Monday, April 20, 2009

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Posting 6 -BLOG QUESTIONNAIRE-SKBP 1023



1. Do you enjoy blogging?
Yes of course! I really enjoy blogging because I can gain lots of information, knowledge and also I can share my opinions, stories, experiences and a little bit of information with many people.


2. Based on your experience what is the benefit of blogging?
Actually there are lots of benefits. One example from my experience is that, we can think, reflect, and create language slowly for a real-life audience.


3. Do you need more assistance to set up your blog?
Yes, I really do need assistance to set up my blog especially in multimedia. For example I wanted to add some graphic I mean moving graphic but I don’t know how to and I wanted to change my layout but again I don’t know how to change it because I’m afraid that I’ll lost everything I wrote and did if I change the layout because one of my friend experienced it.


4. Do you have any memorable/favorite topic in your blog?
Yes I do. My memorable topic in my blog is my fourth posting which I shared my experience at the conference and also the presentation during the conference. I gain a lot of information about the “Bridging the Digital Divide” and also a little bit about blogging.


5. List 5 advantages of blogging for you
*Blogs provide a practice environment where we can think, reflect, and create language slowly for a real-life audience in other words we can improve and enhance our writing skill.
*Blogs provide lots of information and sources.
*Blogs a superb way of sharing my knowledge, experiences and also blogs are a great way to communicate.
*Blogs can improve my language by sharing and exchange opinions, ideas and thoughts.
*Blogs can be used as a diary.


6. List 5 disadvantages of blogging
*Most people are unable to write down their ideas because, as for some people, when they write they need a pen where when they touch the pen or pencil the ideas on writing something will ‘pop-up’.
*Blogging is easy to start but it’s hard for us to maintain.


7. Will you continue blogging after the course?
Absolutely! I will continue blogging after the course because I find blogging is very interesting and I like sharing ideas, opinions, experiences, thoughts and etc with others.


8. Do you think that blogging improve your writing?
Yes, by blogging, I think I have improve my writing besides it’s reducing my fear to write compared to before.


9. Do you think that we should continue with blogging activity for the next batch of students?
Of course! I think this blogging activity should be continued for the next batch of students because this activity will help and encourage them to write.


10. Will you recommend your friend to blog?
Absolutely!


11. Can you teach a friend to set up his or her blog?
Of course! I’ll help my friends to set up their blog.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Posting 5- CONCORDANCE

Concordance- Listing of Kewords in Contexts (KWIC),the list of words appear with their
immediate contexts.
Concordancer- A tool or a program (software) that helps to list the words in contexts.
Concordancing- The act of doing the concordance.

A concordancer is a computer program which is used to find the occurrences of every single word or phrase in a text. A concordance is the nucleus of corpus linguistics because it reveals many facts about the language and its patterns show how a language system works when it is analyzed. A corpus is defined as a collection of naturally-occurring language text, chosen to characterize a state or variety of a language.

What is it used for?
*Creating indexes and word list
*Analyzing word frequencies
*Comparing different usages of the same word
*Analyzing keywords
*Find phrase and idioms
*Publish to web

Language Learning

For learner in language learning they can use concordance as an Error Analysis. A guided use of the concordance by the learner is in error analysis and correction. In this activity, the teacher indicates errors in student writing which can be investigated and corrected with the help of the concordance. This is a good activity to begin concordancing with, as it gives learners specific language items to investigate, but at the same time allows them to work out how their use of language differs from that of the concordanced material. Besides that concordance also act as Serendipity Learning.The easiest, most obvious and most autonomous learner application of concordancing is to allow learners to use the concordance as and when they wish for whatever purposes they wish, This type of usage has been referred to as ‘‘serendipity learning’’ (Johns, 1988). Learner decides to look at some examples of the present progressive. This newly acquired awareness perhaps leads the learner to look up these other uses in a grammar book or to ask the teacher about them. Example of serendipity learning, here a student starts by browsing down word frequency list, which most concordancers provide this be rather like browsing the pages of dictionary. The student notices that the word experience, which had been learned as a non-count noun and occurs in the plural as well as in the singular form.

