Significance of Online Communication - Essay Example

Journal Online Communication Summary Online communication means the exchange of messages through the use of computers. Online communication started in the 1960s but it could not be employed in the educational realm until the 1980s (Warschauer). The use of online communication in the teaching and research on language is based on two distinct periods; the mid-1980s when computer-mediated communication was introduced in education and the mid-1990s when the World Wide Web was introduced. In the mid-1980s, educators started using long-distance exchanges and synchronous software programs for computer-assisted conversation. The mid-1990s was particularly remarkable for it also allowed students to search the reading material online in addition to the long-distance exchanges and computer-assisted conversation. The research on second language learning and online communication is focused around three general areas, including interaction, reading and writing, and affect. L2 computer-mediated interaction studies have considered the linguistic features of computer-mediated messages, negotiation types and the encompassing linguistic modification, and the emerging participation patterns. The second line of research has explored reading and writing processes’ types which exist in the online environments. The third research area is online learning’s affective impact in general and the tendency of the opportunities for online communication to enhance the motivation of students in particular. Online communication can facilitate a diverse array of projects incorporating the elements of interviews and surveys, online research, comparative investigations, simulations, and online publication. Online communication will increase in variety and effectiveness in the future, particularly in the English language. Commentary This is a very comprehensive article on the definition, origin, history, components, and significance of online communication in language teaching and research. The article draws statistics from reliable sources to support the claims and assertions which adds to the reliability of information. The author has made a holistic approach to promoting the understanding of online communication and its role in language teaching and research. The article gives a detailed account of how online communication progressed from its nascent stages in the 1960s to computer-mediate communication in the mind-1980s and World Wide Web in the mid-1990s. The article has a good structure in that all facets of online communication are characterized into distinct categories and each category has been discussed one after another with the use of subheadings, which helps the reader keep track of the information as well as follow the flow of the article as it leads to the conclusion. It is a fairly convincing article with easily comprehendible language and reliable information. The article is particularly relevant in the present age in which language teaching and research is at its apogee. Particularly in an era when multiculturalism and globalization is at its peak, it is very important to explore and understand the element that can help melt the differences between cultures and promote mutual understanding. It is very important to respect the colleagues’ privacy while communicating online (“Communicating online”). The future of online communication is very bright as more and more gadgets are adding features that make the opportunities of online communication more readily available to the users. Overall, this article covers all major aspects of online communication and gives a comprehensive understanding of the subject in a structured and easily understandable manner. Works Cited: “Communicating online.” Cardiff University. N.d. Web. 4 May 2015. . Warschauer, Mark. “Online communication.” In R. Carter & D. Nunan (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to teaching English to speakers of other languages (pp. 207-212). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2001. Journal 2: Social Networking Summary Social media has become widely popular and has caught the attention of researchers (“Social Network Impact”). Some of the popular social networking websites are Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. People spend a considerable portion of their time on social networking sites every day. Teenagers and young adults are the most frequent users of social media. While social networks have a huge impact on people’s lives, they carry both positive and negative aspects. The positive aspect of social networking is that people remain updated on the current affairs happening all over the world by using social networking sites. They strengthen people’s connectivity with each other and foster relationships by keeping them in constant touch with each other. People can create pages and groups on social networking sites about their common disciplines which helps them make new connections and identify more opportunities for professional growth. The negative impact of social networking is that it also creates social isolation. The habit of social networking is reducing face-to-face interaction. Social isolation thus created brings about a range of social, emotional, and psychological problems that people have to deal with. Social networking also encourages use of poor grammar and spelling mistakes, and exposes people to online predators. Cyber bullying and decreased productivity are also negative impacts of social networking. Understanding that social networking has both positive and negative impacts on a person’s life, it is the responsibility of the users of social networking websites to carefully use these websites and try to get only the positive impacts of social networking while avoiding the negative impacts. Commentary This article discusses both positive and negative impacts of social networking sites on youth. Social networking sites have taken the world by storm ever since the start of the 21st century. People of all ages make their accounts on social networking websites. Sometimes, children as young as six months old have their accounts made and operated by their parents on the social networking sites. On the other hand, older adults some of whom do not even know how to use a computer have their accounts made and operated by their younger relatives. Social networking sites provide people with a platform to project their personalities the way they want. “These profiles display information such as one’s name, relationship status, occupation, photos, videos, religion, ethnicity, and personal interests” (Ahn 1436). They only post carefully chosen aspects of their life on the social networking sites so that people only get to know those aspects which they are confident in sharing with others. A simple example of this is; a person looks good in one photo but not in another, but he will only post the photo in which he looks good. Basically everybody wants to project to the world that he/she is living a successful life and this is made possible by bragging about the achievements and hiding the failures from the world. Therefore, social networking sites cannot be taken as accurate predictors of people’s true personalities and their lifestyles. So people need to be very careful while using social networking sites. It is safer to befriend only those people whom they previously know. Works Cited: Ahn, June. “The Effect of Social Network Sites on Adolescents’ Social and Academic Development: Current Theories and Controversies.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 62.8. (2011): 1435-1445. “Social Network Impact.” N.d. Web. 4 May 2015. . Journal 3 Reflection The journal assignments have had a remarkable effect on my writing and thinking during this semester. Before this semester, I was not an expert writer. I did not even have organized thinking. While thinking to write about a topic, I would get all sorts of information from all of the sources and brainstorm myself so much that I would myself get confused on what to include in the topic and what to leave. I did not have the ability to decide for myself which aspects are more important than others. As a result of that, my writings often contained too much trivial information or irrelevant facts that did not really contribute to the development of the argument. After writing all these journals in this semester, I have noticed great improvement not only in my writing ability, but also my thinking approach. Now, when I have to write about a topic, I not only collect information about it, but I also spend some time carefully reviewing the sources so as to know which information is reliable and trustworthy and which information is not reliable. This helps me include only reliable facts in my journals. Writing the journal assignments has also improved my ability to include only relevant information. “[W]riting removes mental blocks and allows you to use all of your brainpower to better understand yourself, others and the world around you” (Purcell). Now while I am searching about a topic, I make notes along with citations. Then I select only the relevant information from those notes, and carefully insert it in the essay so that the essay has an argument and a flow. This lends a structure to my essays and helps me make convincing and appealing arguments. Positive impacts of journal writing have also been well-researched and proven by a lot of research studies; “[A]t longer-term follow-up, many studies have continued to find evidence of health benefits in terms of objectively assessed outcomes, self-reported physical health outcomes and self-reported emotional health outcomes” (Baikie and Wilhelm). The journal assignments have had a remarkable impact on my thinking. Before this semester, I did not reflect very often. As a result, I was not able to learn lessons from my own mistakes. During this semester, I have learned the importance of reflection. Reflection not only helps us keep track of our activities and experiences in the past, but also makes us realize what needs to be done differently to have better outcomes next time. Taking this into consideration, it would not be wrong to say that these journal assignments have altogether changed me as a person. Now I am a much more careful, thoughtful, and analytical person that I was before. I make notes of my daily activities and experiences, what went right or wrong, what were the factors that led to those outcomes, and how can I improve things in the future. I am hopeful that the exercises done in this semester will help me academically as well as professionally in the future. Works Cited: Baikei, Karen A., and Wilhelm, Kay. “Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing.” BJPsych. 11.5 (2005). Web. 4 May 2015. . Purcell, Maud. “The Health Benefits of Journaling.” 2015. Web. 4 May 2015. . Read More