The Advantages and Trials of Effectively Introducing a VLE at a Assignment

The Advantages and Trials of Effectively Introducing a VLE at a University in Saudi Arabia - Assignment Example A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is a software program devised to facilitate instructors in the management of courses for their students. It aims at helping students and teachers with course administration. It can also track the student’s progress which can be monitored by both the learners and instructors. VLEs are mostly viewed as being helpful in distance learning but in practice they are equally beneficial in supplementing face-to-face classroom. Typically, the application of VLEs enables the users to easily upload their materials and resources, offers an integrated set of internet tools and provides a consistent look and feel that can be customized by the user. Therefore, the employment of technology to support learning is largely prevailed by the use of VLEs. In this paper, the main concern will be how VLE has been used in EFL teaching and how it can be employed in EFL studies at the University of Ha’il. EFL (English as a Foreign Language) courses among a vari ety of other courses offered in institutions of higher education, have witnessed changes in the recent years which include high enrollment rates, increasing diversity of students and less resources. In addition, EFL courses are likely to be enrolling students who are mature, possessing other qualifications other than the already existing A-levels or at times studying part time (M.Owen, 2000). These students have different backgrounds, preferences and skills in the way they learn. Moreover, these students have expectations of studying current and new trends in technology. In the United States, for example, the EFL population has been raising over the past years (K. Sharma, 2010). Therefore, the language need of EFL and ESL students have prompted teachers to devise new and innovative methods of educating these students. The Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) have come up with accessibility standards that will apply to EFL and ESL students. They argued that all EFL students should have access to services provided by their institutions, should be given appropriate curriculum, and have equitable and fair assessments. They should also be offered a positive learning environment. Recently, a majority of EFL tutors have chosen VLE as an aid in meeting and satisfying the above standards. In EFL pedagogical issues are more common in the employment of technology. Pedagogical content knowledge focuses on the strategies used in teaching, that is, those strategies that bring about the best learning experience for every learner. It involves learning different teaching approaches that make the learning process more suitable to the students. In this case, the tutor should be flexible in adjusting instructions to cater for the various learning styles, interests and abilities. The major essence of pedagogical studies is to know how to best teach a concept so that the learners will receive the best learning experience. The different teaching approaches empl oyed may differ from one tutor to the other (Salmon, 2005). In EFL courses, teachers can use pedagogical studies and include technology knowledge. This is referred to as technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK). The development of TPCK by tutors is crucial to effective teaching with technology. EFL teachers are emphasized in TPCK since they are viewed as autonomous agents with the power to significantly

