Friday, 6 September 2013
Sunday, 18 August 2013
22. E-PORTFOLIO USING SOCIAL MEDIA
Interactive
Learning
E-PORTFOLIO
USING SOCIAL MEDIA
ASSIGNMENT SPECIFICATIONS
THE “WHAT”
Building
an e-portfolio is a valued added component of Misty's tutorial
group sessions. The primary part of the e-portfolio is an individual blog that
you will create as a home-base for your ES1102 writing. The core of that
writing will be responses to the course writing assignments and subsequent interaction
about those with your instructor and classmates.
An
additional aspect of the e-portfolio is your interaction via the course Facebook
page. We have a general ES1102 course Facebook page (please “like” ES1102
Issues & Interactions). You should visit this site regularly, using it
to ask questions and give opinions and as a platform for sharing relevant video
and text links with classmates as often as possible. We will refer to the blogs
and the Facebook page in class.
THE “WHY”
Blogging, as you may
know, is a form of self-publishing, online. Once a writer has set up a weblog,
or blog, he or she can post on a variety of topics and receive
feedback from anyone with an Internet connection. This can be useful when
writing is shared within a particular community, whether a special interest
group, class or any other blogging group. In ES1102, blogging will serve as a
way for you to
- reflect on course content in
writing in a formal and semi-formal manner;
- develop and share your ideas with
an audience that is not limited to your instructor;
- learn about the ideas of your
classmates and your tutor;
- comment on the ideas of others; and
- refine your writing skills.
Your various
interactions with the course Facebook page, ES1102
Issues & Interactions (https://www.facebook.com/Es1102CELCNUS) or Misty's Facebook page (MistyCook NUS),
which you should friend, and within Misty's blog, where you
and your peers will park your individual blogs, have the general objective of
- allowing you to connect with
classmates and your instructor outside of class;
- encouraging you to ask questions,
give opinions and share information;
- and helping you better understand
the role of social media in shaping effective communication within the
academic community.
THE “HOW” of Blogging and Facebook
1.
Setting
up a blog
- To create your own blog website,
go to http://www.blogger.com/,
www.wordpress.com
or any other blog site. At these sites, follow
the instructions to create your own site. To make your site recognizable to
classmates, your site address could have your given name and family name
(or nickname).
- Once you have created a blog for
our course, within that, you can eventually begin to post responses
to assignments. The title of your course-related blog might
be something like “EAP” or “ES1102.”
- Eventually, send your blog address
to me and to the classmates. They will post links to your blog and that of
other classmates on their own blog.
2.
Blogging
groups/blogging buddies
In your ES1102
class/tutorial group, you will be assigned a blogging group of 4-6
members at the start of the semester. For every written post that you make, you
should read and respond to the posts of at least two members of this blogging
group. The purpose of this is for you and your blogging group members to share
written ideas with each other. In this way, you might also develop greater
familiarity with each other and assist each other in creating the most
appropriate and effective posts possible. A second purpose is for this smaller
class group to have an opportunity to demonstrate the skills needed to become a
cohesive social unit.
3. The four-stage blogging process
- Stage One: Having setting up your blog, read the blog assignment for the
first post (see schedule on the course website), and write a response of
150 to 200 words, preferably as a word document. Later you can copy and
paste this doc into the new post section of your blog.
- Stage Two: Publish your post on your blog by
the assigned date.
- Stage Three: Access
the blogs of at least two other members of your blogging group, and
read their posts for the same topic/assignment. After
reading each post, leave a comment.
In your commentary, you might answer questions such as these:
What do you think about the post? Is the language clear? How about the content?
Is the content impressive or not? Is it related directly to the assignment? Is the content clear, concise, coherent, cohesive? Is the answer complete? Are you in agreement or disagreement with any opinions stated? Is the writer courteous (and are you)?
Once you have reacted to the posts of at least two members of your blogging group, you can visit and comment on the blogs of other classmates.
