My last post

Hi all Cln618ers. I will go back to China this evening. It would be the last post in my blog because I can't log in in China. Good bye. I will miss you.

My reflection

My wildlife activities

Thank Maggie, Esther, Yuki and Jessie for their feedback. The negative feedback from them made me reconsider whether my design in the wildlife activities were appropriate.

Given the fact that EFL students seldom read English articles or newpapers outside the classroom, I intended to build students' reading abilities and increase their reading comprehension. Thus, choosing its scientific name of each animal and matching the population to each animal were created to foster students' scanning ability, that is, to increase their ability to extract specific information. Students need to do so - speed reading in their real life (Hamer, 1991). However, Maggi's feedback that students need to read six articles to answer the six questions made me think about the possibility that students would be demotivated if they have to read so many articles. Probably it is better to put links at the end of each question rather than putting all of them in the instruction.

Maggie also said that the instruction in the crossword puzzle was not clear. Students have to read the text to complete the crossword puzzle.The aim here is to ask students to read the article first in order to receive additional input and guess the meanings of new words through the context because new words were also included in the puzzle. This crossword puzzle is to focus on vocabulary learning because vocabulary is significant for successful reading (Nation 2001). I think this activity is quite useful. However, the crossword puzzle was quite difficult, just as Maggi and Yuki mentioned. I should have added more hints to help them and made the instruction clearer and easier to follow.

Jessie advised me to put more pictures. She was quite right. Pictures help to attract students' attention and increase their motivation. I have to admit that these wildlife activities were quite simple and students need to do a lot of reading which makes it look a bit dull. I should have introduced some videos or film clips not only to increase students' motivation but also to satisfy the needs of different learning styles (Dorney 2001). Thus, students with different learning preferences will find what they like and will become active in participating. They will have fun when they learn.

I think that these wildlife activities are suitable to be an implement. Given more time, I could do better.

Comment on Yuki's

Hi Yuki,

I just visited your website finding the home page quite attractive. All the information were well organized and the instructions were easy to follow. I liked the background and color of the homepage. And the pictures and animations on the homepage were wonderful, relevant and flash. I wondered who you specially designed these activities for. Matching was rather easy. I think younger students would love to do this matching because they can easily get the correct answers, which would be quite motivating.

When I did the activities, I found that all the link "index" except on the page of cloze don't work. Would you pls check all the links on each page? One more suggestion is that you add link to your webquest on your homepage.

Thanks. I enjoyed doing those activities.

-Jin-

Comment on Esther's website

Hi Esther,

I have just visited your website finding it quite interesting and inviting. I think your website is a perfect site to learn your culture especially for all the international students including me. If your students are EFL/ESL learners or refugees ( I guess so because I know you are eager to help them), this website would be useful. They will learn a lot about these 5 major celebrations.

Apart from providing comprehensible information, you made good use of pictures. I have found there are beautiful, more importantly, relevant pictures under each heading, for example, Easter egg under "Easter", Queen's photo under Queen's Birthday, which i think is quite wonderful. Moreover, videos were utilised to increase students' motivation. Visual learners will find it quite motivating.

Hotpotato was used to create Australia Day quiz. Pity there are only 3 questions. If you had registered, you could have created more items. I did wonder whether we were required to use hotpotato to create all the activities or not.Most activities in this website are similar to those done in the webquest. Is it ok?

I also wondered whether it is better to add some links such as index and next page between these holidays so that students can go to home page or next page easily.All the information was well organized and all the instructions were clear, easy to follow. Well done.

Jin

October 30, 2007 7:22 PM

Comment on Maggie's

Hi Maggie,

It has been a long time since you last asked me to comment on your acitivities. Sorry.

The first impression when I visited your online activities is that it is quite flash. You made good use of picutures and animations. They were all well organized and I don't think they are too many. Moreover, you askekd learners to listen to short passeges to do the quiz. I think it will be helpful for those visual and auditory learners. That's good.

When I did the cloze 1, food game and listening comprehension, I found I had to go back to the home page to open those links. Would you pls consider adding hypelinks to your instruction? That would be more convenient.Thanks. I enjoyed visiting it.

