Hello world!!!! Here are we meet again at my sixth posting and also my last posting for my SKBP 1023 course. Before my classmates and I begun our studies in this course, during our first met with our lecturer, Prof. Dr Datin Norizan, she had asked all of us about our experience of using computers and ICT. When reached at my turn, I’ve told her that I didn’t use computers and ICT as frequently as I’m not interested in this kind of ICT. In my opinion personally before I’m learning this course, computers and ICT are only being used when I feel I want to or to complete any task given. At that moment too, I even don’t have my own mail or yet ‘friendster’ like my other classmates because I don’t think it is fun and important at all. After this whole semester, I’ve learned about computers and the applications and also not forgotten the blog, it do create a little bit of my interested in ICT and I’ve changed a lot about my opinion of the using of ICT.

       Blogging is really actually helping us a lot especially in our writing skills. How bad are we actually in writing skills before we did this kind of blogging, we will totally change after made it. Personally, I’m trying to learn more grammars, lexical cohesion and others to make sure that there are no mistakes in my posting while I’m doing my blogging because blogging is one of the world wide communication. Imagine, if an American viewed my blog and found out there are lots of mistakes in my posting, surely he will laughed and said something bad towards my blog. On the other hand, I think blogging also is a useful learning for me as it is enjoyable, attractive and fun to be done. As you can see, there are music and medias in my blog, don’t you think it is enjoyable to read all the postings and at the same time, you may listening to the music and take a look for the author’s pictures? It’s like sharing all the informations and having a nice time together!!!!

       I have to omitted that I’ve begun doing this blog with ‘0’!!! Why am I saying this? Because I’ve never doing any blog at all before and lacking of information about ICT and the applications. To make my blog really happens, I’ve asked from my friends about how to write the postings, how to publish it, how to approve the comments given, how to put some of the medias, music and others. I’ve even feel fed up to manage my blog with all sorts of postings. But luckily, this is the end!!! After having so much fun during this blogging experience, absolutely I’ll recommend to my friends and my siblings to try for their own blogs. At the same time, maybe I will keep this blog alive after the SKBP is over, but I will change it totally to make it more informal like now. I will make it like a discussion place with suitable and interesting topics or maybe a reunion forum for all my classmates since my primary, secondary and ELS courses as well as I want to keep this sweet relationship happens until the end. I’m taking this chance to apologize for all my mistakes and unsuccessfully in my postings. I also would like to thanks for my SKBP’s lecturers, my sweet and adorable, Prof. Dr Datin Norizan and Puan Zainir for all the lectures and informations about this course. Also not forgotten, I would like to thanks to all my classmates for their full cooperations, comments and helps during this blogging activity. I LOVE ALL OF YOU GUYS!!! Wish all of you the best in our SKBP final which is just around the corner…..

 Electronic Malaysian English Competency Test – Reading Test (Set 1)

Score: 20 out of 35  - 57%

Time Taken: 30m 29s

As you can see this are my online test results. It wasn’t an excellent result actually if I would like to compare it with my classmate’s results which are much better than mine. However, I don’t think it is too bad. These online tests are taken during my tutorial class.   For the first test, it is quite easy than the second one’s. The first test is in English which are asking about ICT and the applications as well. I’m managed to finish my first test in around 30 minutes. For my second test, it was also asking about ICT and the applications also asking about the computer’s components as well. Why am I saying that the second test is tougher than the first one? It is because the second test is using Malay language and most of IT language that has been used is difficult to understand. Well, at least I’m glad for having this kind of experience that of course I wouldn’t forget for the rest of my life.

This is one of our selected journal about applications of concordance:-

The purpose of a concordance is to study how words are used in a language, and to allow us to acquire a deeper understanding of meaning and usage than can be obtained from a dictionary.  As an example, consider the words tan and auburn.  Both can be used to mean a color; both indicate a brownish hue.  This much you can find in a dictionary.  But in a dictionary, you would not find that auburn is used frequently to describe hair color but never to describe skin color.  Nor would you find that tan is not used to describe hair.  But a concordance which uses a large amount of text from the target language could show you many occurrences of these two words at a glance (and other meanings as well, of course, such as the use of tan as an abbreviation of a trigonometric tangent).  In this way you could infer how native speakers use the words, and how these usages may be limited to specific situations.Acquiring this sense of how words are actually used (as opposed to just what they mean) will help in creating the best possible translations.  For example, if you were reading an English story in which someone’s skin was described as auburn, you would immediately know that something unusual was intended: perhaps, for example, it is used for comic effect.  Your translation, then, would attempt to accomplish the intended comic effect in the target language.  If you didn’t know that auburn was not normally used to describe skin, but only know that it is a brownish-red color, you would probably just translate the word to the target-language equivalent and lose the intended comic effect.  

