we should promote and commercialize video games as part of educational tools in classroom’s teaching and learning. Instead of creating video games for the sake of entertainment and profit, we should focus on edutainment. There are many benefits can be gained if we are able to produce our own educational video games. It is one of the fastest growing industries in the market, and it is high time for educators to take gaming industry more seriously like other developed countries. It is time to develop, and be developed.

564 words

Side Info (Games I’ve Played)

One RPG game that I would like to promote is Baldur’s Gate series. It integrates almost all elements of an English language, be it vocabulary, written texts, riddles, pronunciation, journals, and even cultures albeit some of them are fictions. The game is based on R.A Salvatore’s best selling Forgotten Realms Series. Playing the game is almost like reading the novel, if not better. Video games like these can substitute novels without losing the touch of the author and the elements in the novel. It is like immersing oneself to the main character in the novel.

One great example of an adventure game is Lucas Art’s Monkey Island series. It has an interesting storyline, incredible humor, beautiful graphics, stirring music, and voices of talented actors.

Another great example of educational adventure-simulation game is Eco-Nightmare. Through this game, one will be exposed to many scientific terms related to green house effect, deforestation effect, and simulation of scientific experiments. It was produced by Discovery Learning, a subsidiary of Discovery Channel. These games are old but still great and more importantly; they are clean and suitable for any age

CALL’s Hot Potato Reflection

Inpotatoduction

It has been 3 weeks since I started using Hot Potato. I really enjoyed a lot in using this software because creating it is as much fun as testing it. So far I have learned how to use JMix, JMatch, and JCloze. To me, it is one of the simplest web-based teaching exercise around, since I can do many types of web-based exercise within a short space of time. Before this, it would take years for me to do that silly html coding thingy. Then came this new breed of potato. Of course, it is not easy at first, but with the right guidance from the lecturer, it is as simple as baking a potato. There are three basic things in this potato, which are questions, answers and responses. Once done with these three things, it’s time to make it pretty and interesting with colors and pictures. So simple.

As a student, we are used to do online exercises from websites, but making one is a different thing. It is like a gamer who had the chance to create his own game. As in the common tagline in pc gaming industry, ‘For Gamers, By Gamers’. To be able to create a good game, we too need to be in the game. I think HotPotato as one kind of a game, since it is interactive and fun. Anything which is interactive and fun, is a game for me. Of course, having the freedom to mash the potato into our own mould is an extra motivator. I never knew that I could make one of my own, after years of eating it in KFC. But why the name is HotPotato is beyond me. Probably because the company’s name is halfbaked software, and they could not find any other ingredients that can be as easily mashed as potato’s. Potato is the staple food in many countries anyway.

Potatospective

Before this, we used to create exercise and worksheet based on the free templates and samples found in books. This time, we could see and relish the fun in making it from scratch through a computer. We can create many kinds of potato, whether it is wedges, mashed, french fries, etc. It is fun because we have the freedom to design our own colorful layout, put background pictures, and even media objects such as flash and music, according to the theme that we want. This will make it more attractive and can assist users in understanding the theme of the exercise. In short, this potato allows us to exercise our creativity to come up with our own original recipe and masterpiece.

Of course, not everything is perfect and simple. HotPotato has its own potato blight at times. It is not as non-linear as what I would want it to be. Although its crossbreeds such as JCLoze, JMix, Jmatch, etc. do make it a bit non-linear, we are still limited only to these types of exercises. But I guess it’s pretty much suffice for a newbie like us (my classmates of course). Although it is not that perfect, it is perfectly perfect for people who are newly exposed to educational courseware design. I couldn’t ask for more, although I know I could, but then of course I need to pay more for a more sophisticated one. I should be grateful to get this software for free.

Apart from the non-linear issue, some other blights come from our lack of knowledge in HotPotato and basic HTML. Firstly, the JMix. Just nice with its name, it can easily mixed up word structure and convert it into an exercise. With resounding affect, it also mixed us up while creating the exercise. We had to be very particular in linking one exercise to another, especially when involving more than 4 html files. We did get it right at the end of the class. I wouldn’t say it as a drawback though. It is more to our careless mistakes, and that’s all.

Another frustrating problem that my friends encountered was to get the pictures to load in html. I know how they feel, especially after putting tons of pictures and later knew that it failed to load. It usually happens after exporting the html to the online hosting file. It is either due to incorrect URL, or they thought everyone in this world have the exact same pictures in every computer, or they thought the pictures is already embedded in the html (no separate files). So, in order to use HotPotato, it is essential to have some basic knowledge in HTML. But HotPotato, in a way, indirectly taught us how to make it work, after lots of trial and error.

