• Author / Uploaded
• sylvianNYC

• Categories
• Tecnología educacional
• Educación lingüística
• Procesador de textos
• Internet
• En línea y fuera de línea

Citation preview

GavinDudeney andNickyHockly

how to

Pearson Education Limited Edinburgh Gate Harlow Essex CMZOzIE England and AssociatedCompanies throughout the world. www.longman.com o PearsonEducation Limited 2007 All rights reserved;no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted, in any form or by any means,electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording, or otherwise,without the prior written permission of the Publisher. The Publisher grants permission for the photocopying of those pagesmarked 'photocopiable' according to the following conditions. Individual purchasersmay make copiesfor their own use or for useby classesthey teach. School purchasersmay make copiesfor use by their staff and students,but this permission does not extend to additional schoolsor branches.Under no circumstancesmay any part of this book be photocopied for resaie. The rights of Gavin Dudeney and Nicky Hockly to be identified as the authors of this Work havebeen asserted by them in accordancewith the Copyright, Designsand PatentsAct 1988. Printed in Malaysia (CTP - WP) Third impression 2008 Produced for the publishers by Stenton Associates,Saffron Walden, Essex,UK. Text design by Keith Rigley. ISBN 978-l -40s8-4773-5 Acknowledgements We are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce photographs: pg 8 Alamy Images:Nicola Armstrong (t); Bob Handelman (c); Punchstock:Pixland (b); pg 14 Alamy Images: ImageState/RobertLlewellyn; pg24 Ardea:Clem Haagner;pg 47 Getty Images:FrazerHarrison; pg 123Corbis: Najlah Feanny. pg 30 Google*! search engine; pg 3l Yahoo! Lnc.2007; pg 37 www.bbc.co.uk; pg 40 www.krysstal.com; pg 55ff www.xtec.es;pg 88 http://internationalexchange.blogspot.comA Class Blog Project between students at CasaThomas fefferson (Brasilia) and EstrellaMountain Community College (Phoenix); pg 8S Google Blog-! weblog (t); eslblogs.orgpart of edublogs, free blogging servicesfor teachersand students (b); pg 92 Google Blog*! weblog; pg 93 www.bicycle-sidewalk.com; pg 94 www.wikipedia.org; pg 95 www.etwinningwiki. pbwiki.com; pg 96f pbwiki; pg 98 www.englishcaster.com;pg 100 www.podomatic.com; pg l0l aprilfoolsday. pg ll7 www.oup.com;pg l18 wwwlearn4good.com;pg podomatic.com;pg 105 thesaurus.reference.com; 12l feremy Hiebert (t); pg 127 a4esl.org;pg 130 hotpot.uvic.ca; pg 132 www.halfbakedsoftware.com;pg 139 Carl Dowse; pg 145 Yahool Inc.2007/IATEFL TeacherTrainers and Educators SpecialInterest Group; pg 150 Valentina Dodge; pg 151 www.myspace.com;pg 155 SecondLife. Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders and we apologisein advancefor any unintentional omissions.We would be pleasedto insert the appropriate acknowledgementin any subsequentedition of this publication. Author thanks We would like to thank colleaguesand friends - both'real'and'virtual'- for the support, insights and ideasthey havebrought to our working lives and to this book. We would also like to thank JeremyHarmer for supporting us before and during the writing process,Katy Wright at PearsonEducation for her superb management of the project and Will Capel for his insightful and efficient editing. Our thanks, also, to the multimedia and audiovisual teams at PearsonEducation for their creative work on the accompanying CD-ROM. And, finally, thanks to Adrian and Helen Stenton for their excellentdesignwork on the book. As always,a book like this is the distillation of the combined knowledge and experiencenot just of the authors themselvesbut of all the people we have met at work, at conferences,on training coursesand online - we hope we have used it wisely. This book is for colleaguespast and present, and especiallythe Webheadsonline community of teachers, many of whom you will hear on the CD-ROM.

Contents Page lntroduction

5 7

1

Technologyin the classroom . tchnology in languageteaching ' Attitudesto technology . ImplementingICT in the classroom . Skillsandequipmentfor gettingstarted

2

Word processorsin the classroom . Why useword processors? . Word processors for teachers: creatingmaterials . Word processing activitiesfor learners . Usingword processors: considerations

15

3

Usingwebsites . Usingwebsitesin the classroom . ELT websitesor authenticwebsites? ' How to find usefirlwebsites . How to evaluatewebsites . Planninglessons usingthe Internet . Workingwith lowerlevelsof languageproficiency . Web teachingdosanddonts

27

4

Internet-basedproject work . Why do Internet-based projectwork? ' Basicprojects . Internet-based simulations . Webquests . Webquestcreation

44

5

How to useemail ' The benefitsof email ' Basicemailskills . Usingemailwith learnersout of class . Usingemailwith learnersduring class . Keypalprojects

62

6

How to usechat . Chat in languageteaching . Typesofchat ' Chatprograms . Why usechatin languageteaching? . How to startusingtext or voicechatwith learners . How to structurea text or voicechatlesson . A sampletextchatlessonplan

71

7

8

9

Blogs,wikisand podcasts

. Social software . Blogs in languageteaching ' How to start using blogs with learners ' Wikis in languageteaching . How to start using a wiki with learners . Podcastsin languageteaching . How to createlearner podcasts

Onlinereference tools . . . .

86

103

Dictionaries and thesauruses Concordancersand corpusesfor languageanalysis Tianslators for languageanalysis Encyclopediasfor researchand project work

Technology-basedcourseware ' CD-ROMsandDVDs . Evaluating CD-ROMs

113

' Computer-basedtesting ' Electronicportfolios . Interactivewhiteboards

10 Producing electronic materials ' . . .

126

What are electronic materials? Creating electronic materialsonline What is an authoring tool? Using authoring tools to produce materials

1 1 e - l e a r ni n go:n l i n ete a ch i n ga n dtr aining . . . .

136

What is e-learning? Teaching and learning online Course designfor online learning: examples Course designfor online learning: considerations ' How to get startedwith online learning . tacher training and online learning ' Discussionlists and online groups

12 Preparing for the future ' ' ' . . '

148

The state of the art How to keep up-to-date Web 2.0 The future of online learning Virtual learning m-learning

TaskFile TaskFileKey Glossary lndex Instructions on usingthe CD-ROM

159 175 183 188 192

lntroduction Technologyis becomingincreasinglyimportant in both our personaland professionallives, and our learnersare using technologymore and more. Yet teachertraining programmes often ignore training in the use of Information and CommunicationsTechnology(ICT), and teachersare often far lessskilled and knowledgeablethan their own studentswhen it comesto using current technology.This book bridgesthat gap by providing clear,nontechnicaldescriptionsof new technologytools,and by showinghow teacherscan usethese new tools in the classroom.As such,it is about the practicalapplicationof technologyto teachinglanguages. has been written for teachers,teachertrainers, How to TeachEnglishwith Technology coursedesignersand directorsof studiesinvolvedin teachingEnglishasa foreignlanguage, The althoughit will alsobe very usefulfor thoseinvolvedin the teachingof other languages. book is for thosewho havelittle or no experienceof ICT tools or how to usethem in the classroom,and alsofor thosewith more experiencein the applicationof ICT to teaching, to new developmentsin who will find freshideasfor using ICT tools,aswell as references the field. Teachertrainersand directorsof studiesmay take the contentsof the book as a guideto areasto coverin implementingICT training with their traineesor staff. The book is organisedinto 12 chapters,with ThskFilesat the end of the book for each chapter,and coversa very broad range of technologicalapplications,from using a word processorto looking at SecondLife. The websitesreferredto in the book wereall live at the time of going to press,but rememberthat websitesdo disappear,and links do break.We havetried to counter this by only choosingreliablewebsitesthat are likely to havea long 'shelflife',both for the book, and in the extensiveWebliography,which is on the CD-ROM at the back of this book. If you are a lessconfident user of technology,we would recommend that you read Chapter I first to getan overviewof the book and to helpyou decidewhich of the subsequent chaptersto focus on. The book is organisedin such a way that simpler technologiesand technologicalapplicationsare coveredfirst, but you may prefer to dip into the chapters which seemmost relevantto your teachingor training situation. While having accessto the Internet as you read the book or look at the CD-ROM is The Webliographyon the CD-ROM providesyou not essential,it certainlyis an advantage. ideasand information. pad to a huge range of content, launch with a you real can hear teachersfrom around the world talking about On the CD-ROM their experienceof usingnew technologyin their teaching.In addition to theserecordings, there are nine video tutorials on using various piecesof software.And you can go on a tour of a dictionary and seea short video of an interactivewhiteboard (IWB) in action in a classroom. Throughout the book we mention proprietorial software programs and operating systemsby name, for example Microsoft Word, Skypeand Blogger.We do this to provide and not becausewe are concreteexamplesof tools that teacherscan usein their classrooms, products. specificallyendorsingthese

We are also aware that referring to PCs (personal computers) but not to Macs (Macintosh computers) will mean some slight differencesfor Mac usersreading this book. For example, Mac userswill often have Firefox or Safari as a browser and not Internet Explorer.PC userscan right click the mouse to shortcut to a context sensitivemenu for an object on the screen,while Mac usersneed to hold down the control (or apple) key and click at the sametime to accessthis function. However,apart from Chapter 2 where we look specificallyat Microsoft Word, Mac userswill find that all the other tools referredto in this book can easilybe used on a Mac. If you are using content such asphotos from the Internet for your worksheets,or plan to use audio or video files from the Internet with your learners,you need to ensure that copyright is respected.The Webliography contains a link to advice on Internet copyright, and it is worth knowing that you can freely use any content which is CreativeCommons licensed. The Glossary on page 183 contains all the information technology terms highlighted in bold within the twelve chapters. Finallp we would welcome feedbackon this book, and to hear about any ICT projects that you implement with your learners- let us know how it went, and what you think! Contact us at www.longman.com/methodology/. Gavin Dudeney Nicky Hockly

in Technology

the classroom

r Technolog;y In language teachlng r Attltudesto technology

r lmplementlngICTIn the classroom r Skllls and equlpmentfor tettlnt started

I

In languageteachlng Technology Technology in language teaching is not new. Indeed, technology has been around in languageteachingfor decades- one might arguefor centuries,if we classifr the blackboard as a form of technology.Thperecorders,languagelaboratories and video havebeen in use sincethe 1960sand 1970s,and are still usedin classroomsaround the world. Computer-basedmaterialsfor languageteaching,often referredto asCALI (Computer AssistedLanguageLearning), appearedin the early 1980s.Early CALL programs typically required learnersto respond to stimuli on the computer screenand to carry out taskssuch as filling in gapped texts, matching sentencehalvesand doing multiple-choice activities. Probably one of the best-known early CALL activities is that of text reconstruction,where an entire text is blanked out and the learner recreatesit by typing in words. For all of these activities the computer then offers the learner feedback,ranging from simply pointing out whether the answer is correct or incorrect to providing more sophisticatedfeedback, such as showing why the learner is mistaken and offering remedial activities. The CALL approach is one that is still found on many published CD-ROMs for languageteaching. As accessto Information and CommunicationsTechnology(ICT) has becomemore widespread,so CALL has moved beyond the use of computer programs to embracethe useofthe Internet and web-basedtools. The term TELI (TechnologyEnhancedLanguage Learning) appearedin the 1990s,in responseto the growing possibilities offered by the Internet and communications technology. Although the use of ICT by language teachers is still not widespread, the use of technology in the classroom is becoming increasingly important, and it will become a normal part of ELT practice in the coming years.There are many reasonsfor this: r Internet access- either in private homes,or at Internet caf6s- is becoming increasinglyavailableto learners. o Youngerlearnersare growing up with technology,and it is a natural and integrated part of their lives.For theselearnersthe use of technology is a way to bring the outside world into the classroom.And some of theseyounger learners will in turn becometeachersthemselves.

Cha pte 1 r

a

English, asan international language,is being used in technologicallymediated contexts. Technology,especiallythe Internet, presentsus with new opportunities for authentic tasksand materials,aswell as accessto a wealth of ready-madeELI materials. The Internet offers excellent opportunities for collaboration and communication betweenlearnerswho are geographicallydispersed. Technologyis offered with published materialssuch as coursebooksand resourcebooks for teachers. Learnersincreasinglyexpectlanguage schoolsto integrate technology into teaching. Technologyoffers new waysfor practising languageand assessingperformance. Technologyis becoming increasingly mobile. It can be used not only in the classroom,lecture hall, computer room or self-access centre,it can also be used at home, on the way to school and in Internet caf€s. Using a range of ICT tools can give learnersexposureto and practice in all of the four main languageskills - spefing, listening, writing and reading.

The contextsin which teachersareworking with technology can vary widelS and the access that teachershaveto computers - the so-calleddigital divide - will affect what we can do with our classesin terms of implementing technology.A gbnerallack of ICT training for teachersalsomeansthat we still havesomeway to go until the normalisation of technology in languageteaching,where the useof technology in teachingbecomesasnatural asthe use ofbooks or pensand paper.

Attltudesto technology Many people are afraid of new technology and, with the increasingpresenceof the Internet and computers,the term technophobe has appearedto refer to those of us who might be wary of thesenew developments.More recently,the term digrtd native has been coined to refer to someonewho grows up using technology,and who thus feelscomfortable and confident with it - typically todayt children. Their parents,on the other hand, tend to be 8

T e c h n o l o giyn t h e c l a s s r o o m

digital immigrants, who havecomelateto the world of technology,if at all. In many cases, teachersare the digital immigrants and our youngerstudentsarethe digital natives. Think about yourself.Where do you stand?How confident do you feel about using the Internet and computers?Although there is a tendencyto call computer userseither technophobesor technogeeks(a term for a technologyenthusiast),the truth is that most of us probablyfall somewherebetweenthe two extremes. A large part of the negativeattitudes teachershave towards technology is usually the result of a lack of conlidence,a lack of facilitiesor a lack of training, resulting in an inability to seethe benefit of using technologiesin the classroom.It is also often the case that teachersmay not be fully in control of their work situations.A teachermay want to use more technologyin their teaching,but the school may not havethe facilities,or, on the other hand, a teachermay be instructedto start using technologyfor which they feel unpreparedor untrained. Here area few of the more negativecommentswe'veheardfrom teachersin schoolswe havevisitedor trained in:

Hereareour responses to thesecomments: I Timetablewhen you are going to usethe computer room well in advance,and use a booking form which coversseveralmonths or a term. Put this booking form on the door of the computer room so that all teachersand learnerscan seewhen the room will be used,and by whom.You can usethe computerroom regularlyfor projectwork (seeChapters4, 5 and 7), or regularself-studywork (seeChapter9).

Cha pte 1 r

This can easilybe timetabled in advance.You might also want to negotiatewith the schoolabout the possibilityof havingone computer in your classroom.Some activitiescan be done using a singlecomputer in the classroom. Somecomputer-basedwork can be done alone,for exampleusing CD-ROMs (seeChapter9), but a lot of ideasfor using technologyand the Internet explored in this book involve pair- and small-group work. The ideal scenariois to haveone computer availableper pair of learners,but many activitiescan alsobe carried out using a singlecomputerwith a whole class,or with small groupsof learners (threeto four) per computer. This is an often-heardremark,and reflectsa very real lack of training in the classroomuseof technologyin ELL When pressed,teachersusuallyadmit that they do in fact know a bit about technology- they usuallyknow how to useemail, a word processingprogram and the Internet. This knowledgeis certainlyenoughto get startedwith using technologyin the classroom,asyou will seein this book. The lack of ICT training in ELI is an issuewhich is slowly being addressedby training bodies,and there are also severalonline teacher developmentgroupsdedicatedto exploringand learningabout the useof technologyin the classroomfor teachersto join (seeChapter I I ). This remark is often true for teacherswho teachyounger adults, or young learners,and who, like the teachermaking comment 3, may havereceivedno training in the use of technology.However,having learnersin the classwho know more about technologythan you do is no bad thing. When startingto use technology in the classroom,teacherscan rely on thesemore technologically knowledgeablelearnersfor help and support. Learnersare usually delighted to be called upon to help out, and to get a chanceto demonstratetheir skills and knowledgein this area. The useof technologyin the classroomdoesnot replaceusing traditional materials such as a black/whiteboard or a coursebook- rather, technology tools are usedto complementand enhanceregularclassroomwork. Imaginethat a unit in the coursebookdealswith animals in danger of extinction. Technologycan be usedto do complementaryactivitiessuchasa data collectionemail project (see Chapter5), or a webqueston animalsin dangerof extinction (seeChapter4) or evento createa podcast on the topic (seeChapter7). The teachercan produce additionalelectronicmaterialsto reviewcoursebookmaterialon the topic, too (seeChapter l0). This dislike and fear of computers is often expressedby teacherswho havehad negativeexperiences with technologyin the past.The bestway to addressthe situation is to make teachersawarethat they already havecertaintechnical skills - they probablyknow how to usea taperecorderin the classroom,for example, and often alreadyusetechnology in their personallives,such as an MP3 player, the Internet or email.In other words,rather than dismissingvery real fears,these needto be acknowledgedand addressed. The technophobicteacherneedsto be encouragedto get startedby implementingsimple,undemandingtechnology with learners.Using a ready-madewebquestfrom the Internet,for example,is a

10

Technology in the classroom

good way to start (seeChapter4). Teachersalsoneedto realisethat technology doesand will break down occasionally,and that it's alwaysgood to havea backup plan that doesn't require the useof technology.Also, providing good training in the useof technologyin the classroomthrough face-to-faceworkshopsor online coursesis key to encouragingthe long-term acceptance and useof technologyby technophobicteachers(seeChapter 11). 7 Making new materialsfrom scratchcan be time-consuming,both for paperbasedclasses and for classes usingtechnology.Teachersneedto collaboratein schoolsand pool resourcesand lessonplans,aswell asusethe technology-based resourcesthat most commercialcoursebooksprovide nowadays.Typically,a coursebookwill haveits own web pageson the publisher'swebsite,a list of recommendedwebsitesto visit for eachunit, a CD-ROM and/or DVD, and occasionallyteachersupport online, in the form of frequentlyaskedquestions (FAQs),or discussionforums.

lmplementing ICTin the classroom As we know teachershavevarying levelsof accessto computers and technology,and teach in all sorts of contextsto all sorts of learners.Here are someof the questionsyou may be askingyourself about using technology in the classroom. How can I use ICT with my classif there is only one computer in the school? Introducing a rota or booking systemfor the computer with your colleagueswill ensure equal use for all the teachersin the school.You will need to use the Internet mainly as a resourcewith your learners,accessing the Internet to download and print out materialsto use offline with classes.Technology-basedactivities you can do by printing off materials include: . usingwebsites(seeChapter3). o Internet-basedprojectwork - especiallywebquestsoffline (seeChapter4). . email keypal projectsusing the teacher'semail account(seeChapter5). . a classblog with learnerspreparingtheir contributionson paperand the teacher typing them into the computer (seeChapter7). . using online referencetools suchasconcordancerson paper (seeChapter8). o electronicallyproducedmaterialsprinted out for learners(seeChapter 10). You can alsojoin freeonline teacherdevelopmentgroups (seeChapter 11). What can I do if mylearners haveverylowlnformation experienceand skills?