Corpora

Clearly, the more text that goes into a concordance, the more useful the results will be.  Doing a concordance on a sentence or paragraph cannot tell you very much about patterns of usage in the language.  Most European languages already have electronic versions of tens or even hundreds of megabytes of text which are publicly available.  A single such collection is called a corpus – plural corpora. Some corpora consist of a broad selection of materials from the language – novels, plays, newspaper articles, transcriptions of authentic speech, and so on.  Others are specialized – religious documents or political writings or the works of a single author, etc.  Clearly, if you are studying the works of Shakespeare you would want his collected plays and poems in a corpus and nothing more.  If you are interested in the language of current events, you would want newspapers or political writings.  But if you are interested in written language in general, you would want as broad a selection as possible.The less commonly taught languages generally do not have prepared corpora.  For this course, some medium-sized corpora have been prepared for your use  For the concordance programs supplied with this course, you will be able to create your own corpora by downloading documents from the internet or obtaining electronic version of texts in other ways.  Most likely these corpora will not reach megabyte size, but using your own data with our concordance programs should give you a good feel for the way that concordances can be used. In fact, the concordance programs used in this course were not developed to process megabytes of text data.  There are professional concordance programs available that can do that, and there are web sites (for some European languages, including English) that can access huge corpora.From what did we mention at the beginning of this posting, a concordance is an alphabetical list of the principal words used in a book or body of work, with their immediate contexts. Because of the time and difficulty and expense involved in creating a concordance in the pre-computer era, only works of special importance, such as the Bible, Qur’an or the works of Shakespeare, had concordances prepared for them.Even with the use of computers, producing a concordance (whether on paper or in a computer) may require much manual work, because they often include additional material, including commentary on, or definitions of, the indexed words, and topical cross-indexing that is not yet possible with computer-generated and computerized concordances.However, when the text of a work is on a computer, a search function can carry out the basic task of a concordance, and is in some respects even more versatile than one on paper.A bilingual concordance is a concordance based on aligned parallel text.A topical concordance is a list of subjects that a book (usually The Bible) covers, with the immediate context of the coverage of those subjects. Unlike a traditional concordance, the indexed word does not have to appear in the verse. The most well known topical concordance is Nave’s Topical Bible.The first concordance, to the Vulgate Bible, was compiled by Hugo de Saint Charo (d.1262), who employed 500 monks to assist him. In 1448 Rabbi Mordecai Nathan completed a concordance to the Hebrew Bible. It took him ten years. 1599 saw a concordance to the Greek New Testament published by Henry Stephens and the Septuagint was done a couple of years later by Conrad Kircher in 1602. The first concordance to the English bible was published in 1550 by Mr Marbeck, according to Cruden it did not employ the verse numbers devised by Robert Stephens in 1545 but “the pretty large concordance” of Mr Cotton did. Then followed the notorious Cruden’s Concordance and Strong’s Concordance.

Use in linguistics

Concordances are frequently used as a tool in linguistics that can be used for the study of a text, such as:

• comparing different usages of the same word
• analysing keywords
• analysing word frequencies
• finding and analysing phrases and idioms
• finding translations of subsentential elements, e.g. terminology, in bitexts and translation memories
• creating indexes and word lists (also useful for publishing).

REFERENCES:-

1)   www.wikipedia.org

2) www.seasite.niu.edu

3) www.lextutor.ca 

4) www.petersteffens.com

5) www.heinleinsociety.org

6) www.ehow.com

Hope that you have got some information on concordance and its applications through our posting. Happy surfing!!!!   

