Nurul Zahidah's Blog

Powtoon Hello everyone! This week, we pretty much use the time we had in our class to explore and play around with Powtoon in order to finish our video assignment. Let me tell you one thing, it's easy to use Powtoon if and only if...you follow a certain rule and make sure you have a good internet connection. If you don't, it's going to be terribly difficult to finish up the video that you are going to make. Let's talk about the rules of using Powtoon. Based on my experience along these 2 weeks, the first rule that you want to follow is to make sure that you have the story of you upcoming video drafted and most importantly; your voice, to be recorded. If you make the amateur mistake of making the video using the Powtoon first, you'll face the risk that some of classmates faced - you might have to redo the video afterwards ( trust me, you don't wanna spend another several hours of your time re-editing the video again and again!) After you have yo...

Heyya everyone~~ This week, I learnt about Powtoon. From what I have learnt, I could say that Powtoon is more or less a sophisticated and mix up version of PowerPoint and Movie-Maker. In other word, you can turn your slides onto a video and walla, you can  directly post it onto YouTube and any other social media account that you have .  That way, everyone can share the knowledge that you taught in your video. Powtoon  As a continuation from the subject, we are assigned to do our own educational video using Powtoon. My friends ( Balqis, Aisyah, Along) and I decided that we are going to share about what we know on the subject : writing and personality. We have always been interested about the power of knowing one's personality. True enough, there are several scientist who actually have found out that our writing and the way we write could reflect who we are as a person. Now, knowing who we are as a person could have a powerful impact in a person's life an...

Hello everyone! In today's entry, I am going to talk about my reflection on what I have learnt about Podcast and Digital Storytelling in Language Learning.  To be honest, I knew a bit about Podcast before the lesson; but, I wasn't one of those people who actually use Podcast in a daily basis. The lesson help me understand that Podcast actually revolves around audio or video which can be played and downloaded through internet connection. So, you know - you can directly search for any Podcast that you want to listen to, downloaded it and have it played whenever and wherever you want.  Podcast is not limited to merely music but in fact, it offers a whole dimension of world and topics from story telling to tutorial to lessons or talks - my lecturer for instance loves to listen to historical review Podcast  on Victorian era! (he teaches literature, so it kinda make sense). The content in Podcast makes it possible for us - English Language Students - to ...

In this week entry, I am going to talk about my reflection on the topic Instructional Courseware Design (ICD). ICD is a process of designing and developing instructional courses or materials that bring greater appeals, efficiency and effectiveness for learners to acquire skills and knowledge. ICD and Instructional Design (ISD) are interrelated and are comprised of the mixture between behaviourist (deals mainly on learners’ behavior towards the given stimulus) and constructivist learning theory (learners build their knowledge on specific subjects based upon their prior knowledge). Therefore, in order to design an instructional experience, it is necessary for designers (teachers/educators) to figure out the needs of the learners, define the learning objectives and create some intervention for learners to achieve the objectives. From what I’ve learnt, I understand that in order to know learners’ need, needs analysis through syllabus, survey or even observation need to be done be...

Hello again!  So, in this entry, I am going to share with you about what I have learnt on topic Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and ESL. From the lesson, I’ve learnt that CMC is basically a ‘glittering term’ to explain interaction between people via separate computer through network connection. It’s literally a term to explain about what you and I have been doing for as long as we have internet – e-mail, WhatsApp; well, you get the idea. Interestingly, CMC has been adapted and used in education starting 1980’s to 1990’s (I was borne in 1990’s!) – what started as email and forum back then makes it possible for us now to have mediums for genuine communication, even distant learning to help in our own education. And hey, some universities even offered a diploma through 100% online learning.  Features of CMC As I mentioned in previous entry, I’ve learnt to understand that there are two forms of CMC: asynchronous (delayed form of communication lik...

Hello again! In this week entry, I will share with you about my reflection from this week’s lesson on the topics: Evolution of CALL as well as Search Engine and Online Database. Evolution of CALL I've learnt that just as much as human was said to be evolved in the theory of Darwin, CALL has undergone its evolution throughout the years; starting from Behaviouristic CALL (BC) to Communicative CALL (CC) and finally to Integrated CALL (IC) that we have today. 1. Behaviouristic CALL Stanford Project (1960) BC is based on Operant Conditioning theory by B.F Skinner whereby it talks about how learners’ behaviors are shaped from the application of positive or negative reinforcement. Basically, what I understand about this theory is, so long as you get a reward, you’ll have the motivation to do more.  Because it was the beginning of CALL, BC only aims to transfer textbooks and worksheets onto computer based application for audio lingual teachi...

Hey everyone! In this entry, I am going to share my reflection on lesson that I've learnt on the topics: Blog in ELT as well as Introduction to CALL. So, what is blog exactly? Simply put, ‘blog’ is just another word for personal diary or journal – an online version of it. Just like how you express all your personal thoughts, feelings and passions in your personal diary, a blog is a place where you choose parts of those thoughts, feelings and passions to share and express yourself to the world. Really, you can write whatever that you want. In fact it’s anything you want it to be – well, in my case, this blog is a journal of what I’ve learnt in my ELT class. 4 Types of Blog in ELT From the lesson, I’ve learnt that there are 4 types of blog – weblog, tutor blog, class blog and learners blog. Similar to the definition of blog, weblog is a frequently updated website used mostly as an online journal. With the existence of Wordpress ( https://wordpress.com/learn-m...