HYPERTEXT AND HYPERMEDIA

SKYDIVING

Parachuting, also known as skydiving, is the action of performing acrobatics or freestyle during freefall, followed by deployment of a parachute. Parachuting is performed as a recreational activity and a competitive sport, as well as for the deployment of military personnel Airborne forces and occasionally forest firefighters. A typical jump involves individuals jumping out of an aircraft (usually an airplane, but sometimes a helicopter or even the gondola of a balloon), at approximately 4,000 meters (around 13,000 feet) altitude, and free-falling for a period of time (about a minute) before activating a parachute to slow the landing down to safe speeds (about 5 to 7 minutes). When the parachute opens (usually the parachute will be fully inflated by 800 meters or 2,600 feet) the jumper can control the direction and speed with toggles on the end of steering lines attached to the trailing edge of the parachute, and can aim for the landing site and come to a relatively gentle stop. All modern sport parachutes are self-inflating "ram-air" wings that provide control of speed and direction similar to the related paragliders. Purists in either sport would note that paragliders have much greater lift and range, but that parachutes are designed to absorb the stresses of deployment at terminal velocity. By manipulating shape of the body a skydiver can generate turns, forward motion, backwards motion, and even lift.

When leaving an aircraft, for a few seconds a skydiver continues to travel forward as well as down, due to the momentum created by the plane's speed (known as "forward throw"). The perception of a change from horizontal to vertical flight is known as the "relative wind", or informally as "being on the hill". In freefall, skydivers generally do not experience a "falling" sensation because the resistance of the air to their body at speeds above about 50 mph (80 km/h) provides some feeling of weight and direction. At normal exit speeds for aircraft (approx 90 mph (140 km/h)) there is little feeling of falling just after exit, but jumping from a balloon or helicopter can create this sensation. Skydivers reach terminal velocity (around 120 mph (190 km/h) for belly to Earth orientations, 150-200 mph (240–320 km/h) for head down orientations) and are no longer accelerating towards the ground. At this point the sensation is as of a forceful wind. However, without precautions, accidents can happen.

Pink = HyperMedia
Blue = HyperText

Task 2: Article Review

TITLE:

EFL Teachers' Perceptions and Perspectives on Internet-Assisted Language Teaching

JOURNAL:

Vol. 8, No. 2, January 2007

AUTHOR:

Hee-Jae Shin, an EFL teacher at Buyeo Girls' High School in Chungnam Province, Korea and Jeong-Bae Son, an educator in applied linguistics, Faculty of Education at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.

LINK:

Journal

OVERVIEW

The Internet is defined as a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is one of the most popular technologies being used widely throughout the world. The Internet can now be accessed almost anywhere by numerous means, especially through mobile Internet devices. Mobile phones, datacards, handheld game consoles and cellular routers allow users to connect to the Internet from anywhere there is a wireless network supporting that device's technology. The usage of Web browsing has reached to the point of where it is used widely even in the Internet-Assisted Language Teaching all over the world.

SUMMARY

AIMS OF THE RESEARCH

The general objective of the study is simply to study the Korean secondary school EFL teachers’perceptions and perspectives on the use of the Internet. It also focuses on the barriers that stand in the way of applying the method in classroom teaching.

METHODOLOGY

The data of this study was collected using questionnaires to document Korean secondary school EFL teachers’perceptions and perspectives on the use of the Internet for English language teaching purposes. The questionnaires were distributed on-line and off-line to 150 Korean secondary school EFL teachers in Kyungki and Chungnam provinces in Korea but only 101 respondents had completed the questionnaires and returned them within a two months time. All the data collected were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively by the researchers.

POPULATION AND SAMPLE

The subjects of the research are among 101 Korean secondary school EFL teachers consisting 52 males and 49 females’ teachers. The range of age among the respondents was from 23 to 60 years. While their teaching experience ranged from less than five years to more than 25 years.

FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH

The results have shown that majority of the EFL teachers actually used the Internet for their teaching purposes. However, the teachers used the Internet more for the preparation of teaching materials rather than using it directly with students in the classroom during the teaching sessions. In Figure 1, teachers tended to use more than one Internet activity in their classrooms and among the types of Internet activities, Web surfing activities were employed most often in their classrooms. Figure 2 on the other hand shows reasons for preventing Internet use where 50 of the respondents gave the reasons for not using the Internet in the classroom.