                  This is a journal selected from :  www.netimpactstudy.com 

          The Net Impact Study in Canada was conducted under the auspices of the Canadian e-Business Initiative (CEBI). The CEBI is a private-public sector partnership between the Industry Canada branch of the Canadian Federal Government; and business leaders nationwide. Pierre Paul Allard, General Manger Cisco Systems Canada Co is co-chair of CEBI with Nancy Hughes Anthony, President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. The mandate of this group is to drive adoption of e-business practices in the SMB population in order to stimulate overall economic productivity. Canadian productivity and OECD rankings have been consistently declining over the past ten years. There is a strong momentum within government and business to drive national productivity in order to ensure Canada’s economic strength and global competitiveness. As such, the CEBI is viewed as a key body to address the productivity issue within SMB. The SMB population in Canada delivers 60 per cent of total economic output, and yet we fall behind the US in terms of overall internet adoption. While Canada has reached an important milestone in small business connectivity of about 50%, we continue to lag well behind the U.S., where 77% of small businesses are online. Also, StatsCanada findings indicate that the SMB group tends to be more reluctant to embrace e-commerce for sophisticated applications such as supply chain management, order processing and online fulfillment.CEBI will play a key role in addressing the barriers to internet adoption in SMB. Net Impact will be a critical starting point for CEBI in identifying the value and potential of Internet Based Solutions and their ability to drive productivity within enterprise. Update: Net Impact Canada This report is the fifth in a series of Cisco sponsored Net Impact studies in Canada. Net Impact Canada 2006 focuses entirely on the small and medium enterprise and primarily on the small enterprise with fewer than 100 employees. Net Impact SME is based on a research model developed by Cisco Systems and Illuminas (formerly Momentum Research Group). Illuminas conducted the research in partnership with Cisco Canada and infoCanda, a premier provider of business and consumer data. infoCanada carried out the phone-based data collection, while the data analysis and interpretation was conducted by Illuminas, who also authored the report. This report focuses primarily on the results from interviews conducted with 200 Canadian SMEs in June and July of 2006. Throughout the report, comparisons are made to previous Net Impact Canada studies to provide some understanding of how the Canadian SME’s approach to using ICT has changed over time. Further, the report also draws on additional Net Impact studies conducted in the U.S. to provide a comparison to large enterprises (those with more than 1,000 employees) and how they leverage ICT for business advantage.

          Key Findings

• Canadian SMEs interviewed are taking a “big business” approach to their ICT investments and becoming more sophisticated, mirroring some of the ICT investments made by large enterprises, albeit at a level more realistic for the SME
• Three quarters of the SMEs interviewed are using networking hardware and software and network security solutions to automate, enhance or improve business processes
• Approximately 50% of SMEs interviewed report that their ICT strategy is aligned with business strategy
• More than one third of SMEs interviewed (38%) are early adopters, exploring various technologies and/or implementing them as soon as possible to gain competitive advantage
• One area for improvement is measurement – only 28% have metrics in place to monitor the performance of their ICT investments
• SMEs rank customer relationships as most critical to their success
• 79% report that ICT has had a positive impact on their customer service and support processes
• Half report that technology is enabling them to find new customer prospects
• 75% improved customer service, increased speed in information processing and improved communications with customers
• Technology is a key factor in enabling Canadian small businesses to achieve greater efficiency and growth
• Canadian small businesses are optimistic about anticipated future growth
• 59% report an increase in revenue over last year; 67% expect revenue to increase again in upcoming year
• 80% report increased speed in information processing and nearly 75% report increased availability of information to support decision-making processes
• Having a large number of direct competitors — most respondents report having more than 20 — drives increased adoption in ICT

Based from my reading through the OTL book and also the studies in the same book, I am completely agree with the online studies as it can help the students to improve their learning. One of the benefits that online students could get is it can improve our writing skills and language as well. Through the online research too, students can improve their writing by reading a lots of articles and learning vocabulary also grammar through the provided link. This is one of the example of Computerized-Assisted Writing to show that how effective online studies are :-

                                Computer-Assisted Writing Instruction:

