SSC English First Paper - Unit Thirteen - Media and modes of e-communication
Unit Thirteen: Media and modes of
e-communication
Learning outcomes
After we have studied this unit, we will be able
to
• surf the Internet.
• read and write emails.
• narrate incidents in a logical sequence.
• understand texts.
• read intensively and extensively.
• participate in debates.
Lesson: 1 | Media and modes of
e-communication• surf the Internet.
• read and write emails.
• narrate incidents in a logical sequence.
• understand texts.
• read intensively and extensively.
• participate in debates.
A. Look at the pictures and say what you see in them.
B. Work in pairs. Discuss which of the following
words you are familiar with. How are they related to e-communication?
facebook, e-mail, web site, blog, e-commerce, twitter, e-learning, iPod, tablet pc,
information super high way, social network, smart phone
C. Read the text and answer the questions that
follow.
Let's imagine a citizen's ordinary day at work. The
morning probably starts with a cup of coffee/tea, followed by greeting the
colleagues. Then comes the inevitable, which is logging in the computer. For
many of us the third step has become an automatic behavior and it dominates the
rest of our work day, receiving and sending dozens of emails.
An e-mail is an electronic mail. It is a
computer-aided way of exchanging digital text messages from a sender to one or
multiple recipient/s. E-mails operate through a network of computers linked by
the Internet. There are commercial server agencies such as Yahoo, Gmail, Ymail, Hotmail, etc. that accept the text message
from the sender, forward it and deliver instantly to the digital mailbox of the
recipient.
If the recipient is not online, the message is
stored and delivered later when the recipient is online. It works instantly
just with the click of your mouse. It has been a powerful communication tool in
modern life.
Questions
1 What is an e-mail?
2 How do e-mails operate?
3 How do the commercial servers serve in the
process of an e-mail?
4 It has been a powerful communication tool in
modern life.' Explain the statement.
5 How do e-mails affect our daily work schedule?
D. Work in pairs and discuss the steps of your
normal days, weekends, etc.
E. Pairwork. Read the following e-mail exchanged
between two friends. Like an informal letter, an e-mail to a close one is
casually written. Identify the mistakes in the main body of the message,
discuss with your partner, and correct them.
Subject: Details of Dhaka Tour
FROM : Alexa
Dowson<alexa.dowson@yahoo.com>
TO :
Moutushi Laboni<moutushi1997@ymail.com>
Monday, 21 May 2020 6:20 AM
Hi Moutushi!
Thanks for your mail. I'll fly from Ottawa on 7:36
hours local time on 13 July with Qatar Airlines via London-Doha and land Dhaka
on 15 July around 13:41 hours local time. Wish to stay 2 days in the Cox's
Bazar and 1 day in Khulna. Return flight on 21 July at 3:04 hours local time.
Keep fine and in touch. Hope to see you soon!
Alexa
F. Pairwork. The e-mail in section E is a reply by
Alexa to Moutushi's previous e-mail. Imagine what Moutushi might have written
to Alexa. Write that e-mail.
G. Read the following text. It gives the
information about the origin of the e-mail. Choose the appropriate forms of the
verbs from the box to complete the sentences. You can use a verb more than
once.
send say use remain call expand allow develop
spread
Sending text messages electronically could
be.......... to date back to the Morse code telegraph of the mid 1800s and the
1939 New York World's Fair. In the fair, IBM.......... a letter of
congratulations from San Francisco to New York on an IBM radio-type,..........
it a high-speed substitute for mail service in the world of tomorrow.
Teleprinters were.......... in Germany during World War II. The use..........
until the late 1960s when there was a worldwide Telex network. Additionally,
there was the
similar American system.......... TWX
which.......... important until the late 1980s.
With the introduction of MIT's Compatible
Time-Sharing System (CTSS) in 1961, for the first time multiple users
were.......... to log into a central system from remote dial-up terminals. They
were also able to store and share files on the central disk. Informal methods
of using this to pass messages.......... and were.......... to create the first
true e-mail system.
H. Read the following grid first. Then listen to
the Audio and tick the right box in the following grid.
Listening text 10
Comparison among e-mails, phone conversations and
face to face meetings
time-consuming
|
reliable
|
efficient
|
||||
less
|
more
|
less
|
more
|
less
|
more
|
|
E-mails
|
||||||
Phone conversations
|
||||||
F
to F meetings
|
||||||
I. Group work. Arrange a debate in the class on the
advantages and the disadvantages of the e-mail.
Lesson: 2 | Social network services
A. Look at the following logos. Are yon familiar with
them? Discuss with your partner what they are and how they are related to the
field of e- communication.
B. Read the text and answer the following
questions.
The Internet technology has helped design a large
number of web sites to facilitate social relations among people around the
world. These are known as social networking services or social networks or
social media. At present, Face-book is the most popular social media
site.
Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are other frequently used social
services. Social network services are web-based and hence, provide ways for the
users to interact through the Internet. These services make it possible to
connect people sharing interests and activities across the borders and thus
have made the users feel that they really live in a global village.
Why are social networks expanding so fast? The answer
is simple. Most of the social services are cost-free. You can make use of them
free, paying a very little to your Internet service provider. Secondly, you can
make your personal profile public before the entire online community. It is
like presenting yourself before the entire world. You can also look into other
people's profile if you are interested. It is simple and easy.
Thirdly, social networks allow users to upload
pictures, multimedia contents and modify the profile. Some services like
Facebook allow users to update their profiles. Fourthly, networks allow users
to post blog entries. User profiles have a section dedicated to comments from
friends and other users. Finally, there are privacy protection measures too. A
user himself or herself decides over the number of visitors/viewers, and what
information should be shared with others.
