''DDL'' Task-3

The use of concordance as a tool in Data-Driven Learning provides students with a great opportunity to look at the word collocations from broader perspective in the text as they are reading it. It allows to find the key-words and their collocations in context. Moreover, it suggests lexicon-grammatical information about those words. It is an amazing tool to explore the collocates of the key words in context, which helps students enhance their understandings and knowledge about key words and also context.

DDL(Data-Driven Learning)

According to Palmer, ''learning is a process of discovery'', which might actually give an explanation of the DDL as it requires constructing knowledge by hypothesizing, experimenting and observing it. Because of the fact that it might not be easy to follow the Data-Driven Learning Principles in face-to-face classroom. The main reason for that there must be provided students with such a learning environment in which they are able to discovery and exploit the knowledge with the exploratory tasks and activities rather than traditional ''drill-kill'' exercises. Therefore, in traditional cl assess, there probably would be such problems that lack of exploratory tools, no internet connection, insufficient technological materials, and so forth. As a result of these, the targeted teaching topic might not be achieved. In the light of the description of the DDL, I think that students should definitely be guided with group work activities as in the constructivism approach. Students should be encouraged to work together and discovery the knowledge in order to deal with the tasks. In my opinion, the usage of the computer and internet is the cornerstone of DDL, as it is based on the exploration and construction of the knowledge. In order to provide students with authentic materials and integrate them into the exploratory tasks and activities, we need to integrate with technology and media as they supply a great variety of materials to enhance learning.

''ASSURE'' model

As I was covering the ASSURE model, I raised such a question on my own that whether this model would indeed be used with all its steps by demonstrating in practice or is it really necessary to embed this model in the lesson plan in order to improve the effectiveness of the lesson? When I thought my past experiences as a student learning English, I don't think that any teachers conducted the language lessons by taking this model into consideration. The reason for this may be the lack of technological instruments in the classroom setting. In other words, ASSURE model is based on the integration technology, so it requires using a variety of technology and media as an instructional material. When I was in the preparatory school, there weren't various types of technological materials. Only CD-player, video and projector were involved in the teaching materials, which I was already familiar with them in high school. Therefore, I was thinking that these are considered as standard materials selected for teaching a foreign language until meeting with Mr. Neufeld in undergraduate program. I had many experiences in using technology and media for the purpose of both teaching and learning English since I have taken the courses from him. As we weren't integrated with the technology and media in preparatory school, at least two steps-setting strategies and utilize technology were missing according to the ASSURE model. If it needs to identify the steps in the ASSURE model, it isn't wrong to say that only three steps were obviously included in the lessons. First, the step ''analyze learners'' was certain as we all had similar proficiency level-upper and ours aim was to achieve proficiency exam rather to acquire the language just because we were trained for this aim. Therefore, the instructor would prepare the classroom activities by paying regard to the aim, our competency, knowledge and skills not to use language skills appropriately, but to teach the language components. Second step ''state standards and objectives'' would be determined and specified, for instance, if the lesson topic was about reading skills, we were expected to able to skimming and scanning to get the main idea from the text. For the third step ''the require learner participation'', just one instructor would provide activities that allow us to practice the new knowledge or skills and to give feedback on our efforts before formally assessed us. The most important conclusion can be drawn from my experiences that if the aim in language learning had been not to achieve the proficiency exam, but to acquire the language, I would most probably have developed all language skills, especially speaking just as the case in high school. In addition, in order to facilitate language learning, it is an indisputable fact that the integration technology and media are an essential part of the language classroom.

