Dr. Ghada Awada & Dr. Ghazi Ghaith

The Impact of Blogger, WebQuest, Window Movie Maker, digital storytelling, WLMM

Journaling, Wikis and Legal Videos in university classrooms

This lecture sheds light on the significance of the integration of the Blogger, WebQuest, Window Movie Maker, digital storytelling, WLMM Journaling, Wikis and Legal Videos in university classrooms.

IntroductionThe effects of the use of innovative technological tools has enhanced the originality of teaching and learning practices and boosted creative, interactive learning.

Importance of Blogger-Based ESP Classrooms

As an internet-based educational tool, the blog is a multi-faceted tool employed to accommodate all learners. A blog can serve different functions. Weblog is a brilliant tool to fuse educational technology and writing inside and outside the classroom.

Blog

The blog is referred to as digital fluency that makes people become comfortable using technology (Huffaker, 2004). Digital fluency can be another prerequisite for sociability, lifelong learning and employment opportunities (Resnick, 2002).

A Study Investigating the Efficiency of the Weblog in Enhancing Legal English

The study explored the role of blog in classroom settings. Legal English blogs provided an excellent opportunity for educators to advance literacy through legal English writings based on Word Banks and role play presentations.

The study reviewed examples of blogs in practice,and it aimed at investigating the efficiency of blogs in enhancing the writing skills of lawyers and in raising the lawyers' motivation. The subjects of the study were two English for Lawyers groups; a control group and an experimental one.

Treatment

The experimental group employed the blog to communicate with each other and with the instructor and to publish their writings and post comments on the work of each other whereas the control received the feedback, announcements and comments from the instructor in the classroom.

Each group consisted of 16 lawyers whose ages ranged from 26 to 48 years old. The subjects received legal English instruction for twelve weeks. The instruction covered the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills which were mainly their own writings.

Research Findings

The instruments employed in the study were a posttest and a questionnaire that investigated the subject’s motivation in both groups before and after the instructional period. The SPSS was used in data analysis.

Findings

The findings indicated that the blog contributed to remarkable legal English acquisition of the experimental group. The questionnaire also revealed the great experimental subjects' motivation.

Findings

The study revealed that Blog posts and comments on blog posts can be used as forms of social media to discuss written ESL Legal English.

The findings of the study were compatible with those of the previous studies which had been done by Song & Chan (2008), Zhang (2009) and Galien (2010) to investigate the utilization of classroom blog.

Implications

Weblogs prove great potential in language learning; however, there are also significant challenges. First, students with low English proficiency may experience complexity in putting their ideas in order(Lee,2010).

Implications

Blogs are: 1.Highly motivating to students, especially those who

otherwise might not become participants in classrooms.

2.Excellent opportunities for students to read and write.

3.Effective forums for collaboration and discussion. 4.Powerful tools to enable mentoring to occur.

Weblogs provide an excellent opportunity for educators to advance literacy through storytelling and dialogue.

Blogs provide a space where teachers and students can work to further improve writing or other skills with the benefit of an instant audience. Teachers can provide instructional guidelines, and students can perform and benefit from peer review. Participants can also construct online mentoring through the blog.

Blogs can be multidisciplinary. Learners can express their perceptions on any number of subjects. A blog could be global ,and it could really introduce students to international law practices.

The Methodological Problems and Challenges Encountered When Using Blog

The compilation of the program materials and activities has been a fundamental challenge. The English for lawyers program, designed by one of the researchers, has demanded 3 years of painstaking and meticulous work due to the nature of the legal texts and the activities of the program.

Another hindrance has been the low enrollment due to writing apprehension and the lack of marketing tools; as such, the results might vary in case the number of participants increases. The lack of resources has also been a hindrance since the participants intend to learn the legal terms and expressions in Arabic and English.

The required qualifications of the instructor who can teach any of the levels of the program are not common in Lebanon because such professional should hold a degree in English and another in law so that he/she can be capable to give the legal English instruction.

The findings also add that understanding similarities and differences among gender, ethnicity and age groups would help develop more personalized approaches to classroom implementation and enhance the applicability of weblogs in educational settings.

References

Awada, G. & Ghaith, G. (2014). Effect of Using the Blog Educational Tool on Writing Achievement and Motivation for Legal Writing. International Journal of Education and Research. 2 (12), 371-388.

The Use of Digital Storytelling

Meadows (2003) defined digital stories as short personal multimedia tales narrated beautifully and conveying the feelings and the emotions towards a certain event. The main advantage of digital storytelling is that it enables students to employ the basic multimedia tools such as Windows Movie Maker and Audacity which are used to build graphics, animated graphics, video, animation, text, and photos and develop creative and cognitive skills.