Questions
1 What do you understand by social networks?
2 What are some uses of social networks?
3 'These services...... have made the users feel
that they really live in a global village'. Do you agree with this view? Why/
Why not?
4 Make a list of the arguments as to why social
networks are expanding so fast. Why do you think this is happening?
C. Read the second paragraph of the text in section
B again. Notice the words in italics and write how they work in maintaining
logical sequence in the paragraph.
D. Choose the best answers.
1 The........ technology has helped social
networking sites to emerge.
a Linkedln
b Google+
c Internet
d Twitter
2 Users have to pay for
a social networks.
b their online connections.
c multimedia contents.
d uploading pictures.
3 User accounts have........ protection measures.
a virus
b identity
c personal secrecy
d network
4 User profiles have a section for
a others' remarks.
b outsiders' editing,
c outsiders' moderation.
d outsiders' uploading.
E. Fill in the following dialogue box to open a
Facebook account.
F. Look at the following table adapted from
Wikipedia. Tt shows some data on worldwide use of social networks.
Social Networks
|
Individual users
|
Percentage (%)
of popularity
|
Regions covered
|
Facebook
|
792,999,000
|
55.1 %
|
worldwide
|
Google+
|
250,000,000
|
17.7%
|
worldwide
|
Twitter
|
167,903,000
|
11.7%
|
worldwide
|
LinkedIn
|
94,823,000
|
6.6%
|
Asia and Europe
|
MySpace
|
61,037,000
|
4.2%
|
USA and Canada
|
Others
|
255,539,000
|
17.8 %
|
|
Total
|
1,438,877,000
|
100%
|
Now complete the following dialogues about Facebook
and MySpace, and provide your own questions and answers on the rest of the
social networks in the table. Act them out in pairs.
1 Q:____________ social network is the most popular
?
A: Facebook is________________________ .
Q:____________ individual users use
Facebook?
A: About 793 million.
Q:____________ part of the world is Facebook
mostly used in?
A: Worldwide. It's popular worldwide among
individual users.
2 Q:________________________ the least popular ?
A: MySpace is________________________.
Q:____________ individual users use MySpace?
A:________________________.
Q:____________________________________ mostly
used?
A:________________________ among individual
users.
(Continue)
3... 4.... 5.....
Lesson: 3 | E-learning
A. Look at the following picture. What objects do you
see in the picture? How are they related? Discuss with your partner and say
what these are.
B. Work in pairs. Discuss the following questions.
• Have you ever experienced any digital education
programmes in multimedia or CD/DVD?
• Have you ever used any digitized educational
resources such as Oxford
Dictionary, Banglapedia or Wikipedia?
• Have you ever heard of any online education
course?
• Have you ever seen a classroom teaching programme
on TV?
C. Read the text and answer the following
questions.
Can you think of a classroom where there is no
blackboard or desks? Do you believe that you can be a student without a printed
book or a writing pad or even pen/pencil? Are you not thrilled to imagine that
you have asked a question and your tutor is answering it while flying in a
Boeing from Dubai to Dhaka? These are all possible in a 'virtual campus' in the
system of e-learning. No kidding! For quite a long time, educationists have
been utilizing the advantages of computer technology.
The social networking services have a huge
potential to help educationists in this sector. They have access to millions of
people worldwide. Educationists have noticed that a large number of social
network users come from young generation who especially belong to student
community. So side by side with computer assisted teaching-learning software,
online education programmes are evolving fairly rapidly to assist conventional
education system. Is that e-learning?
We may confuse distant education or computer-based
learning or computer-assisted training or even online education programmes with
e-learning. But we should be cautious about the mix-up. What happens in an
online education programme? Maybe you get some materials online from your
tutor. Maybe you submit your assignment through email. Or even you may take
your test online. But there must be some conventional campus, a
department/institute from where your certificate will come.
But in e-learning, as said by global e-learning
guru Dr Badrul H Khan*, every step, such as registration, admission, classroom
entry and exit, class work, attendance, discussion with course mates, feedback,
exams and finally certification must take place electronically through computer
and the Internet technology in a virtual campus.
Everything is digitized and conducted by a system
called Learning Management System (LMS). So online education programmes blend
various components of e-learning.
The revolutionary concept of e-leaming is already
in its practice phase in many parts of the world. Professor Khan has developed
a framework and important literatures on e-learning which have been praised by
pundits worldwide including from Bangladesh. Professor Khan is especially
enthusiastic about the prospect of e-learning in Bangladesh.
How would you feel if Bangladesh contemplates
establishing South Asia's first virtual university? Won't it be a pioneering
step for us in the world of e-learning? Let's keep our fingers crossed.
*Born and graduated in Bangladesh, Dr Badrul H Khan
was a Professor at George Washington University and the University of Texas,
USA. He is one of the celebrated theorists in the field of e-learning.
D. Write an e-mail to your teacher expressing your
feelings and opinion regarding the next mode of education — e-learning. Also
ask your teacher to clarify if anything in the text is unclear to you.
E. Suppose Dr. Badrul Huda Khan has come to visit
your school and intends to meet students for a presentation on e-learning.
Write a text message to invite your friend to attend the presentation.
F. Complete the following sentences with suitable
words.
1 Education experts ----------------- utilizing the
advantages of computer technology----------------- a long time.
2 In e-learning, everything from admission to
certification must ---------------------------------- electronically through
computer and the Internet technology in a virtual campus.
3 In some online courses, you----------------- your
test online.
5 In e-learning, all activities----------------- by
a system called Learning Management System (LMS).
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