Language Teachers

Concordance is also important to language teachers as a linguistic informant. One important application is to use the concordance as a resource tool to inform teacher appreciation of linguistic usage. A study of the syntactic patterns of the concordance lines would indicate how many connectors are typically not used in sentence or clause but commonly occur following the subject. For example, suppose this time a teaching wanted to refresh his/her memory on the use of ‘for’ and ‘since’. Concordances of the two words would quickly reveal that for typically followed by a period (for three years…) while since is followed by a point in time (since 1987…) Another benefit fot teacher is that concordance plays an important role as a source of input for teaching. In using the concordance as a source of input for teaching, teachers can generate authentic instances of usage to present to students when teaching a particular language point. Thus, for example, when teaching the contrasting uses of the present progressive and the present perfect tenses, instead of teachers trusting to their intuitions and making up examples to illustrate contrasting uses, these can be derived from a concordance. Similarly, in presenting new vocabulary, concordance can provide examples of authentic contextualized language. For example, if a student is having difficulty with distinctions of meaning involving the modals can and could, the teacher can call up instances of usage of these two modal forms and by means of the examples conduct an analysis of the differences. Besides that, concordance is also important as input for Materials Development. It means that, one potential problem with using concordance directly as described above is that not all of the examples might be appropriate for teaching purposes. This is where an advantage to be had in preparing concordance-based teaching materials in advance. For examples, inappropriate examples can be deleted or all of the examples illustrating one particular usage of a word can be grouped together. This sort of editing can be easily be done by converting the concordance file into a word processing format.

Therefore, the presence of the concordancer made it possible for the teacher to provide authentic examples of a certain language structure with speed. The teacher, in this approach, acted as a facilitator rather than as a know-all. The mistakes made by the students can help the teacher to focus on specific issues in future lessons. Besides that, concordance is also very useful and helpful to language learners especially learners like us=)

Here are links for you to explore further...
http://www.iatefl.org.pl/call/j_soft23.htm
http://www.melta.org.my/ET/1999/main6.html

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Greenhouse

Do you know what a greenhouse is? Well, a greenhouse, as we all know, is a building made of glass used for growing plants. The roof and walls of the greenhouse are made of glass. I will explain how the greenhouse effect is brought about. Sunlight can easily pass through the transparent roof and walls of the greenhouse. The sunlight then strikes the objects inside the greenhouse. Examples of these objects are plants, flower pots and tables. Now all these objects absorb energy in the form of heat. These objects become warmer and they give off heat. Most of the heat energy is trapped inside the greenhouse. Only a little of the heat energy escapes or passes through the glass. As a result, the temperature inside the greenhouse is raised. This is the reason why we will feel mush warmer inside a greenhouse than outside in the open air. Now, let us turn our attention to the earth. It is also acts like a greenhouse but on a very much larger scale. As the sun shines on the earth, solar energy from the sun passes through the atmosphere that surrounds our planet. The atmosphere is a mixture of gases around the earth. It is like the glass of a greenhouse. After passing through the atmosphere, solar energy strikes the surface of the earth and warms up the oceans, land and all the things on earth.
Then, the warmed surface of the earth gives off energy in the form of heat. The heat that is trapped in the atmosphere keeps the earth warm and makes life on the planet possible. The greenhouse effect will leads to the global warming. What is global warming? Global warming is an increase in the temperature throughout the world caused by the heat energy trapped around the earth. When global temperature increases, it will lead to many problems. So, we have to do something to prevent all these from happen. If pollution still continues to affect the environment, then our earth will be threatened. Therefore, we must do our best to prevent pollution and to preserve the environment.
Bisphenol A (BPA)

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical widely used in common plastic products, such as baby bottles, children’s toys, and the linings of most food and beverage cans. Many scientific studies including the largest study of BPA ever conducted on humans have found links between
BPA and serious health problems, from heart disease, diabetes and liver abnormalities in adults to developmental problems in the brains and hormonal systems of children.BPA is widely use in so many products we use every day, so it is probably impossible to completely eliminate your exposure to this potentially harmful chemical. But still, you can lower your exposure and your risk of possible health problems associated with BPA by taking a few simple precautions.
Here are a few tips to help you lower your exposure to BPA:

· Eat Fewer Canned Foods
The easiest way to lower your intake of BPA is to stop eating so many foods that come into contact with the chemical. Eat fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, which usually have more nutrients and fewer preservatives than canned foods, and taste better, too.

