Using Smart Devices in Teaching/Learning in KSA

The question of whether or not Saudi students need smart devices can be, in my opinion, answered very resolutely – no. Does anyone truly need “smart” devices to learn? Again, the answer is no. For centuries students and other learners have learned in a more traditional way, and this has worked well. These new technological devices may enhance learning, but are they needed? Absolutely not.

The gap between the uses of mobile technology at home and the uses at school are huge. Very rarely would students willingly use an application for learning on their own free time. Mobiles are mainly used for social media, and not in a way that is conductive to learning.

This being said, it is not to say that using mobile devices for learning is completely hopeless. In fact, there could in fact be a few potential benefits IF these devices are used correctly and most importantly, monitored. The fact that mobile devices are almost always with students is one benefit. If these students could use just a fraction of this time to open up, for example, an app that would help them with grammar, or one that could teach them new vocabulary, the results could be staggering.

However, I do not believe that educators in the most general sense are willing to allow this sort of fundamental change in the educational system. They are hesitant, and why wouldn’t they be? From an educator’s point of view, mobile devices are time wasters that distract students from their work. Until it is proven to be otherwise (and here the work mainly falls on the students) this
educational technological revolution will not ever have a change to happen.

Adapting this technology to an educational system would involve reaching out to students who are not already convinced that phones and other mobile devices are mainly used for entertainment purposes. From there you would be able to teach them to use these devices in a beneficial way. In order to take mobile learning to another level (or even a starting level) the educational system has to be taught in a different, more technology centered way to students, and teachers themselves will have to relearn how to teach.

Useful Applications for Learning English

IBooks
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8

IBook is an application in the Apple app store for downloading and reading books. It includes numerous types of books, including, but not limited to classics and best sellers. When browsing your library in the app, you can tap a book to open it and then interact with it in many ways. You can read it, bookmark or add notes to your favorite passages.

It allows user (students) to download and read children’s picture books, designed art books, photo books, cook books, and more in the iBooks Store.

I believe it could be used with my Saudi students. For example, if we have a lesson about travelling I will ask students to read books about famous tourist spots, and ask them to gather information about the country and its history.  Another way to include this app in class would be to ask students about subjects or hobbies they’re interested in,  and encourage them to read books and then discuss it with the class.

Learn Languages: Rosetta Stone
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/totale-course-hd/id435588892?mt=8

Learn Languages is free application where you can learn to speak Spanish, French, Italian, English, German and 19 others languages more anytime, anywhere.

It allows students to discover new vocabulary and grammar. It improves students’ language skills by learning through conversation and activities. It is available in Apple app store.

I would use it with my students in useful ways that would improve their language. Whenever we finished a lesson, I would kindly ask them to do an activity using the application that would let them use and control the features of the language. I would ask the students to use the application outside the classroom to gain extra information and tell their friends the new things that they learned.

Evaluation

Educaplay is a website that enables teachers to create a wide variety of different educational and interactive activities. Activities teachers can create include, but are not limited to, listening and reading dialogues, jumbled words and others various games. These activities can then be linked or embedded in various areas around the web, such as the teacher’s blog.

We chose to evaluate this website because the members of our group decided it was a step above the rest. Unlike many educational websites that seem to only focus on content and not presentation, Educaplay has a pleasing layout and an excellent color scheme. In addition, all the graphics are smooth looking and related to what they represent. The layout is not only pleasing to look at, but also easy to navigate. All areas are clearly spelled out, and almost nothing seems to be out of place. Wording at the directional bar is a bit obtuse (directories for what? Groups of what?) but considering how well planned the rest of the site is, it is easy to overlook.

All of this is not to say that the content is lacking. Rather the opposite is true. There are a good number of games and educational activities. However, while there are a fair amount of activities listed, the information under each individual one is sparse. These activities could stand to be updated with a bit more information.

One reason that these activities might be lacking in information is because the site seems to be a bit outdated. The last informational blog post from the administrator was in 2014. While this date is not exceptionally past, it seems longer than needed, especially for the web.

Overall, the Educaplay achieves its goal of bringing educational and fun activities and games to teachers. The site could stand a bit of improvement, but it is still wholly usable and as such, a great asset.

Interactive Language Learning on the Web

     Interactive Language Learning can be great and easy way for both teachers and students in Saudi Arabia and anywhere. Which provide them comfort and entertainment in the context of education whereas teachers give students lessons in school and apply examples, explanation and activity on web-based. This web-based is a good tool of learning language in a way that students will be interactive in their educational skills by using technology. Of course this technique has positive point as a huge number of students so making an online quiz will help teachers a lot. In my opinion that Saudi teachers need to create their own web-based language activities for a number of reasons. First, it is an important and modern way of educations. Second, it will help shy students to participate and engage in learning environment. Third, a step that creates strong relationship between teachers and students. Finally, I think Interactive Language Learning on the web-based must be in Saudi education and definitely I will use it in the future with my students.

