Examples of Digital
Language Learning Material
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Facebook
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Twitter
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Blogger
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Prezi
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Wordpress
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Tumblr
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Youtube
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Edmodo
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Schoology
List down SLA
theories and principles
- - Interactionist theory (Long, 1985; 1996)
- - Sociocultural theory
- - Communicative language teaching
- - Comprehensible Input theory (Swain, n.d.;
Krashen, 1991)
- - Affective Domain (Krashen, 1991)
Principles:
- - Materials should help learners develop confidence
- - What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and useful
-- Materials should require and facilitate learner self-investment
- Materials should expose the learners to language in authentic use
- Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use TL to achieve communicative purposes
-- Materials should take into account that learners differ in learning styles and affective attitudes
- Materials should provide opportunities for outcome feedback
-
Criteria of technical
usability:
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Errors
(i)
Less serious errors = affect the work of the
user
(ii)
More serious errors = endanger the
preservability of users’ outputs
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Efficiency
·
Refers
to how well experienced users can operate an application after they have
mastered it.
-
Learnability
·
How long beginners’ use of a system before they
learn the essential skills necessary to perform their tasks
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Memorability
·
Ability of an occasional user who previously
used the system to remember its operational system
Criteria of
pedagogical usability
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Feedback
(i)
The system or learning material should provide
the student with encouraging and immediate feedback รจ encouraging feedback
increases learning motivation; immediate feedback helps the student understand
problematic part in their learning
(ii)
Learning is based on the fact that mistakes are
corrected immediately and progression cannot happen when corrections are not
done.
-
Motivation
(i)
Affects learning and makes people behave the way
they do
(ii)
Motivation = the way to do things by reference
to instincts, desires and reinforcement; support the direction on one’s general
behavior
(iii)
Motivation affects alertness and vigor
-
Goal
orientation
(i)
When the goals of teacher, students and LM are
closely aligned, best results are obtained
(ii)
Goals should be clear cut and able to motivate
them to achieve them
(iii)
When the students themselves do not set their
goals, their meaningfulness should be justified from the point of view of
motivation
(iv)
Students should be able pursue their own
interests in relation with learning goals
-
Learner
control
(i)
Learner’s memory should be pushed to the limit
when learning a new topic
(ii)
Materials should be broken down to be learned
into small meaningful units
-
Applicability
(i)
The approach taken in learning material should
correspond to the skills that the learner will later need in everyday and
working life
(ii)
The skills or knowledge acquired should be able
to be transferred to other contexts
(iii)
Learning something new can be accomplished
effectively by relating it to practical tasks
(iv)
LM should be at appropriate level from the point
of view of learner’s learning process
-
Added
value
(i)
Induce creativity in learners when using DLLM
(ii)
Other kind of added value: adaptability to
individual needs, number of flexible options, learning is controlled and
initiated by learners, interesting contents, development of communication,
active participation of students
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Learner
activity
(i)
Learners’ independent activity may increase when
a teacher stays in background; a facilitator
(ii)
Learning materials can support learner’s
activities by being interesting and based on real life
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Cooperative/collaborative
learning
(i)
Studying with others to achieve common learning
goal
(ii)
Instead of just acquiring personal knowledge,
learners construct knowledge as members of community in practice
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Valuation
of previous knowledge
(i)
Previous knowledge from the learners are assumed
to be possessing some skills that previously been presented
(ii)
LM that respects learner’s previous knowledge
takes account in differences of skills and knowledge in learners and encourages
them to take advantage of it in learning.
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Flexibility
(i)
Learner’s learning differences should be taken
into account.
(ii)
Information gained in pre-test can be used to
provide learners with different routes or methods of studies.
Rough outline of DLLM
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Using Prezi as a platform to develop the DLLM
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Includes 6 activities; each according to the
levels or bands according to the School-Based Assessment (SBA) that the MOE
developed
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Using a chapter from the English Form 2
textbook; making sure the chapter is interesting and relatable to the students
thus relevant to be used in their everyday and working life
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Each activities are different from each other;
might include one language skills, might be more than one (e.g. reading and
writing in one activity)
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Might be focusing on linguistic, thematic or
both types of content
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Each activity is a progression of the previous one;
the first activity (band 1), increasing with each activity progresses
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Making sure the materials follow the criteria of
technical and pedagogical usability
Visual design
a) Harmony - the manner elements of a
display interact together in a pleasing manner. - it pulls the pieces of visual
image together. - can be achieved through repetition and rhythm, where rhythm
is the flow depicted in a visual and helps direct eye movement. -to ensure
harmony 3x3 grid must be used. -rhythm should either be a clockwise or counter
clockwise.
b) Balance and symmetry - we can bring
balance to the elements of different sizes by either moving them closer of
father from the center of the page. -symmetry is when one half of a visual
display is a mirror image of the other half. -types of symmetry: horizontal,
approximate horizontal, radial and asymmetry.
c) Emphasis - create dominance and
focus in their work. - it emphasize colour, value, shapes or other design
elements to achieve dominance. For example “facebook” page used dark colour as
their background and the symbol “f “for “facebook” in light colour. d)
Alignment - alignment of elements within a screen is important part of
organizing and grouping. -should visually maximize differences between text,
label and pictures. e) Unity - relationship among visual elements that helps all
elements to work together. - gives a sense of closure or oneness to a visual
image. - can be achieved through use of similar shapes, common pattern or use
of a common background.
REFLECTION
In my opinion, this really expands my knowledge about how
digital language learning materials (DLLM) should consist of and how DLLM can
affect our students. There’s a lot of criteria to be taken into consideration
like acceptability (practical and social acceptability) and usability
(technical and pedagogical usability). Using these criteria, we can ensure that
our product; our own DLLM can be created in correlation with the students’
level of knowledge and skills. And with all these criteria, we can understand
why the students cannot perform and we can overcome that problem in making a material. That is all.
So sorry I didn’t post about the other tutorials. Will
upload it later. :D