A necessary condition for an assessment
of excellent in the Interaction
portion of your course grade is that you read and react in writing to at least
a total of three classmates’ posts per blog assignment.
Pay close attention to your language use. Remember, a blog is a form of publishing, and when and if you present your ideas in public, it is advisable to present them in a clear, grammatically accurate fashion. You should also use a tone that, while not as formal as that of a formal letter or official written report, should still adhere to standards for courtesy, correctness, conciseness, clarity, coherence/cohesion, concreteness and completeness, the so-called 7Cs of good writing.
Pay close attention to your language use. Remember, a blog is a form of publishing, and when and if you present your ideas in public, it is advisable to present them in a clear, grammatically accurate fashion. You should also use a tone that, while not as formal as that of a formal letter or official written report, should still adhere to standards for courtesy, correctness, conciseness, clarity, coherence/cohesion, concreteness and completeness, the so-called 7Cs of good writing.
- Stage Four: Return to your post to see what commentary has been left.
Follow that up, if you like, with comments back to your readers.
4.
Facebook
Please “friend” ES1102 Issues & Encounters or “friend” MistyCookNUS Facebook Page. Interact
here by posting links to relevant websites, with video and written information
on any course-related topic. Also, whenever you post, please write a one or two
sentence explanation of what you are posting.
FEEDBACK
There is formal assessment of your e-portfolio.
I will give you feedback with a focus on your blog posts' content &
organization, your language use, the timeliness of your posting and the manner
and frequency of your comments on classmates' posts.
While your interactions with Facebook in the
course are also viewed by me and others, evaluation is less analytical (in
short, more holistic). The focus is on how you make an effort to ask questions,
search for relevant video and text sources to share, and then view/read and
comment on the links provided by others, are able to value add to the course
discussions by their effort. Strictly speaking, this may not add up to points
for a mark, but it will certainly advance your learning, and it will warm your
tutor's heart!
BLOGGING
ASSIGNMENTS
I. Assignment
1: Due by the end of Week 2/Tutorial
#1
Write an analytically reflective post of 150
to 200 words on the topic “My English Language Learning Journey” or “Living in
A Globalized World: The Importance of English for Me,” or an instructor-approved
variation of one of these topics.
II. Assignment
2: E-learning Week 5/(Tutorial #1)
would like to summarize. Once you have read
through it for general
comprehension,
read through it again for detail, pulling out the author’s thesis, the
main ideas and
the supporting ideas.
2. Arrange the ideas that you
have extracted from the reading and arrange them using
any one of the models for a graphic
organizer.
3. Write a 150-200 word summary based on the
information you have distilled from the
reading. Post this on your blog by Monday afternoon of E-learning Week.
reading. Post this on your blog by Monday afternoon of E-learning Week.
III.
Assignment 3: Due within 24 hours of
the end of Week 6/Tutorial #1
Using what you have learned during the first
tutorial of Week 6 about writing
reader responses, write the first
draft of your reader response to one of the reading articles related to
globalization. This draft should be 150 to 200 words.
IV. Assignment 4: Due by the end of Week 9/Tutorial #1
Write an analytically reflective post of 150
to 200 words on either the topic “The Challenges of Doing My Research” or “Living
in A Globalized World: A Problem That Has Directly Impacted Me,” or write an
instructor-approved variation of one of these topics.
V. Assignment
5: Due by the end of Week 11/Tutorial
#2
Write a critically reflective post of 150 to
200 words on either the topic “What I Learned in The Essay Process” or an instructor-approved
variation of this topic.
VI. Assignment
6: Due by the end of Week 13/Tutorial
#2
Write a critically reflective post of 150 to
200 words on the topic of “The Next Stage Of My Learning” or an instructor-approved
variation of this topic.
Final Submissions are uploaded on IVLE.
21. Online Grammar Exercises
The ES1102 IVLE Assessment_Online Grammar
Exercise site offers a total of 15 timed exercises that provide
out-of-class opportunities to apply grammar rules. These exercises are grouped
into three activity types, all of which increase your awareness of the use of
accurate language in specific contexts and reinforce classroom learning of
grammar rules. You have a total of 30 minutes to complete each exercise.