Digital storytelling

Storytelling remains important from childhood to

adulthood because stories allow people to express experiences and feelings in an engaging way, help them to understand the world around them, and develop and sustain peer relationships.

Digital Storytelling

Engaging students in producing their own digital stories allows the entire learning experience to take place in an anxiety –reduced environment leading to increasing their self-confidence,due to the interesting nature of videos (Bennette, 1988; Kinnaman, 1993; and Clovis 1997).

Results and Findings

The researcher found that the digital storytelling is a means to obtain the development of content understanding and oral skills.Digital storytelling hinders the respondents’ reluctance to listen to own recordings in a digital storytelling production phase. Learning and documenting, content understanding or personal reflections on a topic are all ensured by the digital storytelling.

Digital Storytelling

Along the same line, using the digital storytelling, the teacher plays an important role related to the student’s zone of proximal development.

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a language learning activity that embraces writing as well. A script for a digital story is short and requires reflection on every single choice of word.

Digital Storytelling

The findings were as expected, and hence confirmed the researcher’s experience. Participants embraced all aspects of digital storytelling, in the sense that they saw learning potentials related to much more than developing their digital skills.

Implications Beyond building confidence as an author, the inclusion

of music and personal narration gives learners more control over how they present themselves to the world.

The Use of Window Movie Maker Journaling

Journaling is considered as a stress management and self-exploration tool .A study conducted by the researcher revealed that students were generally motivated and excited about the WMM journaling although initially there were some hesitations due to lack of experience as well as skills in movie-making.

Study Aims

The study looked into the perceptions of the participants towards the efficacy of a computer-assisted language learning tool versus journal writing in improving the English as a foreign language (EFL) writing Proficiency and decreasing the levels of writing apprehension.

The study employed an experimental pretest- posttest control group design. A content analysis of the qualitative data gathered from the study participants to the open ended questions in the experimental group was carried out to describe and concretize their perceptions of the WMM experience.

Study Design

The results of the study indicated that the WMM journaling proved to be more effective than the traditional pen and paper journaling in enhancing Proficiency and decreasing writing apprehension.

Findings

Findings

The study revealed that the participants were generally motivated and excited about the WMM journaling although initially there were some hesitations due to lack of experience in movie-making. The WMM journaling project was able to draw out the participants’ creativity in integrating language with computer skills.

Window Movie Maker Journaling

Data collected were analyzed and the findings indicated that the WMM journaling was more effective than the traditional instruction as students improved their writing performance significantly and interestingly.

Implications

All teachers who wish to engage their students in authentic language learning should consider classroom videos. Using WMM, the teachers can implement the making and editing of a video journaling at the end of each lesson as a post-reading activity.

The Use of WikiWard Cunningham used the word wiki to name the

collaborative tool he developed for use on the Internet in 1994. Wikis are fully editable websites; any user can read or add content to a wiki site. Users can visit, read, reorganise and update the structure and content

Wiki use

According to Lev Vygotsky, learners develop socially when they collaborate with their more capable peers. In this context,wiki helps with the materials that can be presented in a variety of formats (text, pictures, audio, video, multimedia) embedded to cater to students’ needs.Harriman( 2010: pag. 78) asserted that a prior analysis of the learning context, together with negotiation, fosters language awareness and promotes learner autonomy.

Research Findings

In alignment with other studies (Chao & Lo, 2009; Ducate et al., 2011; Lee, 2010; Lund, 2008; Zorko, 2009), Awada & Ghaith( 2015)perceived that wikis are fun and interesting tools to share knowledge, and also motivating for learning.

ImplicationsWiki-based collaborative writing enabled students to

scaffold each other in content development and gain more perspectives of a certain topic (Kost, 2011; Li & Zhu, 2011; Lund, 2008). Alyousef and Picard (2011) observed that cooperative learning was at a peak where students divided/distributed the task among themselves.

Implications Wikis allowed students to fulfill their role duties,

negotiate, cooperate, manage contribution, and

learn from each other. A wiki provided an

observational learning or modeling environment

for students to learn from others’ work.

ImplicationsAwada & Abdallah(2014) reported that Google Drive forms make conducting questionnaires and studies a fun and interesting task, and these forms enable students to avoid plagiarism committed by adopting other's statistics and figures. Above all, the feasibility of inserting a video and sending it along with the survey form makes students highly motivated and increases their confidence in the work they produce.