Psychoogical Perspective on The Learning

As all we know from the previous knowledge of Educational Psychology, psychological factors have a strong impact on the learning process and this issue should be taken into consideration seriously as well as the other factors such as using a variety of materials, presenting various activities, and even providing students with technology and media integration in the course of the lesson. Today's students known also as 21st century learners desire to learn from multiple formats rather than books. This requires using multiple sources gathered through technological resources. Because of the fact that teachers need to engage them in multitasking and help them view information in a broad and a networked format so that they develop their competency skills like media and technology. In order to fulfil this necessity, teachers not only need to use technology effectively in their teaching, but also need to guide students in using technological tools to enhance their learning. Along with these requirements, there is one more essential thing for effective teaching and learning, which should be given enough attention is ''psychological situation'' of the students in their learning environment. It is important to keep Maslow's hierarchy of needs in mind in order to determine learner needs and their expectations. In the circumstances in which students' basic needs-hunger, lighting, noise, and so forth are not provided, students would be less able to mentally engage in meaningful learning activities and they most probably will fail to gather the knowledge which is presented. In order to make this subject more clear, I want to analyze an instructional situation in one of my courses-Advanced writing and research skills and to identify it from the psychological perspective on learning. In the second week of the course, the instructor was assigned us with finding fifty sources for our research topic without giving sufficient information about how we can search to find such an amount of source and gather information to write a research proposal. This makes almost us feel helpless and think of failing in gathering the sources, even one thinks to withdraw the course. However, in the following week, she provided us with the necessary information on this suject. As one of the major goals of teachers, she helped us improve our inquiry approaches by giving suggestions and address of some educational internet sites, in addition, she guided us how we can access the related information to our research. It resulted on one hand in facilitating and developing our meadia and technology competencies, on the other hand in increasing our understanding about how we use and apply these skills to gather essential knowledge regarding with our research topic. Because this course is conducted through such technological tools as power point projector, and internet, it may not sufficiently provides us with the technology integration but the instructor supports us individually to engage with technology and media. I think it is not enough, but because of the conditions in learning environment which is offered doesn't yield so much things.

Four Major Perspectives on Learning and Their Impact on Teaching Decisions

The developments in the area of SLA have been presented simultaneously with the developments in the technology. In other words, the reformed theories in this area have been proposed according to the improvements of the technology. Firstly, behaviorism known as reinforcement theory has been developed relies on solely observable behavior and is more comfortable with explaining sample learning tasks. On the other hand, cognitivists have a broader perspective on language learning than held by behaviorists. This theory aims at creating a mental model of how learners receive, process and manipulate information. It is mostly concerned with the process of thinking, problem solving and making decisions of the learners. Therefore, it wouldn't be wrong to say, this approach to instruction is a more metacognitive approach to teaching the 21st century learners. Afterwards, constructivism has been developed as a movement extending beyond the ideas of cognitivism with the technological developments. This approach targets to make the learners much more creative and engage them in meaningful experiences as the essence of experiential learning, that is, learning by doing. It exactly fits with learning abilities 21st century learners' need. Finally, social psychologists emphasize cooperation rather than competition to improve and facilitate learning. This approach addresses interdependent collaborative abilities, which is an essential requirement for the 21st century learners to use these abilities as part of their learning. From my learning experiences in both high school and preparatory school, it may be said that there were any classroom activities or learning strategies required to implement the last two theories above in the language learning process. I mean, I have never been an independent learner who creates own interpretations of the world of information. Instructors, at that time, would apply teacher-centered techniques, so they have never provided us an opportunity with shifting from passive transfer of information to active problem solving and discovery. Although I was a 21st century learner in preparatory school, I haven't been trained with the theories that provide many opportunities in language learning because of the technological developments. My language training much more depends on the behavirosm rather than the other theories. For example, I was in high school, the teacher would make a compliment on our papers by writing a short note such as ''good, very good, or excellent'' as a reinforcement. It indeed worked on developing my writing skills. Because, I would always want to see the note ''excellent'', so I would try to write better than previous one. I was in preparatory school, we were given such a kind of assignment that helped us develop our such skills as problem solving and making decision. For instance, I remember that the instructor assigned us with the preparing a presentation which was a group work and its topic was free. This assignment fostered us think cognitively and learn cooperatively. What I have learned from these experiences is that teachers need to develop an eclectic attitude in order to be much more effective in their classrooms. I believe that there is no single method in the area of SLA, because of the fact that all methods, theories or strategies should be used as long as they fit the learners' need. As a prospective teacher, I think that my instruction will be based on communicative strategies which provide learners with not only learning language but also using it.

Is email really dead (dying?)

In America, teenage use of email is on the decline. It appears that they prefer to use IM (ınstant messaging) or social media to communicate with each other.
Notice that almost 40% of teenagers do not even know how to use email!

To be equipped with all ''Literacy Skills''