Technology (IT)

You need to first find out about your learners'IT skills and degreesof experience,for exampleby meansof a questionnaire,and then start offby usingthe simplesttechnologies in the classroom.For learnerswith zeroor very low IT skills,or literacyissues,a good place to start is with simpleword processingtasks(seeChapter2). Oncelearnersarecomfortable with this, basic email (seeChapter 5) or searchingthe Internet (seeChapter 3) can be introduced.Try to pair up more technicallyexperiencedlearnerswith the absolutenovices

ll

Chapterr

for any lCT-based classwork,so that the more experiencedusershelp the lessexperienced ones. I teach classesof 30+ students. How can I use computers with such large groups? You will need to haveaccessto a minimum number of computers,with no more than four with more than 30 learnersper computer doing small-groupwork online. Largeclasses, students,canbe divided into two groups- while one group is doing online computerroom work, the other group is doing paper-basedwork. The two groups then changeover.You will be ableto implement most of the tools and activitiesdescribedin this book. I'm keen to use ICT in the classroom,but don't know where to start! Could you suggestwhat I try first? If you don't havemuch experienceof ICT, we would suggeststarting with simple tools and projectsin class,suchasusing websites(seeChapter3), or using ready-madematerialsfor languagelearners,such as webquests(seeChapter4). You might alsowant to start using email with your learners,simply for receivingand marking work, or for simple collaborative writing projects(seeChapter5). I don't have much time for material preparation. What chapters in this book would you recommend I read first? UsingICT-basedactivitiesdoesnot meanthat completelynewmaterialsneedto be prepared for every class.The Internet has a wealth of ready-madematerials available- you simply need to know how to find them! First hone your Internet searchand evaluation skills (see suchaswebquests Chapter3), then look for ready-madematerialsto usewith your classes, (seeChapter4) or technology-based courseware(seeChapter9), or usesimple tools that needlittle or no preparation,suchasemail (seeChapter5) or chat (seeChapter6). What types of ICT tools and activitieswouldyou recommend as best foryoung, learners? All of the ICT tools, and many of the activities,discussedin this book are suitable for use with young learners - indeed many of today's young learners are more tech-sawy than their teachers!You might want to askyour young learnerswhat tools they alreadyknow or for example,will alreadybe familiar with use,and start offby usingthose.Many teenagers, email, instant messagingand chat, and perhapsevenwith blogs.For younger learners,you may want to use some of the ready-madematerials and websitesavailableon the Internet for this age group. There are also plenty of webquestson a range of topics availablefor youngerlearners. I'd like to use the Internet to put my learners in touch with learners in other countries. Howcan I do this? SeveralInternet tools provide an excellent way to put learners in contact with learners from other countries and cultures,aswell asproviding them with realistic and motivating opportunitiesto practisetheir English.The simplestway to setup a projectbetweenclasses is via email (seeChapter5) but this canbe extendedinto collaborativeprojectsusingblogs, wikis or even chat (seeChapters 6 and 7). foining an online teacherdevelopment group (seeChapter 11) will makeit easyfor you to contactother teachersaround the world, and to set up thesekinds ofprojects.

t2

Technology in the classroom

My learners need to use the computer room mainly for self-study or research) without a teacher being present. What can they do on their own? There may be times when learners are scheduledto work alone on computers in a selfaccesscentre.Typically,CD-ROMs (seeChapter 9) are provided for theseoccasions.In someschoolsstudentscan accesscontentplacedon a centralschoolservervia an Intranet. However, if the computers are linked to the Internet, learners can also be encouragedto work on Internet-basedprojectsin pairs,suchas: . webquests(seeChapter4). o electronic materialsdevelopedby the teacherespeciallyfor thesestudents (see Chaptert0). o researchfor later presentationto the class,using online dictionariesor other referencetools (seeChapter8). They could alsobe listeningto podcasts,preparingand updating their personalblogs or developinga classwiki (seeChapter7), or evenusingtext chat (seeChapter6).

Skitls and equipmentfor getting started What doesa teacherneedto know to be ableto usetechnologyin the classroom? Well,you don't need to have any specialisttechnical knowledge or skills, much asyou don't need to be a mechanicto know how to drive a car! The basicskillsyou do needto havein placebeforeyou start readingthis book arehow to usea simpleword processingprogram (e.g.Microsoft Word), how to useemail and how to accessand usethe Internet.By readingthis book, and trying out the activitiessuggested with your learners(with plenty of step-by-stephelp provided in the tutorials on the CDROM if you feelyou needit), you shouldbe ableto greatlyincreaseyour ICT skillsset,and to feela lot more confidentabout using technologyin the classroom. You will alsoneedsomeessentialequipmentin order to get the most out of this book, and to start to implement technologywith your learners: r at leastone computer (preferablyone per two students). o an Internet connection. a Printer. ' o an audio card in the computer,and a headset(audio and microphone)for every computer. . basicsoftware(a word processingprogram, a web browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox,Safarior Mozilla, and an email program). As we saw above,teaching contexts and teachers'accessto computers and technology can vary widely.While readingthis book, you'll find plenty of activitieswhich can be done if only one computer is availablein class.However,accessto a computer room to which you can takeyour classwill provide more opportunitiesfor implementingtechnology,for both you and your learners. It is worth bearingin mind that the layout of your computer room will directly affect the tlpes of activitiesyou are able to do with your learners,and how they interact with one anotherand with you. A layout which hascomputersat desksaround the walls,facing 13

Cha pte r

the walls,with a largetable in the centreof the room, allowsthe teacherto walk around and easilyseewhat the learnersareworking on and what they're looking at on the computer monitors (screens).The central area provides an easily accessiblespace wherelearnerscan go when they don't need the computers,and for when we might want to do more communicativegroup work. If the central spaceis reasonablylarge,more movement and activity is possiblein the centreof the room; this will offer up more opportunitiesfor kinaestheticlearners,and the chanceto usegamesand physicalactivitieswith youngerlearnersawayfrom the computer monitors. Of course,few of us are lucky enoughto be ableto choosehow our computerfacilities look, but it may be possiblefor you to makesomesmall changesin the work environment so that it's more comfortableto work in the room, and easierto teachin. It's well worth consideringhow your institution'scomputer room could be made more user-friendlyfor you and your classes.

I h thischopterwehave: it. andsuggested waysof overcoming the causesof technophobia considered and in theclassroom specificteacherdoubtsaboutusingtechnology examined somesolutions. suggested and andteachers' access to computers, lookedat a varietyof EFLteachingcontexts your you with learners. activities can do the types of computer-based discussed thatteachers needin orderto startusing thebasicskiltsandequipment outlined in their teaching. technology

Conclusions r r r r

YoU cAN HEAR THRTE TEACHIFIS T4ILKING ON THE CD.ROM AtsOUT THT,IR USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM.

Wordprocessors in the ctassroom ffiWhy useword processors? mWordprocessingactivitiesfor learners mWordptocessorsfor teachers: u Usingword processors: creatingmaterials considerations

Whyusewordprocessors? In many ways it may seem paradoxical to devote an entire chapter to the use of word processors, when there are so many other more excitingsoftwaretools one could turn to. Yet word processorscan be used in many inventive ways,by both teachersand students. Teacherscan prepare,create,store and sharematerialsfor their classesby using a word processingprogram, and learnerscan usea word processingprogram both in and outside the classroom,to practisewriting skills,grammar and other languagepoints, aswell as to presenttheir work. Also, most teachersand learnersthesedayswill be familiar with the basic functions of a word processingprogram, and know how to create,saveand storedocuments,which makesa program like this a good startingpoint. In this chapterwe assumebasicknowledge of creating and saving documents,and focus on how to use word processingsoftware efficiently and creatively,introducing you to word processingfeatures you may not be awareof, but which are particularlyusefulfor both languageteachersand learners. We will be focusingon MicrosoftWord. Although not everyoneusesMicrosoftWord,it is currentlythe most ubiquitousof word processingpackages, with an estimated300million usersworldwide at the time of writing. However,the processes and tools we discussin this chapterwill be similar in other word processingsoftwarepackages,likeOpenOffice. A lot of the activitieswe will be examining here envisageone or two learnersto a computer,but with somethought they can be adaptedto the single-computerclassroom, or assignedashomework if your learnershaveaccessto computersat home.

Wordprocessorsfor teachers:creatingmaterials As a teacher,you may alreadyuse a word processingprogram to prepareworksheetsand materialsfor your learners.You may also use one for correcting,editing and providing feedbackon your learners'digitallysubmittedwritten work. In this section,we will look at both of thesetwo 'teacher'usesof word processors.

lnsertingimogesand links Two of the things you will probably want to do when creating materialsare to incorporate

l5

Chapter2

imagesinto your worksheetsto brighten them up, and to include links to websiteswhich your studentscan go to for further researchor practice. Imagescan be incorporated from your own computer (if you havea collection of them) or from Internet sources(copyright permitting). To insert an imagewhich is alreadystored on your own computer into a document,click the'Insert' menu, then select'Picture'and finally'From file ...' . You will now be ableto browseyour computer for any picturesyou may have stored on it. To grab an image from the Internet, simply find a page with the image,and right-click on it. A menu will pop up and you should choose'Copy'from the menu,then return to your word processorand pasteit into your documentwhereyou want it to be. The trick with images is knowing how to make them interact with the text you have on your page,flowing the text around your images,rather than havingit.aboveand below, with your picture isolated in the middle. This is called text wrapping. To work with text wrapping you will first need to enablethe picture toolbar: click on'View'then'Toolbars' and finally'Picture'.Now selectyour picture by clicking on it once and look at the picture toolbar.

In the screenshot here we have highlighted the text ln LirE fftiithText wrapping option. With your picture selected,click on the'Tight'option and watch how the text redistributes itself around the image. Now you will be able to drag the picture around your page and put it exactly where you want it to be. Tiy experimenting with the other text wrapping options, too. This screenshotshowsthe tsehhdTiext results of wrapping text around an image, leaving a IUFrontofText small white border around eachelementof the image. Including a web link in a document is simple and TgpfrndBotbm can be accomplishedin a variety of ways.The easiest your website you want way of doing this is to open the 1!$ongh learnersto visit in a browser,and then click once on the addressof that websitein the Address'bar at the top f,ditWrapPoints of the browser.This will selectthe address.Now copy the address(by using Ctrl+C) and then open up your document and pasteit onto the page (by using Ctrl+V). As soon as you hit the spaceor return key, the text you havepastedin will automatically become an activelink. Note that to activatelinks in Word it is customary to have to hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on them.

Creotingforms A form is a Word document which has interactive elementsin it, resembling closely the kinds of simple exercisesyou might find on the Internet. These elementscan include (among others) drop-down menus for making choices,text entry fieldswhereyour learners can n?e in text, and buttons to selectone of a setof choices. 16,

Word processors i n l he ctassroom

Look at the readingexercisebelow composedof a short text and a form featuring questionsfor learnersto answer.When this is done by learnersin Word, comprehension the form is lockedbeforehandand becomesinteractive,allowingthem to click on answer choices(questionsI and 6), type answersin (questions3 and 5) or selectfrom a dropabove answers(questions2,4 and 7). Oncethe form in the exercise down list of suggested is'locked',eachlearnercan readthe text and do the exercise. Barcelona- An Introduction placelocated Barcelona, the second[argestcity in Spain,is a modernand cosmopolitan on the nofth-eastcoastof Spain.Todayalmost4.5 millionpeoplelive in the Barcelona area. metropolitan southof the Pyrenees mountainrange,and lies at an Thecity is 16okilometres hasa weatthof altitudeof 4 metresabovesea leve[.TheareaaroundBarcelona attractionsincludingthe laid-backresorttownson the CostaBrava,northof the city towardsthe Frenchborder. location, is a typicalMediterranean city,not only due to its geographical Barcelona influences. Therearetwo officiallanguages its history and cultural but also becauseof generallyspokenin all of Catalonia, and Castilian Catatan, spokenin Barcetona: Spanish. viewsoverthe city and the coast[inefrom the hitlsof Tlbidabo Getspectacutar Gothic, Wanderthe otd streetsfor plentyof examplesof Romanesque, and Montjuich. Discover moreaboutone of Spain'smost and Modernistarchitecture. Renaissance AntoniGaudf. famousarchitects: museums, art galleries(withsignificant Barcelona also has a lot of interesting restaurants whereyou cantuck into by Picassoand Mi16),theatresand collections typicalCatalanand Spanishdishes.At night,enjoysomeof the trendiestnightclubsand discosin Europe. totatling4.2 kilometresof goldensands.They Thereare six beachesin Barcelona, for peopleto enjoya pleasantand safeday havealt the facilitiesand servicesnecessary at the beach. Now answerthe questions: NAME: r) Wherein Spainis Barcelona? D in the south-west tr in the north-east tr in the south-east z) Howmanypeoplelive in the city? chooseone ... l) Whichmountainrangeis nearestto Barcelona? chooseone ... spokenin Barcelona? What arethe two mostcommonlanguages +) chooseone ... architect: 5) Namea famousBarcelona 6) Howmanybeachesare therein Barcelona? fl three E four E five I six Z) How longare the beaches,in total? chooseone ... Now print this out and give it to your teacher,or send it by email. t7

Chapter2

ilAilE:

N

1) Wherein Spainls Barcelona? I tre souhwest I Uenorttr-east | $e southeast 2) Hor manypeopletivein thecity?

n murnuin range isnearest toBarcelona? $ VUhictr

ru languagec spohninBarcelona? { li{hatare0ntwom6 cammon

omBrrcelonaarciltecf

rac,hes alelhec in hrcelonr?

Ithr*

ltur

Ifiw

Isix

inlobl? fl Howloryarelhebeaciea,

n llowpriril0risoutandgiveit toyowteacher, orsendit byemail

In this secondversion abovethe form is activated.Note that the form doesnot automafically checkthe answers.For more information on how this softwaretool works, seethe Microsoft Office website, and the section dealing with forms (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ assistance/HP 05230270 1033.aspx). To get startedwith adding forms to your documents,you will needto displaythe'Forms' toolbar in Word. Click on 'View',then 'Toolbars'and finally'Forms'. You will now seea new toolbar which will allow you to add various interactive choicesto your page.

Let'slook at the more useful of theseelements. I Adding a text box to your form: Typeyour question,then hit Enter and click on the'Text Form Field'icon.You will seethat it createsa small text box. Click on it, then click the'Format'icon (fourth icon in the Forms toolbar). From here you can format what the text box doesand the sort of input it expects. 2 Adding a check box to your form: Typeyour question,then hit Enter and click on the'Check Box Form Field'icon.

l8

Word processorsin the classroom

You will seea checkbox appear.Type your first answernext to this. Now pressthe Tab key and repeatfor asmany answersasyou need. 3 Adding a drop-down menu to your form: Typeyour question,then hit Enter and click on the'Drop-down Form Field'icon. Double-clickthe newly-createddrop-down, and usethe'Drop-down item'box to add eachindividual choiceyou want to offer your learners.After you type each choice,click the Add'button. When you finish, click'OK'to activateyour dropdown. Theseare the basic elements.When you have finished with your form, be sure to click on the'Lock'icon to lock the form and activateit. This is the last icon on the Forms toolbar. Forms can be very useful for making collections of basic exercises,and are a solid introduction to the more complex area of making web-basedinteractive materials (see Chapter 8). The advantageof creating activities using Forms is that it is simple. The disadvantageis that you cannot build in feedbackto your students.

UsingTrackChonges Word comeswith certain 'document tracking' or'versioning' tools built in. Thesetools allow documents to be sharedamong a group of users,with eachuser'schangesand edits highlighted in a different colour and identified by their initials (or by the username usedto install the word processororiginally). When a document hasbeen edited using thesetools, any changesmade by the secondwriter (format changes,word order, deletions, inserted comments,and so on) will be highlighted for the original author to see.The original author can then chooseto acceptor reject eachsuggestedchange. Tcachsns and Tcchnologf I Thecort$(ts in whichtcachem{gS-U!l_t?-ct'@gfl_g?!t-_".ery_S{9[._qlC--tt_r-e__qc_ggf_s._tla.4::.-.. teachffi haveio compute€(th€secallid 'digitaldivide')will afiectvrh.t th€y crn do sith th€ir dasss io tms of implementingt€chnology.Some teachoraare lucky €noughto hava comFlts6 in sach cla$room, or accassto a fully equippadcomFisr room rdth lntemot rcces- OtheiteachgBmakedowih onecomputerin a school,enderrsticIntam€taccffis.