The wiki project aims at enhancing students’ and teacher’s involvement in collaborative online content creation. The structure of the wiki space allows for a work-in-progress approach to differentiated learning, and Google Drive helps students quickly obtain the data required for the analysis of their project's findings(Awada & Abdallah,2014) .

Keith (2006) asserted that wikis enable users to negotiate, collaborate with others and learn from others’ work. A wiki provided an observational learning or modeling environment for students to learn from others’ work.

References

-Awada,G.&Abdallah,A.(September,2014).Wiki and Google Drive:Expediters versus hindrances. International Journal of Education Research(IJER)

-Awada,G.&Abdallah,A.(June,2014). The use of WiKi and Google Drive in a public school. EAN 23rd Annual Conference, 2-4 June 2014, Edinburgh Scotland, UK. Conference Paper

The Use of WebQuest

WebQuests, developed by Bernie Dodge and Tom March in early 1995, are inquiry-oriented activities in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web (Dodge, 1998).

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WebQuest

WebQuests raise students ’ motivation and help in making the practice of reading and writing more interesting.WebQuest also serves as facilitator for speaking and writing ,and students enjoy the uploaded authentic material .

WebQuests UsesWebQuests have certain critical attributes (Dodge,

1997). These attributes include an introduction, a task, information sources, process, guidance, and conclusion.

Problem-Solving Approach of WebQuests

In line with Dodge (1998) and Dudeney (2003), Ge Stoks (2002) indicated that the problem-solving approach of WebQuests, including the sequential sections, may facilitate language learning.

Wealth of Accessible Reading Materials for Writing Input

According to Krashen (1984), the best way to learn to write is to receive rich and comprehensive input from reading. There is no source other than the Internet that is capable of providing such a wealth of easily accessible reading materials for writing input.

Inquiry-oriented Application

WebQuests, developed by Bernie Dodge and Tom March in early 1995, are inquiry-oriented activities in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web (Dodge, 1998, Grabe & Grabe, 2001).

Facilitator for Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing

WebQuest also serves as facilitator for speaking and writing, and students enjoy the uploaded authentic material.

WebQuests

WebQuests begin with an introduction WHICH provides the students with

background information on the topic and sets the stage for the investigation or activity

The next section of the WebQuest is the task which includes an activity that is “doable” and is of interest to the students.

WebQuest

The resource section provides links to high-quality Internet-based resources that students will use to complete the activity.

WebQuest

The WebQuest should provide a clear description of exactly what students should do to complete the task. Most quality WebQuests include an evaluation tool or assessment instrument as the next to last section. The evaluation may be in the form of a rubric or checklist.

WebQuest

Through an extensive variety of exercises based on authentic texts, learners will progressively learn the reading, vocabulary and study skills indispensable to work independently on materials of their own choice.

WebQuest

The WebQuests help students retain more information, understand concepts more rapidly and are more enthusiastic about what they are learning. Using WebQuests, students often make new connections among curriculum topics and discover links between these topics and the world outside the classroom.

Instructor

The instructor assisted in training the counselors of the Ministry of education and higher education in Lebanon on the use of WebQuests and authentic materials in classrooms.

WebQuest Research Recommendations

The teachers must upload the clips, presentations, visuals, files, tasks, materials that match the unit or the lesson objectives and will involve the learners in the proposed unit or lesson plan.

It is imperative that teachers upload pre- and post-task activities that will integrate the authentic materials into the entire lesson structure.

WebQuest Research Implications

The WQWI enables the teachers to :Discuss a range of print and non-print resources

required for English language teaching.Discuss the rationale and procedures of using

webquest as teaching tool.Assess the quality of thematic instructional units.Design authentic materials for English language

teaching.Create a thematic teaching unit.

Recommendations and Implications

WebQuests can motivate students, introduce a new concept, reinforce a previously learned concept, enhance and expand current knowledge. WebQuests can expose students to people, places, and events that other learning resources can't.

The Methodological Problems and Challenges

.The researchers exerted much effort and time in

preparing and uploading the materials that could meet students' needs.

The Methodological Problems and Challenges

This study did not measure students' reading ability through employing the WQWI. In order to uncover the direct effect of the WQWI on students' reading ability, further research could be conducted administering a reading comprehension test to participants in the study.

Impact of WebQuest and Gender on Writing Achievement in Professional Business English

The study is based on the assumptions that language instructors can use the WQ as a useful source of authentic materials that enrich the content and exercises of the regular English for Specific Purpose (ESP ) textbooks.

Study Questions

In particular, the study addressed the following questions:

What is the relative effect of using Web Quest Instruction (WQI) in an ESP class in comparison with regular business writing instruction in improving the writing achievement of EFL learners in Lebanon?