Martha Graham Essay Example for Free

Martha Graham Essay Yes, I would do that. I had found my fate. †(Hari 70) Daoud Hari is a man that travels in and out of Darfur many, many times putting himself at risk. He was willing to risk his own life while many others think only of themselves. Bravery is not something many people are born with. Some people may obtain it and some do not. Martha Graham is one of the people that did obtain bravery, and it was a very strong bravery that is very rare to find. â€Å"Martha Graham’s dancing and choreography exposed the depths of human emotion through movements that were sharp, angular, jagged, and direct. (â€Å"Martha Graham Dancer’s Journal†) Martha Graham experimented with many different movements and many different ways so her dancing was very different from the dance movement people were most comfortable with. Many people criticized her and told her that her work was too out of the ordinary. â€Å"If Graham ever gave birth,† one critic equipped, â€Å"it would be to a cube. † (â€Å"The Dancer†) No matter what critics said, she kept going. Martha Graham was an innovative and focused individual. Her love of dance was so intense she refused to leave the stage when critic’s said she was too old. That’s the type of bravery people need, the bravery to keep doing something that one believes in when the majority is against them. Daoud Hari’s bravery is similar to Martha Graham’s. Daoud Hari had to learn to accept what might happen to him if he kept returning to Darfur. Sometimes it is difficult to accept the fate, but Daoud Hari was willing to accept the possibility of death if it meant he could change the way people viewed Darfur. â€Å"No single group held the territory. There was no one to call for permission to come through. This is when it is most dangerous to travel. † (Hari 122) Daoud Hari always had to get where he needed to be. No matter what the circumstances were at the time, he provided as much information as possible to the reporters traveling with him to get the word out about Darfur. Armed with his ability to speak Zaghawa, Arabic, and English he was able to translate for the news and aid organizations. Even though the government of Sudan had outlawed journalists to the region, Daoud Hari risked the possibility of capture and even death. This is complete bravery- to accept something that could happen any moment of any day at any time. Heroes need to have trust in themselves. Martha Graham always had trust in herself no matter what she did. Most of her works she created were based on a historical or emotional feeling. â€Å"There are always ancestral footsteps behind me, pushing me, when I am creating a new dance, and gestures are flowing through me. Whether good or bad, they are ancestral. † (Yaari) The dances with a historic background behind them were called the Greek cycle. These dances were the ones that officially made her famous. The movements in them were so empowering people were shocked after experiencing them. The reason people liked them was because they related so much to how harsh history had been to society in the past and how it might be in the future. Serious issues such as the Great Depression and the Spanish Civil War were brought to the stage along with the dark emotions experienced by all. If she had never followed her brain, heart, or spirit then none of these dances would have come alive. Trusting in herself was a key factor in the making of many of her works. Martha Graham, much like Daoud Hari, had to find a way to believe in herself and take dance to the next level whether based on her gut feeling or her spirit regardless of what people thought of her. Daoud Hari always followed his gut. Whenever he saw people in pain, he would trust his gut and try and help the people in need no matter who they were or what they believed in. â€Å"The commander ordered a soldier to go get him some food, but I said that he must not eat our kind of food, that someone must go into town and get him an American-style sandwich that a white man could eat, and a coke or Pepsi. There was an argument about the cost of this, but I assured the commander that our food would kill this man, and I truly believed that he was not strong enough for anything but his own food. (Hari 160) Daoud Hari is one of the few in the world that could actually tell a guard to go get another prisoner food because the prisoner looked like he was about to die. Trusting his gut that the guard would do it is about 99% of the battle that he had to face. It was not getting the prisoners food; it was standing up to the guard and saying that he will die if he does not have an American- style meal. Martha Graham and Daoud H ari are both heroes in their own way. They both have confidence, bravery, and trust in themselves, which are the necessary traits that a hero needs to be a true hero. In the world there are people who see bad things being done to people and do not do anything about it and there are people who do something about the bad things being done. This is essential because Daoud Hari and Martha Graham both helped the people that needed to be helped. Martha Graham helped dancers develop a new style that they might like better than ballet, providing a wider spectrum to choose from. Daoud Hari helped numerous news reporters get into Darfur and get back out safely with what they wanted and what they needed to know about what is happening in Darfur.

Exploring the Ideal Everyday Environment :: Essays Papers

Exploring the Ideal Everyday Environment The everyday is most easily viewed as a routine: the occurrences and reoccurrences of an individual’s daily life. A person generally wakes in the mornings, goes to work or attends school, fills their afternoons with errands and activities, returns home, and retires to bed late in the evenings. They become focused on this pattern of the everyday and most everyone in society lives by such a pattern. However, this is not to say that all members of society experience the same everyday, and there is more complexity that lies beyond an everyday routine. Each individual lives in an everyday world unalike any other. No two people live the same everyday life. Therefore, it is deemed important that the everyday is viewed and considered on a large scale. The large scale most often used is the city or the metropolis. A metropolis environment allows for the everyday to exist bountifully, and therefore, allows the everyday to thrive. Differences in everyday life can be compared and contrasted from person to person. The everyday is most often explored in a metropolis setting for these reasons. However, can it be argued then that they everyday only exists within the metropolis? Does an everyday take place outside of the city? It is my belief from my studies that the everyday actually occurs only within the city, and the country or rural areas is where a less complex routine happens. People live routine lives in the country, yet the routine is not massive enough for observation when considering the everyday. Urban areas are the best place for the everyday to occur because it allows for collaboration of routine lives with the shock of the abnormal. Multiple observations of routine lives allow for the everyday to be perceived in order to draw conclusions about the everyday and to classify the everyday. The shocks that occur in the metropolis allow analysts to perceive the effect and to document changes such socks have on a society. Imagine people busily w alking down the street and think of each person’s individual everyday life while observing the shocks of the abnormal. In this, the everyday is being experienced with the subjection to the metropolis. The metropolis, as the most ideal location for the everyday to occur, can be

