Relative+Advantages+of+the+technologies+that+I+chosen

Relative Advantage will be thought of when there is a learning problem and we need to choose a technology to address the problem (Roblyer, 2010).

Pro Prof but not Google form is used to create an online quiz is because Google form requires the teacher to compare the students’ answer to the correct answer, that means the teacher need to do the calculation by herself and the students cannot receive immediate markings and results of their work which decreases their motivation to look for the answer and do the correction again when time passes.

Voicethread but not podcast is used in step (1) because in a dialogue format, Voicethread can clearly show the change of identity of who is speaking if the voices of the speakers are similar. Podcast will be divided by episode and will lose the connection between different pictures so the students will be confused. In step (2), Voicethread is used to create a platform for step (6) which podcast cannot provide the function required. Also, compare to video recording, which means record the place and voice together, Voicethread can avoid the noisy background on the street during recording. If there is time constraint for the students to really take the pictures by themselves, they can easily find pictures online to replace but difficult to find a mute video for replacement in video recording presentation format. In step (6), Voicethread rather than a real life discussion is used because students can listen what their counterparts said repeatedly before they give their response. It is particularly important for those lower oral ability students that they can rehearse before they speak or for those lower listening ability students to listen more before they response. By recording during the real life discussion, it is difficult to play back what others have said promptly and it will be wasting a lot of time. Also, the teachers can provide immediate response on all the groups’ discussion at the same time so that it will be fair to every group. Voicethread is also better than forum because forum is text-based and Voicethread in oral-based. Someone may argue that mp3 file can be uploaded to forum but it will be a waste of time for students if there is a tool that can directly record and post a recorded voice.

Bubbl.us is better than doing it with paper and pen because students can still do it collaboratively and add in new ideas when something pops up in their mind. It can facilitate students’ learning because the immediate transmission of ideas can enhance collaborative working outside classroom. It is also better than using Microsoft Word because Word is very troublesome when making mind map. It doesn’t provide a tool for making mind maps and users need to create all the bubbles and lines buy themselves. It is better than another mind map tool, MindMeister, too because that tool is more complicated. It can attach files in the bubble and it is an iPhone application so that users can access by their mobile phones. I think that's too much for making a simple mindmap to produce the Voicethread that I required them to do.

The above choices can address the problem that students may encounter during learning thus facilitate the learning process and outcome of the students.