                     A Marriage of Effective Instruction and Technology

                                            A Review of Literature

                                                      Karen Kelly

                                                      Introduction

The writing process has long held a reputation of intimidation for educators who teach it, andstudents who learn it. Once success is achieved, however, it yields a greater sense ofaccomplishment for both parties than perhaps any other academic task. Many strategies forteaching and learning the writing process have been introduced over the years, and most haveexperienced some success; yet effective writing still tends to be a challenge.Integrating technology into this process may have the potential to make a greater impact thanany other strategy to date. Computer-assisted writing instruction opens up a multitude of avenuesfor any student, from the intellectually gifted to the learning disabled. The introduction of wordprocessors has facilitated the editing and revising process in ways never before available, andpublishing has become a breeze. Kantrov (1991) points out that the most obvious benefit, ofcourse, is the elimination of the need to recopy successive drafts. This feature accounts for muchof the enthusiasm for word processing by both student and experienced writers, even those whootherwise find fault with the technology. Writing software teaches the writing process in ways thatare fun and motivating for students, while acting as a personal writing tutor along the way.There are even voice-controlled writing programs that alleviate frustration and allow for oncelimitedwriting opportunities for students with physical impairments. Research from the CALLCentre (2000) shows that some students with progressive conditions such as muscular dystrophyhave good fine motor control but may be very weak – they may be able to write only very slowly,and may produce only a small amount of text before getting tired. With the correct supportivetechnology they will be able to write more with less effort.It would seem that the argument in favor of computer-assisted writing instruction would be onesided.There are, however, always two sides to every argument. According to Haas (1996), whileword processors undoubtedly have eased our production and revision of texts, they have alsoaltered our spatial and tactile relationship to the writing process. Some would argue these changesare not necessarily for the better. Do the majority of educators and students find technology to be amajor motivator in mastering the writing process? Do technology-based writing tools, such asword processors, actually improve the effectiveness of writing? Are the editing and revisingfeatures used with technology-based writing tools truly more preferred and efficient than erasingand re-writing? This review of literature will investigate the research related to these issues, aswell as others, to determine the effectiveness of computer-assisted writing instruction.file:///A|/Kelly_litrev.htm (1 of 10) [9/17/2002 1:38:03 PM]Computer-Assisted Writing Instruction:DiscussionOne of the aspects that makes learning to write so difficult is that it is a process. It is notsomething that can be done well quickly, and often does not yield instant results, as do so manyacademic tasks. The National Council of the Teachers of English (n. d.) has adopted a variety ofsteps which are regarded as the writing process. Erickson (1992) notes that these steps become thewriter’s system for completing writing assignments, and, according to Tompkins (1990), theyinclude the following: (a) prewriting, (b) writing the rough draft, (c) revising with major changesin ideas and organization, (d) editing for surface errors such as spelling and punctuation, and (e)publishing the final draft for others to read.Traditionally, students met in a classroom for writing instruction and practiced writing thestandard essay by hand. Instruction was most commonly directed by a teacher standing behind alectern, dictating the rules of writing, or by the teacher marking errors on student text. Rough draftcopies were turned in for the teacher to “bleed” all over by annotating mistakes in spelling,mechanics, usage, grammar, and organization with a red pen. These de-motivating drafts were thenreturned to the students, with all of their mistakes pointed out, leaving those who had difficulties tostart again at ground zero. As students progressed to the high school and college levels, they weretaken to the typing lab to produce a final draft in typewritten form, once editing wascomplete.With technology redefining what it means to be literate – not just the ability to read and write,but to understand music, video, hypertext, and networked communications – it is obvious thattraditional writing pedagogy is a thing of the past (Stinson & Claus, 2000). To make thissuccessful transition, the teacher’s role has shifted from controller to facilitator. This role is notcomfortable for many educators, however, who find that their own feelings of inadequacy andintimidation towards technology are a significant deterrent in their decision to incorporate it intoteaching the writing process.Michael Reed (1990), in his study of the effects of computer-assisted writing instruction onprospective English teachers’ attitudes toward and perceived uses of computers in writinginstruction, found anxiety levels to be considerable. He also found that many of these teachers didnot have the experience base in using