· Choose Cardboard and Glass Containers Over Cans
Highly acidic foods, such as tomato sauce and canned pasta, leach more BPA from the lining of cans, so it’s best to choose brands that come in glass containers. Soups, juices and other foods packaged in cardboard cartons made of layers of aluminum and polyethylene plastic (labeled with a number 2 recycling code) are safer than cans with plastic linings containing BPA.

· Don't Microwave Polycarbonate Plastic Food Containers
Polycarbonate plastic, which is used in packaging for many microwaveable foods, may break down at high temperatures and release BPA. Although manufacturers are not required to say whether a product contains BPA, polycarbonate containers that do are usually marked with a number 7 recycling code on the bottom of the package.

· Choose Plastic or Glass Bottles for Beverages
Canned juice and soda often contain some BPA, especially if they come in cans lined with BPA-laden plastic. Glass or plastic bottles are safer choices. For portable water bottles, stainless steel is best, but most disposable plastic water bottles do not contain BPA. Those that do are usually marked with a number 7 recycling code.

· Turn Down the Heat
For hot foods and liquids, switch to glass or porcelain containers, or stainless steel containers without plastic liners.

· Use Baby Bottles That Are BPA-Free
As a general rule, hard, clear plastic contains BPA while soft or cloudy plastic does not. Most major manufacturers now offer baby bottles made without BPA.

· Practice Moderation
The fewer canned foods and beverages you consume, the less your exposure to BPA, but you don’t have to cut out canned foods altogether to reduce your exposure and lower your potential health risks. In addition to eating less canned food overall, limit your intake of canned foods that are high in BPA.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Posting-4 Conference 'Bridging The Digital Divide'


SEMINAR KEBANGSAAN E-KOMUNITI 2009
MERAPATKAN JURANG DIGITAL: MASYARAKAT BERPENGETAHUAN, MODEL MALAYSIA.

18 of March 2009

The conference was at Darby Park Hotel! hehe.. I really enjoy it!!! I mean really really really enjoy it you know (obviously you can see it from the picture hehe)... I get to meet all the 'big' i mean important people like Prof, Dr. and etc, from many kinds of states, universities and so on. I also gain a lot of information and knowledge and learn new things that i need to learn, you know... It's a very memorible moment for me. And I also get to meet Dr. Ali Salman (a faoreigner who can speak Malay very well) one of the presenter from UKM who was very kind and friendly, too bad I did'nt get the chance to be at his presentation. During the conference, I was very intersted in Dato Jailani Johari's (from SKMM- Suruhanjaya Komunikasi Multimedia Malaysia) presentation with the tittle Bridging The Digital Divide, SKMM Perspective. USP & Digital Divide is a mechanism for reducing the digital divide. Their target, by 2010, 50% of penetration in Malaysia. The BDD effort is to tackle 3 main side which are infrastructure, services and sustainability. The USP objective is to provide communication access to target undeserved area, localities and etc. Undeserved area is an area where the penetration rate for fixed and undeserved localities is where the application services are not sufficienty available to the community at large. From 2002 t0 2008 they've done and still doing some USP Projects ( 40000 individuals lines!). One of them is the Basic Telephony 2002-2007 which is to provide collective and individual telecommunicative and cellular voice communication. Another example of the USP Projects is the Pilot Project which is to provide communication towers along the East-West Highway. He also mention about the Universal Service in rural and sub rural area where they provide Public cellular service, Broadband Community Application and Collective Telephony Access. Until now there's 1250 towers nationwide of Basic Telephony (Fixed and Cellular), 1105 mukim with Community Broadband Center (CBC) one mukim one CBC with 278 CBC nationwide and Community Broadband Library (CBL) with 152 CBL nationwide (one supervisor among local community. Their target Groups is 36 OKU centers. They will provide assitive technology and facilities (consult the center) for people with disabilities. All in all there are of course issues within it, The policy-uniformity of telecenter models, Location- site acquisition site suitability, land power etc, Critical Infostructure- content develpoment, community involvement and sustainability-local champion, expert, trainer and so on.
Another presentation during the conference was about the Rural Communities' Information Needs. Their target is to identify the market from the community and the participitation from the community. To them, before launching any ICT initiative, the information needs of a community should be throughly accessed. The problem statement is that 85% of the population in the state of Kedah resides in the rural areas. This place is very low in terms of computer usage, basic IT knowledge and skill, do not aware about the existance of online application, do not have interested in using ICT and online application. The field of works around here are Fishery, Paddy, Palm- Oil and Rubber. Throughout their finding the percentage of information obtained is lower than information acquired by the community. It means that the community need more information. All in all, the community need more information associated to business, ICT, planning and execution. Besides that, they need more value added ICT programs to be carried out for the specific target groups to expose them to more information that can help them to improve their socio-economic And also provide more ICT access center at the rural areas communities.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Posting-3 About The Search Engine