I rhe ffiffiDE@939{i!*__hl.Ctv-.rtpI(.!tt__"_Cry_qt&FI'!__sS$'t'SC...l'!ti_.V-ar-yi_'tg-.+-e?FF_.tgt -.-. computeB rnd technology - us d'3cdbe their conten8 ard mako aom€ suggestions for the knds of technologyiaaed ac*ivities mh teacber can do with her leemera.

r,

inc lowresource environment withonlyonecomputer in herschool. Shedoesnot Fellaworks Iiidi cdi'iiiaiHhiifi. Hd-hiii;ild-6i6ifd hiii'-e-djlfti.-Aftfiiii'ifr' 'id-E6ii!-ri'iftAt-i th€r6 ara Intsmgt cafds in the towfl, th€!, tend to bs too erpenrive br leamars to us6 regulady, Della's laama.s hav6 very low lT skilla and atpod€nc€. The oD€ cofiiputs itt th€ school is

fetlia;'iV1i6i'is'ii;rd-5t-d,he?-iaai;fiati; inifih'C tiitiii-dfiftttAtld'i'"th6iii.;fr'J6'i;'i'tf po*€rcuts-Thecomputer isconnected to a prifiterdieble,withfrequent Suoor.doos: Dolla wifl n€€d to use the Intsm€t mainlv as a r€Eourcs wiih her I acceggins th€ T'it?-rilf td d6fiit#a';i'iA-Ffrif dut'niadiiE'id'irir66ffiiiui iitli'frii'

Introducing a rotaor booldngsysternbr ths comFrt€r$th he. collsegu€sryillen3ureoquslu3o tor dl the teechers.T€cnnobgy+as€dactivitiesthat oolie can do ryithher learnersby pfldinS offmateddeinclude:

A documentfeaturing TrackChanges

l9

Chapter2

In the screenshoton page 19 you'll seepart of a document sent to a colleague,who turned on TiackChangesand made some suggestions. Notice how we can add comments to various parts of the text, deleteand changesections,and format the text as well. When the documentis returned,the writer can seethe suggestions and decidewhetherthey want to incorporatethem or not. You can turn thesetools on in Word on a document-by-documentbasisby opening a document,then clicking'Tools- TiackChanges'. Teacherscan use TiackChangesto provide feedbackon a learner'swritten work. The learner'stext can be correctedby the teacherusing TrackChanges, or comments added suggestinghow the learner might improve their own work. TrackChangesalso offers possibilitiesin terms of peer review and correction of written work. A basic use of TrackChangesin Word might look like this: o LearnerA finishesher documentand sendsit to LearnerB. o Learner B turns on TrackChanges,edits the document and returns it. r LearnerA editsthe document,acceptingor rejectingLearnerB'ssuggestions. o LearnerA sendsthe documentto her teacher. o The teacherturns on TrackChanges, editsthe document and sendsit back. o LearnerA examinesher teacher'ssuggestionsand makesa final edit.

UsingMorkin This is anotherWindows program that aids the correction of word processedwork from learners.It comeswith a seriesof tools for marking up grammar mistakes,spellingerrors, word order and other common errors)usinga seriesof abbreviationswhich will be familiar to most teachers('sp'for spelling,for example)and different colours for different tlpes of errors. Once the teacher has finished correcting a text, it can be returned as a word processeddocument, or uploaded to a web serverasa webpage.It can evenbe mailed from within the program itself. In many ways, then, Markin can replace the TrackChangestool we looked at above. Experimentation with both options will help you to decide which is best for you. It's worth bearingin mind that Markin wasdevelopedby teachers,and is thereforeboth more teacher-friendly,and more suitable for teachingpurposes,than TiackChanges,which is an all-purposetool. The advantageof TiackChangesis obviouslythat it is built in, and does not cost anything. Markin costs!20 at the time of writing (http://www.cict.co.uk/software/ markin/index.htm).

Wordprocessingactlvltiesfor learners As we suggestedabove,most learnersthesedayswill be familiar with using a word processing program for simple tasks like writing, saving and storing documents. However, before experimenting with word processors,you will need to check that your learnershave some basicword processingand file managementskills. It is a fact of life that many people who work with computers sometimes forget where they are saving documents, what they call them, and so on. It is particularlyimportant when usingword processorsfor teachingthat certain systemsare implemented - and skills taught - that make life easierfor everybody. You may find that your students already have theseskills, but it is worth checking before 20

Wordorocessors in the classroom

you start working regularly with computers. Below are a few simple word processingtips worth bearingin mind and sharingwith your learners: r Encourageyour studentsto savetheir documents in a consistentway, naming them with their own name and a descriptionof what the documentcontains,e.g. JoanAndres- Letterof Complaint.doc.In this way both your learnersand you will be able to find their work more efficiently. r With the price of external USB pen drives falling rapidly, it is advisablefor learnersto keep a copy of their work on one for themselves,so that your copy at work is the master copy,but another is stored safelyoff-site. o Make sure that you checkwith whoever looks after your centre'scomputers- if you are lucky enough to havesuch a facility - that files are not deletedon a daily basis.Plentyof good work hasbeenlost this way. . Be preparedto deal with some computing terminology: hard drive, c drive, printer, word processor,stve,print.Before eachintroductory class,try to identifr the computer-relatedvocabulary that is likely to occur, and make sure that your studentsunderstand it.

Using word processorsfor creativewriting Word processorslend themselveswell to creativewriting both in and outside the classroom. As we have seen,learnerscan work together with documents that can be exchangedeasily betweenpairs or groupsof learners,and betweenlearnersand teachers,encouragingboth teachercorrections,and peercorrectionand revision. Word processorsalso include dictionary,grammar and thesaurustools. Putting your cursor over the word happy for example,and then clicking on the 'Thesaurus'option (in Word, this is found in Tools- Language)will open up a sidepanel with a rangeof synonyms for happy content,pleased,glad, cheerful,and so on. There is some debateon the wisdom of using thesetools.The argumentis sometimesmadethat they encouragesloppywriting and give learnerstoo much support in the writing processitself. A similar criticism is levelled at the spell-check option found in word processing programs.Our opinion is very much that it dependson the focusof the task and the level of the learners.Using the thesaurusoption, for example,doesseemto havethe potential of broadening a learner'svocabularS although the teachermay then need to addressarising issuesof meaning and use.In the exampleabove,there is a differencebetweenthe meaning of content and cheerfulas synonyms for happy. For more on electronic dictionaries and seeChapter8. thesauruses, If your learnersare engagedin any kind of creativewriting, then spell-checkerswould seemto be of help in the sameway that we often encouragethe use of dictionaries, and professional people and other writers will use these tools as a matter of course in their day-to-day work. In these circumstancesit would seemrather pointless (not to mention frustrating) to deny our learnersaccessto thesetools. Using the spell-checkeron a piece of written work can make a learner more aware of errors, and provide a chancefor selfcorrection. When using a spell-checker,learners need to ensure that they have set the languageproperly for exampleto American or British English. If your learnersare working with word processorsto practiselanguageand structures, the spell-checkermight bestbe turned off- at leastfor the first attempt at any exercise.Peer correction can be a more valuabletool in thesetypes of activities. 2l

Ch ap terz

It is worth pointing out theseeditingtoolsto your learners, highlightingwaysof using them properly,much aswe do learnertrainingwith dictionariesand other languagetools, and then establishing rulesfor their usein your own classroomsetting.One thing that we would recommenddisablingis the grammarchecker, which is perhapsthe leastreliableof thesetypesof tool. You can do this by clicking'Tools'then'Options'and highlightingthe 'Spelling& Grammar'taband disabling'Check grammarasyou typel Thebasicadvantage word processors of using in writing activitiesis the abilityto model texts,sharetexts,producethem collaboratively and engagein peerand teachereditingon a more interactivelevel.Word processing activitieswill put the emphasison the processof writing ratherthan on the final written product,for example,brainstorming,note-taking and revising,all of which makesfor a more creativeuseof language.

Usingwordprocessorsfor languagepractice Word processors arenot only capableof enhancingwriting skills,but canalsobe excellent tools for introducingor practisinglanguage.The ability to move words and chunksof text around the pageeasilycan guide learnerstowardsa deeperunderstandingof how the language works.The abilityto undo and redomovesand editsmeansthat experimentation is easierand lesstime-consuming.When used in conjunctionwith grammar exercises, word processors can activate'noticing'skills,increasingawareness of languagestructures and encouraging learnersto playwith the language. Many of the activitieswe do with pen and paper can work equallywell on a word processor- filling in blanks,sentencereordering,addingtitles to paragraphs, and so on. They also work well on another level,coveringbasictext manipulation skills.In this way, the useof word processorsin our teachingnot only servesas an aid to languagepractice or for the improvementof writing skills,but alsoteachesour learnersvaluableICT skills which will carrythrough into other areasof their lives. Below are two examplesof activitieswhich require text manipulationand editing in a word processingprogram. The first is a samplelistening activity.The teachertakes Samplelistening activity Put the following conversationin order,then listen and check JoHN:Hey!Lookwho'sherelltt beena white! MIKE: loHN: MIKE: joHN:

MIKE: J O H N: MIKE: IOHN: MIKE: JOHN; MIKE:

22

Yeah,long time no see. Working,mostly. Sameold stuff- you know - the book. It does!Howaboutyou? Whathaveyou beendoing with yourself? Alt this time?Whaton? Not too bad.Onemore chapterto go. How'sit going? Great- must feet good to be nearlydone. Alrightfor some! Theusua[- just takingit easy...

Wordprocessors in the classroom

any listeningdialoguefrom the coursebook(or another source)and types it into a word processed document.In class,learnersopen the documenton a computer,then selectand drag the sentenceson the right into where they think they might go in the conversation on the left. (The first sentenceof the dialogue is provided.) Learnersthen listen to the conversationto check. This activity doesn'tdeviatesignificantlyfrom the pen-and-papermodel which you might find in a coursebookor in supplementarymaterials,but it doesallow your learners to play with the text more easily,before they listen, and also coverstext selection,and draggingand dropping, rather effectively.Note that this activity can be done in pairs if there are not enough computersto go around, or evenin the singlecomputer classroom with group discussionabout the correctorder beforethe text is reorderedand prior to the listeningphase. Here is a samplegrammar activity,in which one extra word hasbeen addedto a text. The text could be an original text, as below,or a text from the coursebook,to which the teacheraddsextrawords.

Samplegnlmmaractivlty Someof the llnsr ln fiis text haveoneexbawordin them.ldendfyand conectwherentcsssary.Thefir*t oile has beendonefor you. | firstdid visitedBoroughMarketin Londonon a brightspringmorningin busyptace,futlof the peoplefroma richvariety Aprilzoo4.ltt an amazingly - all lumpedtogetherin searchof a fresh andbackgrounds of countries lf you'rea 'foodie'thenthisis the mostbest food,a neweatingexperience. placefor youl organicostrichsteaks,olivesfromSpain,freshfish,farm-made home-made cakesanda varietyof organic vegetables whichalt cheeses, lf you'renot muchof a cook,therearealso lookedandsmeltveryfantastic. plentyof stallssellingtakeaway to foodfromburgersto soups,sandwiches tapas- and a lot more.lf you'venot neverbeento a modernfoodmarket, Boroughis a greatptacefor to start- the onlyworryis howmuchmoney yorlltendup withspending, andhowmuchweightyoumayput on! Building up a collection of worksheetsand activitieslike the ones abovewill allow you to give further practice,extra homework or examination preparation materialsto your learners.The advantagethat thesematerialshaveovermany of the other optionswe will be looking at in the courseof this book is that they are generallyvery small files- and so are easilytransportable- and they are also more likely to fit into a wider rangeof computer accesssituations since they do not necessitatean Internet connection or high-powered computersto work.

Furtheroctivities Dictation A simpleword processingactivity to start with is a dictation from the teacher- in this case the opening few lines of a creativewriting narrative.This should be treatedas a standard dictation, and the learnersshould input (type) the text as they listen. Once you have dictatedthe first few lines,try introducing a small round of peer correction,with learners 23

Chapter2

exchangingtexts and making edits to their partner's text, possibly using TiackChanges, before moving on to a final round of teacher-ledcorrection. Once the dictation phasehasbeen completed,learnersreturn to their own documents and have a fixed period of time in which to add to your model narrative opening and to developthe story further, before turning it over once again to their partner. Their partner then hasto read what hasbeen added,make edits and is then given more time to add to the text. This processcontinues until completion, at which point the final product is turned in to the teacherfor correction. There is a lot of activity in this kind of process,from dictation and text modelling, through peer correction, reading, use of narrative structures and sequencingto final text production, and the combination of thesetechniquesand skills can havea significant effect on the quality of your learners'writing. Noticing activity An activitywhich encourages noticing of structuresat lowerlevels,and foryoungerlearners, is for pairs of learnersto produce a short descriptivetext (for exampleof a mystery animal), including the third person-s. Thisanimalis largeand grey.lt livesin Africaand India,and it has largeears and a shorttail. lt eats leavesand grass,and it likesto washin the river.lt remembers everything! Pairsexchangetexts,read the description and guesswhich animal is being described.They then underline and/or highlight all the examplesof the third person -sthey can find, either by using WordArt (in Microsoft Word), or highlighting the -s in a different colour, font or size.They can also be askedto searchthe Internet to add a photo to the highlighted text. Thesefinished, highlighted and illustrated texts are then displayedaround the classroom. An Elephant! Thisanimalis largeand grey.lt liveSin Africaand India,and it haS largeearsand a shorttait. lt eatSleavesand grass,and it ]ikeSto washin the river.lt remember5 everything! Collaborative writing activity A well-known writing activity is that of the collaborative story, where a story is started (perhapsfrom a prompt such asan evocativeseriesof sounds,or a painting) by one learner or pair, and then passedto subsequentpairs of learners,who add to the story. This works particularly well if learnersare first askedto listen to an evocativepieceof music for two or three minutes, and askedto closetheir eyeswhile they imagine what is happening,asif they were watching a film. In the computer room, after listening to the music and imagining what is happening in the film, pairs can start a story on one computer and then move around to the next computer terminal after a certain period of time (say five minutes) to add to the story on the next computer. The teacher can provide a narrative structure for eachstagein front of the computer - for example: I Describethe sceneand the characters. [changecomputers] 2 What happensfirst in the story? Ichangecomputers] 24

Wordorocessors in the ctassroom

3 What happensasa resultof this? Ichangecomputers] 4 What new characterarrivesand what do they do? [changecomputers] 5 How doesthe story end? Ichangecomputers- go back to the story you started] The final version of the story is then read by the pair who started it, for revision and correction, using TrackChanges, or in a copied document which is edited directly.The final editedversionsofthe storiesare then printed out and displayedfor learnersto read. Learnerscan then comparehow many differentstoriesfor the imaginedfilm therewere.

Usingwordprocessorsfor presentingwork One final use of word processorsto consideris that of encouraginglearnersto put their word processeddocumentsinto a presentationpackage,possiblyas part of an ePortfolio of their work. (SeeChapter9 for more on electronicportfolios.) As we have seen,word processorsfacilitate correction and redrafting, and easethe pressureto produce'goodcopy'in the finalisedpiece.They alsoencouragelearnersto take more pride in their written work, often with surprisingresultsfor thoseteachersusedto encounteringmotivationaldiffrcultieswhen trying to get studentsto write. Enhancing produced documents with images and photographs from the Internet (takinginto accountcopyrightissues)can alsohelp to increasethe time and effort put into the writing processby learners. Specificpiecesof work can easilybe transferredfrom word processedformat to a presentationformat like Microsoft PowerPointfor public presentations, or addedasfilesto students'webpagesor blogs (seeChapter7). Once learnershavea final pieceof finishedwork as a word processeddocument,they can be encouragedto keepdocumentstogetherin files on a USB pen drive or diskette(as well as on their own computer if they haveone) as a portfolio of work produced during a course.This can then form part of their electronicportfolio, a format that is becoming increasinglyimportant for learnersin a mobile working and learningenvironment.