Wordle in EDU 401

“Effectiveness of using social networking sites in teaching and learning English language in the Saudi context”

      I agree of the effectiveness of social networking sites in learning and teaching English language. I know blogger since 3 weeks and it attract me so much because it shows me how much people share information and knowledge. It would be better if I introduce to it before. I think it is a useful and easy to get idea, information and knowledge. Students need a resource that full of experience and knowledge of all science from different point of view which is available in Blogger website. Another important thing is that, alongside giving benefit to student its show some interesting things related to entertainment which keeps an eye of student's fun. Blog offers students share everything with friends and others which make the learning process interesting and effective.

     On other hand, it is international which make the learning process in the biggest window of discussion and opposition. Example of that, some countries is specialist in sciences like Germany in Medicine so Saudi students are able to share that knowledge with German by Blogger. Social network connecting the world from north to south. So as we are Applied linguistics students and this science is specialist in the United States and United Kingdom. We take the benefit from Social network as blogger when I read others blog, blogging and answer comments. This work will make collaboration between students and other in the field of study in a positive way.

     I think learning English language could be like an activity like giving students a task about reading an article or watching a video and ask them to use it in the social network like blogger website. It is an effective way to learning English language or any kind of learning. I really like it and find interesting. It leads me to read my friends and others blogs which will give me more than I want.    

A Vision of Students Today

     The most important difference that make Saudi Arabia special in the filed of education is that, it is the first country in the world that support education and encourage it inside and outside for all ages. Saudi Arabia College and university offer monetary reward for student were as not many countries do. However, Saudi Scholarships is spreading to all of Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and North and South America.

     In contrast to American students they pay to be a college member and they also pay for textbook which is too expensive to students trying to build their life so American students need to work to get money.

      I think the dreams and goals of students wither if they are Saudis or American are to successful in their education to get good job.

     Saudis students looking for better future by getting a job or completing their higher education.

Prensky’s article about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

Digital natives student are all native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet. A generation born with the use of technology. Digital immigrants are who can speak an outdated, previous generation who are not use of technology. Digital immigrants are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language. Digital immigrant believe that, their students cannot learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music.

           

Yes, of course Saudi students are digital natives today since the huge use of technology they use. Also 60% of the Saudi population under the age of 21. That makes a big use of digital according to the age of the generation.

 

The basic things are changing in live today according to education and lifestyle in general. So generations are different than the previous one in all live aspect. Now a day every child has or her own device and they are able to play and use it easily.  Electronic devices control all of our live wither than that every person has one than one device. However, younger generations are smarter than older ones in the field of digital. Adults always need the help of the young.  My favorite example is that “Did you add me on Whatsapp?”.

           

Everything is changing in this life beginning with culture, education and generation. We are developing without focus since the life is governing with internet and drives around us. Many if not most of our daily live activity can be done with the internet beginning with take information, booking end with online shopping. However, digital immigrants are force to deal with technology world in order to be able to face occupation and education..

           

My opinion is that, I understand those teachers since they are not a part of technology; of course there is a possibility of every time and age. I did have teacher who are digital immigrant in high school but, it is not their fault to be digital immigrant. I believe that, it is something related to education and generation. I will not be one of digital immigrant at all, since I have understood through my study that education will be better with the help of technology.   

According to Marc Prensky, we need to connect digital Natives and digital Immigrants for several reason as commutation and education. First, teachers have to learn to communicate in the language of their students (native speaker).it does to mean that teachers are ask to loss the identity or style but, to be near to the learner need and facile their education. Second, is related to the content which are divide to two kinks “Legacy” content that is belongs to traditional curriculum such as reading, writing, arithmetic and, logical thinking. Future content is belongs to a large extent, not surprisingly, digital and technological.

Blog post 3

What i have learned about education in the future and what the educators have covered is that:

- Education comes from ear.
- Adult learn when they have a reason for learning.
-Victoria produce the education system.
-100 years ago sport and entertainment habit was not includes in learning.
-Learning take a long time to succeed ex: video games.
- In education we provide separate
- Children can teach themselves things if they are given the internet, the permission and, the absence of teacher with the present of the internet can be pedagogical too.

Yes I really agree of what the video includes.

            In my opinion that, educators in Saudi Arabia have two section one of them are good in dealing with the student, motivating them, use variety of learning strategy, those teachers are high educated or they have smart personality that they know how to deal with the student. The other educators are very old as a result of their age they do not know the new ways of learning, using computer, using internet, dealing with the student, attracting student and, facilitating the learning process.   

      Student in Saudi Arabia are separated related to gender in most of the way in which girls are successful in education more than boys but, also it is not a standard role since we have successful student in both.