writing technology effectively themselves as exiting collegestudents, much less the ability to teach with it. Through an eleven-week course on writing andcomputers, in which the pre-teachers were taught to be more proficient keyboarders, given practicein utilizing various writing software, and given strategies in planning lessons integratingtechnology into the writing lessons, notable changes occurred.Reed summarized the results of his study by pointing out that the eleven-week treatment ofusing computers in writing seemed effective at making these prospective English teachers moreaware of computers in general. In addition, the teachers became more knowledgeable of how touse computers and how to manage their time when using them. Another improvement was that thestudent teachers became more cognizant of the effects of the use of computers on the learning oftheir future students. A final advantage was learning how to manage students when usingfile:///A|/Kelly_litrev.htm (2 of 10) [9/17/2002 1:38:03 PM]Computer-Assisted Writing Instruction:computers, as well as when it is most appropriate to usethem.If prospective teachers have anxiety about the how, when, and where to use computers to teachthe writing process, veteran teachers are probably not far behind. In fact, Wresch (1987) citesseveral reasons that prospective English teachers are not trained in the use of technology in thewriting process, including the lack of trained English education faculty, the attitudes that “Englishtypes” have toward the computers, their prior computer experience, and the logistical difficulty ofincluding such instruction in language arts courses that contain subject matter that may also benovel to them.These existing attitudes and beliefs must change to best serve the needs of the 21st-centurywriting student. Gaining expert knowledge and knowing when to apply available writingtechnology is a must for teachers who plan to successfully deliver computer-assisted writinginstruction. In addition, veteran teachers will have to take a proactive stance in becomingproficient with the newest technology tools of the writing process.In order to become one such teacher that successfully integrates technology into the writingprocess, it is necessary to have a firm understanding of what it entails. As its name implies,computer-assisted writing instruction refers to teaching writing with the assistance of a computer.The role that the computer plays in this instruction comes in various forms. Word processingsoftware, as well as individual student laptop word processors, are, perhaps, the most commontechnology tools being used in the field.Apple’s Claris MacWrite program, along with Microsoft’s Word and Works programs offerschools affordable, yet effective word processing packages. Many school districts have eveninvested in the AlphaSmart, an individual student laptop computer, which serves strictly as a wordprocessor. Simic (1994) notes that as a tool for practice in writing, the word processor’s usefulnessis unparalleled. Kurth (1987), in research conducted concerning the use of word processors toenhance revision strategies during student writing activities, further states that word processingimproves student attitudes and motivation towards writing. Robinson-Staveley and Cooper (1990)report significant performance differences in students who word process and those who write byhand. Areas in which students show gains include fewer mechanical problems, greater averagesentence length, greater number of complex sentence structures, and overall higher scores on finalproducts. Snyder (1993) reports that reviews of the research of word processing indicate that thereis an increase in revisions, fewer mistakes, and more correction of them. Additionally, when wordprocessing use is combined with an effective teaching model, students achieve at a higher levelthan those not using a word processor.It has long been theorized that the best method for learning to write more effectively is to writemore often; and the best way to revise and edit more effectively is to revise and edit more often.Flower (1985) points out that a sign of a good writer is his or her ability to revise. Bernhardt,Edwards, and Wojahn (1989) found that students using computers revised their papers more thanthe non-computer groups, while also producing better papers. Word processing allows the writingprocess to take place in a relatively easy, efficient, and motivating manner.file:///A|/Kelly_litrev.htm (3 of 10) [9/17/2002 1:38:03 PM]Computer-Assisted Writing Instruction:Another area of computer-assisted writing instruction concerns writing process tutorialsoftware. These personalized computer tutors can carry students, particularly those elementaryagedstudents with special needs, on a step-by-step journey through the writing process. Zhang andBrooks (1995) note that HyperCard stacks, ROBO-Writer, Writer’s Solution, and Writing to Readare several of the tried and true process software packages that are on the markettoday.Students with learning disabilities have always presented a challenge to writing teachers. Manyhave difficulties with spelling, organization, and sentence construction, which slows down the flowof the writing process for them. Additionally, their writing tends to be disjointed, and filled withincomplete or fragmented thoughts. To compound the problem, penmanship problems can furthercloud the writing, making it a nightmare to grade. Lynch and Jones (1989) maintain that theresearch examining the writingprocesses and