-Jean-

October 23, 2007 11:28 AM

Wildlife Activities

Welcome to mywildlife activities. Looking forward to your comments. Either negative or positive is welcome. Thanks.

Jean's wildlife activities

House warming

Last Saturday my former home stay mum invited me to her house warming party. What an interesting name, house warming. I put a photo of her villa of wonders.

Hot Hotpotato

Last week, I wanted to create the activities but I couldn't find where hotpotato is. Luckily, Maggie helped me download hotpotato and showed me how to use it to create different activities. I am sorry I had forgotten what was taught in the last workshop. I can't believe that happened one month ago. How time flies. Next week the assignments for PLD and for technology are due. So I have to hurry because I haven't completed the creation. Don't mention the rationale. Only one week left. Hurry.

National Day

How time flies. It is already the 2nd of Octorber. In the last two weeks, there were two important date for us Chinese: last Tuesday (Moon festival) and this Monday(National Day). People in China have a 7-day holiday to celebrate National Day. Woo. I wish I were in China. I wish I didn't have to worry about my assignments.
However, the mid-semester break was over; I am not in China. It is high time to think about the last assignments. It is right time to handle the hotpotato.

My first webquest

After two-week hard work, I completed my first webquest. During my creating, the mistakes I made cost me many hours. However, I learned a lot from my mistakes. That is, all the pictures and files should be saved in the same folder. and I found an interesting website where you can watch videos. If you are interested, click here.

Riverfestival

Last Saturday was a "big" day for all the local and all the foreigners in Brisbane. There was a sea of people who poured into the Southbank to watch fireworks. Besides, a demonstration (army, navy and airforce) took place in the Suncorp Piazza in the afternoon.

An excellent website

I have found an excellent website and would like to share with you . There must be something in that website that interests you. Use those to make your webquest more lively and more beautiful. Come on. Visit me.

First step to my webquest

It turned out a sunny day, making me feel "bright" even when I think about my assignment. Debra showed some webquests created by former students. I was shocked at what I saw: beautiful, creative, colorful, complicated...... I thought creating a webquest of my own was a mission impossible. However, last Saturday' s workshop made impossible possible. I learned how to start my creation. Just as the old saying goes,there are no difficult things in the world. If you try, difficult things become easy. If you don't try, easy things become difficult. Aha, I am on my way to a wonderful webquest. I am progressing.

My son's birthday

Today is my son's 6th birthday, which reminds me of all the joys and pains since we had him with us. The first word he said, the first step he tried, the first day he went to kindergarten, the days he got sick, coughing, and Daddy held him in his arms, sitting the whole night ......it seemed as if all of these had happened yesterday. How time flies! Six years had passed by before we knew it. I am lucky to have my son in my life. It brings me great joy to share the hardship and happiness in the process of his grown-up. Sorry I am unable to go back home to celebrate his birthday.

Hi Mark. Happy birthday.

Week 4

Last week, I went to the website Debra provided. There are many different packages. I took a look at the photoshop which really interested me. It seemed simple. What you need to do was to click, click here and then click there. When I watched the flash, I thought I knew how to deal with photos. However, I forgot all the steps in an attempt to edit my pictures. Should I write down all the steps? Probably I have to do so. What a pity. I can't surf on the net before I learn to "swim". Anyway, I am progressing!

Week 3

In the first workshop, I created my own blog and wiki page. Following the guidance of Debra, I found it not so difficult as I had thought. It was great fun to learn to use those tools to do magics. So the first thing I did the next day (Sunday) was to take a look at my newborn blog and try to remove the photo posted there in which my eyes are close, thinking. I googled my blog and found it. However, the problem with me was that I couldn't edit it as an owner. The only thing I could do was to view it as a passer-by. I didn't know what to do(not smart?Yes.). Then I went back and asked my flat mate for advice. Two days later, I came back and tried again. Haha. You can guess what happened. I was successful in removing the first picture with a new one. Moreover, I created a new post. That's great. For me, it is no longer an compulsory assignment. Now I enjoy myself. What I need is more practice.

Practice makes perfect.

the first workshop of Unit 618

I have my own blog now.

I have made my final decision to take Unit 618. It is a great challenge for me because I don't know much about technology. I like to take risk. Looking forward to learning sth new and having fun.