Development of Digital Contents for Multimedia Enhanced English Learning

Kiryu Junior College

NII-Electronic Library Service

KiryuJunior College

Development

of

Digital

Contents

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Multimedia

Enhanced

English

Learning

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Herchel

Thaddeus

C.

Machacon

Abstract

The advent of digitalmultimedia deviceshas_presentedlanguageeducators with theopportunity tocreate effective _yet

interestinglearningexperiences. A digitallearning_programwas developedtostrengthen theEnglishlanguageabilities of

students at KJC. This_paperfocuseson thedevelopmentof adigitallearning_programthathasthe_potentialtoentice students

with trendy. captivating _portabledevicesthereby fosteringindependent"Anytime, _{Anywhere"learning}

unattached tothe constraints of time or_place.

Keywords:Multjmedia,EnglishIearning,Podcast,Contentdevelopment

lntroduction

The birthof InfdrmationCommunication Technology

(ICT)

has ushered a new era inthe

_>vorld

of language

learning.The benefitsof a computer-assisted language

learning

(CALL)

system inlanguagelearninghavebeen

considerably reported, Gonzalez-Lloreti)designed a

task-basedCALL to_promoteinteraction.She

_justified

the

rationale of creating network-based activities by stating

thatthesesimulations offer access toother environments

that translates intolanguageinputand tasks forsecond

languagestudents. Timmis and co-authors!) _published a

paper on the online learningexperiences of students from

various disciplines.They _presenteda number of reasons

why educators choose to utilize a virtual learning

environment

(VLE).

R, Purushotmai' discussed the impact of simulation

computer _games like'"TIJze _Sims" inlanguage_learning. ''711ie _Sims'"is

a simulation of everyday activities of one or more virtual _people. He argued that a Iotof the same content in this_game could be found inan introductory

language textbook. He stated that edutainment software

could very well entice adolescent language learners.

The advancement of mobile technology has created

vast opportunities forlanguagelearningininformal

settings. Luckin, et.al."' discussed the importance of

IS9

learningcontext focusingon theeducational application of

mobile technologies. Scanlon,et,al.i)explored the

prospectsof the utilization of mobile technologies inan

infbrmalscience setting.

An editorial on PortableLearningbyA. Jonesfi)reported a considerable interestinhow mobile devicescan support

leaminginvarious contexts.

Consideringthe vast _potentialof _portabledevicesas

tools for learning, a digital learning _program was

'

conceived to supplement the current online learning environment at KiryuJuniorCollege.

The aim of this_program istobuildan environment

where Englishianguagelearnersat KJC can access

multimedia contents on their PC through theinternetor

downloadthesetotheir_portablemultimedia devicessuch

as the iPod,mp3 _player,or mobile _phone,Thuslanguage

learningcan bereinforced inbothfbrmaland informal

settings, This _programhasthe_potentialtoentice students

with trendy,captivating _portabledevicestherebyfostering

independent ''Anytime, _Anywhere" learning

unattached to

theconstraints oftimeor_place,

The

Development

Process

A podcast isa web-based audio broadcastusing RSS

which stands for''Rich SiteSummary"

or '"Really Simple

Syndication".Thistechnology allows subscribers to

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KiryuJumor College

receive updated informationwithout hayingto_gothrough

thetedieus_processof accessing thewebsite and checking

fornew information.Sincemp3 audio filescan be

streamed via thePC or downloadedtotheiPodor any

other _portablemedia, a _{podcast-structured}web sitewas

considered appropriate to meet the objectives of this

program.

1,Terminology-Word selection

Currentwords inthefieldsof Healthand Businesswere

chosen from online sources, Time magazine's Augustblog7}

on health and medicine, the Daily Rx, _provided an

excellent source of current health and medical

terminology. Business words were extracted from _the

national news

(August

12to 31) _presentedby theDaily YomiuriOnlineS}website.

The articles on healthand medicine comprised a total

of 7,314words, while thatof businesshadatotalof 3,263

words, A textanalysis toolwas utilized to scan these

articles and calculate the frequencies of words and

phrases,Figure1shows thereported resultsafterascan of

thearticles was completed. The results were filteredfor articles,_{prepositions,}coajunctions, _pronouns,verbs, and

other common words, thatfallout of thecentext of health and medicine. Theremaining words were thenselected for

audio recording. The same _processwas applied to the

collection ofbusinessarticles.

