Au Revoir!

Well, we have to come an end......

I must say that I feel sad because I find this subject is very unique and has helped me a lot in discovering new applications and software. I have truly had an amazing journey and I hope I can apply every lesson that I've learned in future.
I have some personal comments that I would like to share here. Firstly, I wish I could do more in those projects assigned for us but maybe I was lack of creativity. I'm afraid that I didn't contribute enough for my group members and I feel kind of disappointed  with myself but I'm willing to learn more to improvise.

Last but not least, thank you to everyone for the tremendous journey. I hope to see you again in the next semester.

Farewell,
Sya

SmartBuilder Progress

Hi there again! Today I would like to show some appreciations to my group mates  for our SmartBuilder project which are Zaidah and Hazirah. They're also my group members for Powtoon.

To start with, honestly they contributed a lot in completing this project. At first we had a thought of doing it at Cyber Cafe but because of our hectic schedule and time clashes, we did on our separate way and decided to compile every part of the project.

As Zaidah was in charge of doing the lessons and introduction, I found that she is more creative than I am. She is a fast learner and always ask our opinions before taking a next step. She used hotspot, button, shapes in the lessons. She even used Canva design to make it look interesting and colorful. I must say she had done a good job.

My other group member is Hazirah, another creative person that helped in completing our project. She was assigned to do the exercises and I'm shook because she did it very well. In my own point of view, she is really good in using colors in the exercise and if I were a primary student I will be very much interested in answering the question. Voila to these bunch!

Last but not least is me and I was assigned to do a drag and drop exercise. I did it on my laptop and to be honest, I've done my part but unfortunately the Smartbuilder version on my laptop is not compatible with them therefore it can't be copied. I was so devastated and I tried again but the result is the same. Only god knows how frustrated I was, I even mengucap a lot of times but nothing could be done and Hazirah came to the rescue. She helped me to complete the exercise with her Mac (of course it worked) and I did the report of our project.

To sum up, it was a memorable experience to have and I wish I could do more to contribute but I must by myself a newer laptop to do so. Thank you Madam Azida for your endless support and guidance throughout the lesson. You are very helpful during the process and I wish you only the best! 

Here's the link to our SmartBuilder project: In the Supermarket

Smart Builder and Canva!

Back in previous semester, I used an application called Canva to do a presentation in French subject. It was so awesome and interesting because it has a lot of beautiful designs that could be used not only in presentations but for social networks posts, posters, covers for magazines and more. It is really a helpful application that can help a non-creative student like me to make my presentations and assignment fascinating! Therefore, I have created an informational chart using Canva, check this out!

What is Smart Builder? From my understanding, SmartBuilder is an interactive course ware that enable students to learn without the presence of a teacher. Madam Azida has taught us how to use most of the important components in the software such as button, page, properties, action and hyperlink and shapes. In my opinion, it is a useful software where by users can create an interesting lesson for students and they definitely will be actively participating. Although at first it was so confusing and frustrating because but after many trials and mistakes, I managed to use it well. The feeling is indescribable when I succeed in completing one step to another. It was really fun. 

Podcast!

Hello everyone! I hope you'll have a good day ahead.

I'm sure most of you have heard about Podcast right? We can talk about almost everything such as fashion, general information, people, technology and more. Basically, I'm not the type people who love to record their own voices and post it on social media. Well I can't really accept how my voice sounds like when it's recorded but when I was given a task to do a podcast, I took it as a challenge for me to complete it.

I am not confident to share my personal opinions about certain subjects therefore I chose a topic that would make me feel comfortable which is the story of Hachiko. It is about a dog that was very loyal until the death of his master. I find it funny and hilarious when I had to record my voice for many times because of the noisy background, sudden sneeze and weird stoppage.

One of the advantages of listening to any podcast is it will help to improve your listening skill. From my own experience, I have difficulties to listen carefully unless if I sit in the front row or the speaker's voice is loud enough for me. By listening to podcast especially when it is about education, you will be able to listen to every word and increase your understanding. As for my task, I've complete my own podcast and it's not a perfection but I hope it will encourage me to do more podcasts in future to share my thought and opinions.

Powtoon!

Hello everyone, what's good?
Today, I'm going to talk about Powtoon! First of all, I've never used this application until the day Madam Azida asked us to create an educational video by using Powtoon. I was so excited to create the video and my group and I decided to choose Offspring Animals as the topic for the educational video. Madam Azida helped us a lot in completing the video by giving us guidlines, ideas and she is kind to even suggest her opinions and without her observation, we might lose track.

After we divided our task, we kept trying an error to discover the functions of every button lol. Even though we had our downs but frankly speaking, it was fun! I feel proud of myself that I am capable of doing a video and recorded my own voice to merge in the video as well. After several attempts, we finally did it! I hope our video could help many students to have a better understanding of offspring animals. 

That's all for now, see ya!

Computer Mediated Communication and ESL

CMC or Computer Mediated Communication is any form of communication or interaction between two or more parties via separate devices or computers through network connection. Nowadays people frequently use CMC with everyone at different times and places. It is very easy and convenient compared to those days that people used letters as medium of interaction. Moreover, CMC is described as any communication patterns that mediated through a computer.

Among applications that are currently used by society are Whatsapp Messenger, Facebook, Twitter and Imessage. Do you know that we could adopt CMC in education?