Usingwordprocessorss considerations There are some potential downsidesto using word processors- not the leastof which is working with mixed technologicalability classes wheretyping skills(or lack of them) may play a largepart in performanceanxietyand in the paceat which activitiesare carriedout. Someattentionmust be paid to not putting too much pressureon your learnersto perform too quickly. Youshouldalsonot expectgreatsuccess with thesecyclesofrevision and peercorrection if your learnersare not used to doing such activitiesawayfrom the computers.In short, trying to introducetoo much too quickly into your word processingclasses may ultimately makethem more challengingthan they should be, and frustratingfor your learners. Startingwith simple activities,suchasthe oneswe looked at in the first sectionof this chapter,and gettingyour learnersusedto the mechanicsof word processingbeforemoving

25

Chapter z

on to the more creativeside,will help with this process,aswill a good grounding in the writing processin the more traditional fashion. More ideas for exploiting word processorsin the classroomcan be found at the following addresses: . http://edvista.com/claire/wp.html o http://www.geocities.com/vance-stevens/wordproc.htm

have: Concluglons I h thtschapterwe r considered inourteaching. whyweshould usewordprocessors r lookedat howteacherscanworkwith word processorsfor materialscreation.

wordprocessing images andlinks,creating examined specific toolssuchasinserting formsandusingTrackChanges. canworkwithwordprocessors, for creative writing,language lookedat howlearners workandpresentation of work. activities. considered somesamplewordprocessing

26

Usingwebsites r UslngwebsltesIn the slassroom r ELTwebsltesor authentlc websltes?

r Plannlnglessonsuslng the lnternet

r How..toflnd usefulwebsltes

r Webteachlngdosand don'ts

r Worklngwlth lower levels of languageprcflclency

r Howto evaluatewebsltes

Uslngwebsltesin the classroom In this chapter we look at the basic skillset needed for effective use of the Internet with 'your students and take a closer look at the processfor introducing the Internet into your teaching. Using websites is one of the easiestand least stressfirlways of getting started with technology in the classroom. There is a large and constantly expanding collection of resourceson the web, at a variety of levels and covering an amazing aftay of topics. You can choosefrom authentic (written for Internet surfers in general)sourcesor Ell-specific sites(made by, and for, teachers),monolingual or multilingual sites,siteswith multimedia, or just simple text, for those on slower connections. The web is a source of content which can be used as a window on the wider world outside your class,and is - of course- a readily availablecollection of authentic material. As such, it is a much larger repository of content than would previously havebeen readily availableto you and your students. Perhapsone of the besttips we can giveyou at this point is to work asa team with other teachersin your centre.Everybodyhastheir favourite websites,and plenty of teacherswill, at some point, have used websitesin class,or taken material from the web and adapted it for teaching purposes.Thke the time to share sourcesof content with other teachersand organiseregular get-togetherswhere you sit down and discusswhat you have found on the Internet and how you have used it in class.Collaboration like this can help to reduce the time you spend searchingfor good materialsand the time spent preparing activities or making worksheets.fust as the Internet is becoming more of a collaborative medium, so should your use of it in your teaching. The technology needed to use the Internet for teaching is relatively limited and the chancesof something going wrong are greatly reduced over.more complex technology approachessuch as attempting to carry out live chat or video-conferencingsessions. Another advantageof this tool is that you don't necessarilyhave to rely on a constant Internet connection if you bear in mind that it is possibleto savelocal copiesof websiteson

27

Chapter3

your computer,or print out potentiallyusefulpagesfor later use.Indeed,you can useweb pagesin the classroomin a variety of ways: . as printed pages,with no computers. Although printing is not necessarily the cheapestoption, it is certainlya viableone in placeswheretheremay be limited accessto the Internet.Indeed,a lot of activitiesusingweb pageswill only necessitatethe printing of one or two pages,which can subsequentlybe photocopied. . with one computer with an Internet connection. This can be enhancedby connecting the computer to a data projector or evenan interactivewhiteboard, allowing for greatervisibility in class,but it is also possibleto make useof a single computer on its own connectedto the Internet for reference. . in a computer lab with a set of networked and connected computers. If you're lucky enoughto be in this kind of situation,then you are ideallyplacedto incorporate Internet content into your regular teaching. It's important that both you and your learnersseethe use of the Internet as an intrinsic part of the learningprocess,rather than asan occasionalactivity which hasnothing to do with their regular study programme. We would therefore recommend that, if you plan to use the Internet, you should talk to your learners and explore the reasonsfor using this resourcewith them. This can be done at lower levelsin their own languageor in English with higher-levelclasses. You will need to talk to your learnersabout why Internet content may be useful to them and discusstheir attitudes to technology in general- when they usecomputers,and what for. Show them how the coursebookand other materialscan be enhancedby extra materialfrom the Internet,but aboveall, make it clearthat this is not a toy, not something that you are just using to fill in the time. With some learnersthere may be some resistanceto regular computer use in, the classroom.We have often found, for example,that professionalpeople view computers as work tools rather than asresourcesfor learning.It is vital that they appreciatethat this is a useful, as well as an entertaining, tool in the classroomand that it can contribute to their languagedevelopment in a variety of ways,for exampleby giving them the opportunity to build vocabulary or improve their listening skills. Lower-levelclassescan be engagedwith visual and multimedia materials,the useof songsand other video materials.,

ELTwebsitesor authenticwebsites? Your choice of website will depend largely on what you want to achievewith it. Many teacherstend to steerclear of authentic websites,and by this we mean any site not created with the languagelearnerin mind, believingthat their studentswill find them too difficult. But, aswith all authenticmaterials,the level and languagechallengesposedby thesesites can be largelymitigatedby the type of taskyou expectyour learnersto carry out. A well-designedtask will allow your learnersto deal with authentic sites,guiding them through not only the text, but also the layout and navigation problems that may otherwise impact on their learningexperience. It is also the casethat many learners these days are far more used to working with computer-based text and information than they are to dealing with more traditional,

28

Usingwebsites

paper-basedforms of text, and this familiarity with the conventions of web design can count in your favour when deciding to useauthentic content from the Internet. Of course there are plenty of ELI websiteswhich provide content that your learners can use, for example languagepractice activities they can do on their own. They provide valuable opportunities for more controlled languagework and are often a great help to learnerswho needto brush up on certain aspectsof the languageor to preparefor an exam. Suchsitesare often ideal for homework, accessto the Internet permitting. Authentic sites,on the other hand, can be chosen to fit your learners' interests.This is a key factor in keeping motivation high in your electronic classroom.When evaluating authentic sitesfor possibleincorporation into your teaching,try to find oneswhich havean easystructure and navigation, and with smaller chunks of text per page.Thesewill be more approachableand understandable.Design your tasksto make them achievable,and show your learnershow they can useonline dictionary sitesto help them - if they needthem. Authentic sites also provide an ideal opportunity to work through the issuesof 'total comprehension'that plenty of learnershave to deal with at some point in their studies. They can be guided towards being comfortable with understanding the content of a site and identifring what they needto know or find out without getting boggeddown in having to understand everyword on the screen.

Howto flnd usefulwebsites As already mentioned, the Internet is a vast repository of information and resources,and it is perhaps exactly this range that makes it seem,at first, daunting and unapproachable to most teachers.In the following two sectionswe take a look at how to find and evaluate resourcesfor usein class. The ability to searchthrough Internet content, and quickly and efficiently find suitable resourcesis perhapsthe most underrated, and yet most useful,skill that both teachersand learnerscan acquire. For teachers,having good searchskills meansfinding useful resourcesquickly, speeding up lessonplanning and facilitatingweb use in class.For learners,it meansbeing able to quickly accomplishweb-basedtasks,thus ensuring that the technology enhancesthe learning experiencerather than impeding it. It makessense,then, both to acquirethese skills, and to spend some time sharing them with your learners. There are three basic ways of searchingon the Internet, and we will briefly describe them below, and look at waysof making searchesmore targetedand ef6cient.

Searchengines Although there is a largevariety of searchengines,perhapsthe most well-known is Google (www.google.com),which currently indexesover twelve billion web pages. A searchengine is almost directly analogousto a telephonedirectory, or any other databaseof storedinformation. You searchfor a name or a title, and the directory givesyou more information about that entry. But with over twelve billion pagesto choosefrom, it's not quite as easyto use asa phone directory. So how do you find exactlywhat you want? The answercomes in knowing what kind of information Google actually has on each web page that it indexes.What Google knows about a page is generally the page address on the web, the pagetitle, when it was last updated and a few keywordsassociatedwith the

29

Chapter3

content itself. Thesekeywords are defined by the designerof the page,and can reasonably be expectedto accurately reflect the content of the page.The key to good searchingin Google is to define your keywordsproperly. Sayyou havea classproject on the history of the Olympic Gamesand you want to focus on the Barcelonagameswhich took place in 1992.This means that instead of searching for olympicgames,youshould try something more specific:Barcelonaolympicgames1992. In this example, more is less:the more keywords you put into the searchbox, the fewer pageresultsyou will get.Olympic garnesgives30,500,000pages,whereasBarcelonaolympic games1992 gives619,000 and Barcelonaolympic games1992 10000meterswomen'sgold medal winner gives738 - with the name of the winner (Derartu Tulu - result two) clearly visible in the top few results. A

(rOqgl9

r

wsbsVlE!

F'-rmq*w'- rrffi

!m#

n dJir h h. IOO mh LFil JndrEs sl.., Ih. l$:I otrtPlc M Yqff h Fld ||dl a h... Std tu h G&s h 8.rdm, .*.cditsdc-dF{dr1tu-nd.4?}-!gE!g!-Shlere rffi

ffi th. 6d Ettklir e{!-re Fir.drffi

b* r t|d - 2* - 9r$4

G..8....

;dt OElc - gllglCg!!

tE fre endomdia trad( *nt Lorc-dslar - VJikiHh. n. lO000 ffir h h bEd ffi dt d.... Bd Sdi, h gffim, rh lg tofrn r onpb Sld malinhS@ sdb 6 dkFdilruhiMorydidffie_lEr_d'33r - Cglgl-

h. b.tra

.Atudm

md.l

h h

|mhdU.S

dF $94

l@

W

tubn

dyffin

F

ffi

l $. 1992

Offi...

The other techniquewhich you may find useful is to use the'phrase' searchtechnique which involveswrapping part of a phrasein inverted commas,thus ensuring that Google will treat the words not as individual entities, but will actually look for sentenceson web pageswhich contain those words in that particular order. Thus, instead of searchingfor cheaphotel in Rome,which can searchfor any or all of thesewords, in any position and order, on a page,try searchingfor "cheap hotel in Rome" aspart of a phraseyou might expectto find on a web page. To elaborate on our example above, "Barcelona olympics marathon" returns only twelve pages,since the likelihood of thesethree words being on a web page in this exact order is significantly smaller than the chanceof the words being on a pageseparatelyin any position. This technique is particularly useful for finding songlyrics, where searchingfor "I never meant to causeyou trouble" will return 11,800results,with the first result being the lyrics of the Coldplay song,whereasa searchfor Coldplaylyrics will give you accessto 7,640,000 websites,but you will haveto visit eachone to seeif that particular song lyric is there. The ultimate trick with Google is to try to imagine the web pageyou are looking for, and then try to visualisethe content that is on this ideal page.This technique will help you decide on exactlywhat to searchfor.

30

Usingwebsites

In our next example,one learner is doing a project on the singer,Shakira,and needs somebiographicalinformation. Searchingfor Shakiraon Googlereturns43,200,000pages. But how exactly would biographical information be presented on a website?Perhapsa searchfor "Shakira wasborn in" would be more useful,sincethe only possibleinformation which could follow such a phrase would be a location or a date. This searchreturns 266 results,with the first few all leading to biographiesof the singer.

Subjectguides Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) currently claims to index nearly twenty billion pages, and is still the searchvenue of choice for many people who remember when it was the only way of searchingthe Internet. The approach here is slightly different in that Yahoo! was never intended as a keyword searchengine,but rather asa way of browsing titles. Whereas Google might be likened to a telephone directory, a more familiar metaphor for Yahoo! would be that of the library, where usershave a notion of what they are looking for, but not necessarilythe exacttitle. So,in that sense,we are invited to browse,to wander around, rather than directly key in searchterms or words we are interestedin exploring. Yahoo! derivesits description of subject guide from the fact that it divides its content into subject areas,and subdivisions of those areas.Instead of a keyword searchfrom the main page,usersbrowse the section which best reflectstheir interests,and then search. Using Yahoo! to find our biographical information about Shakira, we would access the Yahoo! directory by clicking on the more dropdown list at the top of the Yahoo! main page and chooseDirectory. From there we can browse to Shakira:click on Entertainment, then Music then Artists, and finally searchfor Shakira biography, making sure to select the this categoryoption. What this essentiallymeans is that Yahoo! will only search in 'Entertainment - Music - Artists' rather than in its entire directory. This vields six results, shownbelow,all of which leadto biographiesof the singer. _

IlFIootsEARcH

llbbilre Ssh

lVieolAudo lDlnstory llacs! li,ltr lShoodmlilm,

Otho UEtory Oq{y wlthinEntoddmont> MBic >Adists

O &r!d.srfj! l -tof

r. Mw.com:Shskha€

Fcduirf bloenpht, atdo od vk .o, &'il{o8ds, pholodlqy, 8rd |m fq thrtln. C€l3gory:lAli[B!4ljnceo!:i!|f[e w.mtv,cm,lbands/u,btukl.a/dtirt. jhtnl

a All AboutShakha onllnc E CdirtB Co|lffi, ardo, lydo!, ffi, and bdol UognDht. Catogsyi lrtin Rock and P@ > thlHn lhrkirq-t0.tripod.cm,/

s. Audidonseerch.em:Shekhe .! lmlu&s blogrolht endrme lyricr. Cot6soryr l4{gBoqtil.[e!0:l!|In w. ddtic@llcfft/U6AhdaE.htn

{ AblazlngtyShsl&ec blognpht, CclG, link!, srd tEk OfiG ffi, c€r€guy: Lstin Ftrk ar|d P6 > Shllln w.6Ueiigly.d/shskiro/

isting! fa t|lo L.din dv&

Shaklramedia.com s Off6 Uofnfht, dscogcphy,phol6, vldd, qd mm aldl poplc6 ghltlE. Cdrsory: l4li!3ack3!ilEeq>Shluls w.shlkLgngdacfii/

o. Allshallre.comG lyrica, ffiSp.p.rs, drhhs, Shrldn dctm, Cd€9dy: ldin Rflk erd P@ > ShlklE w.dlshaLiBcff/

intdim,

blognttrt,

filrnognplt,

sd re.

MObffi

tlofr!fit.

Elh$ni kfre-j

Chapter3

It is worth noting that Yahoo!searchresultscan often be more accuratethan Google resultsas they tend to lead searchersto the first pageof a website,rather than dropping them indiscriminatelyinto the middle, wherethe chancesof confusionare higher.

Reallanguagesearches A reallanguagesearchsuchasAsk (www.ask.com)allowsthe userto type simplequestions as searchqueries.Thus our learnerwho is investigatingthe life and times of Shakiratypes somethingalong the lines of WhenwasShakiraborn?insteadof a selectionof appropriate keywords.Note that the website does not actually analyseor indeed understand the questionitseli but rather selectsthe keywordsfrom the query ('when','Shakira','born') and constructsa searchbasedon them. A searchon Ask should give you a resultspagewith the answerto your question at the top (whereAsk hasbeenableto find a direct answer),and links to relevantsitesbelow that. Your choiceof searchfacility will dependon how you like to work, and which siteyou find particularlyattractiveand useful.However,it is worth taking the time to play with all threeand to spendsometime exploringthem with your learners.Learnerscanbenefitfrom an exposureto all three types,as they activatedifferent linguistic and mental processes. Keywordsaregood for exploringword relationshipsand lexicalareas.Subjectsearches help defineand re{ineideasand contexts.A real searchcan provide usefulpracticein question formation. A simpleway of introducing the topic of searchingthe Internet in classis to producea trivia quiz or short'treasurehunt' type activity for your learnersto do. Give them a set of questionsand allow them to useall three searchpagesto find the answers.Make it into a timed quiz, with the first team to finish bringing the activity to an end. Then go over the answersand help them to seehow to improve their searchskills. It is at this point that you can examinewhich searchpagewasusedin eachcase,if it was the appropriatechoice,and work togetheras a group to extrapolategeneralconclusions about searchtechniques. Samplefreassn hunt llse your searchskills to find this Inbrmation: r r r . o .

the nameof the presidentof the WorldBank. the capitalof Scotland. the countrythat won the 1986FIFAWorldCup. the authorof OfMiceandMen. nationalityof the architectof 'La Pedrera. the directorof the movie,Vorfhby Northwest.

In this examplewe can seehow a variety of approacheswould be possible- and how these might lead to a usefuldiscussionon searchskills,aswell as somebasiclanguagework, on question formation, for example.The first searchencouragesthe use of Google and the 'part of a sentence'approachdiscussedabove,with perhapsthe bestsearchterm being" ls thepresidentof the WorldBank",while the secondone might work nicelyasa reallanguage search,with learnerscoming up with the question What'sthecapitalof Scotland? The third

)L

Usingwebsites

searchinvolvesreformulation to be successful,perhaps Wo won the 1986FIFAWorld Cup? Theseare the skills which are the basisof many of the activities you will do on the Internet, so it is worth spending some time refining them and examining them a little more closely. It is also worth consideringspecialistsitesas a sourceof information. Teachyourself and your learnersto think a little more laterally.For example,any queriesrelatedto movies might be better directedto the Internet Movie Database(wwwimdb.com) than a search engine.Similarly,book information can be easilyfound on the Amazon site (wwwamazon. com), and football World Cup information on the FIFA site (www.fifa.com). Variations on this treasurehunt activity include learnersthen making a quiz for another team to do. They must be able to find the answersthemselvesbefore they hand over the task to the other team. Or the whole classcould make a quiz for you, the teacher,to do as homework! This can be a highly motivating task for learners,as they pit themselvesand their Internet skills againstthe teacher's. There are also subject- or media-specificsearchsiteswhich are worth having a quick look at,,though do bear in mind that much of what you find on media searchsites will be subject to copyright, so pleasecheck the terms of use before including anything in any materialsyou might make.You might like to try the following to get started: . http://images.google.com/- Google image search,allows you to searchan enormouscollectionof imagesin various formats.A good placeto start looking for illustrationsfor worksheets,teachingmaterials,projectsor presentations. o http://froogle.google.com/ - Googleshoppingsearch,givesyou accessto comparativeshopping resultsfor products. Usethis to find products you are interestedin, read reviewsand find the best prices. o http://video.search.yahoo.com/ - Yahoo!video searchallowsyou to searcha large databaseof online video material by keyword or category.Ideal if you want to demonstratesomething in a more lively way,for music videos and other multimedia classes. . http://www.altavista.com/video- AltaVista video searchworks in the sameway as the Yahoo!one above,but videos are also classifiedby different formats, allowing for a range of multimedia playersand softwareto be usedto watch them. . http://www.altavista.com/audio/default- AltaVista audio searchgivesyou access to a largeonline collectionof audio files.Particularlygood for searchingfor the popular MP3 format songfiles. . http://search.singingfish.com/sfi^/home.jsp - SingingFish multimedia search, combining both audio and video resultsin one interface.It has a large collection of sources,and you can searchby category,including movies,news,TV sports and a host of others. . http://w.blinkx.com/ - Blinkx TV video searchallows you to searchpopular TV broadcasterslike the BBC and CNN for short video clips on a wide variety of subjects.Again,this is an ideal sourceof newsmaterial. You may alsolike to try one of the meta searchsites.Theseare siteswhich searchmore than one searchengineat the sametime, giving you, for example,the ability to searchYahoo!, Googleand Ask from one singlepage.Examplesinclude:

33

Chapter3

o http://www.dogpile.com/ - Dogpile. o http://www.kartoo.com/ - KartOO. . http://www.mamma.com/ - Mamma. You will, of course,get far more results than if you simply used one single searchengine, but you will also get a senseof balance from a meta searchengine, as the results come from a variety of sourcesusing a variety of searchtechniques.You will tend to get a more rounded view of what is out there on the Internet. Concentrating on the first couple of pagesof resultswill help reducethe potentially overwhelming quantity of data returned. One final hint: wheneveryou visit a searchengine,be sure to click on the help link to what hints and tips the site owners recommend for improving your searchtechniques. see

Howto evaluatewebsltes Having found potentially useful websites,the next step is to evaluate how useful and appropriate they are for the classroom.You will also need to think about the aims and objectivesof your lesson.Does the website you have found fit in with these,and does it enhance and complement the other materials and activities you have planned for the class?Sometimesthe Internet content will be the core of a particular lessonbut at other times it will merely serveas a jumping-off point into something more closelyrelated to a particular coursebooktheme or unit, or be a sourceof extra material to follow up on the core classroomcontent. There are various standard criteria for judging websiteswhich can serveas a starting point for your evaluation: I Accuracy o Who wrote the page?Is this person an expert in the subject matter? Checkqualifications,experience- look for an'about me'link. o Is the pagecontent reliable and factually correct? Cross-referencewith other similar websitesand encyclopedias. 2 Currency o Is the content up-to-date? Check factual information againstother reliable sources. o When was the pagelast updated? Check for information at the bottom/top of the page. 3 Content o Is the site interesting and stimulating? Considerthe content from your learners'pointof view. . Is it attractive and easyto navigate? Check the colour combinations, the logic of the links and visual structure. 4 Functionality o Does the site work well?Are there any broken links? Be sure to checkall pages,and follow all links to all pagesyou intend to use. o Does it use a lot of large files or alternativetechnologies(e.9.FlashX Check how quickly it loads for learners;check sound, video and animation work. 34

Usingwebsites

It may well be that the accuracy and currency criteria, both essentiallyfactual, are not of interest to you if you are working on a purely linguistic level, that is planning a class that exploits the languageof the site, rather than the content itself. On the other hand, accuracyand currency might be the most important criteria if learnersare taking notesand interpreting information in preparation for producing a project. Another thing to bear in mind as a languageteacher will be the linguistic accuracy of the web page.If this is important to you, you will need to add this to your evaluation criteria. This again will depend on the purpose of the site in your lessonplan. This is an areaof contention among teachers,and a subjectthat almost alwayscrops up in technology training sessions.Only you can really decide on the linguistic content of a particular site. Spending lots of time on a site devoted to mobile phone texting languagewith a class preparing to do an examination is probably not in the best interests of the learners,for example. As far as content is concerned,note that criteria such as ease-of-useand interest are taken into account,but you may also want to consider adding a further set of criteria here along the lines of appropriateness.In this subcategoryyou would note which groups or levelsthe site would be suitable for and any problems you foreseewith the site itself. Functionality will be a categorywith consequencesfor all teachers.Not only can it be very frustrating to follow through the content of a site to be met with broken links and missing information, but it can be equally frustrating to wait twenty minutes for a short video to download due to the speed of your connection. Again, careful preparation and investigation in the lessonplanning stagecan go a long way towards making the learners' experienceenjoyableand trouble-free. However you evaluatethe usefulnessof the websitesyou find, make sure that you keep a record ofthe content and addressso that you begin to build up a large stock of evaluated sites.