Importatotance

Since everything has been broadbanded online, including education, it is high time for next generation of educators like us to be exposed to this kind of software. It is a good preparation especially with regards to smart schools and virtualization of education. Instead of adopt and adapt other people’s work, why not create our own? With HotPotato, everyone can make a web-based teaching exercise of their own. Let us liberalize education!

My JMatch

You can download my JMatch here!

:: My ESL website evaluation ::

The website evaluated: http://www.manythings.org/

1) What does the application attempt to “teach”?

Basically, the application focuses on all things matter to English language. Besides grammar, there is listening, speaking, and reading. It pretty much covers all aspect of English language, except less emphasis on reading comprehension. It also teaches learners other micro aspects such as vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation for easier understanding. Meanwhile, the exercises and quizzes are primarily focused towards improving one’s grammar and listening skills. Although reading comprehension is not included in the site, reading activity is naturally embedded with listening activity. The only thing missing is the comprehension feature. The lessons are not divided into levels, so learners have to know what level they are in and what aspects they need to improve on. So, indirectly this application is attempting to teach learners how to assess themselves, discover their weaknesses and strengths by doing the quizzes and fun lessons in the site. The application does encourage learners to try the easier quizzes first before moving on to the more challenging one. At least it will give a sense of motivation for learners to build up the momentum before going for the more challenging exercises. By focusing on grammar and listening skill, the site probably tries to replicate the usual atmosphere of classroom situation, where teachers heavily emphasized on grammar and students utilized a great deal of listening skills during lesson. As such, the sites clearly tailored for beginner to pre-intermediate learners, which is good since advanced learners never bothered using the internet to learn English anyway. Basically, this is probably not a place for upper-intermediate and advanced learners.

2) What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with the regards to learning the content?

First of all, the users are free to choose what aspect of English language they would like to learn. Since the website does not divide the section into levels, it does encouraged users to go for the easy quizzes first to warm up and get the feeling of using the application. Basically, it’s a straight forward application and easy for the learners to navigate. First, a user needs to choose what aspect of English they would like to practice. There are many to choose from, such as listening, grammar, pronunciation, spelling, etc. Of course, different section requires different approach. Example for listening activities, user needs to choose a topic, play a simple audio player, and answer question based on what the user listened. The navigational buttons are simple and clearly designed so that user would know what to click in order to finish the quiz. For matching games, user is required to use the mouse to drag and drop the answer to the correct spot. For the grammar section, the quizzes come in two designs, either Flash or simple HTML. For the HTML, user only requires to write down the correct answer in the blank provided, much like the Hot Potato worksheet. For the Flash version, it is a bit easier and interactive, because it involves Multiple Choice Question and requires user to use the mouse often. The web is designed in a simplistic manner that does not require a genius to operate. The instruction for the quizzes is also clearly stated so user would not have any problem knowing what he or she is expected to do in using the application.

3) What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/ access/ use the application?

The basic things, of course. Forget about knowing how to use the mouse, the keyboard, etc. They are not musical instruments! Well, maybe 10 years ago, it could have taken an advanced user to do it, but we are now in the golden age of ICT. Everything seems to be too easy for us, even for a little kids who nowadays know how to blog! So I would say it takes a very basic computer skill to operate the application. It is like surfing the web. Of course, they need to know what to click and where to click. If not they might end up clicking the browser’s close button. But kids and teenagers nowadays surf more sophisticated sites than this, especially for online gaming and social network sites. If they know how to open the Internet Explorer (which I doubt, because they prefer Firefox or Chrome!), then it should not be a problem. Most of the popular browsers will prompt users if they don’t have the necessary plugins such as Java or Flash, which is required to run some of the application. For browsers which require users to manually download the plugin and install it into the system, it might be a stumbling block for them.

Another thing is on the browser’s add-on and ActiveX controls. Certain browsers prevent sites from directly using certain add-ons or plugins even when it is already installed on the system, for security reasons. Whenever a site wants to run an add-on (e.g. Flash, Java, QuickTime, etc) for a certain applications, the browser will block it. To unblock, users need to click on the underside of the browser’s toolbar and allow the add-on to run, which can be a little tricky for some due to its small size. So, users need to be very attentive and aware of what goes around in the screen.

4) While you are “playing”/ “accessing”/ “assessing” the application, does it remind you of anything you do in classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?

Ohh... the good old days. Definitely a reminiscence. I remember playing educational software in a tuition conducted by my primary school teacher. The main character in that game was a frog and I enjoyed it a lot. My friends and I ended up using most of the tuition time mingled with that game until my teacher banned it from the class. A sad ending, but that was the moment where we realized how learning experience can be that fun!

I also remember when my sister bought me an educational courseware for my SPM examination. It is for science and physics subject. It allows one to simulate several science experiments, without having the risk of burning down the school lab. It also contains a lot of MCQ which needed to be answered first before I can do the experiment interactively. At least it got me going, unlike the old, lousy textbook.

