Wheeew...that's all I can say with all I had experienced during the week. This makes me late in submitting assignments for the on-line course...Thanks Robert for reminding me:))
I'd like to share my experience when I teach my Reading 2 class of which I also put the lesson plan in the Nicenet discussion.
Sometimes in my reading class, I ask my students to go to our language laboratory as all computers there are connected with the Internet. I often ask them to open certain websites containing reading exercises. After reading the text, they can do some exercises such as vocabulary, multiple choice, word selection, and other exercises on reading. Even they can do the summarizing and giving opinion toward what they have read and then send it to the website. By leading our students to this kind of exercise, I think that besides teaching them on how to read better using some techniques or strategies, they also have freedom in choosing certain topics that become their favorites. The reading class using technology for the tools allows them to find millions of sources of written text with numerous topics. Of course, as teachers, we must guide them so that they won't get lost in reading websites available in the Internet. We must also be specific toward what we're going to do in the reading class but it doesn't mean that we limit our students' access in the reading. We can give them some insights of what is good or bad toward the content of the websites.
In the lesson plan that I post on the Nicenet, I use 2 excellence websites such as
I think they are very good source for us reading teacher for giving our students theories in reading (containing some strategies and techniques used in reading) as well as giving sources of reading texts with various exercises. Of course there are still numerous websites that we can explore on reading with their plus and minus in offering us with plenty of facilities.
Well, I think that's all my share that I write in the middle of my busy days going to and fro from one place to another and from one duty to another duty.
Thanks for reading!
Malang, 29 October 2010
Jumat, 29 Oktober 2010
Rabu, 20 Oktober 2010
My CCU class again:)
Last Friday was my students' turn to present their assignment on 'life story' which they must interview foreigners to know their cultures, stories of their lives, and even their habits or daily life. Some students presented their interview results in various ways. Those who interviewed using chat rooms (Yahoo Messenger and Facebook, or Skype) presented the interviewee by reporting the results of the conversation on their life story, their culture, and places where they are from by showing some short movies on certain cultures, habits, and places. But students who managed to meet the foreigners face-to-face presented the results by using recorded voice and videos when the interview took place.
What I want to say here is that technology in any forms can be used in our classes. In my CCU class, my students made use of power-point slides and pictures to explain the findings, showing movies to give more elaborative backgrounds of the foreigners, and they recorded the interview using their cell-phones either in voice or video mode. When looking at the results, for me, they are so amazing as they only use a very simple device such as cell-phones having features to record voice and video. If students can make use of the device optimally, they are able to create something that is interesting as well as elaborative presentation. Of course it depends also on their creativity and motivation to show something that can attract their teachers:)) and other members of theclass.
Thinking about using cell-phones for creating videos and then showing them in front of the class, I have a belief that although the technology used is very simple but if we can get the most out of it, it will give us advantages. I am also thinking about Blackberry phone that most of my students have can accommodate them in enhancing their speaking abilities when used to chat with foreigners in English via BBM (Blackberry Messenger), Google Talk,or even Yahoo Messenger installed in this smart phone.
Well, that's all my share today. Thanks for reading.
Malang, 20 October 2010
What I want to say here is that technology in any forms can be used in our classes. In my CCU class, my students made use of power-point slides and pictures to explain the findings, showing movies to give more elaborative backgrounds of the foreigners, and they recorded the interview using their cell-phones either in voice or video mode. When looking at the results, for me, they are so amazing as they only use a very simple device such as cell-phones having features to record voice and video. If students can make use of the device optimally, they are able to create something that is interesting as well as elaborative presentation. Of course it depends also on their creativity and motivation to show something that can attract their teachers:)) and other members of theclass.
Thinking about using cell-phones for creating videos and then showing them in front of the class, I have a belief that although the technology used is very simple but if we can get the most out of it, it will give us advantages. I am also thinking about Blackberry phone that most of my students have can accommodate them in enhancing their speaking abilities when used to chat with foreigners in English via BBM (Blackberry Messenger), Google Talk,or even Yahoo Messenger installed in this smart phone.