Planninglessonsusingthe Internet By this stageyou will havefound, evaluatedand decidedon a collection of web pageswhich you want to use as part of your teaching.The next area to consider is how a technologybasedlessonplan will look in comparisonwith the sort of plansyou usuallyproduce.What will the differencesbe?What might go wrong, and how will you deal with it? The first thing, of course,is to plan your sessionwell: visit the websitesyou intend to useand make sureyou know your way around them properly. Try to usesiteswhich appear to have a potentially long 'shelf life' - ones made by large institutions and commercial organisations,rather than personalhomepages,which have a tendencyto come and go with alarming frequenry. Make a note of the particular pagesyou want your learnersto work on - you can use the Favoritesoption in Internet Explorer, or Bookmarks in Firefox to log web addressesfor later use- and make sureyou're familiar with the content.Your ability to answerquestions asthey arisewill add to your confidenceand also inspire confidencein your learners. Planning a web-basedlesson,rather than one where the web content plays an ancillary role, is not intrinsically different from planning a more traditional one.We like to divide a typical web-basedsessioninto three parts (www): warmer, web, what next.

35

Cha pte 3 r

The warmer part of the lessonis the kind of thing we all do as a matter of course, with introductory activities,interest-generating ideas,and so on. This part preparesyour learnersfor what they are going to be doing in the web part of the lesson.Our view is that this part of the lessonis best done in the familiar environmentof the normal classroom. In the web sectionof the lesson,it's important to spendonly asmuch time asyou need working with the computers.We prefer to take learnersto a computer room for this part rather than spendthe entire classin there.This hasthe double advantageof allowing more groupsto usethe room and of keepinglearnersfocusedduring their time there.It is also an opportunity for learnersto stretchtheir legsand providesa changeof pace.On the other hand, moving from the traditional classroomto a computer room doeshavethe potential to disrupt your class,so careful planning of the logistics may be necessary. If you havelimited access to computers,or perhapsonly one computerin the classroom, you canprint off the web-basedmaterialsyou want to usewith your learnersin advance,and simply usea print version.This is, of course,not asexcitingasusingcomputersthemselves, but can bring the Internet into more resource-poorenvironments. Of course,there are certain teaching situations where teachersare obliged to take their learnersto a computer facility for one or more lessonsper week.If you do find yourself in this position,/ou can adaptyour lessonplansto make greateruseof the Internet than we are suggestinghere. You may even choose to incorporate the use of websitesmore consistently into the curriculum of the courseyou are teaching- perhapssubstituting a part of the course materialsyou are using for websites,for examplethe reading texts or the listening material. Howeveryou decideto do this, it must be a transparentprocessfor the learners,and they must be ableto appreciatenot only the thought processes that havegoneinto this decision, but also the relevanceand value of the change.This can be achievedin part by helping learnersto cast a critical eye over the materials they work with in class,and encouraging them to talk about what they like doing and what they don't. It should also be born in mind that your learners will have favourite websites of their own, and it is well worth investigatingwhether thesecan be incorporated into your classroomteaching,partly as a motivator, but also as a link to their lives,interestsand experiencesoutsidethe class.This againwill help them to seethe value of the technology appliedin class. It's worth rememberingthat onceyou put peoplebehind computer monitors, it's easy for them to forget that you are there, and - more importantly - why they are there. So the two vital words here are time and task.Make sure your learnershavea clearly-definedtask to achieveand a clearly-definedtime frame in which to achieveit. Once the group hasgot what you intended from the computers,it's time to move them back to the classroomfor the what next stageof the lesson.This part should dealwith the tasksset for the web part and then proceedwith more familiar follow-up activities to round off the lesson. Movie starsisa samplelessonplan basedon this structure.Youcanusethis asa template for your own planning.It is worth noting that there is nothing intrinsically different from the more traditional coursebookapproachhere- perhapsthe major value of this material is its intrinsic motivational element: real actors being interviewed for a real programme. This, plus the contemporarynature of most websitecontent,makethe web an idealsource of material.

36

U s i n gw e b s i t e s

A lessonplon - Moviestars This is an upper-intermediateto advancedlessonconcentratingon famous movie stars and their livesand work. The languageareascoveredare:askingand answeringquestions, reacting to information, and showing interest. Learners will also explore interview techniques,and waysof interactingon a sociallevel.The classusesthe BBC website,and its sectiondevotedto The Film Programmeon BBC Radio4, which you can seebelow.

Setuday 5.30pn.6pm

*Es=f86= $i#tiffi* Bost of Th€ Film Programme

Qulz:at

Intsvld's Oontact it8

fi/r2lAXF - Eeot of 2005 71/2008- Ftlm Gub: Bullltt 18/2/2008- Geoqe Ooonefl 3/9/2006- Ths Oscars 1##AX)8- &hn Wllltarns 195/2006-Sydnq Poltadt

Warmer Introduce the subjectby talking about learners'favouritemovie starsand their work. At this level,a simple classdiscussionwill work fine, but be preparedto prompt with various subjectareas:favourite movies,recentvisits to the cinema,forthcoming films, best and worst films. and so on.

37

Cha pte3r

Samplewarmer Talkto your partner. r r r r r

Whatkindof filmsdo youlike? Whoareyourfavouriteactors? What's the bestfi[myou'veeverseen? What'sthe worstfitmyou'veeverseen? Whendid youlastgo to thecinema?

Which movie star would they like to interview,giventhe chance,and what would they ask that person?

Web Haveyour learnersvisit the siteand find an actor they areinterestedin - theseareall audio interviews,with no transcripts.Thereis plenty of choice- note that interviewsarearchived by year. Let each learnerchoosean interview to listen to, and ask them to make notes on the main themesdealtwith, and to examinehow the interviewis constructed- how the interactionswerestartedand developed(seetaskbelow). Sampletask sheet Listen to your choseninterview. r Who was interviewed? Who was the interviewer? r What topicswere discussed? r Howdid the interviewer constructthe interview? - introduction - initiatouestions - reactionsto answers - foltow-upquestionsand comments - conclusions r How did the interviewee react? - gettingstarted - answersto questions - additionalinformation - conclusions r Makea note of someof the usefutinterviewexpressions.

Whatnext Give eachlearnera chanceto report backon what they listenedto, who was interviewed and what the main themesof the interview were.What did they find out and what would they haveliked to havefound out, but didn't? Developinga conversationwith someoneis a difficult skill to acquirein another language.Elicit some of the ways they heard the interviewer and intervieweeworking togetherto constructthe dialogue.Write someof the languageand techniquesup on the purpose,and so on. boardand analysestructures,

38

Usingwebsites

There are plenty of follow-up activities to do here,including: . speakingactivity: an interview. Give eachpair a role (famous person or interviewer) and havethem conduct an interview. This could also be recordedor videoed for later languagework. o writing activity:'a day in the life'. This is often seenin UK Sundaynewspapersupplements,where a famous person is interviewed about a day in their life, or a particularly interesting day in the past week. o writing activity: an interview. As for the speakingactivity above,but styled for amagazineor newspaper.This could be done individually, or in pairs - with one writing the questions,the other the answers.This could be presentedasan email interview. o writing activity: a biography. 'A more formal written piece,exploring the life of a famous person.This might involve more researchon the Internet. Working with professionalsat higher levels,you might also like to consider the differences in languageand registerbetweena socialinterview like the one they listened to and a more formal job interview.

Worklngwlth lowerlevelsof languateproficlency One of the most often askedquestions is if it is possibleto work with lower-level classes and the Internet. The simple answer is that it is, of course,feasiblebut that the choice of websiteswill be far more limited than for higher levels. Afamiliarworryforlowerlevels is howmuch of a giventextthe studentswillunderstand. Lower-level learners often feel they have to understand everything and this will lead to problems, if not dealt with beforehand. Choosing the right websitescan go some way towards raising their comfort levels, though you may need to have shorter lessonsthan the higher level one describedabove. Websiteswhich are more suitable for lower levelswill include: . websiteswith simple, clearly presentedtext. o websiteswith non-linguistic data which is easyto interpret (e.g.data in the form of a chart, such as a weather page). o websiteswith visuals- a task can be basedaround the visualsonly. r ELI websites,where the content hasbeen written, edited and preparedwith this audiencein mind.

39

Cha pte 3 r

Borrowedwords This is a low-level lessonconcentratingon different Ianguagesand the words they have contributedto English.The languageareascoveredare countriesand languages. The class usesthe KryssTal:BorrowedWords in Englishwebsite:

Frf T€n S

urourdon. hnaur6.a Sr4rb ad art b bm b4!4o ht I @, Fd d.tury ffib9ur9m&.o_uk

olss

on

The EnglishLanguage Words Borrowedfrom Other Languages ErElish Isngu€qo hss d ffi m@nt of wd€ thst hde b66n bonu^€d (q loarEd) lm oth€r langua96, lhis b a colleti@ ol tsud listino wds lm Jags that heo cortdhn€d wds io Engiish. Fd sm6 lsr€!6q6 lh9 wd list is completo; ld olhd8 (F@h, Grek, Latin, Amtic, Spqnish) diy a ssl*ti6 ,$€d w& i6 (ivs a lh€B @ so marry. us€6 re listed dphsbelicai dds. Oick m a ldtd link bdw to tird a la.Eoo0o. Click tho link lo go to a tado of w& 'n lq mct wds ard lhe origlml lltsel m$ing il €lfrwiato. e i8 a brief BxCeatid

bo.ro^€d ido Engtish lM

ttre many i of l

that lsngue0a.

I I

a cca EE qH r J(!M

!

NoEoB s r l J v w x y e

i

Warmer Ask your learnersif they know of any words in their own language that have come from other languages. Build up a chart on the board.You may need to help with the English versions.

country

Orlginal Odginal language word

Spain

Spaniah

Odginal

paella

lbur country

Your Word English language in your version language

Sweden

9wadish

paella

paella

[apanak maffattJ

Web Put the learnersinto pairs (StudentA and StudentB) and giveeachlearnera copy of the chart opposite.Givethem time on the websiteto completetheir column,leavingthe other column blank for the next phaseof the activity.Note that theywill not only needto identifr the languageand country for the given words, but also find words to go with the given languages or countries. 40

Usingwebsites

Bonowedwordsin English lfse the websiteto completeyour part of the table.

In the npxt phasethey will need to ask their partner questionsto complete the other half of the chart. Go over the questionsthey will need to ask, as in the examples(for Student A) given below: o What languagedoesthe word saunacome from? o What country doesparachutecome from? . Can you tell me a Russianword used in English? Give eachpair some time to ask and answerthe questions,and complete the table. Provide feedbackon a model table on the board and help out with any vocabulary problems which may havearisen.

Whotnext This is an ideal opportunity to do more work with the country and languagevocabulary areascoveredabove.You may also want to brainstorm English words which are currently used in your learners'languages,and build up their collectivevocabulary in this way. An additional follow-up project idea is for learnersto'collect'English words they find in their environment, if they live in a non-English speaking country e.g. English words on TV, or on advertising billboards and signs. These could be added to a poster in the classroom.

Webteachlngdos and don'ts Planning carefully and adopting a structured approach to the way you use websitesin the classroomshould give you the confidence to try out different ways of introducing your learnersto Internet content. Most of the time you will be using websitesto provide your learnerswith knowledge and content which they perhapsdo not know or would normally not have accessto, or to supplement more traditional course materials. This can be highly motivating for them, leading to more languageproduction and a higher stakein the successof the class. It is worth bearing in mind that it is not necessarilythe'all-singing, all-dancing'websites - oneswith a lot of animation, video, audio or other multimedia content - which will be of most interest or use in your classrooms.Don't discount simple text-basedwebsiteswhich might be very beneficial in your own context.Apart from anything else,they are lesslikely to malfunction or causeproblems when you go to usethem. 4l

Cha pte 3 r

However,havingsaidall this, things can and sometimesdo go wrong. To round offthis chapter,here are a few considerationsand some contingency plans: I Wheneveryou usetechnology you should alwayshavea backup plan in place. There might be times when the websitesare down, or the computers crashor, worse still, the electricity goesoff. So be prepared. 2 Use the knowledgeof other teachersand of your learnersto help you with the technical side of the lesson.We often team teachwith lessexperiencedteachers, taking careof the small technical problems which occasionallyarise,and leaving them free to enjoy the technology and to teach.Asking tech-sawy learnersto assisttakesthe pressureoffyou and also givesthem some investment in the successfi.rl outcome of the class. 3 If it's a lessonthat involvesrelatively few web pages,try savingthem to your computerhard disk. From Internet Explorer,choose'File..."SaveAs...' then give the file a name and makesurethe'Web Page,complete'option is selected.This will savethe web pageand all its imagesand you'll be able to open the pageseven if the connection goesdown. You could evengo so far asto print them out. 4 Unlessyou are working on something like an email pen pal exchange,it is rarely conduciveto havelearnersworking alone on computers.Pairsare best,but three to a computer can alsowork fine - just make sure that everyonegetsa turn in the'driving seat'.Pairwork and small-group work will help to encourage oral communicationand break down the'computer asbarrier'effectoften prevalent in technology-basedclasses.For the one computer classroom,use of the computer can be rotated betweensmall groups,with the groups who are not working on the computer occupied with other stagesof the samelesson,for examplepreparing a poster or text. 5 As was mentioned in Chapter 1, try to arrangethe computer room in such a way that you can easilymaintain control over learner activities.An ideal layout is to havethe computers around the outside walls of the class- allowing you to view what is on eachscreenand to help should the need arise- and a central table where learnerscan congregatefor more communicative activities.This table will also serveas a storageplacefor pens,books and dictionaries, and thus help keep the computers free of clutter and easyto use. 6 Not all of the content that you come acrosswith your learnerswill necessarilybe suitable for them. The wonder of the Internet is that it catersfor a wide variety of people,interestsand tastes,so much so that you are almostbound to encounter what you consider to be questionablecontent at some point in your exploration, and the samecan safelybe said of your learners.We have generallyfound an open discussionabout the kind of things the group considersacceptablein class hasbeen enough to put an end to any further unsuitable exploration, but if you work in a context where this is likely to be a bigger issuethen you may need to take more robust stepssuch as installing filtering softwarealong the lines of Net Nanny (www.netnanny.com),which will limit accessto a wide range of content which can be user-specifiedand controlled.

42

Usingwebsites

Bearingin mind all thesesuggestions - andtfing into accountthe successful combination planning position you these evaluating and skills should now be in a to fully of searching, explorethe webwith your learners.

have: Concluslong I h thischopterwe r r r r I

andauthenticwebsites. considered the differencebetweenEFl-related find lookedat howto websitesusingdifferenttypesof searchengine. how considered to evaluatea websitefor classroom use. planning lookedat lesson usingInternetresources, at bothhigherandlowerlevels. provideda list of Internetteachingdosanddon'ts.