Each
activity comprises three parts:
(1) reading a passage
(2) answering questions
(3) viewing your answers, score, and correct /possible
answers.
Activity
Type 1 – Error identification
For
grammar exercises in this section, you will identify the error in a sentence
as in the example below.
Example
(1) Many loving
(A) parent would not
(B) hesitate to sacrifice their own
(C) lives to save their child’s, but should they create a new
life to rescue an
(D) endangered son or daughter?
Answer:
(A) parent
(Note to
student: The plural form “parents” is the correct subject.)
In
this section, you will identify the correction for the underlined error
in a sentence as in the example below.
Example
(2) For example, in the short span from 1990 through 1998, the
number of people living in extreme poverty in East Asia and the Pacific
decreased 41% – one of the
largest and most rapid reduction in history.
(A) reduce
(B) reductions
(C) reducing
(D) reduced
Answer: (B) reductions
(Note to
student: The sentence has a noun error. The plural form of “reduction” is
needed after the phrase “one of the . . . “)
Activity
Type 3: Error type identification
In
this section, you will identify the type
of
error in a sentence, as in the
example
below.
Example
(3) The questions
are old ones, but one place
where an
efficient balance has been striked is
Singapore.
Correction: struck
(A) verb form
(B) verb tense
(C) modal
(D) subject-verb agreement
Answer: (A) verb form
(Note to student: The correct verb form for this verb structure [i.e.,
present perfect in the passive voice] is the past participle of the verb “strike” which is
“struck”.)
Saturday, 17 August 2013
20. Writing Critical Reflection
Write a critically reflective post of 150-200 words on the topic of 'The Next Stage of My Learning' or an instructor-approved variation of this topic.
Submit by the end of Week 13, Tutorial 2
Submit by the end of Week 13, Tutorial 2
18. Academic Vocabulary
Objectives
When
you have finished this section, you will be able to
§ recognise technical terms
specific to particular academic or scientific discipline
§ select appropriate words from
the general academic vocabulary and use them in your own academic writing
Resource
List
1)
Academic
Vocabulary List in grammatical categories by Rick Smith:
2)
Exercises
on academic vocabulary, texts and concordance lines:
3)
The
Longman Vocabulary site with exercises:
4)
Victoria
University of Wellington’s site on Academic Word List and how to use it:
Key Concepts
§ Academic vocabulary
§ Headwords & inflections
§ Academic Word List (AWL)
Procedure
A.
Before Class
1. Review Features of Academic Writing.
a. Note the choice of specific words/vocabulary
used that differentiates a text as
academic.
b.
Look at the websites in the Resource List and
familiarize yourself with the
academic
word/vocabulary lists and also the sublists.
B. In
Class
Recalling what you have learnt from the
websites, either in pairs or in a small group,
compare your answers for Tasks A, B, C & D. Be prepared to share your answers with
the rest of the class.
C.
After Class
Study the Additional Resources given at the end
of this handout.
Tasks
A.
Discussion
1. Working with a partner, start by going
through Sublist 1 from the AWL Site 4. If
you know these words, move to Sublist 2 and work down to Sublist 10. As you move down the
Sublists, note the words that are familiar.
2.
Compare the words you are familiar with
to those your partner is familiar with.
Discuss the words you are familiar with. Are
these words from your own discipline
or from your own vocabulary repertoire?
B. Word Building
Below are some head
words or the stem form of a word. Try to work out the
various forms of the given head words,
that is the inflections of the word.
e.g.
analyse
analysed
|
analyser
|
analysers
|
analyses
|
analysing
|
analysis
|
analyst
|
analysts
|
analytic
|
analytical
|
analytically
|
analyse
|
analysed
|
analyses
|
analysing
|
§
conceive
§
valid
§
undertake
§
seek
§
precise
§
straightforward
§
trend
§
residue
§
regime
§
albeit
C. Application
1.
