1. Why do you think evaluation of CALL courseware, websites, materials etc important?
Why the evaluation of CALL courseware or websites or other materials of that ilk is important? The first reason is to ensure that the contents are appropriate with the students' level of knowledge/proficiency. It is essential so as to when the students use the courseware or the websites (after the evaluation has been made), it does not affect their learning process. For example, if the contents of the courseware / websites given are not parallel with the students' proficiency, teachers might face such frustration for they fail to measure the outcome. It would be such a waste then. Moreover, if the courseware (i.e in a form of a CD-ROM) does not function properly, this can disrupt the process of learning as well.
And as for ESL websites, there are chances that these sites cannot be opened prior to only-God-knows-what reasons. I do not know how to explain this in a proper way but my point is that some ESL websites have the "expiry date" y'know? Like when you browse a certain website and a blank page appears on your computer screen, saying (more or less the same): The page does not exist. Hence, an early check on the websites is extremely important.
Secondly, evaluation is essential because some courseware or websites (or any other materials that are related to language learning) contain minor grammatical errors. These errors have a great impact on those who are still crawling in acquiring the second languge, i.e the children.
And thirdly, it is vital to evaluate courseware / websites beforehand so that the teachers know whether the learning materials are quite appealing to the students or not. If the courseware / websites contain merely words with no visual aids, students may find them boring, thus they do not have the interest to learn.
2. How do you think Hot Potatoes JCloze may help your students learn English?
The first time I used Hot Potatoes JCloze, I was slightly gobsmacked. Sure enough, I never knew the courseware (Wait, is Hot Potatoes JCloze considered as a courseware? Or is it a software?) comes in handy.
It comes in handy because the teachers are able to design their own questions for the students' exercises. Even if they are plain lazy to create the questions, they can merely copy the questions from other exercises found in various ESL websites and simply paste them in JCloze. From here, the teachers can tackle the students according to their needs and proficiency.
Secondly, HP JCloze helps the students to learn through discovery. How so? After much of exploring on JCloze, I find that for creating a cloze passage or gap-filling exercise, the teachers can insert clues to the answers. Therefore, when the students answer the questions, they can always look up for clues. Indirectly, they will learn the language through discovery / trial and error.
Thirdly, HP JCloze is a replacement to the conventional pencil-and-paper methods. Instead of doing exercises in plain exercise books / papers, students are now able to do their exercises the modern way. In some way, HP JCloze may trigger the students' interets in learning the language.
Why the evaluation of CALL courseware or websites or other materials of that ilk is important? The first reason is to ensure that the contents are appropriate with the students' level of knowledge/proficiency. It is essential so as to when the students use the courseware or the websites (after the evaluation has been made), it does not affect their learning process. For example, if the contents of the courseware / websites given are not parallel with the students' proficiency, teachers might face such frustration for they fail to measure the outcome. It would be such a waste then. Moreover, if the courseware (i.e in a form of a CD-ROM) does not function properly, this can disrupt the process of learning as well.
And as for ESL websites, there are chances that these sites cannot be opened prior to only-God-knows-what reasons. I do not know how to explain this in a proper way but my point is that some ESL websites have the "expiry date" y'know? Like when you browse a certain website and a blank page appears on your computer screen, saying (more or less the same): The page does not exist. Hence, an early check on the websites is extremely important.
Secondly, evaluation is essential because some courseware or websites (or any other materials that are related to language learning) contain minor grammatical errors. These errors have a great impact on those who are still crawling in acquiring the second languge, i.e the children.
And thirdly, it is vital to evaluate courseware / websites beforehand so that the teachers know whether the learning materials are quite appealing to the students or not. If the courseware / websites contain merely words with no visual aids, students may find them boring, thus they do not have the interest to learn.
2. How do you think Hot Potatoes JCloze may help your students learn English?
The first time I used Hot Potatoes JCloze, I was slightly gobsmacked. Sure enough, I never knew the courseware (Wait, is Hot Potatoes JCloze considered as a courseware? Or is it a software?) comes in handy.
It comes in handy because the teachers are able to design their own questions for the students' exercises. Even if they are plain lazy to create the questions, they can merely copy the questions from other exercises found in various ESL websites and simply paste them in JCloze. From here, the teachers can tackle the students according to their needs and proficiency.
Secondly, HP JCloze helps the students to learn through discovery. How so? After much of exploring on JCloze, I find that for creating a cloze passage or gap-filling exercise, the teachers can insert clues to the answers. Therefore, when the students answer the questions, they can always look up for clues. Indirectly, they will learn the language through discovery / trial and error.
Thirdly, HP JCloze is a replacement to the conventional pencil-and-paper methods. Instead of doing exercises in plain exercise books / papers, students are now able to do their exercises the modern way. In some way, HP JCloze may trigger the students' interets in learning the language.
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