43

lnternet-based

proiectwork r WhydoInternet-based profectwork? r Baslcprofects

r lnternet-based slmulatlons r Webquests r Webquest creation

profectwork? tthy do Internet-based A natural progressionfrom using individual web pagesand websitesin the classroomis to move on to online project work. This will be an extensionof the kind of individual-lesson work we have looked at in Chapter 3 and will involve the use of the Internet over a series of lessons.There are many compelling reasonsfor using Internet-based projects in the classroom: I They are a structured way for teachersto begin to incorporate the Internet into the languageclassroom,on both a short-term and a long-term basis.No specialist technical knowledgeis neededeither to produce or to use Internet-basedprojects. However,it is certainly true that they will take time to plan and design,so it is well worth looking around on the Internet to seeif something appropriate alreadyexistsbefore sitting down to createyour own project. 2 More often than not, they are group activities and, as a result,lend themselvesto communication and the sharing of knowledge,two principal goalsof language teaching itself. The useof projects encouragescooperativelearning, and therefore stimulatesinteraction. 3 They can be used simply for languagelearning purposes,but can also be interdisciplinary, allowing for cross-overinto other departments and subject areas.This can often give them a more'real-world'look and feel, and provide greatermotivation for the learner. 4 They encouragecritical thinking skills. Learnersare not required to simply regurgitateinformation they find, but haveto transform that information in order to achievea given task. In the context of doing project work, the Internet can be thought of as an enormous encyclopediabecauseit gives our learners quick accessto a wealth of information which they can useto carry out their project tasks.A good exampleof such a sourceis Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), a collaborative encyclopedia produced by and for the Internet community. Wikipedia hasthousandsof articleson many different subjects,and is an ideal placeto start when doing project work that requiresfactual information about people and

44

proiectwork Internet-based

places.We will be examining Wikipedia and other online referencetools in greaterdetail in Chapter8. Project work online can range from a simple low-level project like making a poster presentation about a famous person to high-level investigative work where learners researcha subjectand presentpolemical views and opinions in a report or debate.In order to prepare for Internet-basedproject work, you will need to do the following: o Choose the project topic Will your learnersbe researchingfamous people,an event or an issue? r Make the task clear What information will they need to find - biographical, factual,views and opinions? o Find the resources Which websiteswill your learnersneed to visit? Do thesewebsitescontain the jnformation they need and are they at the right level?Referback to Chapter 3 for more ideason selectingand evaluatingwebsites. o Decide on the outcome What is the final purpose of the project?For example,will your learnersbe making a poster,a presentationor holding a debate?

Basicprofects A low-levelproject- My fovouriteactor For this project you will need: o three lessonperiods of at least45 minutes each (two if the first lessonis done for homework). . accessto the Internet for the secondand third ofthe three suggested lessons. . word processingsoftwaresuch asMicrosoft Word or OpenOffice. This is a common topic for project work, but our experiencehas been that learnersrarely know more than the basicsabout their favourite actor, pop star or sports personality and certainly not usually enough for a full project. This is where the Internet comes into its own, providing the information they will need to fill the gapsin their knowledge. This particular project aims to provide the opportunity to focuson theselanguageareas: countries,nationalities,dates,places,past tenses,likesand dislikes,and opinions. During the project, learnersresearchtheir favourite actor and preparea poster presentationabout them. This is also an ideal opportunity to tie in some of the skills we have coveredboth in Chapter2 (word processing)and in Chapter3 (searchingand using websites),showing your learnersthe real value of acquiring theseskills.

Firstlesson If you are short of classtime, a good deal of this first lessoncan be done for homework and then finished offwith the collaborative element in the secondlesson.Be careful, however, to emphasisethat what you are looking for at this stageis what they alreadyknow, and that they do not need to go to the Internet for any information at all. 45

Cha pte 4 r

Haveyour Iearnerswrite down the name of their favouriteactor and mind-map what they know about him or her.Usethe following asa guide:

PRIVATE LIFE EIACK GROUND

JOH N NY Ef EPP AWARDS

Once they havewritten down what they knoq havethem make a list of things they don't know, but would like to find out.

Secondlesson This secondlessonrequiresa fair bit of work on the part of you, the teacher.If you think you may be short of time, limit the namesof actorsin the first lessonto a small selection that you havealreadyresearched. Beforethe lessonyou will needto find useful sitesto match the choiceof actorsyour learnersmade.Make sure that they are simple enough for the level,and include as much of the information sought as possible.You can usethe skillsyou acquiredin Chapter3 to accomplishthis. Rememberthat for biographicalinformation you can searchusing a part phrasesuchas"lohnnyDeppwasborn ln". Alternatively,and if your learnersarecomfortable with searchingand dealingwith websites,havethem find their own. In this lesson,your learnerswill visit the identifiedsitesand completetheir mind-map, asfar aspossible. In the next stage,you will need to provide them with a model biography.Check out Wikipedia for examples(e.g.http:i/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lohnny_Depp)and rewrite one exampleto your students'language level.You may decideto do somecomprehensionwork on your model text at this time, working on the structuresand vocabularyareasthat you want them to include in their biographies.

46

proiectwork Internet-based

Third lesson This third lessoninvolvesmaking the final product. By now your learnerswill havecollected all the information they need and will alsohaveseenyour model biography,so they should be in a position to come up with one of their own. One way of doing this is to havethem preparea short text basedon the model from the previous lesson,and then to work this up into a poster (using Microsoft Word or similar) with illustrations and photographs also taken from the Internet. Rememberthat you can usehttp://images.google.comfor relevant images. Pleaserememberthat much of what you find on the Internet will be copyright material, so pleaseensurethat you check that you are able to use the information and imagesyou find. In the education field this is not normally a problem -'fair use'of copyright materials is flexible when it comesto classroomuse and a picture or two from a site such as Google will be acceptableas long as you keep the materials in the classroom or your learners' homesand they are not published anywhere.When in doubt, however,it is best to email the owner of the site you are using to checkthat they do not mind. Their final projects might look somethinglike this: Elementarv !t,lr lt2.t'

AAYFAVOUR]TE ACTOR iAr.JoftnnyD€pp

$ tl * *

HisnameisJohnnyDepp, Heis,f4 yearso$. HeisAmerican. Hewasbornin Kentucky. '1, Heisanactor. * HefivesinFrance. *l Heis marded.

47

Chap te4r

A high-levelproject- Globalwarming This project aims to provide learnerswith the opportunity of examining a seriousissue in depth.You may want to work beforehandon someof the languageareasusefulfor the activity,for examplegiving opinions,agreeingand disagreeing.However,this will depend on the level of your learners.It is ideal for groups at an upper-intermediatelevel and above. Whilethelower-levelprojectwehavejustlookedat isanidealopportunityfordeveloping specificcommunication skills,this project goesdeeperinto a topic and encouragesmore complex thinking and reasoningprocesses. With higher-levelprojectslike this one there is plenty of opportunity for cross-curricularapplications,working with teachersin other departmentswherepossible,and for coveringother areasof the overallsyllabusaboveand beyondthe teachingof English.For this projectyou will need: o threelessonperiodsof at least45 minuteseach. . accessto the Internet for the first and possiblysecondof the threesuggested lessons. r optionally,accessto video recordingequipmentfor the third lesson.

Firstlesson This lessoncan easilybe done in 45 minutes,but learnerswould benefit from more time for their researchinto the topic and for the subsequentdiscussionof their findings,if that time is available. Brainstormwhat your learnersknow about globalwarming. Usethis chart asa starting point:

Evldence for

Evidence agblnst

Globatwanning fountries Fossibteeffects Fossible Involved solutions

B

Now divide them into five groups,one for each topic in the table above.Thke them to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global-warmingas a starting point, and give them time to add to their column. They may alsousetheir own searchskillsto find out more, if there is time. Return to whole classdiscussion,and discussthe contentsof the refinedtable.

Secondlesson This secondlessonwill alsofit into a 45-minute period, but againthe depth and quality of their preparationwill improve if they are given more time. Sincein the third lessonthey will be role-playinga televisiondebate,you might also like to encouragethem to think about how they can enhancethe final product with, for example,the use of props and arrangementof the furniture. 48

proiectwork Internet-based

Divide the classinto four groups,working towards a specialtelevision debateon global warming: o TV debatepresenters. o scientistswho deny that global warming exists,or that it is potentially dangerous. o environmental campaignerswanting to inform the public of the dangers. o TV studio audience. In the third lessonyou will have the actual debate,so now they must prepare their section ofthe debate. o Presenters Decide which areasyou want to cover in the televiseddebate.Who will speak first? How long will they speakfor? Will interruptions and questionsbe permitted and how will you managethem?What questionswill you need to ask?How will you deal with difficult speakers,or members of the public? Will you need any visual aids for vour introduction? r Scientists Look back at what your group discoveredin the'evidence against'column of the global warming table in the last lesson.It's your job to convince the studio audience,and the viewing public, that global warming doesnot really exist,and is certainly not dangerous.Your view is that it is a naturally occurring phenomenon and not man-made. Decide on your arguments,and prepareany visual elements you may need to illustrate your points. o Environrnentalists Look back at what your group discoveredin the'evidence for'and'countries involved'columns of the global warming table in the last lesson.It's your job to convince the studio audience,and the viewing public, that global warming doesexist,and is definitely dangerous.Your view is that it is man-made, and the product of certain countries. Decide on your arguments,and prepare any visual elementsyou may need to illustrate them. r Studio audience You may decideindividually on your views of global warming, basedon what you found out in the last lesson- look back at the global warming table for a reminder. If you decidethat you do not believein global warming, preparea couple of questionsor statementsto support the scientists(evidenceagainst). If you opt to support the environmentalists,prepare a couple of questionsor statementsin their favour. If you adopt a more pragmatic view, that (rather than worrying about the causeand whose fault it is) we should insteadbe looking at waysof dealing with rising global temperatures(possiblesolutions), then prepare a couple of questionsfor that standpoint. Eachgroup should nowprepare their role, doing further researchif necessarSand preparing charts and other visual aids if they will be of help to them.

49

Chapte 4 r

Thirdlesson Hereyour learnerswill havethe actualdebate.If it is possible,simulatea TV studio in your classroomby moving the tablesand chairsaround,creatingspacesfor the four groupsand encouragingyour learnersto decoratethem. If they have props, arrangeeverythingand preparefor the programme. The presenterswill be in chargeof the debate,and ultimately responsiblefor what happens.If you haveaccessto a video camera,you may want to record it for later playback. It can be particularlyvaluablefor examiningthe languageusedin the processand for error correction.A simple home video camerashould suffice,but ensurethat lighting in the room is adequatefor filming, and encourageeveryoneto speakas clearly as possibleto achievegood audio quality.That is more important than the quality of the video.If you're alreadyadeptat video editing,takethe programmehome and add sometitles and music to end up with a polishedproduction. Make surethat the stagesof debatedo not overrun.The worst thing that can happenis that you run out of time to concludethe debateproperly.

Internet-based simulations Internet-basedsimulationsbring real-lifecontextsto the classroom,helping our learners to deal with situationsthat they may come acrossduring foreign travel or in encounters with other speakersof English.The more traditional approachhas teacherscutting up preparedrole-cardsin order to simulatethesecontexts.The Internet largelydoesawaywith this approach,giving learnersaccessto authentic websitesthat provide stimulating and relevantcontent that enablesthem to carry out thesesimulations.Simulationslike these work particularlywell in the field of businessEnglish,where the languagelearning is very task- or goal-oriented,but they alsowork well with generalEnglishlearnerswho may have lessclearlydefinedreasonsfor using English,aswe will seebelow

A businessEnglishsimulation This samplesimulation looks at the caseof a personalassistanthaving to organisetheir manager'sbusinesstrip to the United Kingdom. The benefit of this kind of simulation is that it usesreal websites,and a potentially real situation,to further the learner'sreading, inforrnation processing,planning and communication skills.As an additional benefit, it also addressestechnology skills that are useful in this professionalcontext. Of course,a busyteacheris not going to preparecomplexsimulationssuchasthis on a daily basis,but for occasionalactivitiesthey reallycan bring home not only how usefulthe Internet is for busy professionalpeople,but can also be an important confidencebooster for learners.Working through carefully guided but complex tasks such as these - tasks which havea direct relation to what they do in their work - can reinforce the value of their languageclasses and keepmotivation high. particular In this simulation,we takethe caseof a learnerwho communicatesprimarily in the written form, usingletters,faxesand emails.It is this factorthat influencesthe nature of the tasksin the simulation (seeopposite).

Internet-basedproj ect w ork

Situation Consutting andhasto go to officeof Candlewhite Yourbossworksfor the Barcelona itinerary hasbeenprepared at theendof the month.Themeeting theUnitedKingdom by yourcompanytheadofficein London,but the logisticsof the trip havebeenleft to you.Lookat yourbosst itinerarybelow. travel on time,organising It'syourresponsibility to getyourbossto eachmeeting for eachnight.Foreach suitable accommodation andto arrange ticketsanditineraries, yourbossto getto the meetings on time,anda good transport allowing day,organise she'sa heavysmokerandsheneeds hotelto restin at the endof the day.Remember, websites will helpyou: Internet in herhotelroom.Thefollowing access Accommodation Travel ohttp;//www.hotels-london.co.ulV .http://thetrainline.com ohtt p://www.manchesteronli ne.co.uk/hotels/ ohttp://www.opodo.co.uld rhttp ://www.glasgowguide.co,uklhotels.htmI rhttp:/Aruww.aferry.to/stranraer-ferry.htm . http://belfast. gtahotels.coml r http://www.city-visito htmI r.com/bristoVhotels.

ldnerary- Sralrina Taneias Primary officevisits Date

Moming

Afternoon

Evening

11

10:oo*12:oo Briefing, London office

12:OO-14:OO

19:O0

Lunch,Directors

Dinner, Manchester office

10:O0-13ioO

Briefing,Manchester office

20;o0 16:oo-17:oo Opera Afternoontea, Liverpool Manchester House- RockyHorror branch Show

13

09:3O-11;3O Briefing, Glasgow office

13:oo-15roo Lunch,Glasgowoffice

FREETIME

t4

11:OO-13:OO

TIME FREE

20:oo Dinnermeeting,Bristol office

t2

Briefing,Belfastoffice

Youwill needto find ftights,trainsor ferriesand to work out whichis the best way of gettingfrom meetingto meeting.Notedown pricesand timetables.For checkonlinebookingformsto ensurethat roomsare availabte, accommodation, and also note down the cost.Youmayalso needto emailto ensurelate check-ins, earlycheck-outs and otherspecificssuchas smokingroomsand lnternetaccess. Fill in the chart on page 52 as you get the information.

51

Chap ter4

Date

Moming

Afternoon

Evening

10

Flight:Barcetona-LondonLondonhotel Flightnumber: Hotetname: Address: time: Departure ArrivaItime: Bookingname: Price: Price:

11

Transport: LondonManchest€r Type: Departure time/place: Arrivaltime: Price:

hotel Manchester (z nights) Hotetname: Address; Bookingname: Price:

t2

Transport: ManchesterLiverpool Type: Departure time/place: Arrivaltime: Price:

Transport: Liverpootr Manchester Type: Departure timelplace: Arrivaltime: Price:

13

74

15

Transport: GlasgowBetfast Type: Departure time/place: ArrivaItime: Price: Belfasthotet: Hotelname: Address: Bookingname: Price:

Transport: ManchesterGlasgow Type: Departure time/place: Anivaltime: Price:

Transport:Belfast-Bristol Type: Departure time/place: Arrivaltime: Price: Bristothote[: Hotelname: Address: Bookingname: Price: Transport: Bristot-London Flight:London-Barcetona Ftightnumber: Type: Departure time: Departure timelplace: Arrivaltime: Arrivaltime: Price: Totalcost:

you need,preparea writtenreportfor your Whenyou haveall the information meeting itinerary including all travel,accommodation, boss,detailing thecomplete information. andentertainment

52

l n t e r n e t - b a s epdr o i e c tw o r k

A generolEnglishsimulation As observedabove,simulationsneed to addresspotentialreal-lifesituationsin order to exampleaboveis a clearcaseof this approach, appealto the learner.The business-oriented but how can this kind of activity be preparedfor Iearnersof generalEnglish? The activity abovecould easilybe adaptedfor a more generalcontextby turning it into a holidaybeingplannedby a group of friends,or evena schooltrip. In this context,small traveloptions, groupswould plan an itineraryaround the United Kingdom,researching asan award presented place visited. This might be in things to do each and accommodation more challenging, logistics making the actual with a limited budget, givento the students, but more real.Shortersimulationsarealsopossible,asin this example. Situation As chairperson of the studentcommitteeyou havebeennominatedto presentthe studentawardsthis year.Yourjob is to proposethe prizesto be given,and to arrange Thereare threeprizes: for them to be boughtand delivered. r Beststudent- €3oo prizemoney science. Dumas,r7 - interests:computers, winner:Francine o Bestvolunteer- €z5o prizemoney hiking,travel. winner:PawelKrajka,r5 - interests:the environment, - €2oo prizemoney r Bestsportingachievement winnerrPabloCastro,t5 - interests:extremesports,ctimbing,camping. Yourcommitteehas decidedto buy the prizesonline.Visitthe fotlowingontine shoppingsitesand find threepossibleprizesfor eachperson. o o . o r r r e r .

http:llwww.amazon.co.uk http:l/www.pcworld.co.uk uk http://www.dell.co. http://www.expedia.co.uk http://www.opodo.co.uk http:/lwww.extremepie.com http:/lwww.simplyhike.co.uk http://www.blacks.co.uk http://www.gear'zone.co.uk http://www.ecoshop.com.au

to includea pictureof eachpotentialprize,as well as Completethis chart.Remember the site it is availablefromand the price.

Ferson

Suggestionr

z Suggestion

Suggestion 3

Francine Pawel Pablo Nowwrite a short reportfor the committee,explainingthe threepossiblechoicesfor aboutwhichone you feelshould eachpersonand makinga personalrecommendation be bought.Includeyour chart.