Negative Impact of Technology on Everyday Life

Lexie Orr Research Paper Period 5 11 March 2013 Two Paragraphs Technology has officially taken over the world as it’s known. The urge to learn more as one ages has been swallowed by the urge to own the â€Å"Next Big Thing† as current gadgets outdate. As a result of this new technological era, the importance of education is being burnt out by the importance of technological advancement. Teachers have been outdated due to the constant reliance of technology to spur out whatever information needed.Also, dependence on high technology has rid of the need for everyday in-the-home skills, things like cooking, dishwashing, and even cleaning. In addition, technology can have a great negative impact on family life. Although technology has widened opportunities for America's everyday life, American intelligence has greatly declined due to the amount of work high technology minimizes that no longer requires us to use our abilities to think, memorize, learn, or even work. The techn ology era is damaging the average Americans brain. â€Å"Why do we need to learn this, all I have to do is Google it! How many times is this repeated daily in classrooms all over the world? Who can be sure, possibly more times than one can count on their own unless maybe of course there’s a calculator handy. The position of teachers everywhere around the world is becoming more useless every single day. Children no longer feel the need to tune in during class time knowing they have access to all the answers they could possibly need at the click of a button at any time. With online mathematical equation generators, book answers, and scientific calculators, the need for a math teacher is quickly diminishing.Computers now have spell and grammar check in which fix any word spelt or used incorrectly, and any wrongly written sentences, leaving grammar teachers with nothing to teach. Also, book and poem analysis and any old language translations can be found on the web with just one search making it hard for literature teachers to enforce their students to read, analyze, and think. One thing widely gone unnoticed is the measure of importance for teachers to pass on interpersonal and basic everyday off-technology skills in which technology can not impart.Nathaniel Wilkinson gives his say about technology depriving children of these everyday skills in saying, â€Å"Now I like the idea of having the computer to reinforce the knowledge already possessed by my students but using it in place of human interaction will only dull the students sense of respect for authority and interaction between live human beings and themselves† (Wilkinson). Children and teenagers have become so concerned in technology that they block out everything else teachers have to offer, missing out on these learnt traits of human interaction and verbal learning skills.

