To Consume, or to Contribute?

To Consume, or to Contribute?

free learning materials for users' consumption

Improving web technologies

increasingly possible for users to not just consume, but also contribute, materials.

User Contribution: an alternative web

experience

User Contribution: an alternative web

experience

Under structured guidance (templates), users can add content to website by just entering text in text boxes.

more effective learning takes place on the web if learners are involved in the creation process and if they take up the responsibility for learning themselves.

The Early Nineties & Basic HTML

The Early Nineties & Basic HTML

the first stages of web page production was mostly about the provision of links to websites.

basically plain texts on web pages to present theme-based language lessons

a small number of HTML tags.

The Winds of ChangeThe Winds of Change

hard coded vs. generated hyperlinks Common Gateway Interface (CGI) generated

web pagesURL pattern for a BBS forum can look like this: http://iowa.cityu.edu.hk/cgibin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=IOWA&number=4&DaysPrune=1000

Database-Driven WebsitesDatabase-Driven Websites

“URL” of the word "innovation" in the Newbury House Online Dictionary looks like this:

http://nhd.heinle.com/nhdbin/lastparse.pl?http://nhd.heinle.com:80/plwebcgi/fastweb?state_id=979962133&view=nhd&docrank=1&numhitsfound=2&query=innovation&query_rule=%28$query%29&docid=9522&docdb=nhd&dbname=nhd&TemplateName=doc.tmpl&setCookie=1

To Hyperlink, or not to Hyperlink?

To Hyperlink, or not to Hyperlink?

not difficult to put a link to the BBS forum or the word innovation (or innovate) using the above URLs.

but not practical, reliable and not generally perceived as URLs

The Needs for ChangeThe Needs for Change

no turning back of the web wave pressure coming from institutional administratorspressure coming from learners

Facilitator of Change: A User-Centred Model of

Web Design

Facilitator of Change: A User-Centred Model of

Web Design

takes the authority to dictate the creation of web contents away from the webmasters

calls for a change in the roles of teachers and learners on the web, from the traditional consumer role to the new contributor role.

Sample User-Centred Websites

Sample User-Centred Websites

Trackstar provides step-by-step detailed instructions and interfaces that help teachers to organize and annotate web sites into lessons. (http://trackstar.hprtec.org).

Some other websites with similar services are WebCT (http://www.webct.com/),

Blackboard.com (http://www.blackboard.com/) etc.

IOWAIOWA

Interactive Online Writing Assistance a web-based instruction tool for language

teachers (and learners) and offered as a free service

WWW Technologies: CGI, Java and JSP

WWW Technologies: CGI, Java and JSP

IOWA provides users with different levels of access rights and associated interfaces to add content to a website

a CGI generated bulletin board system (BBS), a JSP generated interactive vocabulary database, and an essay sharing system.

Server Security and Access Rights

Server Security and Access Rights

Email, IP Number Ban List and Private Forum Access

Flood Check and Logging/Displaying IP Numbers For Posts

IOWA Main PageIOWA Main Page

Services Provided by IOWAServices Provided by IOWA

The first service offered at IOWA is a web-based bulletin board system. It started with just one discussion forum and has grown to over twenty.

Post Message InterfacePost Message Interface

To post a message, users simply type in plain text in the text boxes and the resulting message looks something like this:

A Bulletin Board MessageA Bulletin Board Message

The name of the writer is displayed in the left column. The message itself is shown in the right frame. Above the message there are icons that users can click to look at the writer’s profile, to reply, and to edit it.

Interactive Vocabulary Database

Interactive Vocabulary Database

User-generated, with JSP programming user entries will be checked by teacher editors,

who can then decide to “activate” the entries or not. A screenshot of the VocabDB section is shown below:

VocabDBVocabDB

Searching Vocabulary Database

Searching Vocabulary Database

VocabDB allows users to search the database, by prefix and suffix

Users can also look for words containing a certain string of letters

Users can also choose to retrieve words of a particular part of speech

Browsing the Vocabulary Databse

Browsing the Vocabulary Databse

Users can browse it either by parts of speech, or by the alphabetical index. There is also a scrolling applet that displays the most recently added words.

Adding Words to VocabDBAdding Words to VocabDB

After a user has logged on, s/he can use the interface on the right to add words to the database.

A Vocabulary EntryA Vocabulary Entry

After a user has typed in a word to define, selected the part of speech, and entered the description / definition, a web page like this will be generated as soon as s/he clicks the “save it” button.

Teacher Editors and Activating Entries

Teacher Editors and Activating Entries

Words added by users don’t show up in the VocabDB section until activated by a teacher editor.

Once a user is assigned teacher editor status, s/he can activate his/her own students’ entries. The lower half of the interface is shown on the right.

Essay Submission SystemEssay Submission System

Besides posting messages and adding words to the site, users can also choose to submit whole essays. They do that through the section called Submit an Essay, which has this interface:

Submit an EssaySubmit an Essay

all a user needs to do is to fill in the text areas with plain text. The required fields are Topic and Content. Before typing (or copying and pasting) the essay into the Content area, a user should first select the category of essay he/she is posting from the selection menu.

Reverse Concordancing ( RC )

Reverse Concordancing ( RC )

links words activated in the vocabulary database to their occurrences in essays submitted by any registered user to the site

Allows users to type in or copy and paste in passages, to see what words in them also exist in the vocab database, which will then be turned into hyperlinks to the database

RC InterfaceRC Interface

To Consume, or to Contribute?

To Consume, or to Contribute?

an alternative web experience not possible for traditional media

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