The group was composed of sixty students who were involved in the design and evaluation of the writing activities based on the World Wide Web. The students attended the optional subject called 'Technical English' that was taught during the second semester of the academic year. The language proficiency of the students involved in this study was A2, following the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages described by the Council of Europe To determine the students' level of proficiency in the writing competences we initially designed a test based on the competences of the A2 level of the Common European Framework.
When students finished the semester, a second test based on the competences of the B1 level was designed, as this was the level supposedly acquired by students after their training in the subject. The first step was the design of written activities that implied the use of the World Wide Web. The second step was to design three questionnaires based on one-minute paper to test the improvement of students. In this way, students' progress was identified through the writing activities proposed and the questionnaires.
We considered for the design of writing activities following the descriptor of the CEFR: to write simple connected text on topics, which are familiar or of personal interest. In this study, specific topics were selected as students were enrolled in a specific degree, Electrical Engineering. In the assessment of the writing performance of students, a grid based on the CEFR document was designed to facilitate the evaluation of their progress, which can be seen in Table This assessment criteria grid was used to evaluate the writing tasks and questionnaires of the students involved in the study.
Once the written proficiency of students was evaluated, we classified the students taking into account if their English proficiency was A2, B1 or B2. Once detected the students who were not able to improve their. Some of the exercises designed to practise and improve second language writing taking into account different web sites were:. Click on the image that is in the section 'Floor Plan' to see a complete floor plan of Air Force One.
It will open in a separate window so you can toggle between the article and the floor plan. Describe the different parts of the plane including all the specific vocabulary that is included in the picture. Example 2 Go now to section 'History'. What do you know about the history of USA? Write two historical events you remember. Do you think the history of USA affects us or do you think they are too far away to influence our economy or political situation?
Give reasons to support your answer. Write the name of the presidents mentioned in this section and look for more information about them in the WWW.
Write a short biography of each one. In the section "Super Scientists" you can find biographies of major scientists. Within the "Energy Library" section, you can access a part called Internet Citations. Write down a short written composition about any topic of your interest including at least 2 Internet citations from selected websites. As we can observe, in examples 1, 2 and 3, students had to visit some web sites to answer the questions, producing a writing activity, which was evaluated following the grid shown in Table 1.
Once evaluated the sixty students involved in this study, taking into account the results obtained after the evaluation of the different activities done during the semester and the average mark of the three questionnaires, the different levels of English proficiency acquired can be seen in Table B1 level.
Some students could not get the B1 level and did not improve their writing with the activities based on the World Wide Web. Most errors were due to the use of incorrect words that the reader usually cannot interpret on the basis of the context. Some errors detected in the writings of the students with a lower level were also caused because the student could not write straightforward connected texts by omitting the linking of shorter elements into a linear sequence.
The conclusions of this study provide several aspects that should be taken into account when using the World Wide Web to improve second language learning:. The activities should be designed considering first the goals and aspects to be improved or the activities could be very time-consuming. The assessment criteria should also be delimited and, as a consequence, students could be conscious of the tasks that should be done to obtain the objectives set.
The individual characteristics of each student should be taken into account a not all the students obtain the same results in the training period, so individual tutorials are recommended during the training period after the results obtained during the semester. Summing up, the results presented in this study are part of a pilot study that focuses on the benefits of the use of the World Wide Web to improve language acquisition.
For instance when the post becomes old, it can be filed into a standard, theme- based menu system. Linking is another important aspect of blogging. Linking deepens on the conversational nature of the blogosphere and its sense of immediacy and helps to facilitate retrieval and to reference information on different blogs [9].
Atom is another syndication specification aimed at resolving issues of multiple incompatible RSS versions [10]. Unlike blogs, previous versions of wikis can be examined by a history function and can be restored by a rollback function. Wiki features are included: wiki markup language, simple site structure and navigation, simple template, supporting of multiple users, built-in search feature and simple workflow [9, 10]. Mashups can be grouped into seven categories: mapping, search, mobile, messaging, sports, shopping, and movies.