The Impact of Colonialism

It is almost a given now that most everyone considers colonialism as a mistake. They thought that the spreading of ideas, culture, and religion would have a positive effect on the native cultures they colonized. In fact though, these changes had an adverse effect on the peoples of these countries. For although many laud the efforts of these countries to spread Christianity, some question the motives of these countries in dealing the everyday needs of these people. In seeing the natives as inferior the mother countries were able to justify their treatment of them. At this time many subscribed to the belief of manifest destiny and social Darwinism. This is the belief in which the colonizing of other countries is justified by the belief that if God hadn†t wanted these people to be colonized He wouldn†t have let it happen, or would have provided the colonized with the same technology which would make an invasion impossible. Another item that has caused a lot of strife within the lives of the natives is in the area of education. For many natives the history of their country before colonization is very foggy. They have been schooled from day one on the histories of their European conquerors, but seldom is the history of the native cultural even discussed let alone taught. This reminds me of the point made in Jamaica Kincaid†s novel â€Å"A Small Place† in which she comments about getting a day off of school for Queen Victoria†s birthday. In the book Kincaid states that most of the people on the island of Antigua don†t even realize why they have been given a holiday. This type of confusion is typical in dealing with the relationship between colony and colonizer. It is however easy to sympathize with the colonizing country because they are teaching the only thing they know. They can†t teach about the native culture because they have no clue of the history. In fact probably the best method would have been to leave the history part of education in the hands of the natives. In other subjects, such as math, the colonizing may then be able to add insights that may not have been apparent to the natives. But as for the history of the country, there is nothing that a colonizing country can tell a native culture that wasn†t already known. As Jamaica Kincaid implies in her book, if there is one thing that was sorely missed after the English left Antigua it is the fact that for the first time in Antigua there were quality built, well organized places to learn. As kincaid explains in the book, the beautiful library built by the British has since been demolished. And although the renovations for a new one were supposed to end years ago it hasn†t worked out that way. The library has now been moved to a tiny apartment above a grocery store. Where once these books had been categorically stacked on shelves, they were now gathering dust, strewn across the floor and randomly inserted into cardboard boxes. This demise of education in Antigua says only one thing to me, that being that the emphasis of the government is in the wrong place. It is true that Antigua has had their problems with a corrupt government that is more interested in padding their pockets with foreign money than doing anything to improve the state of education. For what does it mean when you have a Minister of Education, possibly that you have no education? Often in looking for the hard-hitting effects of colonialism, the biggest effects are often missed. While pondering the effects of religion, commerce, and education, sometimes the effect of prejudice is left forgotten. We must realize that these are human beings that, in some cases, have just recently gained independence from their mother country. The problem with one country capturing another is the fact that the capturing country now thinks they are in some way superior to the country they have defeated. There is an air of inequality in these situations. One country is taught to feel as if their people are inferior and are therefore subject to obey the laws and rules set down by the ruling peoples. The obvious problem that arises from this position is the fact that there is now a proud native people that have been reduced to feeling as though they are less than the Europeans who have colonized them. This in turn creates a ripple effect that infects the future generations that also feel as though they are inferior. Hopefully eventually this lengthy chain ends, and a few are able to see beyond the situation being presented directly in their face. They are able to see that the prejudice is simply one country trying to keep another subservient to their wishes. And are in turn able to avoid the pit to which every other native has fallen victim to. These are sometimes the leaders that are able to lead their countries out of colonialism and into independence. Then again these leaders sometimes end up being as ruthless, or worse, than the colonizing country. This is where Kincaid†s comment from her book must be looked at a little more closely. She states that it is unfair to harshly judge the job of ruling that the Antiguans did after independence. Her point is that if corrupt ruling is all that you have ever witnessed, one can†t be expected to know how to suddenly run a successful country. For in many of these countries they are neck deep in problems with no end in sight. Yes, they were given their independence by the mother country, but in most cases the natives were left high and dry by the mother country financially. In conclusion, it is unfortunate that our world has been marred by the practice of colonialism. And even more unfortunate that so many countries in the world subscribed that same practice. It is hard to argue that we as a people have matured all that much since the days of colonialism. But if we as humans are able to avoid this terrible practice we are taking a step in the right direction.