products of elementary students with learning disabilities (LD) generally describestudies that focus on written composition and studies that address transcription skills. Daiute(1986) notes that elementary students with learning disabilities are very much concerned about thephysical constraints in writing and are especially concerned with the aesthetic qualities of their text,such as awkward, unrecognizable handwriting.Zhang and Brooks further assert that writing process tutorial software, such as ROBO-Writer,can assist in improving both those problems relating to written composition and transcription skillsby offering a 1000-word vocabulary list from which learning disabled students can simply click theword they wish to “write,” a rudimentary speech synthesis system that translates English text intoan aural robotic-sounding electronic voice, icons, as opposed to text commands, for editing andrevising, and aesthetically pleasing, student created, publication features.Students with physical disabilities, visual impairments, or poor motor control represent otherpopulations who can especially benefit from computer-assisted writing instruction. For studentswho are very weak, such as those suffering from muscular dystrophy, pencil-and-paper writing canbe an extremely tiring task. Appropriate assistive writing technology can make writing a muchmore successful experience. Visually impaired students are excellent candidates for writingtechnology, such as talking word processors, specialized screen readers, and screen magnificationprograms. Again, this gives opportunities for written expression, which have before goneuntapped.According to research conducted through the CALL Centre (2000), students who experience motorcontrol difficulties tend to show slow formation of words and uneven or hard to read writing. Theintroduction of a keyboard-based writing system will help to combat these problems and allow thestudent to concentrate more on the content of the writing. CALL Centre research also asserts thatthere is little doubt that computer-assisted writing instruction can help these special populations toachieve.According to Reed (1996), there are three theoretical frameworks that are essential forunderstanding the direction of computer-based writing research since 1987: (a) writing processtheory, (b) Vygotsky’s (1978) term “Zone of Proximal Development,” and (c) learner-controltheory. Because each of these theories gives perspective as to what has and has not been effectivefile:///A|/Kelly_litrev.htm (4 of 10) [9/17/2002 1:38:03 PM]Computer-Assisted Writing Instruction:in the research, they will be discussed in brief.Writing process theory has developed over a sixteen-year period, and in a series of steps. TheThree-Stage Model of writing is largely based on the work of Rohman (1965), Emig (1971),Murray (1980), and Flower and Hayes (1981) and clearly shows writing as a process. As the mostsignificant of the researchers in this area, Rohman identified that effective writer’s break thewriting process down into the following three stages: (a) prewriting, (b) drafting, and (c) revising.Prewriting involves the generation of ideas for writing, along with some initial organization.Drafting occurs when the writer begins to elaborate on the ideas generated, and puts them intoformal sentence structures and paragraphs. Revising is a two-part process in which the writerrevises for meaning and revises for mechanics. Finally, the writer compares the essay he ideallyintended to produce and the one he actually produces. From this, final revisions are made.Computer-assisted writing has the potential to make the task of working through the writingprocess much more efficient, particularly with regard to the revision and editing steps.The phrase, Zone of Proximal Development, was coined in 1978 by Lev Vygotsky. It isdefined by Zellerman, Salomon, Globerson, and Givon (1991) as the zone between what studentscan already accomplish on their own and what they can accomplish with appropriate help. Theimplementation of this concept in terms of computer-assisted writinginstruction, is the help thatcomputers provide to students in learning and carrying out the writing process. Thus, the definitionis altered to what the students can write on their own, versus what they can write with computerassistance.The key to the success of this strategy, however, is that the computer-assistance shouldbe given often and over an extended period of time.According to Hannafin and Hooper (1988), learner control is an instructional strategy thatallows a learner to have control over instructional decisions. The original idea behind the theorywas that the more control a learner had over his learning, the better he would perform. Research,however, shows conflicting results. Canino and Cicchelli (1988) found in their study that there wasno significant difference in the learner-control group and the computer-control group. Hannafinand Hooper, in contrast, found the learner-control group to perform more poorly than the groupwhich was more teacher- controlled. Jonassen (1989), to account for these findings, found thathigher-level learners did actually accomplish more, based on the learner control theory.Difficulties with the theory, however, become more prevalent as the ability level of the studentdecreases. In simpler terms, better writers can extend their writing skills more from having lessassistance or more control. Less able students, however, will benefit more from support andassistance, such as that provided by composing