CONCLUSION

The study has demonstrated that teachers have positive views on the use of the Internet for teaching EFL while they have difficulties in finding appropriate teaching materials and in integrating Internet resources into their curriculum. There are two problems identified which are the huge amount of information available on the Internet and limited time to seek useful information and the organisation and management of IALT classes. If all EFL teachers undertake well-planned training courses to gain and improve their Internet skills, EFL instruction using Internet resources could be enhanced more actively, collaboratively and consistently across the school system.

REFLECTION

An interesting research topic, especially when it covers one of the arising issues in education nowadays. I have noticed that some of us are so left-behind not only when it comes to technologies but their mind set as well. Teachers for example should try their best to move alined with the others because teachers are the ones that are shaping the future leaders. Trainings and courses have been provided by the government in order to keep up with time however, the efforts would be wasted if the people involved do not make a full use of it. Logically, when we say “we cannot do it”, automatically our body follows it as well. This is what I meant by mind set. We usually believe what we told ourselves to believe. There is no harm done if we try.

Furthermore, we should know better the importance to cater the needs of our students. If the environment need us to keep ourselves updated, than that is what we must do. Internet is a very useful tool since everything is at the tip of our finger. I understand that maybe some of us do not have the access at home, but that should not stop us especially when the government have provided the facilities in school. We can show our appreciation when we make full use of the facilities given. As the researchers have said, in IALT, teachers can use different types of teaching methods on the basis of their students’ interest or needs. The use of the Internet supports the shift from the traditional teacher-centred classroom to the learner-centred classroom that is a current pedagogical preference in EFL teaching. Internet-Assisted Language Teaching actually helps to reduce teachers’ workloads. We can simply browse through the internet and search. It is as easy as one two three. Furthermore, by applying the method in class would benefits the students since the amount of exposure they receiced would broaden their views on using the internet usage.

In conclusion, i agree that IALT is an important component that should be included in the curriculum and practiced by lessons conducted in classrooms. I am sure with the suitable number of students in class, it would be easier for the teacher to manage the classroom and any other barriers.

REFERENCES

http://callej.org/journal/8-2/h-js_j-bs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

Reflection on Hot Potatoes

Before i start my reflection, let me tell you a little bit about Hot Potatoes. The application has nothing to do with food although the name might sound like a vegetable. Hot Potatoes is a freeware and user-friendly application which allow users to download it directly from the World Wide Web. The package includes six applications, which enables you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises which can be use for any purpose or project. It comes in Version 6 created by Half-Baked Software Inc.

The application was first introduced to me and my classmates by Dr Izaham during our TSL641 Computer Assisted Language Learning class. It is a simple yet interesting and easy to use application. Hot Potatoes is suitable for all kinds of computer users even for the beginners. The names are quite catchy since they use names like 'JMatch, JCloze, JMix, JCross and JQuiz'. Users can easily figure out which application is for which by identifying the names. Hot Potatoes ensures the possibility of creating any kinds of worksheets. Everything is just a click-away. Why bother to do things the hard way when we have a software like this to makes things a whole lot easier for us? To make it more interesting, we could add on pictures and sounds which can be linked directly from the web or can be uploaded from our computers. Each icon on the task bar represent different things and when we want to view the worksheet, our work is automatically saved. This is wonderful because sometimes we do forget to save our work to the computer and this is very dangerous because once it is lost, we can never retrieve it back. It ensures the security of our work. However, one weakness which I manage to identify is that the software a bit rigid since there are things which can't be customized. Changing fonts for example is not that easy.  However, if the user happens to have extra knowledge on using HTML codes would be great. This is because things like centralizing the title and making paragraphs need the codes because the application does not provide them for users.

Hot Potatoes is as hot as the name is and it brings a fun learning environment for both teachers and students. I am sure more people will be using it later on and of course I will use it as well in the future. I am very thankful to Dr Izaham for exposing us to the application and I hope I can produce better worksheets and exercises for the students. From what I can see, I have actually expanded my creativity throughout the lessons. =)

JMatch

IDIOMS EXPRESSIONS