Considering a foreign language learning, after the last week class, I realized that I had no literacy skills except from the general literacy- the ability of comprehending or decoding information to use and create new information-when I was in secondary school. At that time, the learning environment did not require acquiring knowledge and literacy skills, but reading.  A course book and a blackboard were commonly used as teaching materials. Therefore, I started high school with only ''general literacy''. I always think the only reason for that is my language teacher. He didn't care about whether we were learning English or not. On the contrary, he was interested what points we take from the exams even he predicted that. When I started high school, my point of view toward learning a foreign language was totally changed in a positive way. I was really interested in learning English and my teacher was completely different from the previous one. Thanks to him, I have learned English with all skills, in addition, I have acquired another literacy skills, such as media, cyberleaning, visual, audio, and so forth. Because of that, I have already prepared for the demands of academia when I started University. However, there were still few literacy skills which I needed to develop to tackle with the demands of the University. One of them was computer literacy. The first year at University, I had a computer course, so I had an opportunity to learn how to recognize and find solutions to hardware and software problems. The other literacy skills I had to improve was cyperlearning literacy requiring to use of a variety of technology tools to connect with people and resources beyond the boundaries of a normal classroom setting. By taking account from many educational media sites, like edmodo, blogger, and so on for the courses that are conducted by Mr. Neufeld, I have become competent in using technology tools.
After all, I think that I still need to develop ''computer literacy'' which is my weakest. Nowadays, it should be  definitely considered to be competent in all of literacies by teachers. As a prosperity teacher, I am planning to upgrade my literacy skills and knowledge as frequently as it needs. It must be accepted that technology is a prominent part of the teaching and learning in today's world.

One of my course embedded into instructional technology

''Advanced writing and Research skills'' is one of my courses which often requires using digital materials, especially digital divide. As its name suggests that it totally relates to do research to find lots of sources from the internet for our research project. Therefore, we need to use instructional technology to complete it. Moreover, it provides us with critical thinking skills to plan and conduct our research project, as well as we can make the decisions on the topic of the research by using appropriate digital tools and resources.
In terms of the ''media used'', in the classes, the course book and texts handled by instructor are used. Another medium commonly used is the visuals (PowerPoint slides) to present the instruction. We have an opportunity to see summarized information rather than read all. I think that this course is mostly based on searching on the internet and using a wide variety of media to manage the research process.

As far as I suppose, during the course, almost all ''literacies'' are being reinforced. First of all, we will be capable of comprehending and decoding information to use and create new information. Text based resources are used in order to communicate information and develop text literacy. Throughout the writing of the research findings, we will be competent in solving any problem relating to the computer software. And finally, to interpret and create visual messages accurately from visual media we need to reinforce visual literacy.


The most important thing which I have learned from the beginning of the university is that technology is a necessity, not a fancy. Therefore, to know how to use the internet or any digital tools used in the classroom is more important than the other requirements for teaching and learning effectively. I think that students should be trained on the use of computer or any technology based tools used for their learning in quite early age, rather than starting at university. So, it should not be just only language teachers' responsibility to make sure the students develop digital literacy, but the authorities should be responsible for that problem. They, for instance, should provide students in each primary or secondary school with a computer laboratory and internet connection, and also students should be trained by using instructional technology.

Are you a user or owner?

If I created a new thing, I would license my work by using the copyleft principle of Creative Commons. On the other hand, when I want to use a work which belongs to someone, I wouldn't use it without permission or compensation it deserves. Copyright refers to the legal rights to an original work. Technology, particularly the internet, marks the accession of digital materials much easier. Therefore, we should use all these materials in a professional and ethical manner.
However, there may be a lot of work which is for nonprofit educational purposes rather than a commercial nature. In this case, using a copyrighted work for an educational objective can be more likely considered as ''fair use'' than using it for commercial gain.

A must have medium for education in today's world

Many of today's classrooms have been relatively changed from the traditional way to the technology based learning. Teachers, no longer, teach new things by means of a new ways by using digital tools to support and enhance the learning process. It can be frankly said that technology extends the learning environments beyond the classroom walls by connecting learners with others: other learners, experts, and so on.
The benefits of technology in teaching and learning are proved by the researches conducted over the years, so authorities agree on using technology to facilitate and improve students' learning. Therefore, teachers cannot be away from integrating technology and media in their classroom settings any more. They need to continuously improve their professional practice and be an effective user of the digital tools and resources in professional community.
From that point of view above, the necessity of technology is indisputable in not only language teaching, but also in any study area. However, if we have a look at the education in Turkey, it is hardly to say that technology is used commonly in every school. Even, it is used so rarely that teachers are not capable of using digital tools in their classrooms, in fact, they have not knowledge about them. Along with the development of the technology in today, they have had to keep up with the technology and started to integrate it into the teaching materials. http://warlight.tripod.com/KONIG.html This link gives more information about the language learning in Turkey.
 I would describe the use of technology in language learning in Turkey as an ''infant'' since it is used freshly minted. So, it needs to develop and increase the frequency of its usage. I think that every school should have a language laboratory equipped with computer and internet connection. It is essential to make the language acquisition possible with all skills, as it provides students with an intensive learning and teaching process. Therefore, what is achieved through the language learning reform can be promoted by using the technology in the future.