53

Chapter4

Webquests Webquests are mini-projects in which a large percentageof the input and material is supplied from the Internet. Webquestscan be teacher-madeor learner-made,depending on the learning activity the teacher decides on. What makes webquestsdifferent from projects or simulations is the fairly rigid structure they have evolvedover the years,and it is this structure - and the processof implementing webquestsin the classroom- that we will be exploringhere. Bernie Dodge, a Professorof Educational Technology at San Diego State University, was one of the first people to attempt to define and structure this kind of learning activity. According to him, a webquestis 'an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learnersinteract with comesfrom resourceson the Internet'. He goeson to identifr two t)?es of webquest: o Short-term webquests At the end of a short-term webquest,a learner will havegrappled with a significant amount of new information and made senseof it. A short-term webquestmay spreadover a period of a couple of classesor so, and will involve learnersin visiting a selectionof sitesto find information, and using that information in classto achievea set of learning aims. e Longer-termwebquests After completing a longer-term webquest,a learner will have analyseda body of knowledge deeply,transforming it in some way.They will havedemonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that others can respond to, online or offline. This is the big differencebetweenthe longer-term and short-term webquests- learnershaveto transform the information they acquire, turning it into a new product: a report, a presentation,an interview or a survey. Longer-term webquestsmight last a few weeks,or even a term or semester.' Webquestshavenow been around long enough for them to havea clearly-definedstructure. However, this structure, while being unofficially recognisedas the definitive schemafor these activities, should only really be taken as a basic guideline and you should design your webqueststo suit the needs and learning styles of your group. In the example,we will be examining an ELT webquest about responsibleconsumerism. It ls designed for intermediate-levellearners.There are usually four main sectionsto a webquest:

Stept - lntroduction This stageis normally used to introduce the overall theme of the webquest.It involves giving background information on the topic and, in the languagelearning context, often introduces key vocabulary and conceptswhich learnerswill need to understand in order to complete the tasksinvolved. In the exampleopposite,learners areintroducedto the ideaof responsibleconsumerism by consideringvarious scenariosrelevant to their own circumstances.

54

proiectwork lnternet-based

poadoorbF. nay'ta Yq loorl xfduld rair rly.5lcb6 n llJ. yoothd 0ro&p.6 m& &o rldlt clr..F (}rAy.frt fm poario.. *$n D gbLd byot{ttn Urldb tm,lh. oElttnnndp.|d. lh.'sl( 12lil adry. A|trye.t L.bld rd o ffi*|e [pl, lilay of fm s !lc* ard u.$tFy, Q[dw

lrbfr mt lq

ArylO ltp artq?

Stepz -Tosk The task section of the webquestexplainsclearly and preciselywhat the learnerswill have {o do as they work their way through the webquest.The task should obviously be highly motivating and intrinsically interesting for the learners,and should be firmly anchored in a real-life situation. This often involvesthe learnersin a certain amount of role-playwithin a given scenario,as in the example,'Youare a team of investigativereporters'.

TAST

2lirsk

Vd il | lm d hr[tleal$ raotln. Ya nmpapcr ho it malioJ arDldtdiE deiad tcr rb i..f d |mchg c FtrolioaEh lh. wry ltd vd lrMt 1i0h !|!r|' hntd m Yulob h !o Frl!. . Slt of t|c rd hd !ildra.d Jd irlcbd O|e bru.trm, 0d r |tpoi io l$lit ytr lbl.

Step3 - Process The processstageof a webquestguidesthe learnersthrough a set of activities and research tasks,using a set of predefined resources. These resources are predominantly Internet-based, and are usually presented in clickable form, that is, as a set of active links to websiteswithin the task document. It's important to bear in mind that it's much easierto click on a link than to type it in with any degreeof accuracy.

55

Chapter4

lflho Mada lty Tralnoc? How To 8e A Ferponrlbh Consumor PROCE3A OFESOIJFCES Tln D ri. h tlrof,hihry

i. Swey 2,fu-rch 3. Moanash { Url AtuFr G PnrnLlion 7. Odlon|l Fo[of.tbTart

a 3 Process

g

.rd yootluldtolow ttltrl

tafr lnl}lt t{bmrrq m pmild bdn

To 6ndd. Or Ut Elrd loloilr!9 CcG of Et(: l. Th. ndtr (L|dvltrd)

iliIEf

of r awoy a, yoqrdsb

2 A llt oa O(ed noaol( d th ffi b.Hrd Fu [4 (tqD] c||.sdG L PEftdlonof if. A r.kCtrdloo

{

, Fu ril n6d to Frds

ttFftlochrr

th.

rtEpCng h|!e5

ffi md. ffr Gmfi.hlil

npoa rfldng to you

6tqf)

(hdvldd).

)

4 Products In the caseof a language-basedwebquest,as opposed to a purely content-basedone, the processstageof the webquestmay introduce or recyclelexical areasor grammatical points which are essentialto the task. The processstageof the webguestwill usually have one or sometimesseveral'products'which the learners are expectedto present at the end. These 'products'will often form the basisof the evaluation stage.

Step 4 - Evoluation The evaluation stagecan involve learners in self-evaluation,comparing and contrasting what they have produced with other learners,and giving feedbackon what they feel they havelearnt and achieved. It will also involve teacherevaluation, and good webquestswill give guidance to the teacherfor this particular part of the process.SinceBernie Dodge developedhis model in 1995,many educatorshave addedboth to the theory and the practice of webquests,and it is now possibleto find severalgood examplesof them in many different subjectareas.

56

projectwork Internet-based

Who Made My Tralnenr? How To Be A Fcrponalble Conaurner SELF.a'ALIJATION pdGt. Yd!hc.{d Ih nfn toddudryormtdlHr wi. E oo.iFhlo ln Eqibh d &otn 260 - flD !r.rb, fndvhdy) ffifr!DEqFfl6:

E 5 Evaluation

l. lb dso!.ru nU coldbutlon lo lh. lnp E'L? z Ylhd dd I lm.bort lh. lorlo! n Breh.d? prdEl? 3. Horiddmy Endch lmwv.dolrlglhb {. llhra dd I Lrn sbod ulne lh. lnaffpl? t'lrls! | b r!dy,

fiv. mr

lc{qrftdlon

lo }ew tetr,

6

Webquestcreatlon Creating a webquest does not require much detailed technical knowledge. It is relatively easy to produce a professional-looking and workable design using any modern word processor.The skillset for producing a webquestis very similar to what we explored earlier for planning Internet-basedlessons,and might be defined as follows: . Researchskills (seeChapter 3) It is essentialto be able to searchthe Internet and to quickly and accuratelyfind resources.The best searchenginescurrently availableare Google (www.google. com) for wide searchesover a large databaseof websitesand Yahoo! (www.yahoo. com) for a more theme-basedapproach. r Analytical skills (seeChapter 3) It is also very important to be able to casta critical eyeover the resourcesyou do find when searching.The Internet was once describedas'vanity publishing gone mad', and it is worth bearing in mind that quality is not guaranteed.Make sure to check out any websiteyou are considering using thoroughly before basingany activity around it. Simply becausethe author of a websitebelieveselephantsto be bulletproof - a real example- doesn't mean that they really are. . Word processing skills (seeChapter 2) You will also need to be able to usea word processorto combine text, imagesand weblinks into a finished document. This particular set of skills can be acquired quickly and easily. Before sitting down to plan a webquest- as noted at the start of this chapter - it is always worth searchingaround on the Internet to seeif someonehas produced something which might fit your needs.There are plenty of webquest'repositories',so there is little point in reinventing the wheel. Use Google to havea good look round before you do the hard work yourself - try a searchfor ELI webquests- or start with one of thesesites: . http://wwwwebquest.org o http://www.fi .muni.czllCT4Ell/websites/webquests-nepouzivase.html o http://www.theconsultants-e.com/webquests/

Chapter4

In the event that you do have to design and produce your own webquest,Tom March, a colleagueof Bernie Dodge,has produced a flow chart for the designprocess,which you can seeopposite.Let's examinehow the processworks.

Exploringthe possibilitiesstage In this section we decide what we're going to base our webquest on, and start to find resources. r Choose and chunk the topic The first thing to do is to decideon a macro (or large) topic and then break it down into micro (smaller) chunks of topic areaswhich will be addressedin the processstagesof the webquest.In our example,the macro topic is'responsible consumerism', the micro topicsinclude:animal testing,child labour,sexism, ethicalproduction and marketing. . Identi& learning gaps As we have seen,webquestsare good for dealing with critical thinking skills, problem solvingand group dynamics.Identifr which areasyour learnerswould benefit from, and designtasksfor the processstageaccordingly.The sample webquestwe havebeen looking at has a wide variety of personal interactions and content interactions designedto activatecritical thinking skills and encourage collaborativework. o Inventoryresources This involvescollecting the resourcesfor the webquest,including links to appropriate websites,imageswith which to decoratethe webquestand media files.You will need to find all this before you move on to the designprocess. r Uncover the question In this stage,you need to ensurethat you havea central question or idea which has no single answet and which necessitates researchand interpretation. This is the centralpurposeof the webquest.In our example,the introduction states'you will investigatethe way your favourite brands - of clothes,fast food, cosmetics, etc - are produced and marketed,with a view to becoming better informed and thereforea more discriminatingconsumer'.This, then, is the'question'- and it is something that your learnersshould be interestedin, but not havefully formed ideasabout.

Designingfor successstage In this stage,we further structure the webquestand ensurethat the learning outcomesand knowledgetransformation stagesare clearly delineated. o Brainstorm transformations This involvesdeciding what your learnerswill be doing with the information they find on the websites.Bernie Dodge identified this stageaswhat happens between'learninginputs'and'learning outcomes'.This is whereyou fleshout the tasksin the processstage,guiding your learnersthrough the information they uncover,and helping them towards an understandingand transformation of that information asthey work towards the products they need to put together.

58

proiectwork Internet-based

Expluing *re krb*ilnr

ffiffi trsdgr*Efur Srrffis /\ ,{F-F

ffi -

ffiW

w#w

Thewebquest designprocess 59

Chapter4

. Identify real-world feedback Tom March feelsthat learnersshould be engagedwith the wider world when they are working with webquests.This meansthat you might try looking for waysin which the information necessaryfor the webquestmight be gatheredfrom real people- by the useof email,polls and questionnaires. This can alsobe'offline', in the senseof interviewing colleagues,staff, friends and family. In our example, learnersconduct a classsurvey on their favourite brands - and this could perhaps be extendedthrough the school,or put online as an electronic survey,thus widening the accessto the'real world'. In a school this would involve interviewing other classes, while an online surveycan quickly be put togetherusing a tool such asSurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com). o Sort links into roles The links you identified in the inventory resourcessection should now be assignedto the varioussectionsof the processstageof your webquest, ensuring that the websitesare easilynavigable,understandableand contain the information that your learnersneed to work through the webquest. o Define the learning task This refersto the products which are the direct result of working through the webquest.In the samplewe havelooked at,learners haveto produce: - a surveyresultsof classshoppinghabits. - a list of acceptableand unacceptablebrands. - a report to the classon the brands. - a presentationofthe report. - a self-evaluation.

Creatingyour webqueststoge In this stage,we move on to the production of the webquestand its implementation. o Write theweb page If you're familiar with web designtools you will be able to turn your webquest plan into a websiteand put it on a web server.But this is, perhaps,a slow way of preparing a webquest.The easiestway to do this is to useWord, adding links to eachsection of the webquest,some imagesto liven up the material and the links to the resourcesyour learnerswill visit. o Engagelearners Now you haveyour webquestin place,think about an engagingand stimulating introduction asa lead-in to the quest itself. Hopefully your webquestwill have plenty of motivating tasksand websitesin it, so the final thing that you need to do is to get learnersinvolved from the outset, and to draw them to a conclusion that clearly demonstrateswhat they havecoveredand that rounds the quest off satisfactorily.In our sample,learnersare invited to consider a variety of consumer situations in the introduction phaseand to evaluatetheir learning and participation in the conclusion.

proiectwork Internet-based

o Scaffoldthinking In this stageyou need to think about the instructions given in the webquestitself. Theseinstructions should not only guide the learnersthrough the webquest,but should also deal with the learning gap identified in the exploring the possibilities stage,and guide them towards answeringthe question.This will involve not only support in the content areabut will also help with the languageneededto carry out the webquest.Ensurethat your learnershaveaccessto the languagethat they will need to use. . Decision: implement and evaluate The final stageis to try out the webquestwith a group or two, take feedbackfrom them and also consider how it went for you, and make appropriate changesfor future use. Note that webquestscan alsobe produced by learnersaspart of a more detailedand longerterm project. Often, this significant investment in the materials production side of the teaching/learningprocessis a highly motivating classactivity in itself.

Concluslons I h thischapter wehave: r lookedat extendingInternetusagefromthe simple[essonptandescribedin Chapter " 3 to moreextensiveprojectwork,simulationsandwebquests. r seenhowthe Internetcanbe usedas an accesspointto real-wortdknowledge which our learnersmightlack. r examinedhowthe Internetcanactas a springboard for authentic,retevant simutation workandasthesourceof materials whichpromotecollaborative learning, knowledge communication, sharingandhigher-level thinkingskilts. r exploredthe areaof motivationandconsidered howthis canbe increased with careful taskdesignandjudicious choiceof Internetcontent. r lookedat the methodology for creatingandusingwebquests.

6l

Howto useemait r Thebenefltsof email r Baslcemallskllls r Usingemailwith learnersout of class

r Uslngemailwith learners duringclass r Keypalproiects

The benefitsof email Email is one of the most used and useful Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools around today. Most of us probably write emails in both our personaland professional lives, and the same thing is true for many of our learners.Email allows us to keep in touch with other teachersaround the world via mailing lists and discussion groups, thus helping in our professionaldevelopment(seeChapter ll). It also allows us to communicatewith our learnersoutside the classroom,for examplesetting,receiving, marking and returning homework and other written assignments. Typically,email will be used outsideclasstime. For example,learnerswill email work to their teacheror to other learnersfrom their home or from an Internet caf6.However,in the caseof keypal projects - email projects set up between learnersin different classesor countries - and when learner accessto computers outside the teaching institution is very limited, a school computer or computers may be used in classtime very successfully. Readingand writing emailseither in or outside classtime givesa learner more exposure to the targetlanguage,and interactionis'real' in the sensethat learnersare writing to real people- eitherthe teacheror other learners- using a'real'medium.In addition, if learners are writing to learnersin other countries, as in a keypal project, this allows therfi to make contact and interact with people with different first languagesand from other cultures. One of the biggestadvantagesof using email with learnersfrom the teacher'spoint of view is that the technology is relatively simple to use,and most of our learnerswill already be familiar with it. If our learners are not familiar with email, it is not difficult to teach them to useit, and the technology is both ubiquitous and free.

Baslcemailskills Before starting to use email with learners,you will need to check that your learners have certain basic skills in place. Learnersneed to be familiar not only with the mechanicsof sending and receiving emails and attachments,but also with the kind of languageused in email, aswell as the'rules of engagement',or netiquette, required in email use.Basicskills mar-be consideredin two groups: communication skills and technical skills.

H o wt o u s e e m a i l

Communication skills It is a good idea to remind learnersthat, as in traditional letter writing, there are levelsof formality in email writing. An email written to enquire about a job vacancywill have a different level of formality to an email sentto a closefriend. While the email to a friend may include abbreviations,emoticons,misspellingsor lower-casecharacterssuch as i, theseare entirely inappropriate for a more formal email. If you are using email with your learners - for example to receivehomework - you will want to negotiate with them the level of formality you feel is acceptable.Probably you will apply the samecriteria you would apply to a piece of written work on paper. It is also a good idea to teachyour learnerssome of the basicsof netiquette. Theseare 'rules' for effectiveonline communication. Well-known netiquette rules include: o not using only capitalletters,which is perceivedas'shouting'online. e being sureto respectothers'opinions. o avoiding'flaming'- ongoing argumentswhich becomeincreasinglypersonalised and possibly public. o making sure that files sent as email attachmentsare not too large,as the person receivingthe email may not be able to download them. Composing an email has the added advantagefor learners of allowing them to draft and edit beforesending.Researchshowsthat this part of the writing process- so much easier than with pen and paper - is somethingthat learnersappreciate.But communicationby email is, of course,still very fast.

Technicalskills Apart from basic word processingand typing skills, learners will need to have an email account. Many learnerswill already have a personal or work email account that they will be willing to use for their languageclasswork,but others may need help with setting up a new email account. There are severalfree, web-basedemail services,through which it is easyto set up and use an email account. The best known are Yahoo!, Hotmail or Google Mail, although Google Mail currently requiresyou to receivean invitation from an already registeredGoogle Mail user for you to be able to open an account. Once learnershavetheir email accounts,they need to be ableto sendand receiveemail, and to attach and open documents in email. It is also useful for learnersto havebasic ICT skills, such as knowledge about viruses sent by email, and spam or unsolicited junk email - what theseare,and how to protect themselvesfrom them. Depending on your teaching context, you may want to first give your learners a questionnaire to assessthe overall email skills of the class,and then to review basic email skills basedon the resultsof that survey,either with the whole class,with individual learners or by pairing up an experiencedemail user with a novice and asking the experienceduser to teach the novice basic email skills outside classtime. If the languagelevel of the class is low, there is a casefor providing this basic technical skills training in the learners'first languageif you teach in a monolingual context. On page 64 is a suggestedquestionnaire that you can adapt for use with your own learners,to gaugetheir level of skill in using email, aswell as finding out about how much accessto email they have, and what they know about viruses and spam. If the overall email skills of the classare low, you should leaveout referencesto viruses and spam, and 63

C hapte 5 r

concentrateonly on the most basicemail skills of sendingand receiving,and of sending and openingemail attachments.

Yrs

tlo

r I have my own email account. (lVhatemailservicedo you use?)

2 I us€emailat home. 3 I useemailat worldschool. 5 | know how to write,sendand reademails. 6 | know how to sendan attachmentby email. 7 | know how to open an emailattachment.

I

knowwhata virusis.

I knowwhat to do if I receivea virusby email. ro I knowwhat 'spam'emailis. n I know how to receivelessspam by email.