mamma.com
Mamma.com is a site owned and operated by Copernic Inc. (formerly known as Mamma.com Inc.). Mamma.com is a "smart" metasearch engine where when every time you type in a query Mamma simultaneously searches a variety of engines, directories, and deep content sites, properly formats the words and syntax for each, compiles their results in a virtual database, eliminates duplicates, and displays them in a uniform manner according to relevance. It's like using multiple search engines, all at the same time. Mamma also allows users to use advanced operators and is capable of turning our search partners on or off, depending on whether or not they support the operator in use. This is why we call it a smart metasearch tool.


google.com
Google does not only for website article, web search but it also allows users to search the Web for images (Google Image search engine), helping users find pictures, photos, help users find news, products, and other content like language tools, maps, video, have calculators and many more. If we want to find definition we don’t have to go to merriam webster dictionary we can just get it straight away on google.

yahoo.com
Yahoo! Search helps users find information, news, images, products, local services, and answers from around the Web. Just like google yahoo also help users find products, and other content like maps,video, have calculators and many more.

ericdigest.org
This site provides one way to access the ERIC Digests (education articles) produced by the former ERIC Clearinghouse system. This web:-
-Provides short reports (1,000 - 1,500 words) on topics of prime current interest in education. There are a large variety of topics covered including teaching, learning, libraries, charter schools, special education, higher education, home schooling, and many more.
-Targeted specifically for teachers, administrators, policymakers, and other practitioners, but generally useful to the broad educational community.
-Designed to provide an overview of information on a given topic, plus references to items providing more detailed information.
-Produced by the former 16 subject-specialized ERIC Clearinghouses, and reviewed by experts and content specialists in the field.
-Funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), of the U.S. Department of Education (ED).
-The full-text ERIC Digest database contains over 3000 Digests with the latest updates being added to this site in July 2005

Similarities
From what I can see is that yahoo and google are almost the same pertaining their content and so on. There are so many similarities between these two. For example both webs provide email account for the users. Users can exchange data and of course email and many more. There is also what we call a “chat room” for users to straight away chat with others, for yahoo we call it yahoo messenger. Besides that, mamma, yahoo and google are similar because these three web are search engine web. And these four web are similar in terms of educational information. For example, all of these four web we can search for article pertaining education.


Differences
There are of course differences in these four webs. Mamma.com is a metasearch engine which ables to gather the best search results available from top search sources and to provide useful tools to its users and has resulted in its receiving multiple Honourable Mentions in the Best Metasearch category in the annual SearchEngine Watch Awards. Besides that, mamma (metasearch) results are more comprehensive compare to "regular" search engines (yahoo and google); catalogue anywhere from 0.5% to 30% of Web pages available online; by combining results from multiple sources the pool of web pages is greatly increased. In addition, metasearch engines are less prone to spammy results, since most spammers target one particular search site only, in their aim to achieve top ranking on it. They can't, however, target all search engines, and so spam tends to get pushed down in the results of a metasearch engine. Another difference between these four web is that mamma, yahoo and google are search engine web whereas ericdigest is not a search engine web.