process software.In order for computer-assisted writing instruction to be effective it must be paired witheffective writing instruction. This will help students to avoid the frustration of learning to write inaddition to learning to master the word processor (MacArthur & Schneiderman, 1986). Secondly,students need to be taught the editing, revising, and publishing features of a word processor in orderto capitalize on the tool. Thirdly, students still need to learn the writing process; the word processoris simply a tool for practice. Finally, most students will not give up if the instructor learns tosupport and have a positive attitude towards word processing with instruction in writing.The review of literature of computer-assisted writing instruction has identified several areas offile:///A|/Kelly_litrev.htm (5 of 10) [9/17/2002 1:38:03 PM]Computer-Assisted Writing Instruction:concern and needs for further research. One research gap is that limited time on task makes itdifficult to assess the true advantages of computer-assisted writing instruction. In a Canadian studyconducted by Larter et al. (1987), it was noted that the average time a student spent writing with theassistance of a computer was an hour a week. Tone and Winchester (1988) additionally note thatseveral reports indicate that many students learning to write with computers are lucky to get 30minutes experience a week. It has been proven that a lack of keyboarding skills will affect thesuccess of computer-assisted writing, but how much familiarity with keyboarding is enough to reapthe benefits?Along the same lines, how much exposure to computers and word processing programs dostudents need before they can use them effectively to carry out the writing process? Proficientword processing skills are necessary for educators to be able to implement its use in the classroom,but how much training is enough? At present, not enough writing technology is being integrated inthe classroom to provide a broad base of research findings (Clark, 1985). In addition, currentresearch does not clearly show whether improvements in writing are a result of improvedinstruction or the integration of technology.Another issue is the lack of commitment from stakeholders, such as administrators, teachers,and parents. Finally, with much of the research performed in the school setting, it is difficult tocontrol variables, thereby decreasing the validity and reliability of the results. This, in turn, limitsthe generalizability of research results.There are many advantages to the argument in favor of computer-assisted writing instruction.The ease of editing and revision is, perhaps, the strongest. Secondly, it has been shown to increasemotivation and positive attitudes towards writing, and has decreased apprehension. Usingtechnology in the writing process encourages risk-taking in writing, and promotes lengthier andmore complexly written papers. Computer-assisted writing instruction overcomes fears and biasesconcerning poor handwriting in both the writer and the instructor. It increases the speed of writingand improves the writing skills of all student populations, including those with learning disabilities,motor control difficulties, and visual impairments, when combined with appropriate teacherinstruction.There are several factorswhich can limit the success of computer-assisted writing instruction. Itmust be used as a tool for effective writing, not as a replacement for the writing instructor.Rodrigues and Rodrigues (1989) notes that word processing packages themselves do not teachstudents how to write and revise but teachers can. The level of keyboarding experience can alsoaffect the success of computer-based technology writing tools.An additional consideration is the amount of exposure to computers and word processingsoftware. It takes a substantial amount of keyboarding and word processing practice to reapsignificant gains. Another issue is the limited access to computers and technology that manyschool districts face. Finally, many instructors are not comfortable enough in their own wordprocessing proficiency skills to integrate this tool into their existing teaching methodologies.Fortunately, these limitations are very resolvable.file:///A|/Kelly_litrev.htm (6 of 10) [9/17/2002 1:38:03 PM]Computer-Assisted Writing Instruction:ConclusionsComputer-assisted writing instruction, particularly word processing, has been shown to improvestudents’ writing skills. It is highly motivational for students in that many find keyboardingenjoyable, it eases tensions about poor penmanship, it makes revising, editing, and publishingeasier, and it encourages students to experiment with different styles of writing. It is faster,allowing for a continuous flow of ideas, and it encourages collaboration with peers in the writingprocess. There are also, however, some areas of concern. Writing instruction must still be givenby the teacher, while using the word processor as a tool, in order for positive results to take place.In addition, factors such as the developmental stage of the writer, the previous exposure tocomputers, the amount of keyboarding proficiency, and access to word processors over an extendedperiod of time have a significant affect on the success of computer-assisted writing instruction.There has been a lack of research over a long enough period of time to substantiate how much isenough. It is safe to say, based on the research, that computer-assisted writing instruction hasfound its place in the 21st-century English classroom.