Well, that's all my share today. Thanks for reading.
Malang, 20 October 2010
Rabu, 13 Oktober 2010
Chat Rooms
This semester I teach my CCU (cross-cultural understanding) class at the English dept. My students are in their 3rd semester (2nd year) and still in the intermediate level. As they are studying English, the curriculum set for them is introducing some cultures that they might encounter later on in their lives or when they are still studying at the university. I try to explore many cultures especially cultures of countries where English becomes the spoken language (England, The U.S, Australia, or even New Zealand). But I also introduce some cultures derive from countries having English as their second language such as Singapore, The Philippine, Malaysia, and India. My idea of introducing cultures of those Asian countries is that English is now widely spoken in those countries and Indonesian students now tend to continue their education or look for jobs there.
Why I'm talking about my CCU class? Yes, I want to tell you something about some assignments that I give to my students in that class. There are some assignments they need to accomplish during one semester. The assignments can be a culture visit (visiting a place/event that is foreign to them), life story (interviewing people especially from different countries and asking them about some stories in their lives), and video reports (watching movies that contain culture issues). Students must do presentations and collect their papers to report what they have been doing with the assignments.
In this blog, I'd like to share the use of technology in my CCU class especially when my students are accomplishing the assignment. For instance, when they do the 'life story' assignment, they must interview foreigners and ask them their life story (of course they must ask a permission first before continuing the interview). As there are not many foreigners in my area (Malang, Indonesia), some of them interview foreigners using chat rooms from the Internet. The chat rooms can be through Yahoo Messenger (YM), MSN, Facebook, Livemocha, or even BBM (Blackberry Messenger).
Even though they cannot see face to face but the chat is real time, meaning that the response is received directly. This kind of communication is called synchronous as the speakers can communicate at the same time. The advantages of using 'real time' chat is that students (in this case still learning English) might give quick answer/response and it needs their skills that they have learned in their skill courses. This response will require them to practice more their English quickly. And students will not be scared if they make mistakes as they do not see each other face to face (although some use webcam).
Well, that is something about the chat rooms being used in doing the culture assignment. My students enjoy this activity very much and after they have completed the interview (could be many times) they must present it in front of the class using Power Point Slides.
I think that's all and thank you for reading.
Malang, 13 October 2010
Why I'm talking about my CCU class? Yes, I want to tell you something about some assignments that I give to my students in that class. There are some assignments they need to accomplish during one semester. The assignments can be a culture visit (visiting a place/event that is foreign to them), life story (interviewing people especially from different countries and asking them about some stories in their lives), and video reports (watching movies that contain culture issues). Students must do presentations and collect their papers to report what they have been doing with the assignments.
In this blog, I'd like to share the use of technology in my CCU class especially when my students are accomplishing the assignment. For instance, when they do the 'life story' assignment, they must interview foreigners and ask them their life story (of course they must ask a permission first before continuing the interview). As there are not many foreigners in my area (Malang, Indonesia), some of them interview foreigners using chat rooms from the Internet. The chat rooms can be through Yahoo Messenger (YM), MSN, Facebook, Livemocha, or even BBM (Blackberry Messenger).
Even though they cannot see face to face but the chat is real time, meaning that the response is received directly. This kind of communication is called synchronous as the speakers can communicate at the same time. The advantages of using 'real time' chat is that students (in this case still learning English) might give quick answer/response and it needs their skills that they have learned in their skill courses. This response will require them to practice more their English quickly. And students will not be scared if they make mistakes as they do not see each other face to face (although some use webcam).
Well, that is something about the chat rooms being used in doing the culture assignment. My students enjoy this activity very much and after they have completed the interview (could be many times) they must present it in front of the class using Power Point Slides.
I think that's all and thank you for reading.
