Week 4-Reading Passage

8/11/2019 Week 4-Reading Passage

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BAIN ELT

2014

Educational Technologyand the InternetStudy Guide Week 4

creatiga

U N I V E R S I D A D A U T N O M A D E S I N A L O A


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BA in ELT Study Guide 2

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

2006 Universidad Autnoma de Sinaloa

Unit 3 Internet as a Teaching and Learning Tool

In this unit

3.1 The internet and the World Wide Web

3.2 The Web as a Learning Environment

3.1 The internet and the World Wide Web.

One of the most common sources of information nowadays is the internet. But, how long

has it existed? Whose idea was it? How much do you know about it? Explain.

What about the World Wide Web? How was it developed?

The conceptual foundation for creation of the Internet was significantly developed bythree individuals and a research conference, each of which changed the way we thoughtabout technology by accurately predicting its future:


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Vannevar Bush wrote the first visionary description of the potential uses forinformation technology with his description of the "memex" automated librarysystem.

Norbert Wiener invented the field of Cybernetics, inspiring future researchers tofocus on the use of technology to extend human capabilities.

The 1956 Dartmouth Artificial Intelligence conference crystallized the conceptthat technology was improving at an exponential rate, and provided the firstserious consideration of the consequences.

Marshall McLuhan made the idea of a global village interconnected by anelectronic nervous system part of our popular culture.

In the 1960's, Ted Nelson popularized the hypertext concept, and Douglas Engelbartdeveloped the first working systems. In the 1980's, the web as we know it wasconceived and developed in Europe by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau, and thenrapidly spread around the world by Marc Andreessen and the NCSA team thatdeveloped the Mosaic and Netscape browsers in the 1990's.

Now, lets check on your knowledge of the cyber world. Are you familiar with thefollowing words and acronyms? Define them.

Browser__________________________________________________________

HTTP ____________________________________________________________

HTML ____________________________________________________________

URL _____________________________________________________________

Link_____________________________________________________________

Now, search the web and find the answers for the following questions:

1. What was the first use given to the internet by the ARPA?______________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

2. Around how many people in the US are going online every month?

_____________________________________________________________________


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3. What is the name of the document formatting language used to link documents within

the Web? _____________________________________________________________

4. Until __________ the Web remained primarily text based.

5. What are the two most popular Web browsers available?

______________________________________________________________

6. Name the components that help route emails to the proper recipient

a) _______________________

b) _______________________

c) _______________________

d) _______________________

Did you find any similar ideas on them? Explain.

3.2 The Web as a Learning Environment

Technology in education has come a long way from traditional tools through print, radiofilm, TV, VCR, all the way to CD-ROM's, satellite mediation and the internet. However,

many of the technologies raise criticism. For instance, critics have been argued thatmost technologies fail to adequately address the real needs of teachers in classrooms."[They] become the media of choice not because they were deemed to be the best butbecause they were available at the time" (McMahan & Dawson, 1995).

We can ask ourselves the following questions: Is the internet's role in instruction any different? Will computer-mediated technologies deliver more than earlier technologies?


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Anatomy of

online

courses

How is the

WWW a

learningenvironment?

Lets see if we can find the responses here.

There is an already recognized fact that the need for educationalexperiences is rapidly growing. Previously there was a sense ofaudience as a market segment. However one major impact of theInternet is that neatly packaged target markets do not presentthemselves. Passions for and uses of learning grow in a way thathas little to do with demographics. Therefore the flexibility providedby the educators becomes especially important and the newmeaning of access to education is quite individual enablingindividuals in making their own decisions regarding their private andpublic lives.

In its capacity as a tool, Internet is but a ripple on the surface of oureducational institutions. In its capacity as intellectual challenge, it iswithout precedent in the educational history of mankind. Theimportance of Internet in education, particularly using its Web is awell-recognized fact. A wealth of resources and techniques nowexist which serve as a source both for exciting examples of newteaching practices, as well as easily accessible methods foradoption into various formats of teaching and learning. Internettechnology allow teachers and students keep up with their minds. Itlet them try their ideas as soon as they come up with them.

Generally, students appreciate the convenience, choice, andflexibility that an online courses offers. Instructional designers valuethe standardized framework and flexibility. Many instructors believethat an online course is convenient; they applaud the ease of recordkeeping and the reduced travel. Administrators like the idea of

automated, consistent assessment information and the reducedcosts that it can bring to an education institution.Web-based learning can be a flexible and cost-effective alternativeto classroom learning, but it can also be a colossal waste of timeand money if not implemented correctly. One of the biggest issuesfacing universities wading into online learning is interactivity, both inits level and mode. How can the instructor make Web-basedteaching more interactive? How can the instructor create a virtualclassroom environment that maximizes participation? Just whatconstitutes 'interactivity' is hardly clear for some instructors. Tosome people, it means enabling learners and instructors to shareideas in a virtual chat room; to others, merely posting a question on

a bulletin board qualifies as interactivity. Despite the popularconception of the Internet as our most interactive medium, on thegreat majority of Web-based courses the interaction all goes in onedirection. Students interest, motivation, questioning, and interactionmust be on display throughout the learning process

The content of an online course is usually identical to the on-campus classes, but the delivery method is different. Instead of


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The following are the minimum required characteristics to complete a course work at adistance successfully. Do they match the ones you are proposing?

Seriousness:Online classes are not for goof-offs who seek easycredits. Virtual students should expect to spend at least as muchtime on homework as those in traditional courses.

Self-Disciplined: It is up to students to budget their time and keepup with assignments. They must create -- and stick to -- their ownschedules.

Self-reliance: The ability to independently solve problems or toresearch information is needed. Questions can be answered by e-mail, but that takes time.

Careful Reading Skills:Because classroom lectures are replacedprimarily by written words, students need to be careful andthoughtful readers.

Computer Skills: Students must be comfortable using computersand the Internet. They must become Netizens (Net Citizens). Thatincludes e-mail, Web browsing, downloading, and word processing.Online learning enables you to extract information from differenttypes of resources anytime, anywhere.No one need be ashamed of what he or she does not know or howlong it takes to master new information. Learning on the Web can benonjudgmental and self-paced. Using advantages of this technology

to expand learning opportunities is particularly crucial, because welive in a time when learning is becoming a necessity, not a luxury.

Answer these questions:

Is the WWW a learning environment available for your students? Explain your answer.

How are courses different when a WWW environment is included?

What are the characteristics an online student should have in order to complete the web-based tasks successfully?

Documents

Week 4-Reading Passage