     Educational infrastructure in Saudi Arabia is changing now a days to better future. By creating new curriculums by will educated people.
 

     Educational culture is improving in Saudi Arabia strongly. A lot of things changed in the culture such as allow women to study and work as a teacher, doctor, nurse and college dean which culture was not accept it before. The enhancement of opening universities and colleges in every city and town since schools are enough in this field. The great and huge help of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al saud of scholarships in all the degree of education for all disciplines to both gender.

Blog post 2

Technological determinism is that: 

      Technological determinism refers to the idea that the introduction of new technology

automatically brings certain results (see discussion in Chandler, 1995; Feenberg, 1991).

Deterministic outlooks underlie many common beliefs about educational technology; note, for

example, the frequent discussion of the alleged impact of computers on learning without regard to

how the computers are actually used. Chris Dede (1995, 1997) has described this as based on a fire

metaphor, i.e., the notion that computers generate learning the way that a fire generates warmth.

Technological determinism does have a certain logic, since there is sometimes a correlation

between the presence or use of particular technologies and other outcomes. But correlation does not

imply causation. Paul Levinson (1997) makes a useful distinction between hard determinism and

soft determinism. The former implies strict causation, and it is a concept rejected by most scholars.

The latter more sensibly suggests that while technological development does not automatically

cause outcomes, it does enable new processes and outcomes. For example, in the realm of teaching

and learning, there are obviously many types of classroom (or distant) interaction that are enabled

by computers and the Internet that simply couldn’t have occurred previously.

The ten developments in Information and Communications Technology:

     The first important change is from phone-based to wireless communication because of

improved technology and telephone/Internet relay facilities. It has been suggested that low-weight

solar-powered electric planes (like those pictured at <http://www.aerovironment.com/areatelecom/

telecom.html>) will serve as communications relay platforms facilitating low-cost wireless

communication from anywhere on earth.

     A second change will be a move from dial-up Internet connections to permanent, direct

online connections. For example, according to Telecommunications Research International (see

<http://cyberatlas.Internet.com/big_picture/geographics/article/0,1323,5911_352761,00.html#table

>), cable modem access in the US grew by some 44% in the first quarter of 2000, while high speed

digital forms of access using existing phone lines grew by 183%. 

     A third change will be from the use of mainly personal computers to the use of portable

computing and online devices. One step in this process is the likely convergence of the laptop

computer, personal digital assistant, and cellular telephone into powerful handheld computing and

(tele)communication devices.

      A fourth change will be from narrowband (referring to the speed at which information

passes over communication lines) to broadband. Cable modem connections currently deliver 10

Megabits per second, shared among many users. The next version of broadband (“broaderband”) is

expected to provide up to 40 megabits per second for each user, or 26 times the bandwidth of the

fast T1 connections used by most institutions today, facilitating extremely rapid Internet

connection.

     A fifth change will be from expensive personal computing systems to widely affordable

computers and other hardware, first in the developed countries and then in the developing

countries. In Egypt, for example, both the cost of purchasing a personal computer has fallen by

half in recent years, and Internet access is now free.

      Related to this, a sixth development is that the Internet will change from being an exclusive

form of communication and information, mostly limited to people in developed countries, to

becoming a mass form of communication accessible to most of the planet. Recent statistic indicate

that more than 10% of the world’s population is online.

       A seventh development will be a movement from text-based information and

communication to audiovisual forms of information and communication, as exemplified by the

growing popularity of digital photography and home video production facilitated by new

technology and the increasing trend for Internet news sites to offer multimedia presentations of

news.

     An eighth change will be from use of English as the main online language to multilingual

Internet use. By 2005, the number of Web pages in English is expected to drop to 41% of the

world’s total (Computer Economics, 1999). At the same time, however, it is suggested that a much

higher percentage of the commercial Web pages will be in English. A present indication of this

trend is the large percentage of English language secure servers used for Internet commerce (see

 
the discussion in The Default Language, 1999). This will create a situation of diglossia, where

people using their native languages for local or regional communication and commerce and use

English for international communication and commerce on the Internet.

     A ninth change will be from “non-native” to “native” users of information technology. This

concept does not refer to language use, but rather to comfort and skill in using computers. Children

who grow up with computers and the Internet will be able to access information and communicate

online with “native-like” fluency, as opposed to older generations, many of whom have had

difficulty making the transition from print to screen.

       A tenth change will be the movement of CALL from the language laboratory to the

classroom. Computers and other online devices will be found in every classroom in developed

countries, not only in computer laboratories. For example, the Maine Department of Education has
 

made computers available to all 7th grade students in the state, together with wireless access points

in most schools.
 