All in all, all of these webs are actually very useful and we can easily comprise the information.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Posting 2- Blogging


The Art of Blogging
Overview, Definitions, Uses, and Implications
George Siemens December 1, 2002
Uses for blogging
As an emerging tool, blogging uses have still not been completely explored. Some current uses:
*Knowledge sharing and knowledge management - see Bottoms Up KM Development
*Customer service - see Blogging Goes Corporate
*Interactive journalism - see Instapundit
*Communication
*Self-expression
*Learning - see SchoolBlogs
*Self-marketing
*Campaigning/social reform - see Tara Grubb
*Community building
*Experience tracking - A K-log Pilot Recap
*Storytelling - see Grassroots KM Through Blogging
Most common uses for blogging are personal and, considering its origins as a personal web publishing forum, this makes sense. Emerging uses promise opportunities in corporations and education. Further application will also be realized as existing uses (communication, learning, knowledge management, interactive journalism, etc.) are adopted by various industries - notably entertainment, health care, government...........
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/blogging_part_1.htm- you can visit this website for the full article.
Other link that related to blogging:
As we may know and what we have learned in our class and tutorial, blogging offers powerful opportunities for online collaboration for both language professionals and learners. It may provide a practice environment where we can think, reflect, and create language slowly for a real-life audience in other words we can improve and enhance our writing skill. Again as our lecturer mention, blogging is valued as a pedagogical tool appears to be in its authentic, interesting and communicative nature. Of course we will use hypertext, to connect to what others have written on a topic or to resources on the Web, this then provide us with lots of information and sources. Blog entries are normally followed by a comment button, allowing readers to write a reaction, which is then logged and linked, along with all other comments, into the original text, thus making us improve our language by sharing and exchange ideas and thoughts. Besides that, by including videos, sound, photographs and links blogs can be interactive and colourful, also by that it will attract us to read and the most important is that we will be motivated on continuing doing the blog. What I like most is that when we are blogging, our teacher or lecturer can see when and what we write and they can provide us with feedbacks via comments linked to our post thus we will improve our writing skill. All in all, by blogging we can improve and enhance our writing skill step by step=). We just have to keep on learning!!!=)
These are some blogs that I find interesting and I like to visit.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Posting 1- Reading for Information and Pleasure!

I wouldn't say he's stupid, but...

Ways to Describe Someone as Stupid

1) A few clowns short of a circus.
2) A few fries short of a happy meal.
3) The wheel's spinning, but the hamster's dead.
4) The butter has slipped off his pancake.
5) The cheese slid off his cracker.
6) Body by Fisher, brains by Mattel.
7) Warning: Objects in mirror are dumber than they appear.
8) Couldn't pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel.
9) As smart as bait.
10) Her sewing machine's out of thread.
11) One Fruit Loop shy of a full bowl.
12) Her antenna doesn't pick up all the channels.
13) His belt doesn't go through all the loops.
14) Proof that evolution CAN go in reverse.
15) Receiver is off the hook.
16) Not wired to code.
17) Skylight leaks a little.
18) Her slinky's kinked.
19) Too much yardage between the goal posts.
20) Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thingy to hold them together.
21) A photographic memory, but the lens cover is on.
22) During evolution his ancestors were in the control group.
23) Gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn't coming.
24) If brains were taxed, he'd get a rebate.
25) Standing close to her, you can hear the ocean.
26) Some drink from the fountain of knowledge, but he just gargled.
27) One sandwich short of a picnic.
28) Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
29) One of her DuraCells is in upside down.
30) His elevator doesn't stop at all the floors.