WHEN TO WRITE FOR FREE

WHEN TO WRITE FOR FREE Anyone who has known me for very long, recalls that Im all about writing for money. And Im vehemently opposed to writing mills. Writing Mills = Sites known as Content Aggregators. They pay pennies. You earn based on quantity of articles, not quality. They always advertise for new writers (mainly because of the turnover once writers learn the deal). Granted, they are enticing. You dont really answer to an editor. You rarely get rejected. But those clips mean nothing in your portfolio. Why? Because people in the industry recognize writing mill work for what it is. Words thrown together to grab searches in hopes the people searching happen to click on the advertisements. However, blogs have changed everything. You write free on your own blog. You write free when you guest blog. You write free on major website blogs. Yes, there are a few blogs that pay, but most dont. Blogs can be opportunity, even though they do not pay much if at all.Just remember the rules. Write for free if you are breaking in to a well-known blog. Carol Tice is a freelance copywriter making a good living at it. Look at what shes published, and note that many of them are blog posts. caroltice.com/articles When a market is competitive, offer a sharp blog post for free, to get your foot in the door. Maybe even two, three,even ten posts. Get them used to you, then ask for compensation,or maybe even a regular gig. Write for free if you are breaking in to a magazine. Today many magazines have a sister blog. Pitch the editor of the blog. Your resume will still say you wrote for Family Circle(or fill in the mag name). And once they learn to love your posts, you can pitch to the print. Write for free if you are selling something else. Blog tours/virtual tours for books can generate income via book sales. Just make sure the post is good and a stand alone even if you didnt have a book. Or else write about a subject thats in the book, but dont hard-sell the book. Just show youre an expert in what you do. See? There are times to write for free. Just be smart about it. PAYING BLOG SITES bloggerjobs.biz/ makealivingwriting.com/why-i-pay-writers/ therenegadewriter.com/2012/06/21/the-renegade-writer-blog-is-now-paying-for-guest-posts/ http://readlearnwrite.com/guest-post/ http://jobs.problogger.net/

Free Essays on Healing The Pain Of Crime

Healing the Pain of Crime The American justice system has viewed criminal behavior as a crime against â€Å"the state,† leaving crime victims with no input into the legal process of the administration of justice in today’s courts. Restorative justice today recognizes the act of crime as being directed against individual people. Restorative justice is based on resolving conflict and making everything connected to the crime â€Å"whole again†, thus healing the effects, restoring back to original condition, and making amends to all affected by the crime. Retributive justice focuses on punishment, whereas the new paradigm of Restorative justice accents accountability, healing and closure. This is accomplished through face-to-face contact between offender and victim. This relies on an old and widely used practice used today. Known as victim-offender mediation. Developing a restitution plan, allowing the offender to hear the total impact the act had upon the victim, and sometimes the community, allows the healing process to begin (Umbreit 1996). Many Restorative justice programs recognize the need for an offender to admit his or her guilt before moving on in the process of restoration. Once, the guilt has been established, a Family Group Conference as part of the corrections process may refer the case hears the court. Offenders and victims meet with volunteer mediators to Martin Pg2 discuss what affect the crime had upon their lives, while expressing concerns and feelings directly to the offender. A restitution agreement is then worked out between the two parties involved. Family group conferencing is based on the same rationale as victim-offender mediation. Only two differences apply. Conferencing often relies on police, probation, or social services for the organization and facilitation. Secondly, extended ranges of people are involved, friends, family, co-workers, teachers, and ... Free Essays on Healing The Pain Of Crime Free Essays on Healing The Pain Of Crime Healing the Pain of Crime The American justice system has viewed criminal behavior as a crime against â€Å"the state,† leaving crime victims with no input into the legal process of the administration of justice in today’s courts. Restorative justice today recognizes the act of crime as being directed against individual people. Restorative justice is based on resolving conflict and making everything connected to the crime â€Å"whole again†, thus healing the effects, restoring back to original condition, and making amends to all affected by the crime. Retributive justice focuses on punishment, whereas the new paradigm of Restorative justice accents accountability, healing and closure. This is accomplished through face-to-face contact between offender and victim. This relies on an old and widely used practice used today. Known as victim-offender mediation. Developing a restitution plan, allowing the offender to hear the total impact the act had upon the victim, and sometimes the community, allows the healing process to begin (Umbreit 1996). Many Restorative justice programs recognize the need for an offender to admit his or her guilt before moving on in the process of restoration. Once, the guilt has been established, a Family Group Conference as part of the corrections process may refer the case hears the court. Offenders and victims meet with volunteer mediators to Martin Pg2 discuss what affect the crime had upon their lives, while expressing concerns and feelings directly to the offender. A restitution agreement is then worked out between the two parties involved. Family group conferencing is based on the same rationale as victim-offender mediation. Only two differences apply. Conferencing often relies on police, probation, or social services for the organization and facilitation. Secondly, extended ranges of people are involved, friends, family, co-workers, teachers, and ...