1st Task - Website Evaluation

For this task, I have chosen to evaluate this website, http://www.manythings.org/

1) What does the application attempt to "teach'?
This website is basically an English interactive website which attempts to teach and to strengthen the second language learners' efficiency in English through certain activities and exercises. This website emphasizes the learning on grammar, vocabulary, and four language skills such as reading, writing, listening and speaking. This website also promotes interesting and interactive learning through the activities provided. The activities are quite interesting which it leads to entertaining learning. Besides that, the activities also provide immediate feedback which leads to interactive learning. This application is not just one-end product.
Besides that, the website also promotes information which covers a whole wide range of topics. As example, the differences between the spelling in American and British are differentiated through the use of colours. the use of history, and information related to the famous people also make the learning becoming more meaningful. As students carry out the activities, they not only learning about English, but also other related information or new knowledge as mentioned above, so on and so forth.
The application also teach the learners not to easily give up, and at the same time encourages their anticipation and interest in learning English. This application gives immediate feedback and a few of chances for the learners to re-choose their answers (if they gave wrong answer). Thus, it encourages the learners to learn, to try, and to lessen their defensiveness towards the teacher and English itself.


2) What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with regards to learning the content?
In this website, the publisher team has created different activities for different topics. The users are expected to do the activities such as quizzes, word games, word puzzles, proverbs, slang expressions, anagrams, a random-sentence generator and other computer assisted language learning activities which are created to meet the suitability of the learning.
If the user is still new to this application, or still new to English, they are advised to go to the page for beginner which the activities provided there are quite simple, and user friendly.
Besides that, the users are also expected to complete an activity before they can proceed to the next level. This is to ensure that the level of the activity is relevant to the learners.



3) What sorts of computer skills are the application users expected to have in order to operate/access/use the application?
Basically, there is no need for high or advanced knowledge or skill in computing or technology in order to run the application. The users just need to posses the basic requirement for computing such as:

1. The user must be able to use the word processing software such as Microsoft Words to manipulate, create, store and retrieve the written information in the website. This skill is very important as the user must know how to transfer and edit the information from the website into another platform.
2. The user must be able to connect to the internet, and posses some skills internet skill.
3. The user must be able to use email to communicate, and to share or express ideas with the community in the website.
   

4) While you are "playing"/"accessing" the application, does it remind you of anything you do in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?
It does remind me of my practicum days, and it also reminds me of CALL class. A few months ago, I was sent to a school and I still remember I used some of flash games in order to raise the students interest. There was a game where the students act as sheriffs and are required to catch the criminals. The criminals are holding certain words. Basically, they were given clues, and were asked to catch the criminal who holds the antonym or synonym words of the clues given. It also happened that I had taken some of the activities provided in the website such as copy and paste, word puzzles, and etcetera and apply it into my micro or macro teaching. In my opinion, this website offers a lot of interesting and applicable activities that suitable even for students in Malaysia.


5) Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the apllication?
There are many theories that can be related to this application, and the most significant are: audio-lingual method, the Gouin series method, the direct method, and the cognitive code learning.

1. Audio-Lingual Method - This method focuses on the oral-based technique by drills and pronunciation practice. Sometimes it also dependence on mimicry.
   
2. The Gouin Series Method - Teach users directly (no translation) and conceptually (no explanations/ grammatical rules)
   
3. The Direct Method - No translation between first and second language, little analysis of grammatical rules. It highlights that both speech and listening comprehension are taught.
   
4. The Cognitive Code Learning - Emphasized a conscious awareness of rules and their applications to second language learning (Brown,2001). Understand the rules first, then explanation take place.
   

6) How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website(s)?
In order to answer this question, firstly we must understand the main set of constructivist theory. The main set refers to the idea that a learner construct knowledge for themselves, but with the guidance from the teacher. For this context, the learners actively seeking for the knowledge from the application by completing the activities, meanwhile the teacher will help them by guiding and monitoring them. In this context also, the Vygotsky's theory of Zone of Proximal Development is emphasized. Based on this theory, Vygotsky once argued that children develop logical and rational concepts if they are involved in dialogue with a skilled helper. For this context, we can say that the teacher works by monitoring the students' progress in carrying out the activities, which is best conducted in group. The teacher also will placed the students based on their abilities in English and in computer literacy or abilities. Then the teacher will monitor and guide them. Besides that, the learners also can ask for help from more skillful learners.
By all means, it is also resembling to Scaffolding, which the main idea or the concept is the changes in the support or guidance from the more skilled person is depending on the learners' current performance. It must be remembered that the concept of Scaffolding that suggest that assistance or guidance not only comes from the teachers or learners, but also the surrounding including the application (as an example: clues in activities). This application provides clear instructions, hints, and guidance for the learners. This lets the users to explore and discover about the activities and the learning themselves. This is much fun rather than explained by the teachers.


7) In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on 'whether the computer was "master" of or "slave" to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In relation to your evaluation - was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?
In my opinion. The computer wasn't meant to be a replacement for teachers, neither be an obedient servant to students. It was created to change human's life, to make anything be easier for the human being. But it never can replace human being, or being their slaves. It is undeniable that computer is widely used in education today. Many countries have used it as the TOOLS for teaching and learning. Yes, TOOLS. Even though the programmers have put all data needed for the lesson to happen, but it still needs a human called as TEACHER to guide the learners. Teachers are the one who will guide and explain to the learners regarding the steps and the procedure before, during, and after the learning take part. Thus, I believe that computer cannot be a replacement to a teacher, but it can be a really helpful tool. It can help to make the lesson become more interesting (through audio or visual) and furthermore make the learning become meaningful.

Computer also cannot be a servant to the learners. Even though it helps the learners to complete the task easier, but still, it needs some commands from the user (learner), such as by clicking on something, or typing the command. This shows that the learners are actually doing the work, and the computer just work as the tool.
Thus, I believe that computer cannot be a replacement for the teacher, nor a servant for the teacher nor learner. It is just a tool.


8) Would you like to use the application in your future work? Why?
Yes. Because I believe that this application is suitable for all people, regardless their races, nationality, and era. This is because, the content in the application is up-to-date, and I believe that it is always updated to meet and cater the recent need from the society. In my own perspective, I already used some of the activities provided in the website in my lesson during practicum. As an example, the flash matching activities. Even though I've failed to get them to use the computer as the computer lab was used for another activity, but I managed to show the game in Media room, and managed to do some activities based on the game.
Besides that, it is editable. What I mean is, you can change the activities provided in the game, and try to make it relevant and suitable to your students. Maybe you can choose the sample from the activity, but then make a new task by using another software, or maybe just using mahjong paper and etcetera. The most important thing is, use your own imagination. Take the idea from this website, and then re-made it into your own.


Suggestion/Recommendation
Based on my observation, I believed that this website is reliable and up-to-date, even for today. It's quite an useful application for English as Second Language learners and educators. It even is user friendly which make it easier to anyone to use it. However, I believed that there are certain things that can be upgraded.

1. The interface should be more interesting. As many people know, most human being interested in something beautiful and colourful. Same goes to learners. The programmer should have done it more beautifully without neglecting the user-friendly values. Basically, this application is an user friendly application. It just lack of arts, or something to attract people during their first visit.
2. Activities - the programmer should make more problem-solving based activities that can stimulate learners better.
3. Discussion - there should be a place for the learners to discuss about English, or maybe regarding the activities. It will make the activities more interesting. Furthermore it will promote extended interactive learning.
4. Comments and Feedback - they should also provide a room where the learners can voice up their idea. So that the moderator team can try to take some of the useful idea. At the same time, they can improvise their service.