“Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy in the Saudi EFL Classrooms”

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. During the 1990's a new group of cognitive psychologists, lead by Lorin Anderson (a former student of Bloom), updated the taxonomy to reflect relevance to 21st century work.With the dramatic changes in society over the last five decades, the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy provides an even more powerful tool to fit today's
teachers' needs for enhancing the critical thinking of thier students.

In our Saudi schools ,Bloom's Texonomy is not  well evident in sitting learning objectives.Teachers tend to use the lower level of that texonomy which is remembering.Bloom's texonomy is necessary for teachers to use it in their classrooms ,it is important that teachers do not just teach lower order thinking skills at the bottom of Blooms Taxonomy such as knowledge and comprehension, but also teach higher order thinking skills at the top of blooms taxonomy such as synthesis and evaluation.
I think Bloom's Texonomy is important for me as a teacher to improve my students' achievment by moving from one level to another for example from understanding to analysing ,it is not necessoray at the same order.When students are using the higher order thinking skills they are more likely to retain information, perform better on standardized tests, and most importantly, achieve the ultimate goal of becoming lifelong learners.

 

Evaluating websites

 

 

 

 

 

We have chosen this website to evaluate it http://www.anglomaniacy.pl. It is an educational and entertainment website in that you can enjoy while learning English, also there is a Polish version of the same website. The purpose of this website is for children to learn English in an interesting and easy way at anytime also teachers can use it while teaching their students . In the content of that website you can find picture dictionaries, basic English vocabulary, grammar for kids, online word games, tests, songs, printable worksheets, resources for ESL teachers and parents. It is presented in an attractive way that children and teachers will liked it. The website includes a lot of links that lead to effective activities and games which facilitated the learning process. This website is provide the language in an attractive and interesting way ,encourage kids and help them to learn English by the activities and songs . It connects English with kids' interests. The goals of this website is to build young learners vocabulary and develop their reading skills,  also helping children to develop their grammar skills. This website provide free online activities that introduce young learners to basic English vocabulary . It offers a variety of vocabulary games for young ESL learners, including hangman games, matching games, spelling games, word search puzzles and guessing games. This website contain also online activities that can help children develop their grammar skills. online tests and quizzes that give children an opportunity to revise what they have learnt with the help of the website .It uses simplified language that kids can easily understand , also it is organized very well.The website can be improved by putting more pictures, videos, and develop the design to make it more attractive.At the end of evaluating this website we have found many specifications because of the combination of learning and having fun at the same time but still it need to improved.

 

 

By:Peace Group

Wordle in EDU 401

The role of WebQuests in learning a foreign/second language

 

 

 

 

At each class of this course I learned so many things which I have never heard about it before that  such as" WebQuest" .

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web .These can be created using various programs, including a simple word processing document that includes links to websites. This means it is a classroom-based lesson in which most or all of the information that students explore and evaluate comes from the World Wide Web. The emphasis throughout will be on technology uses which place language learners in the role of active participants and the teacher in that of facilitator.

One of the main features of any WebQuest is that students tackle questions that prompt higher level thinking. Certainly, the Web can be used as a source for simple information retrieval, but this misses its power and short-changes students. In WebQuests students take on roles within a small student group and this tends to promote motivation. In addition, because the WebQuest targets learning about large, complex or controversial topics, it's probably not realistic to expect each student to master all of its aspects.

inquiry-based learning, and especially learning through WebQuest activities can be a good means of collaboration among students in a class. Multiple teams in a class can be working on the same question that the WebQuest poses. However, the nature of collaboration can lead to different outcomes, depending on the interactions among the group members.

Webquest is one of the new ways in technology that I will use it when I become a teacher one day.I think students in Saudi Arabia are developing very fast these days and they should learn how to use Webquest in their learning because it will benefit them so much. I think now is the time to change our traditional way in teaching .

 

“How would English language teachers use blogs, wikis and delicious with their students?”

Wiki:

 

A wiki is a website which allows its users to add, modify, or delete its content via a web browser usually using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor .Wikis are powered by wiki software. Most are created collaboratively.it is a great tool to use it while teaching English .I can divided the class into groups and give every group a task to do .For example ,to write a summary about what they understand on the lesson. The best summary of the lesson will get a prize.

 

Blogs:

 Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows private or multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. It was created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003. Actually I will use this tool with my student to check their writing skills and their grammars .for instance, after a grammar class I will ask them to answer questions related to what we done in the class also to write their comments about the lesson.

 

Delicious:

 Delicious is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. The site was founded by Joshua Schachter in 2003 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. By the end of 2008, the service claimed more than 5.3 million users and 180 million unique bookmarked URLs. With this tool, I will ask my students to put URLs that related to the lesson .Also I will ask them to put links every week related to the subject.

 

The technology is  very useful ,but we should know how to use it.

The Possiblity of Reaching Bax’s Normilasation in our national contex

 

 

   Stephen Bax in his article " CALL—past, present and future" ,divided the progress of CALL into three parts in order to answer the questions. In part one " where has CALL been?",at this part he talked about the past of CALL and the three phases of CALL , the first, Behaviouristic CALL, is perhaps the most plausible and would attract most agreement. But the other two 'communicative "and "integrative" categories are far less satisfactory . In the second part " where is CALL now?",he talked about the role for CALL at the present time and how it looks like nowadays. In the third and final Part " where is CALL going? Integrated CALL and normalization" ,he argued that ,"Our aim should be to attain a state of `normalisation' in which the technology is invisible and truly integrated". In this he have the future view that we can come at a level of using technology as a part of our life and we cannot recognized it like a pen or anything else in our daily life. He suggests three ways to achieve normalisation which (a) we must identify the criteria factors, (b)we must review the practice of each teaching context and (c) we must encourage the normalisation by adjusting the existing practices .Also he suggests stages of normalisation in CALL: Early Adopters ,Ignorance/skepticism ,try once, Try again, ,Fear ,normalising ,and normalisation.

 

   Normalisation in our Saudi context is possible because KSA is developing very fast , you can see the difference between nowadays and before five years ,you will recognizes the big difference between them in the field of using technology. I think these days are the best time to change our minds also to change our believing in technology to reach Bax’s  Normilasation .I will suggest some ways to achieve it:

-They should give teachers  some courses on how to use technology in class rooms.

-They should reinforce schools with technology devices.

-Also they can give students courses on how to deal with technology.