Then, when I entered university, independent learning creeps in. We could not rely solely on lectures and lecturer’s notes. We had to find our own resource and reference, from the library and guess what, the Internet! I first experienced learning through websites during the third semester, where I had my third language (French) subject. Since explanation alone was not enough, I need an interactive websites to make myself understand the so-called French “conjugacion”. I stumbled upon a website which helped me a lot, especially in terms of pronunciation. Merci beaucoup Internet!

The latest one is that hot potato! It was so hot that I could feel it till now. Of course, it was only this week I learned it..

Overall, it was like any other day in class. Lots of quizzes and explanations and praises (If I got it right). It replicates the facilitation of a teacher in the classroom in some way. Plus, it’s fun!

5) Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/ or teaching underlying the application?

There are several theories and techniques of language learning and teaching that underlie the application.

The first theory of language teaching that I can relate with the application is the Audiolingual Method. As mentioned before, the application slightly focuses more on speaking and listening aspect of English language. I tried the activities and one the technique comes to mind is Audiolingual Method. Several characteristics are clearly related with the method are repetitive drills and the use of audio. In the listening and pronunciation activities, learners are asked to listen to selected words repeatedly, in order to answer the question correctly. It also one forms of mechanical drill. Another main aspect for this method is the vocabulary used in the activity is strictly limited to a certain context, or alternatively, context-isolated. If a learner chooses a specific topic for the activity, then he/she is expected to go through the activity only on the topic selected. Plus, the application provides little or no grammatical explanation at all, so the learners have to discover it by themselves, or in other words, inductively.

Having a look at the techniques used in the application, interesting approaches used in the pronunciation activity are the use of rhythm and minimal pairs. In one of the minimal pairs quizzes, learners are asked to match the word uttered by the audio embedded in the activity. Another listening drill activity uses a background music, which replicates the rhythm of the words pronounced within the audio. This indirectly teaches learners the aspect of rate of delivery and clear articulation, which many people wrongly assume native speakers speak gibberish too fast. Ok, it might be true for Scottish. The background music in the activity reminds me of a method called Suggestopedia. Non-TESL human being might confused this with a another form of Wikipedia. The founder of this unique method was Bulgarian psychologist, Georgi Lozanov. According to this one time fan of Sebastian Bach (I made it up), “during the soft playing of baroque music, one can take in tremendous quantities of material due to an increase in alpha brain waves and a decrease in blood pressure and pulse rate”. Well, I didn’t feel anything unusual during the listening activity to be honest. Probably, the music in the activity is not baroque music after all. It’s just a looping sound of drums to me. But, because of the voice modulated in harmony with the musical phrases, in some way, I think Suggestopedia deserves to be mentioned.

In terms of learning theory, a case of motivation broke loose in the self-control theory. Since learners are in control of what they are learning in this quest of self-assessment, I want to draw on certain cognitive psychologists view on motivation. They said motivation is highest when we one can make one’s own choices, about what to pursue and what not to pursue. Now, put into the perspective of learners who learn through ESL websites, of course they have the power to choose what they want to click and what they don’t want to click. This in return motivates the learners to have the continuous autonomy to experience they own self-study. Having self-control-motivation leads to self-study discovery, and ends with self-assessment. This site of course, automatically teaches learners the art of self assessment. They are able to assess their progress through the marks calculated by the site, after finished answering a quiz or activity.

6) How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website?

Constructivist theory stemmed from the idea of Lev Vygotsky, who believes that the environment plays an important role in developing one’s perspective on learning. Looking at the word environment, in the context of the ESL website I am evaluating, I couldn’t help saying the website itself is the ‘virtual world’ or the ‘virtual environment’ where users will immerse themselves into it, in order to find their real existence, or to be more precise, why he/she is there in the first place. To gain knowledge of course, but how? That is the question. Who knows better than the self? As in the movie The Matrix, the user immerses himself as the chosen one, everything is reflected towards the self, individualistically speaking. The links, the buttons, everything in the website, is a unit acting as a part of the society, helping the user to develop and choose his own destiny. So user will choose what is best for him, and experience the glory and the downfall of a warrior through quizzes! Everything is about what is right and what is best for the self, based on what he/she thinks about the environment he/she is in. It is like a jigsaw puzzle, which needs to be constructed as pieces by pieces falls into place and shapes the knowledge gained throughout the learning process. With the help of the layout, the instructions, and structural patterns, learners will go through a series of self-discovery, which pretty much has been set up through how the site is being designed.

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?