Malang, 13 October 2010
Sabtu, 09 Oktober 2010
HOT POTATOES
Yesterday, I was sooo busy taking care of my campus' accreditation matters. As this accreditation is very important for us to be acknowledged as a good university, I, then, must also be serious in doing all the documentation to be submitted to the National Board of Accreditation. This document submission is then followed by a so-called visitation where there will be assessors coming to my university to check whether the report/document that we have sumbitted is similar with the real condition in my campus. Then, if the visitation is over, the assessor will give score (A,B,C, or D) and this will determine whether my university is considered 'good' or 'bad' :)
Back to my title for this blog, I write 'hot potatoes',...does it mean that I feel hungry after such a very busy day?? No...hahaha! Hot potatoes is a tool used for making English exercises to be published for our students. First, of course, we must download the 'software' (they call it a software) according to the software that we have, either for Windows, Mac, or Linux. Then, as usual, we must register ourselves with our username and password.
Hot Potatoes consists of five types of exercises, they are: JCloze, JMatch, JQuiz, JCross, and JMix.
The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling us to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is freeware, and we may use it for any purpose or project we want to create (www.hotpot.uvic.ca/). It is not open-source but we do need a very good internet connection in order that the exercises can be uploaded to our browser and then published.
Well, just check out the software that I recommend and I thank to teachers at Sanata Dharma University Jogjakarta, Indonesia who taught me how to create exercises using Hot Potatoes.
Happy trying:))
Malang, 9 October 2010
Back to my title for this blog, I write 'hot potatoes',...does it mean that I feel hungry after such a very busy day?? No...hahaha! Hot potatoes is a tool used for making English exercises to be published for our students. First, of course, we must download the 'software' (they call it a software) according to the software that we have, either for Windows, Mac, or Linux. Then, as usual, we must register ourselves with our username and password.
Hot Potatoes consists of five types of exercises, they are: JCloze, JMatch, JQuiz, JCross, and JMix.
The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling us to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is freeware, and we may use it for any purpose or project we want to create (www.hotpot.uvic.ca/). It is not open-source but we do need a very good internet connection in order that the exercises can be uploaded to our browser and then published.
Well, just check out the software that I recommend and I thank to teachers at Sanata Dharma University Jogjakarta, Indonesia who taught me how to create exercises using Hot Potatoes.
Happy trying:))
Malang, 9 October 2010
Kamis, 07 Oktober 2010
the webquest for my students
In my previous blog, I mentioned about creating a webquest for my Industrial Engineering students. As they are now having English 1 for their subject, I give them materials especially on English for industrial engineering field.
There are 31 students in my industrial engineering class. Most of them are senior high-school graduates with 12 years studying English since in the elementary school. English taught in schools are mostly grammar, vocabulary, and reading. There is little attention for listening and speaking. I have a feeling that if I use a conventional method of teaching such as lecturing, my students will get bored very easily as they had enough for 12 years of English from their teachers. And the reason why I create a webquest for them is to encourage and motivate them to study English in industrial engineering field as well as giving them creative ways for learning English.
First of all, I register myself to zunal (www.zunal.com) making my account in order that I can create webquest with some steps available at zunal. Then there is a template for us to be filled with own webquest. Webquest mostly contains title, introduction, task, process, evaluation, references, conclusion, and teacher's page. In the template, we must work step by step filling out parts of the webquest. For instance, I wrote "Branches of Engineering" for my title and add some descriptions on whom this webquest is for (children or adults), what field the topic is categorized (technology, language, arts, etc.), There is also a menu for uploading pictures, contents, and links that supports our topic.
The next step is to fill the introduction part. I wrote something for my students as if I give them choices on what engineering they're going to choose. Actually, this is just a prompt for them to get attracted with my webquest. I always put some links for them (Youtube video and articles on engineering) so that they can watch and browse the article. This can keep them interested with the topic.
Then, there is a task part. I wrote that students must do the task by reading the articles and watch the movies about notable engineers and their work on how to solve the world problems. I asked my students to get some inspiration from those engineers and then try to present some solutions on how to solve the problems in i.e. global warming, gree-house effect, pollution, etc. This task requires them to read extensively and then they must present their opinion in front of the class. This activity is intended fro them to read and speak more.