http://www.webenglishteacher.com/stupid.html


Since I was a kid until now I really, I mean really, really hate the word STUPID and also people who use that word. For me it’s such a rude and mean word. Don’t you think so? Besides using the synonym of STUPID for example dim, thick, slow, dull, unintelligent and so on, I’ve been searching through the internet and I found this. It’s really surprising that there are a lot of other words/phrases or should I say idioms, perhaps figure of speech would be better, that are more ‘polite’ to be used. Besides using not clever, dense, numb and so on these phrases are very interesting, fun and funny. This is why besides reading it for information; I also read it for pleasure. For example, ‘a photographic memory but the lens cover is on’ and another one is ‘her antenna doesn't pick up all the channels’. I find it funny and ‘cute’. Cute as if the person is not knowing things (‘blur’) and that particular person looks cute. Its good information you know. So people out there who like to and always use STUPID, there’s always other options for you guys to convey the meaning of this word. Just have a look at http://www.webenglishteacher.com/stupid.html for a lot more words and phrase. You can also ‘dig through’ the main web http://www.webenglishteacher.com and go to ‘Just For Fun’ link. There is a collection of jokes, puns, parodies and other fun stuff and even activities that you can do. Most are humorous and show different aspects of English at play. Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

LEARNING ENGLISH VIA ESL WEBSITE

This URL provides resources for teachers and also for learners (link to IB). Includes lesson plans (for the activities in the classroom), more than a thousand classroom activities contributed by teachers. There are also video, puzzles, jokes(they provide English article for fun) and criticism (educators can take advantage of online technology to share ideas and to benefit from the work of others, beginning teachers can find guidance; experienced teachers can find inspiration). This website is suitable for teachers of course and also for students because it helps them a lot with all the information and guidance. Other links, media- they can learn how to be particular on searching information, journalism- teaches editing and writing. Interdisciplinary Resources such as Art, Family and Consumer Science, Health, math music science Web design, give a lot of information and benefits. Overall the website is kind of boring to see but after we went through it, it has a lot of information and benefits. So people, you should try and have a look; don’t judge a book by its cover!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Computer Assisted Writing using Word Processor



There are many features in Word Processor that can give you benefits throughout your writing. But there are also disadvantages in using Word Processor. Here are some advantages and disadvantages that I found out writing using Word Processor.
There are some added values in using word processor in writing. In view of time saving, it saves a lot of our time. As for me, I am quite familiar with computer so typing using keyboard is not a barrier. Besides, using all the features in it can also save our time. For example, we don’t have cut pictures and glue and we have to wait for it to dry and so on. It is not just that, it will also make our work tidy. We can write proper in term of our hand writing and the task that we do. I mean like I mention earlier, if we paste a picture our work will be quite messy because of the glue and so on. Beside that, all this features are in one processor which you can simply use it without making yourself difficult. There are also lots of facilities in this word processor. For example, word count, you can use it to count how many words are there in your writing. You don’t have to count it one by one, I mean manually. There is also Flesch Kincaid Grade Level which can check our grade level according to the native speaker. We can check our spelling and grammar besides using the thesaurus which you can try and observe how easy you can search and use different word choice. Actually there are many more features, these are few. You’ll know if you explore more.
Despite all the advantages, there must be some disadvantages right? Well I found out some and from our discussion in the tutorial, writing using word processor it’s going to a double work. This is because when we use word processor we still have to use the paper right? We have to print and then submit. It is not just that, we also will lose our identity which we will not show our personality. This is because through our hand writing we can see all these characters. As for some people, when they write they need a pen where when they touch the pen or pencil the ideas on writing something will ‘pop-up’. Beside that, you have forgotten the fundamental of writing. Usually we need to brainstorm first before we write for example, do a mind map or draft. This way our writing will be more well-organized and efficient.
All in all, writing using word processor has its advantages and disadvantages. You just need to know how to use it effectively.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

BlAcK aNd WhiTe

Black and white.......

It's just like our life you know. Sometimes there are sweet memories and sometimes there are bitter memories. There are so much things that we've been through and only we know what we've been through right??... Black resembles the bitterness and white represents the sweetness. Also black for the darkness in our life and white is vice versa........
Anyhow, I love my life... hehe..