Is there an interaction effect between gender and the treatment conditions on EOP writing achievement?

What are the learners’ perceptions of their experience using the WQI in their ESP class?

Findings on Perceptions of WebQuest Experience

The content analysis of qualitative data from reflective logs about learners’ experience with the WebQuest suggests: 1) the effectiveness of using WebQuests, 2) the usefulness of this educational model in teaching BE skills, 3) the interest and motivation rendered by the WebQuest and 4) the systematic approach and organization of the WQ materials model.

Findings

The WebQuest model was perceived as a new and interesting technological tool that made the participants feel that they were up to date; they were using trendy models that are nature friendly, for they were able to access the class materials, assignment and requirements wherever they could access the Internet.

Findings

The WQ model was also perceived to be as very useful in teaching BE editing and revising skills. The WQ model was also perceived to be as very useful in presenting the course material in an organized and systematic manner.

Quantative and Qualitative Results

The study proved that female learners outperformed their male counterparts in writing achievement. Findings also showed that learners in the experimental group perceived the WebQuest experience as both interesting and rich.

Efficacy of the WebQuest

A possible explanation of the insignificant efficacy of the WebQuest intervention in the present study might be attributed to the relatively short duration of the treatment which lasted only for two weeks.

Findings

The positive attitudes towards WQI experience could, however, be attributed to the critical attributes of the WebQuest that provide students with opportunities to read and write a variety of EOP authentic text types and on various Business situations .

References

Awada,G. & Ghaith,G. (July,2014). Impact of using the WebQuest technological model on English as a foreign language (EFL) writing achievement and apprehension .Arab World English Journal,81-93

-Awada, G. M., & Ghaith, G. M. (2015). Impact of WebQuest and Gender on Writing Achievement in Professional Business English. Taiwan International ESP Journal, 6(2), 1-27.

Using Legal Videos in an ESP Course for Lawyers

The study aims at examining the effectiveness of legal videos in improving the writing skills and legal terminology acquisition of lawyers enrolled in an English for Specific Purpose (ESP ) class.

Participants

The participants of the study are Lebanese attorneys receiving twelve 4-hour- legal English sessions covering the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

Participants

The participants are not proficient in writing and speaking legal English since the majority of their study courses are in Arabic and some of them are French-educated legal practitioners who have not received legal English instruction before.

Study Design

The study employed an experimental pretest- posttest control group design.

Study Questions

What is the relative effect of using the legal videos in comparison with regular process writing instruction in improving the writing achievement of ESP learners in Lebanon?

What is the relative effect of using the legal videos in comparison with regular process writing instruction in decreasing the writing motivation level of ESP learners in Lebanon?

What are the learners’ perceptions of the effect of using legal videos in improving their motivation for ESP learning?

Material

Legal videos, Word Banks and Role Play presentations were the materials utilized in by the experimental group. The control group employed Word Bank, text and role playing situations rooted in legal context.

Discussions

The study revealed that using legal videos in more effective than regular instruction in improving the writing proficiency of lawyers studying English for a specific purpose.

The findings agree with those of Wagener’s (2006),White et al. (2000), Mekheime (2011),Maclean & White(2007), Joseph & Baskaran (2011),Zhao(2003),Bacon & Finnemann (1990), Hanson-Smith(1999) and Herron, Cole, Corrie & Dubreil (1999).

The results contradict with those of Wang & Hartley (2003), Brooke (2003), Dal (2010) , Shrosbree (2008),and Masats ,et.al. (2009) that highlighted adversely the relationship between video technology and teacher reform.

The findings agree with those reported by Herron, Dubreil, Cole & Corrie (2000), Kitajima & Lyman-Hager (1998), Lafford & Lafford, (1997), Lee (1998), Weyers (1999), Zhao(2003),Shea (2000),Zhao (1997), Al-Seghayer (2001) and Liuolienė and Metiūnienė (2012).

Implications

Legal videos can be a very valuable tool in the classroom for many reasons. Videos can motivate students, introduce a new concept, reinforce a previously learned concept, or enhance and expand current knowledge.

Implications

Instructional videos contain a great amount of information. Videos enhance visual memory and reach students with a wide variety of learning styles. Legal videos can expose students to people, places, and events that other learning resources can't. Videos can also serve as enhancement to the lesson of study.

References

Awada,G.& Abdallah, A. (2014).The Extent of Efficiency of Legal Videos in Enhancing the Writing Skills and Vocabulary Acquisition of Lawyers in a Legal English Class. Research Challenges in CALL, CALL Proceedings 2014, University of Antwerp (ISBN 9789057284533). 45-52.