According to Irom Gambhir Singh (2010), through the use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), language learners can develop not only language skills but also intercultural communicative competence, lifelong learning skills and digital literacy. It started in the late 1980s with the introduction of Communicative CALL. When Email and Forums are created, the CMC in education became widely spread. In 1990, Internet Chat Rooms such as Forums allowed direct communication. Two or more parties interact with each other with the use of Internet. It is meant for the long distance teaching or learning for instant, group discussion. Therefore, the popularity of e-tutoring through forums and video conferencing increased because it is a better development in education. There are two types of CMC which are Asynchronous and Synchronous CMC.

Asynchronous CMC

It is not a synchronised communication which means the messages are not sent and replied immediately. E-mails,most social media, internet forums, blogs  and message boards are the examples of asynchronous CMC. It is not a direct communication between parties.

Synchronous CMC

It is known as a synchronised communication between participants or parties. Sent or replied messages can be exchanged immediately and it allows direct communication between them. Internet chat rooms, messenger, video or audio conferencing are the best examples of this CMC. Normally, when a meeting is conducted between the CEO of the company and managers, they will use video conferencing to interact with CEO especially when he is outstation.

Long Distance and Collaborative Learning

CMC was implemented and applied for distance learning of teachers and learners to interact without being in the same location. The use of synchronous communication allows them to video conferencing and E-tutoring. E-lectures became well known and provide short courses over the internet. In my opinion, long distance learning is necessary especially to those who work as full time workers because it saves cost and energy.

Secondly, I do agree that computer does support collaborative learning whether with it’s for assignments or projects. Computers do assist users in enhancing peer interactions and group work. The relationship between group members will be better when they work together not only for discussions but collaborative production of worlds and problem solving as well. Applications such as Google Documents, Google Drive, Blogs and Messenger are very helpful in developing collaborative learning among group members.

One of the characteristics of CMC in education is it offers learners easy access and opportunity to interact between them and native speakers. The context and content of communication is authentic rather than simulated. The interaction that occurs between leaners are more realistic and understandable.

Advantages	Disadvantages
No distance barrier	Inhibitions related to the use of technology
Moderates time as a barrier	Difficulties with access to technology
Collaborations are easier	Lack of socio-emotional and nonverbal cues
Social influences and disadvantages can be avoided	Lack of real human contact

Search Engines & Online Database

Today's topic is quite interesting compared to previous posts. We have been using it daily whether it’s at home, school or office. I'm sure most of you are familiar with search engines and online database but what are they really are?

Search engine is a web tool that allows users to enter keywords and search information on websites contained in its database. My favorite search engine is Google Search because it’s so easy to use and provide immediate feedback. Search Engines like Google or Yahoo uses software that collects data from the Web to include in its database. Every search engine has its own particular database. There are four parts of a search engine which are database is used to store references to Webpages, Web-Crawlers are for finding and compiling indexes of Web Page, user interface and Information Retrieval System.

What is database?

It defines as a storage where all indexed webpages are stored. Imagine database like a storage box where we keep our personal things. It covers only important information of a Webpage and this is the part where the user’s query is matched with database.

Web-Crawlers or Spider

Sometimes it is called bot or an automated program. The function of this “Spider” is to crawl all over the Web Page to collect information based on the keywords, titles, synonyms, access frequency and relevancy that are related to the query. For example, if I search for animals, the Web-Crawlers will explore everything that have relevancy with the subject. The information will be indexed and stored in database.

User Interface

It is a user friendly app/site/page where users may input query and search results are presented. In my opinion, a plain or simple layout that uses black and white font is the best user interface because it is clearer and easier.

Information Retrieval System

When we use search engine, the Information Retrieval System is used to match the user’s query to indexed webpages found in database. It is organized by steps and the results presented in rank according to relevance.

Specialized Search Engines

Do you know that there are specialized search engine for specific area or purpose? Every search engine has its own database that only stores Webpages relevant to a specific field such as Google Scholar, Education World, Art cyclopedia and Pipl.com. For example, Pipl.com is a specialized search engine to find out about people just by entering their names.

Meta Search Engine

It is known as a search engine that matches the user’s query to multiple search engines. Normally, this type of search engine is used among professionals such as the FBI to locate, track down or find out about certain things that are classified. There are three search engines used in in Meta Search Engine which are MetaCrawler, SavvySearch and Dogpile. According to techterms.com, it has stated that even though this strategy gives your search a broader scope than searching a single search engine, the results are not always better. This is because the meta search engine must use its own algorithm to choose the best results from multiple search engines. Often, the results returned by a meta search engine are not as relevant as those returned by a standard search engine.

Do you know that there are different parts of World Wide Web where websites have different access rights? Every part of Web has its own purpose and content, how awesome is that!

Surface Web is the first level of web category which only about 4% of internet is accessible by through search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. We can look for general information for education, profession and etc just by searching only on the surface web.

Meanwhile Deep Web contains 90% of the information on the Internet but not accessible by Surface Web crawlers. It is not easy as the surface web to get the information because it needs to be applied with special tools and software and not to mention browsers and other protocol beyond direct links or credentials. Information such as academic information, medical records, legal documents scientific reports, subscription information can be searched by using Deep Web

Last but not least, Dark Web one of part in Web that is restricted to ordinary browsers we need some special tools to access the darker side of the web. The most well-known and most-used one out there is Tor, the short term of The Onion Router, which routes traffic to dark web sites through layers of encryption to allow for anonymity. Many files and data can be encrypted such as illegal information, political protests, drug trafficking sites, private communications.