In pairs or
in small groups, reduce the informality of the following sentences by
providing formal alternatives for the
underlined words. Consult the AWL Site 4.
(a) Additionally,
citizens in democratic regimes get easy access to information the
Internet provides.
(b) Government
agencies made forms and searchable databases online, making it
easier for citizens to get their questions
answered.
(c) For countries enjoying the benefits of
freedom and democracy, embracing the
Internet has been relatively painless. For
other nations, the course of action has
proved more difficult.
(d) The Internet will have become so interwoven
in the fabric of their economic life
that cutting off access will not be
possible. De facto freedom of information will
slowly emerge
in these countries, even if never officially recognized. This will
be one of the Internet's most important
contributions to global civilization.
(e) Internet
pornography, now a multibillion-dollar industry and one of the first
profitable sectors of the Internet economy, becomes a problem when it
involves
children
or is viewed in a public setting. One study guesses that 20% of all
white-collar males access pornography online while at work.
(f) Finally, as we grow more
dependent on the Internet, we grow more vulnerable. Before the Internet,
viruses could be spread from one computer to another only through floppy disks.
With the widespread availability of software downloaded from websites or sent
out through email, viruses now spread like wildfire, covering the world in
hours.
(g) With so much of our public life now available
online, terrorists no longer need to risk coming here to gather information
before an attack, nor do they need to meet in person to talk.
(h) The same factors that empower
legitimate Internet users also empower those opposed to our national interests.
There is no escaping this basic fact.
2.
Examine the underlined words and phrases in the
Examine the underlined words and phrases in the
following text. Replace these words by
selecting
appropriate words from the AWL so that
the text is
formal and academic.
A Computer that Can “Read” the Mind
by
The National Science Foundation (US)
For
centuries, the concept of mind readers was strictly the domain of folklore
and science fiction. But according to new research published today
in the journal Science, scientists are closer to knowing
how specific thoughts activate your brains. The findings tell
the power of computational modelling to improve your understanding of
how the brain processes information and what you think.
The
research was conducted by a computer scientist, Tom Mitchell, and a
cognitive neuroscientist, Marcel Just, both of Carnegie Mellon University.
Their previous research, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF)
and the W.M. Keck Foundation, had shown that functional magnetic resonance
imaging(fMRI) can really detect and locate brain activity when a
person thinks about a specific word. Using this data, the researchers made
a computational model that made a computer to correctly figure out
what word a research subject was thinking about by analysing brain scan data.
In
their most recent work, Tom and Marcel used fMRI data to develop a
more sophisticated computational model that can foretell the brain
activation patterns associated with concrete nouns, or things that we
experience through our senses, even if the computer didn’t already know
the fMRI data for that specific noun.
|
Your Answers
|
Additional Resources
& The workbook, Focus on vocabulary: Mastering the academic
word list, by Schmitt and Schmitt (2005), which is largely informed by
the authors’ research on vocabulary and their extensive experience teaching
vocabulary, is a useful resource that ES1102 students can independently use to
develop their vocabulary in two semesters.
Copies
of this book, along with an answer key, are available at the Centre for English
Language Communication SELF (Self-Access English Learning Facility, http://courseware.nus.edu.sg/itself/).
Another useful resource is the online website developed by
Tom Cobb (Université du Québec à Montréal).
Complete
Lexical Tutor v.6.2 at http://www.lextutor.ca/
The
Compleat
Lexical Tutor v.6.2 is a free website with a concordancer, vocabulary
profiler, exercise maker, interactive exercises, and other language learning
resources for students, researchers, and teachers.
ES1102
students will find the interactive tools useful for developing their vocabulary
and grammatical accuracy. The tutorial
section aims to provide self-access learning opportunities for learners, e.g.,
testing their vocabulary, exploring their vocabulary levels, comparing active
and passive vocabulary, using new words, reading and listening to a novel, and
testing their grammar with concordances.
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