The process part tells students some steps on how to do the task. The steps are divided into some parts and ways on how they do the reading, watching movies, and presentation.
Unfortunately, I haven't finished with the evaluation part as I must do something else but I have shown this webquest to my students and asked them to do the task. I told them that I will mention the grading in the evaluation later on.
Well, I think I must stop now as I have a meeting to join. My campus is now busy with the accreditation and this event is very important for us to be recognized as a good university acknowledged by people in my country.
Thanks for reading and you can visit my webquest at www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=71216
Malang, 7 October 2010
There are 31 students in my industrial engineering class. Most of them are senior high-school graduates with 12 years studying English since in the elementary school. English taught in schools are mostly grammar, vocabulary, and reading. There is little attention for listening and speaking. I have a feeling that if I use a conventional method of teaching such as lecturing, my students will get bored very easily as they had enough for 12 years of English from their teachers. And the reason why I create a webquest for them is to encourage and motivate them to study English in industrial engineering field as well as giving them creative ways for learning English.
First of all, I register myself to zunal (www.zunal.com) making my account in order that I can create webquest with some steps available at zunal. Then there is a template for us to be filled with own webquest. Webquest mostly contains title, introduction, task, process, evaluation, references, conclusion, and teacher's page. In the template, we must work step by step filling out parts of the webquest. For instance, I wrote "Branches of Engineering" for my title and add some descriptions on whom this webquest is for (children or adults), what field the topic is categorized (technology, language, arts, etc.), There is also a menu for uploading pictures, contents, and links that supports our topic.
The next step is to fill the introduction part. I wrote something for my students as if I give them choices on what engineering they're going to choose. Actually, this is just a prompt for them to get attracted with my webquest. I always put some links for them (Youtube video and articles on engineering) so that they can watch and browse the article. This can keep them interested with the topic.
Then, there is a task part. I wrote that students must do the task by reading the articles and watch the movies about notable engineers and their work on how to solve the world problems. I asked my students to get some inspiration from those engineers and then try to present some solutions on how to solve the problems in i.e. global warming, gree-house effect, pollution, etc. This task requires them to read extensively and then they must present their opinion in front of the class. This activity is intended fro them to read and speak more.
The process part tells students some steps on how to do the task. The steps are divided into some parts and ways on how they do the reading, watching movies, and presentation.
Unfortunately, I haven't finished with the evaluation part as I must do something else but I have shown this webquest to my students and asked them to do the task. I told them that I will mention the grading in the evaluation later on.
Well, I think I must stop now as I have a meeting to join. My campus is now busy with the accreditation and this event is very important for us to be recognized as a good university acknowledged by people in my country.
Thanks for reading and you can visit my webquest at www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=71216
Malang, 7 October 2010
Selasa, 05 Oktober 2010
Making Webquest for my Industrial Engineering students 1
This morning I feel so excited in preparing my class at the Industrial Engineering Study Program. Last week, I told my students that this week's class is going to be at the English dept laboratory. The lab's name is Rabindranath Tagore, maybe, the founders of my university intended to commemorate this famous poet by putting his name in the English dept which is now becomes the Faculty of Language and Arts. It is hoped that by naming the lab, students will be interested more in studying literature as the English Study is heading for.
Back to preparing my students of the Industrial Engineering, I intend to give them insights that English for Industrial Engineering is as important as other subjects in their field. By having a mastery in English, it will be easier for them to read books, article and journals which are written in English. Thinking that encouraging my students to involve more in studying English (for Industrial Engineering) is not easy, I, then, try to use Webquest as a tool to make them interested and motivated in studying English. I opened www.zunal.com to create my own Webquest on how to introduce the branches of engineering and give them some insights on how to make a right decision on the engineering field they have chosen
www.zunal.com is a very easy and free site to create Webquest. All we have to do is just register and log in after we have the confirmation. Then there will be some steps in creating our own Webquest. It is easy and all we need is the Internet connection. Some parts in the steps are easy to follow. Just click the link and 'voila'...there the Webquest. We can add some link such as Youtube Video, pictures, articles, and even songs. Students can just do the task that is written in the Webquest while enjoying their study as Webquest is a very interactive and interesting as it contains films, songs, and other things that make studying English more enjoyable.