I don’t have a firm believes in either of the statement. To say that the computer is a replacement for teachers is too harsh. Nothing can replace a role of a teacher than a real teacher himself. It doesn’t have that human touch which is part of students’ learning process. A man taught by a chimpanzee will imitate the sound of a chimpanzee. A man taught by a scholar will become a scholar. A man taught by a computer? It can be either a Frankenstein or a cyborg. The computer itself was created by a man. If a computer is to replace the teacher, we will lose the sense of human uniqueness. A computer will become a custom-made-knowledge-production-hub. The production will be so linear and produce the same product over and over again.

This is of course, if the computer permanently replaces the role of a teacher, which will never happen. If even a supercomputer could not be compared to a brain of a 5 year old child, what’s more a personal computer? To me the computer is not exactly a replacement, but more to an assistant, or a 1/100 working part of a teacher’s brain, depends on which teacher is being compared to.

Computer is never a servant to students; in fact, they are the servant to themselves. They have to do what they need to do in order to acquire the learning process. Unless if knowledge can be downloaded straight into the brain in just a click like what we used to do in torrent, probably I could say the computer is indeed an obedient slave to the students. But that’s only an IF. It is not an issue of who the servant is and who isn’t, but it is an issue of pure intention of seeking knowledge. They say, necessity is the mother of all invention. Man invented the computer to make life easier, but not to be a Master or to create a Slave. In the end, it is us who are a slave to Him, and to Him we will return.

8) Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?

Of course I would. This application is very interesting not only for the students, but also to those who teach English. The first reason is because of its simplicity. Since I am a man of simplicity, I prefer to use things which don’t complicate things. The simpler it is the better. Simple here means easy on the eye. It does not cram so many things in one box. It makes unorganized items looked organized, visually of course. So simply said, it is simple.

The next best thing on why I like to use the application is its straight forward nature. You get what you click for. Some other sites are so tricky that when you click a link, it will go to the same page if you click from another link, which is of course, means for another link, for a different section of the page. See how confusing it is?! In short, you are actually going in circle; end up to the same exact page. But for www.manythings.org, it is so easy to navigate.

The site has been set up for optimal performance when browsing experience matters. When surfing the site, I feel like surfing at a REAL broadband speed (forget it if you still using dial-up!). The reason of the site’s simplicity is to complement its surfing speed. Since it doesn’t use any heavy application or add-ons, surfing experience enhanced greatly. Example, if users are to use the listening section, the mp3 file will take only seconds to load. I don’t like waiting as some sites took years to load, by the time it finished loading, my mind is already on something else. So this site really knows how to not to kill time. Speed kills!

Next is because of its price. Well, nothing comes free in this world, except supplication. Sadly, I still have to pay to surf this site. At least it is not as expensive as other sites which do charge a small amount of fee according to packages. So in order to surf and use all of its content, I only have to pay the Internet bill. Of course the bill depends on which speed do I signed up for. You can surf it for free though, if you use the library or your friend’s wireless internet, unless if your friend decides to charged for it.

Lastly, when talking about the future, we really need to take updates seriously. Since it is an online courseware, I am sure it is updated daily, if not monthly. New content and materials are important especially in an era where trends and knowledge are updated in seconds. So, to be able to look at the future trends, one needs to use things which are able to look at the current trends. As long as the site updated itself, I would use it in my future work.

Suggestions/ Recommendations:

Well, first time visiting the site, obviously it is not its layout or appearance that caught my attention. But I have to say the simplicity of the web lured me to investigate the content and so on. It would be really nice if the web can be designed in more colorful and interactive way, which can be a very good thing to attract kids alike. Although simplicity is one of the site’s main strength, it is not enough for kids who are famous for their visual craving. Since most of today’s commercial websites utilized the latest java and flash application, educational sites should do the same too. Education sites should be more attractive, and one example of sites that utilizes simple flash application is www.englishmaze.com. Although the content of this site need vast improvements, the idea and the appearance is something that other educational website should emulate. So they should not limit their website to only HTML and simple Flash, which can be a little boring for some after using it for quite awhile.

Put the visual aspect aside; let us look into the layout perspective. I think the site’s layout is nice. But in terms of the flow of the content, a lot can be improved. It is nice to divide section based on the proficiency level of the user, but by straight away giving quizzes and questions without any introduction about the topic can be very burdensome for the students. I think there should be a page that covers an explanation for each aspect of grammar before going for the quiz section. In this way, users can monitor their progress based on their previous link they have visited progressively, without having to trace back what section they had and had not visited. Alternatively, the sites can also create or put assessment service for each unique user. Of course, to do this the site has to create a free account service for each visitor. Once a visitor signed up for a free account and uses any of the quiz section, their progress and achievement will be recorded for later view. Not only they can attract more visitors to the site, they can also make further research and survey among their site users for educational purpose, and for their own benefit of course, without having to charge the users a cent. This can be a good win-win situation for both parties.