                                                  References

Bernhardt, S., Edwards, S., & Wojahn, P. (1989). Teaching college composition with computers: Aprogram evaluation study. Written Communication, 6(1), 108-133.CALL Centre (2000), Who can benefit from supportive writing technology? University ofEdinburgh. Retrieved October 1, 2001 from the World     wide   web:http://callcentre.education.ed.ac.uk/SEN/514/writing_aids_FFA/Who_SW_FFB/who_sw_ffb/whCanino,

C., & Cicchelli, T. (1988). Cognitive styles, computerized treatments on mathematicsachievement and reaction to treatments. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 4(3), 253-264.

Clark, R. (1985). Evidence for confounding in computer-based instruction studies: Analyzing themeta-analysis [Electronic version]. Educational Communication and Technology Journal, 33(4),249-262.

Daiute, C. (1986). Issues in using computers to socialize the writing process [Electronic version].Educational Communication and Technology, 33, 41-50.

Emig, J. (1971). The composing processes of twelfth graders. Urbana, IL: National Council ofTeachers of English.file:///A|/Kelly_litrev.htm (7 of 10) [9/17/2002 1:38:03 PM]Computer-Assisted Writing Instruction:

Erikson, B. J. (1992). A synthesis of studies on computer-supported composition, revision, andquality. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 25(2), 172-187. Retrieved September 27,2001, from Academic Search Premier database.

Flower, L. (1985). Problem Solving Strategies for Writing (2nd ed.). San Diego:Harcourt BraceJohanovich.

Flower, L., & Hayes, J. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition andCommunication, 32, 365-387.

Hannafin, M. J., & Hooper, S. (1988). Cooperative CBI: The effects of heterogeneous versushomogeneous grouping on the learning of progressively complex concepts. Journal of EducationalComputing Research, 4(4), 413-424.

Haas, C. (1996). Writing technology: Studies on the materiality of literacy. Retrieved October 1,2001, from the World Wide Web: http://www.english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.2/reviews/haas/haas.htmlJonassen, D. H. (1989). Hypertext/hypermedia. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational TechnologyPublications.

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For more details on computerized-assisted writing,you may view any of this site below:- 

www.questcareer.edu

www.law.upenn.edu

www.southernct.edu 

www.ohlone.edu 

www.gpc.edu

www.alehblind.org

www.io.com

www.gsu.edu

www.fda.gov

www.utsa.edu

www.csd.uwo.ca

www.infomanagementcenter.com 

www.cod.edu

www.biochem.arizona.edu

www.unicode.org

www.womenwriters.net

www.philadelphia.edu 

Hope that all of you may understand what is computerized-assisted writing in details now. HAPPY SURFING!!!!

what-is-abuse.

READING FOR PROBLEM SOLVING 

This is my first article for this task. For this task, I am working by pairs with my partner, Nur Sobariah. We had surfed through the Internet to search for two articles to complete our task. For that reason, we had choose an article which the title is about ‘What is abuse?’as our first article. This article is actually focusing on kids but it is still a good article to be read for any age range as well of course the parents. This article gives us a lots of  information about abuse and the types of abuse, the tips on how to preventing and coping with child abuse, the differences between abuse and harassment and also emergency numbers to call or report about kids abused. That is a good reason on why we are choosing this article as our reading for solving problems.

After reading this article repeatedly, we think this article is trying to help readers out there by sharing some information about abuse and harassment and also the most important is this article trying to prevent more kids especially from being an abused victim as the number of abused victims are keep rising day by day for all around the world. For more details, please view this link :- www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9691/teenabuse.html

Our second article may be read by this link:-

breast-cancer.doc

  READING FOR INFORMATION 

          This is  posting our next article .We had surfed the Internet to find two examples of computerized readings. The first article is the example of reading for information. It is about Breast Cancer, the dangerous disease that more possibility happened to women then men. The article is written by Christoper Dolinsky affiliation with Abramson Cancer Centre of the University of Pennsylvania. This article tell the you about what is exactly Breast cancer, who are at risk for Breast Cancer, how can we prevent Breast Cancer, what screening tests are available, what are the signs of Breast Cancer and how is Breast Cancer diagnosed and staged. Base from the article we think you can know more details about Breast Cancer and gain a lot of information to prevent from being the victim because the writer had given good explanation about it. For more information you can link to this website:

www.oncolink.org

This is my second assignment for my ICT and Language assignments. This assignment have be done with my partner, also my classmate named Syahir. For this assignment, we had searched about this game through the internet. We also would like to thanks for our lecture Associate Prof. Datin Dr. Norizan Abdul Razak and not forgetten for all our classmates for any ideas and information that have been given.

Thanks for viewing this blog. This is my first weblog i’ve ever did so it’s maybe wasn’t a good enough weblog. But i’m gonna make it interesting and better day by day. In this site, i’m gonna put all my SKBP1023 assignments, pictures, videos or maybe some movies. Well, at this moment, I have done my first and second assignments as well as been asked by my lecturer. You may leave your comments for my assignments or maybe give any ideas to be added for that reason. You all guys are pleased to share any interesting information through this weblog.