2.

Content

development

Words, selected fromthe articles on healthand

business,were recorded using a digitalrecording and

editing software, The recorded audio fileswere checked

for_qualityand clearness. Thesewere initiallysaved as

wav fiIesand laterconverted intomp3 audio filesusing an

mp3 encoder. Figure2shows ascreenshot of therecording and editing software.

3,Web development

Withusability as themain concern, a storyboard of the

web _page which will serve as the_platformfbrthisdigital

learning_program was made, Necessary _graphicssuch as

thesitelogoand hnkbuttonswere created using a _graphic

designsoftware. The site was created using HTML and

cascading style sheets

(CSS).

The most importantelement isthe creation of the RSS feedwhich isthe vehicle forour _podcast.XML coding was made tocreate the RSS feeds.

The HTML, XML, image and audio fileswere then

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Fig.1Textanalysisresults

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Fig.2Ascreenshot oftherecordEng and edrting sottware.'..

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Fig.3Ascreenshot ofthecompleted web site.

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Fig.4Contentsaccessed via iTunes.

Fig.5Contentsaccessed viaiPod.

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uploaded to a server. Figure3shows a screenshot of the

completed web site. The accessibility of the digital

learning contents via the PC, either using an Internet

browser or through RSS readers, such as iTunesand

iPodder, was checked. Finally, the digitallearning

contents were downloadedtoa_portablemedia device,The audio contents were then checked forclarity. Figures4 and 5 show thecontents accessed via iTunesand iPod respectively,

Conclusions

The technologicalrevolution hascreated opportunities

fbreducators tocreate effective and entertaining learning

programsinboth,fbrmaland infOrmalsettings. However,

compared to the designand _preparation of traditional

languagelearningactivities,thedesign,_preparation,and

developmentof aweb-based learningenvironment can be

an enormous challenge toeducators. The developmentof web-based digitallearning_programs isboth a time-and resource-demanding endeavor. Italsorequires a working

knowledge of audio file_preparationforthe web, and html

1xml coding, unless a web-content development team is

available.

Inorder tobean effective learningtool,any web-based or multimeclia enhanced learning_programshould bebased on sound second-language acquisition _principles

(SLA),

and itsefliectiveness measured and evaluated.

The effectiveness of the learning_{programpresented}

hereneed tobeassessed fu11yregarding itseffectiveness

as a tooltofosterlanguagelearninginbothformaland

informalsettings infuturework,

References

1)M. Gonzalez-Lloret:DesigningTask-BasedCALL to

Promote Interaction:En Busca deEsmeraldas.

LanguageLearning& Technology,7

(1):86-104,

Jan.

2003.nh!q};tLu!.msu.gguLyQ!tmym.LLggp

ttMlt dul171/al

2)S.Timmis, R.O'Leary,E.Weedon, C.Harisson,K.

Martin:DifferentShoes,Same Footprints?A

DisciplinaryEvaluationof Students'OnlineLearning

Experiences: Preliminary Findings fromthe SOLE

Proj,eet.Journalof InteractiveMedia inEducation,

13:1-19,Sept.2004.

htLtp;(L)y]tt/Av

k12004/13

161

3)R.Purushotma:Commentary:You're not Studying,

You're Just....Language Learning and Technology, 9

(1):80-96,

Jan.2005.

ht :ll11t.msu.edulvo19numlf urushotma.

4)R.Luckin,B.Boulay,H,Smith,J,Underwood,et.al.:

Using Mobile Technology to Create Learning

Contexts.Journalof InteractiveMedia inEducation,

22:1-21,Dec.2005.

htt:llwww.'ime.o en,ac,uk12005/22,

5)E. Scanlon, A, Jones, J, Waycott: Mobile

Technologies:prospects fortheiruse ininformal

science settings. Journal of Interactive Media in

Education,25:1-17,Dec.2005.

htttp;l(wsisi4img.QpQg.gg.u}sLZQQ5LZ5.ttff k/2005/25

6)A,Jones,A.Kukulsa-Hulme,D.Mwanza.:Editorial:

PortableLearning -Experienceswith Mobile Devices,

Journal of InteractiveMedia inEducation,21:1-3,

Feb.2006.

tlt 1/ k/2005121

7)The DailyRx, Time OnlineEdition,

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8)DailyYomiuri Online,

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2006

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