I will write in my next blog on how to create our own Webquest by using zunal.com. Now, I will go back to my own job and I will write the continued process in creating Webquest tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
Malang, 6 October 2010
Back to preparing my students of the Industrial Engineering, I intend to give them insights that English for Industrial Engineering is as important as other subjects in their field. By having a mastery in English, it will be easier for them to read books, article and journals which are written in English. Thinking that encouraging my students to involve more in studying English (for Industrial Engineering) is not easy, I, then, try to use Webquest as a tool to make them interested and motivated in studying English. I opened www.zunal.com to create my own Webquest on how to introduce the branches of engineering and give them some insights on how to make a right decision on the engineering field they have chosen
www.zunal.com is a very easy and free site to create Webquest. All we have to do is just register and log in after we have the confirmation. Then there will be some steps in creating our own Webquest. It is easy and all we need is the Internet connection. Some parts in the steps are easy to follow. Just click the link and 'voila'...there the Webquest. We can add some link such as Youtube Video, pictures, articles, and even songs. Students can just do the task that is written in the Webquest while enjoying their study as Webquest is a very interactive and interesting as it contains films, songs, and other things that make studying English more enjoyable.
I will write in my next blog on how to create our own Webquest by using zunal.com. Now, I will go back to my own job and I will write the continued process in creating Webquest tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
Malang, 6 October 2010
Senin, 04 Oktober 2010
a new stage of my teaching career
When a staff of RELO Indonesia called me to join this teacher online course, I wasn't so excited as I thought that this competition is just like other competitions on how teacher can participate in certain programs. As an international office manager as well as English teacher, I input four names of English teachers working in our university (Ma Chung University Malang, Indonesia) including my name. But when I received a notification from the University of Oregon I was still very suspicious that the notification was fake. My other friend whose name I entered to the competition also received the same notification told me that he was also suspicious about it. I tried to contact a person from RELO (Ibu Dian Safitri) asking her about the notification and she sent me an e-mail with the official letter that we really were accepted in the course. I was so surprised and didn't believe my eyes that I was accepted among 1500 candidates. I only felt that it was not my achievement as the competition didn't ask for certain requirement but only to put names and send.
Now, here I am with a bunch of assignments from my university as well as from the online course:). But to tell you the truth, I am very excited to be one of the participants as I really want to know more about using technology in my language classroom. Why I am interested in using technology in my language class because there are a lot of resources of technology in my campus especially the Internet. I just feel that if I don't make use of it, it will be useless and waste of money. My students deserve to have more on using the technology with the guidance from their teachers and I feel very encourage to do that. My other reasons of using technology are that I am now still working with my dissertation for my doctoral program and the topic is on Computer-assisted Language Learning. That is why I am so enthusiastic in joining this program.
Well, that's all my thoughts about why I join this course. I hope that I will involve actively in this course and can get the most out of this course.
Malang, 5 October 2010
Now, here I am with a bunch of assignments from my university as well as from the online course:). But to tell you the truth, I am very excited to be one of the participants as I really want to know more about using technology in my language classroom. Why I am interested in using technology in my language class because there are a lot of resources of technology in my campus especially the Internet. I just feel that if I don't make use of it, it will be useless and waste of money. My students deserve to have more on using the technology with the guidance from their teachers and I feel very encourage to do that. My other reasons of using technology are that I am now still working with my dissertation for my doctoral program and the topic is on Computer-assisted Language Learning. That is why I am so enthusiastic in joining this program.
Well, that's all my thoughts about why I join this course. I hope that I will involve actively in this course and can get the most out of this course.
Malang, 5 October 2010
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