Improving your writing online
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Improving your writing online
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Improving your writing online
- 1. Improving your writing online Resources, Applications, & Interactions Image From: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/158/366393127_ae569532a7_b.jpg
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- Google ( http://www.google.com ) Using a search engine, you can find a lot of useful information for both academics as well as personal interests. Search engines themselves can actually help with your writing in a number of ways. Checking for spellings and definitions : Even without going to other sites, Google will suggest alternative spellings and will offer definitions at the top of the results. Alternative Spellings : if mistype a word or use the wrong spelling, Google will ask you, "Did you mean: XXXXXX?" Definition : to find a definition, type def: in front of the word (e.g., def:foreigner). Check collocations : In the page summaries provided in the search results, you can check to see how other people are using word groupings. When you search, put quotes around that search phrase (e.g., "I went the store"). This will search for the exact phrase and not just the words in the phrase. Then, when looking at the results, note how the phrase is being used in the results summaries. Is there extra punctuation around it? Are they using it in the same way that you want to use it? Also, how many search results are being returned? If you have a phrase of 4 or more words, the number of results will likely be quite low, but if you have only 2 words, the results should be much larger (probably over 20,000,000 and likely much larger). Using Google Scholar for this is even better when you want to know how language is most often used in academic writing. I have to warn you that this does not always work well. Sometimes, incorrect options return more results than correct options: this is likely due to typographical errors, non-standard uses, or even the large number of non-native English speaking contributors to Web-based resources. Collocations: " go to shopping " Comparing two options: Option 1 and Option 2
- Collaborative Writing Collaborative writing is great for both students and teachers. There are so many times when it is beneficial to collaborate/cooperate on documents (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.), but in many schools in Korea it’s difficult to get students in computer labs together. Using these sites people can create and edit documents at the same time, or asynchronously. Wikispaces and Wetpaint – These are traditional wikis. Wikis are great for 2 reasons: (1) collaborative writing (synchronous/asychronous) and (2) History. The latter, history, is powerful for use with group editing. It is not uncommon that people make mistakes or you could even have a malicious editor. In these cases, an administrator can revert back to a previous version. Most wikis also enable you to compare two versions, which can give teachers great incite into an individual student’s contributions to the document. Google Docs – Google Docs acts a lot like a wiki, but is a little different. It has a lot more functionality than most wikis, but it does not have that great history function. Google Docs offers word processing, spreadsheets (then enable use of forms for polling, questionnaires, quizzes, etc.), and presentations. These are easy to create, edit, share, and publish.
- Blogs Blogs are a type of publication medium. It is tough to define what a blog is, but one way to look at it is as a chronologically organized publication. They can be seen as journals. However, unlike your traditional classroom journal, the focus is on interaction with resources and people. Interaction with resources through linking to and embedding materials. Interaction with people through comments. Blogger and WordPress are the most popular services. Blogger, in my opinion, is the easiest one to use with students (and teachers) who are not already comfortable with online publishing. Both enable users to get up and running very fast. ESL Blog and BBC Learning English Blog are examples of blogs dedicated to serving English language learners. There are many blogs that serve English language teachers, but fewer (good ones) that serve learners. Most are grammar focused.
- Discussion Forums Discussion forums are largely asynchronous text interactions. This is probably the more used technology in online education. These are primarily used for interactions with and between learners. Most often in the form of question-response, scenario-response, and narrative exchange. Yuku and Tangler are services that allow you to create discussion forums for you classes for free. These are increasingly unnecessary since other services that we use have discussion forums built in. UsingEnglish and English Club are two popular discussion forums dedicated to helping people with English usage. These are primarily non-native speakers of English, but many are native speakers who aren’t sure how to use or explain grammar. In general, the feedback is great and the ability for learners to take charge of their own learning cannot be stressed enough.
- SMS, Text, Microblogging SMS - Likely the most accessible and prevalent of the technologies that we’ve talked about today with learners and teachers. This can be very powerful for collaboration, on-the-go learning, quizzes, and other creative uses of the technology. Text – Commonly referred to as (text) chat. It’s likely that ever person you see using a computer here in Korea has a chat client running. I’d guarantee this is true for younger learners. This is good for the same things as SMS, but additionally it’s good for exchanging files, following links to Web pages, whiteboards, screen sharing, and, increasingly, audio/video chat. Microblogging – This is the biggest buzz right now. It is like text chat/SMS (140 characters), but it is public and ongoing. It is like a blog, but very short and includes a lot more interaction. Clients can add a lot of functionality including audio, video, linking, etc. Twitter is the darling internationally, but Korea has a homegrown option that is getting popular here, Me2Day
- Social Networks Online social networks are a powerful source for resources, interactions, and learning. There are sites focused on everyday interaction, language learning, and professional development. Online social networks take many forms, but what we think of most are sites like Facebook (Cyworld in Korea). These enable us to connect to friends, colleagues, and those who share similar interests from around the world. General – Facebook is the largest online social network in the world. This could be good for students due to the shear number of users. Language – LiveMocha and italki are two examples of online social networks that are completely dedicated to language learning. These have both general, free functions and pay options. The general functions enable learners to meet and interact with other learners (someone learning English in Korea can connect with someone learning Korean in the US) through text as well as audio and video. Pay functions include instructional materials, connections with tutors, and professional feedback. DIY – You can create your own social networks with a service like Ning. Ning allows you to create social networks for your classes or interests and customize how they look and operate. For a fee, you can also have an ad-free network with more control.
- Google Monster Google is a monster of a company. They seem to be everywhere these days. They are mainly a search provider, which makes them a lot of money through serving ads. However, they want to see ALL of your information in order to provide better advertising and, thus, attract more advertising money. In their quest to do this, they are opening services left and right that give you free services in exchange for indexing your information (anonymously, of course) This is both good and bad for consumers (teachers and students). It is good because there is so much available for free, the services work well together, and one easy sign in. It’s bad because you have so much reliance on one company. Additionally, this is a company that has been known to let products whither away and die or close the doors entirely. More importantly, in Korea, Google has not agreed to the Korean real-name system and therefore has some restrictions (roadblocks) for Korean users.
- THE END Thank you for coming! Any Questions? Name: Dan Craig Here are some ways that you can contact me. These days, I will friend anyone on Twitter who shares my interests. That is the best place to find me. I mostly use Facebook for friends and colleagues, so that’s not as good. If we talk enough on Twitter, maybe I’ll add you to Facebook Email: [email_address] Web: http://www.danielcraig.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/seouldaddy Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/danielallencraig Blogs: http://blog.danielcraig.com http://callforkorea.blogspot.com YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bigdaddyseoul Ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/daniel-craig