More than 40 percent of mashups are mapping mashups. It is easier and quicker to create mashups than to code applications from scratch in traditional ways; this capability is one of most valuable features of web 2. Mashups are generally created using application programming interfaces [29]. Several development tools are available to create blogs, wikis, mashups, and social networks. These tools, such as mashup tools, wiki engines, blog software, make adoption of web 2.
Developers use three basic development approaches to create applications of web 2. Flex is based on Flash and supports common design patterns by providing a programming language. It allows to web developers debug AJAX applications in the Java language using the Java development tools of their choice. GMT provides a complier and a special web browser that help developers to debug the GWT applications [10]. WEB 3. The basic idea of web 3. There is a dedicated team at the World Wide Web consortium W3C working to improve, extend and standardize the system, languages, publications and tools have already been developed [4].
Semantic web is a web that can demonstrate things in the approach which computer can understand. The main important purpose of semantic web is to make the web readable by machines and not only by humans. The current web is a web of documents, in some ways like a global file system that the most important problems about it are included: The web of documents was designed for human consumption in which primary objects are documents and links are between documents or parts of them.
Semantics of content and links are implicit and the degree of structure between objects is fairly low [2, 15, 16]. Figure 1 represents the structure of web of documents in simple [15]. Web of Documents Semantic web is being to be developed to overcome the problems of current web. Semantic Web can be defined a web of data, in some ways like a global database that most its features are included: The aim of design web of data is machines first, humans later.
Primary objects are things so links are between things. Semantics of content and links are explicit and the degree of structure between objects is high based on RDF model [2, 15, 16]. In Figure 2, the structure of web of data is shown simplicity [15]. Web of Data The main difference between web 2.
Table 2 compares some differences between web 2. Table 2. A Comparison of web 2. Figure 3 gives a typical representation of this diagram [11]. The functionality of Unicode and URI could be described as the provision of a unique identification mechanism within the language stack for the semantic web [19]. XML is used as a base syntax for other technologies developed for the upper layers of the semantic web.
NS is used to identify and distinguish different XML elements of different vocabularies. It supports mixing of different elements from various vocabularies to do a specific function. XML schema assures that the received information is according to the sent information when two applications at this level exchange information with together [22].
Generally, the RDF family supports interoperability at the semantic level. What content might be on a web site developed for schools and districts? What content might be on a web site developed for state departments of education? Introduction Nearly anyone may have a web site nowadays, from the largest multinational corporation to the family pet. Web site proliferation has influenced public expectations about the role of the Internet in all aspects of life, including all levels of education.
Parents and community members today expect to be able to find information on the web about K education in their state, district, and local schools. Many states have even legislated online "report cards" that display a variety of school information such as grades and test scores, discipline referrals, school ratings, and student demographics.
State education agencies, a majority of school districts, and even many schools already have a presence on the web. When parents or other members of the community visit these web sites, they expect to obtain information. They may want to view a school calendar, check on the latest homework assignment, find the phone number for a school board member, or check on school closings.
They might go to the state department of education web site for data comparing the performance of a local school or district with others around the state. If the web site is poorly organized or out of date, it reflects poorly on the agency. Today, as technology becomes available to everyone, it is imperative that policymakers pay close attention to their web sites.
Well-designed and maintained web sites can enhance community relations for education agencies and increase their visibility. A more important aspect of the proliferation of this technology is its effect on classrooms and students.
A widely held expectation is that every student in the United States will have school-based access to the Internet and, consequently, be able to access the vast amount of information available on the web.
Access to the web in schools raises many issues. These include: changes in the delivery of the curriculum; integration of technology into professional development programs; student security; and security of critical data. This chapter discusses some possibilities for web site content in detail.
At the outset, emphasis is placed on a needs assessment process as a prelude to the development of a web site. The Beginning With pressure to develop a web site, it is sometimes overwhelming to know where to begin. The agency first needs to know the reason for a web site.
How will the web site advance the strategic mission of the agency? How will it support the instructional program? How will it improve operational efficiency?
Before assigning the jobs of web development and maintenance, it is useful for an agency to spend time to determine the intended function and content of the site.
This initial commitment invariably reduces time spent recovering from mistakes later on.
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