Reflection on my website project:

Marvelous Oman Website Activities have been designed to create a context where Year 12 Omani students develop their skills in reading and vocabulary in English. Year 12 Omani students are about 17 years old and have an intermediated level of language competencies in English. The website was designed to accompany the Marvelous Oman Web Quest and to supplement a unit in the textbook called Tourism and Tourists. It intended to promote a collaborative, cooperative and autonomous learning environment and as a means to match the current pedagogical trends in teaching English in Oman.

The feedback, based on trying the activities, reflected that the website aims were achieved. This feedback deepened my understanding and has helped me to reflect critically on my proposed website. It helped to examine the effectiveness of the proposed website, in that it supported some intended pedagogical aims and helped to develop some others.

With regards to the aspects that worked well, based on the feedback, I came across some positive aspects of my websites. My classmates commented that the home page was designed well. Some stated the colour scheme and the design were better, cleaner and clearer with less animation and could be easily read compared with my webquest design. Others said that the website was enjoyable and simple to read and easy to navigate. Some others also commented that the website was attractive and informative and the pictures provided the user with a lively and real sense of Oman. The feedback also supported my intended website goals, commenting on the usefulness of self-assessment in order to understand students’ current learning situation. The feedback reflected a significant understanding of how collaborative learning was promoted, in that students were asked to exchange what they have leaned and send a group summary to the teacher after doing activities.

The feedback has also helped to develop some other aspects of my website. Firstly, some of the comments focused on the font used. I agree with enlarging the font particularly with word documents attached for self-assessment and instructions as well as to change the font into Arial or Verdana so that it can be easily read. Secondly, though I understood my classmates’ comments about the amount of websites that students are asked to read, I disagree with the comment of giving students a direct text to help them answer the activities. The reason is to help students select what is relevant to the activity and to help them develop scanning skill. In each website there is only one page to read and I intend to give students texts to go through, though they are not used in the activities, to help them develop their searching skill. Otherwise it will be spoon-feeding and contradict the aims of helping students become autonomous. Thirdly, there were some contradicting comments about providing activities with a timer. Some gave comments for and some others against saying that it was stressful. The timer is intended to give students awareness of time as most Year 12 students in Oman tend to be careless about time available to study. Finally, I agree with the comments that the vocabulary match activity can be too easy for some students. However, it intended to teach strategies for learning vocabulary by giving examples rather than getting students to translate the words in Arabic. Hence, it will be challenging but motivating students to continue doing the following activities.

To conclude, this technology unit has provided me with interesting insights into the ample benefits of integrating technology into the teaching of English in a foreign language context. It enriched my repertoire with knowledge and provided me with skills to design CALL materials to develop my learners’ language abilities. The feedback, interaction and designing tasks has sustain my skills in technology and open wider perspective for me in using technology in teaching a second language.