 :The five meant areas will be examined is that

New Contexts

The projected developments of ICT will have a profound influence on the context in which

English is taught. Largely because of the increased use of English in new globalized media and

commerce there has been a major expansion in the number of second-language English speakers

around the world. According to recent estimates (see Crystal, 1997), there are now over 375

million native speakers of English (i.e., the “inner circle” of English speaking countries such as the

U.S., Australia and England [Kachru, 1986]), an equal number of second language speakers of

English (ESL speakers in Kachru’s “outer circle” of countries such as India and Nigeria), and some

750 million English as a Foreign Language (EFL) speakers in countries such as China, Japan,

Egypt, and Israel. This represents a significant growth in the number of non-native speakers of

English and suggests that there will be a fundamental change in the relationship between nativeand

non-native speaker. Extrapolating from the work of Graddol (1999), it can be estimated that a

century ago there were about three native speakers of English for every proficient non-native

speaker of the language. However, a century from now this proportion will be reversed. Indeed, the

very distinction between native English speaker, ESL speaker, and EFL speaker will change as

millions of people throughout the world use English to communicate globally and access

international media. For example, according to a recent study (Warschauer, El Said, & Zohry,

2002), Egyptian colloquial Arabic is used in most informal e-mail. However, nearly all formal

communication by e-mail—even between one Egyptian and another—is conducted in English. 

New Literacies

 

This leads to another likely result of ICT developments, the emergence of important new

literacies (see discussion in Warschauer, 1999, 2003). In the era of print, the act of reading

consisted of an attempt to understand the meaning of a single author. In contrast, reading in the

online era has become an attempt to interpret information and create knowledge from a variety of

sources. Although all reading and research skills include selecting the right questions, choosing the

right tools, finding information, archiving and saving information, interpreting information, and

using and citing information, there is a great difference between reading a book in the library and

assuming that the information in it is reliable because it has been vetted twice--once by the

publisher and again by the librarian who purchased the book--and conducting research online,

where the very act of reading cannot be done without making critical decisions at every step.

Online readers must constantly determine whether to scroll down a page, pursue an internal link,

try an external link, or quit the page and conduct a new search. In the past, “critical literacy” was

presented as a special category of language education; however, in the online future, virtually all

literacy will necessitate critical judgment.

New Genres

 

Similar changes are occurring with respect to writing. It has been suggested that the essay

will increasingly become a marked form. Although essays may still be studied as a literary form, it

has been suggested (Faigley, 1997) that few people will actually write them since they will be

replaced by multimedia presenting concepts through multiple technologies. This impacts upon the

way English writing must be taught in the future. For examples of possible types of student writing

of the future, teachers should consider some of the educational Web sites being developed by

students in the Think Quest competition (http://www.thinkquest.org). In these sites, students

demonstrate mastery not only of multimedia but also electronic communication, which may

represent the future of writing instruction

New Identities

 

The increased importance of online communication is also contributing to new kinds of

identites. As an example, let us consider the case of Almon, a Hong Kong immigrant to the United

States (discussed in Lam, 2000). Though Almon had lived in the US for several years, he

performed poorly in English class and had little confidence in his academic English ability. Yet he

developed his own “J-Pop” Web site about a Japanese popular singer and spent several hours each

day e-mailing and chatting with other J-Pop fans around the world who were attracted to his site.

Although most of the fans were Chinese or Japanese, all communication, as well as the site itself,

was in English. Through this process Almon developed self-confidence in his English

communication ability as part of a global youth movement that uses English and new media to

share ideas. This case does not suggest that teachers should

downplay academic literacies, but it does imply that students who use new media can develop a wide

range of literacies and identities, and these skills must be taken into account in English teaching.

New Pedagogies

 

We must now consider the new pedagogies that these changes will elicit. The progress of

CALL has been based on evolution from the mainframe computer to the personal computer to the

networked, multimedia computer, and corresponding changes have occurred in CALL-based

pedagogy. Table 1 illustrates some of the changes that have occurred and are occurring in CALL

since its inception in the 1960s. The stages have not occurred in a rigid sequence, with one

following the other, from “bad CALL” to “good CALL” since any of these may be combined for

different purposes. However, there has been a general transformation in CALL over the years, with

new ideas and uses of computers being introduced. 
 

 The three CALL stages are:

1.1970s-1980s: Structural CALL

 

 

2.1980s-1990s: Communicative CALL

3.21st Century: Integrative CALL

 

 

 

The expected effect on English teaching:

      I think that, the future on English teaching development is full of success since the use of huge number of tools that help learner and facilitate the education. The result of new generation with different live style like computer, ipad, iphone and, video game will develop in the content knowledge of children education.

 

  

Blog post 1

      Hello everyone! My name is Nouf Sami Al ahmadi. I was born in 1991. I am an Applied Linguistics student at YUC. This is my first time in blogger. I really like to have benefit by sharing information and knowledge with my friends in this way. I think that, EDU 401 will give us different learning opportunity.