Usingemailwith learnersout of class There are many waysof using email with learners,from simple administrativetaskssuch or homework via email,to more complexemail projects, asthe submissionof assignments involving classesin different countriesover a number of weeks,a semesteror er,enover an academicyear.Belowwe outline someideasfor using email outsidethe classroom.The ideasrequire learnersto havetheir own email accounts,and accessto a computer outside classtime, either at home or work, in a self-access centre,or in an Internet caf€. o Learnerscan submit classworkas attachmentsby email, which can be marked by the teacher,and returnedby email.Learnerscan alsoshareclasswork/assignments by email. o The teachercan email learnersa summary of classwork,plus homework or extra material,or updateson classes, after eachclassor on a regular (e.g.weekly)basis. A teacherblog can alsowork well for this (seeChapter7). o The teachercan email learnersregularnewslettersabout the classand themselves. This is especiallyusefulfor keepingin touch with learnersduring holidays.The emailscould include'diary'or'journal'type information about what the teacher hasbeen doing in their sparetime, and be sentto learnersweekly,fortnightly or monthly. Learnerscan be encouragedto sendeachother emailsof this type, too, eitherto the whole class,or to a partner. o Learnerscan useemail to preparebeforeclass.For example,the teachercan ask pairs to prepareinformation on a topic, which they can do via email. o Learnerscan useemail to sendqueriesabout a topic, or a grammar area,to the teacherbeforea class.This can help the teacherpreparea classthat focuseson and addresses soecificlearnerissues. 64

H o wt o u s e e m a i t

A classmailinglist canbe setup for generaldiscussions out of classtime. (See ChapterI I for more on mailinglists.)Regularemailprogramscanalsobe used for this, with learnerssimply settingup a classgroup in their email program addressbooks. Email can be usedasa collaborativewriting tool. For example,in groups,learners are askedto producea story basedon a painting,with LearnerI startingthe story,which is then forwardedto Learner2, who addsto the story,then forwards it to Learner3, who addsto it, and so on. It is important to ensurethat all group membersarecopiedinto the storyfrom the beginning,and that eachlearner knows when it is their turn to contribute!Note that a wiki can alsowork well for writing (seeChapter7). collaborative

UsingemaiIwith learnersduringclass Usingemailduring classtime is worth doingif more complexprojectsarebeingsetup and Belowwe describe if your learnershavelimited access to computersoutsidethe classroom. weeksor even of data collection projects. These can run over several classes, two examples months,and requirequite a lot preparationon the part of the teacher. A datacollectionprojectrequireslearnersto sendemailsto realcompanies,individuals, organisationsor websitesto solicit information.This information is then collatedfor comparison,and a presentationor written report is preparedon the topic.Giventhat the chancesof unsolicitedemails not being answeredis high, it's important to ensurethat you choosea topic that requiresyour learnersto sendemailsthat stand a good chanceof receivinga response. Here are two exampledata collection projects for learnerswith an intermediateor higher level of English.Given that emails for data collection projectsneed to be written with a fair degreeof accuracy,they are lesssuitablefor low levels.

Datacollectionpnriectr: Language courcesIn Australia language learning, Theme studyabroad,travet,cultures in Australia courses Aim to collateinformation aboutEngtish tanguage Leamers

intermediate and higherlevels adult learners,

Suggested time ftame

z lessons of 6o to 9o minutes each

Procedurc pairsof learners with onelanguage schoolwebsite Lessonr a Theteacherprovides (oranotherEnglish-speaking Theseschoots eachin Australia country). canbe in onegeographical area,e.g.NewSouthWalesor Queensland, or all overAustralia. readthe information findan email b Pairsvisitthewebsite, available, to email address for furtherenquiries andcompile a seriesof questions courseon offer.Thesemightinctude to the schoolaboutthe tanguage local askingfor furtherinformation aboutaccommodation, transport, food,feesandcoursecontent. sights,attractions andactivities, 65

Chapt e r

Lessonz

c Pairswritean email,whichcan then be checkedby anotherpair and/or the teacher,and sendit to the [anguage school.To minimisethe risk of learnersnot receivingan answerto their enquirythe teachercan supply eachpair with two websitesto writeto. d Onceall of the pairshavereceivedan answerto their enquiries,tearners are regrouped to sharewhat they havefoundout. Eachnew group decideswhichcoursethey think is the 'best'and why. lf one pair is withoutan emaitreply,the pair can be split up and eachlearnerjoin a pair who has receiveda reply,to help them with their presentation. e Follow-upactivitiesmightincludea spokenpresentation on each [anguage courseto the ctass,or a writtenreport,or findingscan be presentedusingotherICTtools suchas a blog,or a podcast(see Chapterz).

Datacollectionproiectz: Endangered animals Theme

endangered species,ecology

Aim Learners

to find out aboutendangered species (aged adolescent r4+) and adult learners,intermediate and higherlevels

Suggested time frame

z to 3 lessons of 6o to 9o minutes each

Procedure Lessonr

Theteacherprovidespairsof learnerswith one websiteeach,which dealswith animalsin dangerof extinction.Example websitesare:The WortdWitdlifeFund,Greenpeace, Society, the SumatranOrangutan the CheetahConservation Fund,the GorillaFundand Savethe Whale. A searchin Googlefor 'endangered species'or similarwilt bringup a weatthof links.Youcangive eachpair a site dedicatedto one specific animalin dangerof extinction. Pairsvisit the website,readthe informationavailable,find an email addressfor furtherenquiriesand compilea seriesof questionsto emailto the organisation. Theemailmightinctudeaskingfor further information aboutthe animalin questionand aboutawareness raising techniques, as welI as a requestfor promotionalmaterialfromthe organisation suchas posters,slides,brochures, membership formsor car stickers. C

Lessona

Pairswrite an emailcontainingcompiledquestions, whichcanthen be checkedby anotherpair and/orthe teacher,and send it to the organisation.

d Onceatl the pairshavereceived an answerto theirenquiries,they

preparea writtenor oratpresentation to sharewhat they havefound out about'their'animalwith the rest of the class,and to displayany promotionaI materialthey havereceived.

oo

H o wt o u s e e m a i l

Lesson3

e Follow-upactivitiesmightinctudenew groupspreparingthe overatl whichcan be animalsresearched, findingsaboutall the endangered presentedusingotherICTtools suchas a blog,a wiki or a podcast. raisingday/morning can also be arrangedwith A schoolawareness postersand promotionalmaterialsput on display. student-made

Keypalproiects Keypalsis the term for pen palswho useemail to communicate,and describedbelow is a project betweentwo groups of keypalswho are learning English in different countries. Emailprovidesa simpleand effectiveway of putting learnersin touch with other learners of the same age and level in other parts of the world. Learnerscan talk about their of learningEnglish,and, of course,email is the perfectmedium for crossexperiences cultural communication.Keypalprojectsshould be startedin classbut thereaftercould work. combinea mixture of in-classand out-of-class

Keypatproiect:Leamersaroundthe world Theme

learningEnglish,othercountriesand cultures

Aim

to find out aboutanothercountryand what itb tike learningEnglishthere youngtearners(agedrz+) and adult learners, leveland higher elementary

Learners Suggested 5 lessonsof t hour each timeframe Procedurc

a teacherin anothercountrywith a similarclassvia email. a Contact Before Theeasiest wayto find anothertealheris via an onlineprofessional starting group.(SeeChapter aboutmaking n for moreinformation devetopment theproject contactwith otherteachers.) level - numberof learners, aboutyourclasses detailedinformation b Exchange interests of Engtish, andages. withthe otherteacher's c Decideexactlyhowyouwill pairup yourlearners learners. Whowittworkwith whom? or onemain whetherpairswill be usingtheirownemailaccounts, d Decide email.Thislatteroption the teacher's classemai[account - for example classroom. workswe[[for the singlecomputer will the firstemailbe sent?Whenwitl e Decideon a timeframe.Whenexactty classes. a replyemailbe sent?Forthis proiect,youwill needfiveone-hour your the information that whichcontain f Compile a shortlist of websites workbelow. the pre-proiect learners wilt needto complete

Lessonr

a Pairworkusingthe Intemet.Tetlyour learnersthat theywitt be contacting in anothercountryFirst,theywitl needto find out somebasic learners information aboutthat country. b As a ctass,brainstormwhat tearnersalreadyknowaboutthe country,and put it on the board. c Dividethe classinto smallgroupsso that eachgrouphasaccessto a computer.

67

d Giveeachgroup a topic to research(e.g.geography,typicatfood, languages, tourist attractions),and provideeach groupwith a websiteaddresswhere they can find this information.Givethem a time limit (e.g.ro minutes)to f in d o u t a s m u c ha s th e v c a n .

e Regroup the learners to sharewhattheyhavefoundout. Noweachof these groupsneedsto writetwo or threemorequestions thattheywouldliketo asksomeone who livesin the othercountrv.

Lessonz

a Writingan introductory email.Teilyourtearners the nameof the keypalthey (individuatty wiltbe sending theiremailto. Learners an or in pairs)compose including emailto thiskeypat, the fotlowing information: . introduce (name,age,gender, yoursetf interests). . describe whatit'sliketivingin yourcountry. . describe whatit'slikelearning Engtish in yourcountry(number of hours perweek,typesof activities, whatyoutike/don't [ikeaboutyourEngtish howmuchEngtish is present classes, - or not- outside the classroom, e.g. subtitled fitms,TV magazines). . include phaseabove. the questions fromthe pre-project As thisemailis a firstdraft,it canbe doneeitheron paper, or more program. effectively in a wordprocessing b Checkingand revisingthe emails.Learnersnow exchangetheir draft emaiI wi th a n o th e rs tu d e n ti n th e s a m ecl assfor checki ng. A s the emai tw i tl be sent to anothercountryand to someonethey don't yet know,tearnersare usuattyvery keen for their emaiIto be as 'correct'as possible. g i v e fe e d b a c kto e a c ho theron thei r emai l s. c Le a rn e rs

d Learners correct/revise theiremailuntiItheyaresatisfied that it is readyto be sent. e Learnerssend the email to their keypal. Note: lt is importantthat you have previouslyagreeda timeframewith the other teacherin the proiect.Learnersshould receivean introductoryemail from their keypatin time for the next class.

Lesson3

a Learnersreceiveand read their emails. b Learners writea shortreptythanking theirkeypal, andanswering the

questions in theemail.Again,learners spendtimein classchecking and revising theiremailsbeforesending.

Lesson4

re c e i v ea n d re a dth e i r s e condemai l s. a Le a rn e rs I n s ma l lg ro u p s ,th e y n e e dto p re parea posteror presentati on descri bi ng what they have learntabout the other country.They need to includetwo m a i ns e c ti o n s : r what they have learntabout the countryitself. . w h a t th e y h a v el e a rn ta b o u t l e arni ngE ngl i shi n that country. Givetearnersclasstime to preparetheir poster/presentation. You may want t o a tl o wth e m to d o w n l o a dp h o to sfrom the Internetsi tesi n the pre-proi ect phaseto decoratetheir posters.Altow them some rehearsaltime.

Lesson5

in theirsmatlgroupsnowpresenttheirposter/findings a Learners to the class. you coulddividethe [earners lf you haveverylargeclasses, intotwo large groups, so thatyouhavetwo presentations happening simultaneously.

you could have the ctassvote 'prizes'for b At the end of atl the presentations, whose Dresentation was the most: r fult of facts. r visuallyattractive. . a mu s i n g l yp re s e n te d . . well researched. Makesure that there is a prizecategoryfor all of the presentations.

H o wt o u s e e m a i l

havefoundout aboutthe othercountry on whatlearners $uggested a Information toltow-up canbe presented usingotherICTtoolssuchas a blog,a wiki or Theinitialemailcontact a podcast, andshared withthe keypals. acdvldes a goodbase established by a keypalprojectsuchas this alsoprovides on whichto buildmorecomplexfollow-upproiectsusingtoolssuchas blogsandwikis. b A'culturebox'of realobiectscanbe postedto the partnerclass,and from mightincludeaudiotapesof fuvouriteEnglishsongs,advertising foodlabelscontaining English magazines, andphotosof the group.This simplymakesthe partnergroupsmore'real'to eachother.

Keypalproiectsissues Here is a checklistof things to bear in mind when planning a keypalproject.Somepoints havealreadybeenmentioned. o Ensurethat you agreeon cleardeadlinesand time frameswith your partner teacherfor emailsto arrive,and stickto these.Thereis nothing more demotivatingfor learnersthan to put in the effortof writing emails,and to then get no response, or a slowresponse. o Negotiategroupingswith your partner teacher,and decidewhetheremailswill be written by individualsin one classto individualsin the other class,in pairs or in groups,or evenasa whole class(good for very low levels). . Decidewhich languages will be usedin emails,dependingon who the learners are learningEnglishasa foreign involvedare.For example,if both classes language,with one classin Chile, and the other in Germany,Englishwill be usedfor all of the emails.If one classis nativespeaker,then it's worth trying to learnersin the pair up the languages- for example,a group of English-speaking UK studyingGermanwith a group of German-speakinglearnersin Germany studyingEnglish.In this way,half of eachemail can be written in one language (German)and half in the other (English),with learnerswriting partly in their mother tongue and partly in the targetlanguage,which can feellessthreatening. This kind of exchangeis easiestto set up at secondaryschoollevel. r Ensurethat all learnershavethe basicemailingskillsand knowledgeof email netiquetteoutlined earlierin this chapter. . Keepthe keypalproject short and focused.The keypalproject outlined above Ensurethat your learnersknow how long the project is to runs over five classes. last,and when it will be finishedby - don't let things drag on. Focusis providec by havingcleartasksfor eachemail,as in the outline above.Don't expectlearners to simply write an email to a strangerwithout any guidanceasto content or language. o Discusswith your partner teacherto what extenttherewill be teacher involvement.Will the teachervet and approveeachemail,and to what extent This alsoneedsto be madeclear will accuracyand'correct'language be an issue?

Chapter5

to learners,especiallyif their emails are to be used in any sort of assessment procedures. Discusswith your learnersthe issueof possiblemisunderstandingsacross cultures.For example,do emails come acrossastoo direct or blunt? Do they sound rude? If so,what might causethis, and what writing conventionsdo we need to use in English to avoid this? Respondingto email using the reader'sfirst name, for example,and signing offin a friendly fashion, is important. Again, this relatesto the areaof netiquette. In terms of generalemail etiquette in email projects,it is worth reminding learnersthat it is alwaysa good idea to remain polite, and to not respond to aggressiveor insulting emails- although this is unlikely to be a problem if a keypal project is set up well, and monitored. However,misunderstandingscan and do arise in email communication, especiallywhen a secondlanguageis being usedbetweentwo different cultural groups, so it is well worth making your studentsawareof the dangers.

hove: Conclusions I h thischopterwe r lookedat the benefitsof usingemailwith learners. r considered needto useemail whatbasictechnical andcommunication skillslearners effectively. r lookedat howemai[canbe usedout of class. r lookedat two typesof emailproiectthat canbe usedin class:datacollectionand keypalprojects. r discussed someof the issuesinvolvedin settingup andrunningkeypalprojects.

70

Howto usechat r ChatIn languageteachlng r Typesof chat r Chatprograms r Why usechat In language teachlng?

: Howto start using text or volcechat with learners r Howto structure a tert or volcechat lesson r A sampletext chat lesson plan

Chatin languageteaching Imagine a group of secondaryschoolstudentsin Spaintext chattingto a similar group in Polandabout where they live and what their town is like ... or studentsin Argentina and in Kuwait asking each other about the customs they are most proud of in their respective countries,via voice chat.Chat has enormouspotential to link studentsaround the world, in real time. It is a technology that many learnerswill often be familiar with and will use in their sociallives,so it is worth exploitingin the classroomwherepossible.Having saidthat, although the types of cultural exchangedescribedaboveare hugely motivating to students, they will probably take placeno more than a few times a term or semester. In this chapterwe look at the useof chat in the classroom,where the teachercan link up classesand groups in different locations,aspart of collaborativeproject work or for one-off chat sessionssuch as those describedabove.We also look at the most likely application of chat,which is outsidethe classroom,wherelearnersin the sameclasschattogether(or with the teacher)to improve their English aspart of their homework or self-studyactivities. One important issueto bearin mind is that usingchatneedsto havea clearpurposefor learners.There is not much point taking a classof learnerswho regularly meet face-to-face to a computer room during classtime simply to chat to each other via a computer when they can do so more effectivelysimply by turning to their partner! We will look at waysin which chat can be effectivelyintegrated into teaching in the next sections.

IVpesof chat Chat is a tool that allowsfor synchronous,i.e.real-time,communicationoverthe Internet. When talking about chat,we need to distinguish betweentext and audio chat, and between public and privatechat,all of which can take placeone-to-oneor betweengroupsof users. What makes chat essentiallydifferent from other forms of synchronous communication Chat usersareableto seethe status/ suchasmobile phonetexting,for example,is presence. availability of other chat users,such as whether the user is online, away,busy, and so on. 7l

Chapter6

To start with, we'll look at some of the differencesbetween text and audio chat, and then betweenpublic and private chat. . Textchat Communication betweenchat userstakesplacevia typed text. The user types their messageinto the chat program, sendsit, and it instantly appearson the screen(s)of the other user(s).There is still a tendencywhen talking about Internet chat to assumethat we are referring to text chat, but with increasing accessto free voice chatware,audio chat is becoming more common. r Audio or voice chat Communication betweenchat userstakesplacevia audio, much like a phone conversation,but is conducted on the Internet. Fastgaining ground in what is known as P2P (peer-to-peer)communications softwareis Skype,which has the advantageof being free.We will be looking at Skypein more detail, and at other chat software,later in this chapter.For learnersto use audio chat, they need to havea microphone and speakersand/or headphones. . Public chat There are innumerable public chat rooms on the Internet, on a huge variety of topics, which any user can join. Typically,in a public chat room usersdo not know eachothet although regular usersof a specificchat room will get to know eachother over time, and usersmay decideto use an aliasinstead of their real name.A typical exampleof a public chat forum isYahoo! Chat (www.chat.yahoo. com), where chat rooms are grouped into categorieslike Businessand Finance, Schoolsand Education, Movies, Music, and so on. r Private chat This requiresthe installation of a client program, which connectsindividual users over the Internet. Alternatively usersmay be linked over an intranet, for example within a company.Private text chat is also known as instant messaging.Some of the most popular instant messagingprograms areYahoo!Messenger,MSN Messenger,Google Thlk, Skypeand AOL Instant Messenger.Other chat programs you may come acrossare Qnext, .NET MessengerService,Jabber,QQ, iChat and ICQ. Many of theseinstant messagingprograms offer not only text chat, but voice chat, and also video and web conferencingfacilities which allow the combination of video conferencingwith instant messagingcapabilities. There are severaldifferent types of educationalchat that one can set up with learners.One way of classifring educational chats,suggestedby practising teacherDaphne Gonzalez,is set out here: o Freetopicchats Here, there is no topic or agendaset for the chat, and no specificmoderator role. An exampleof such a chat might be learnersmeeting in pairs or small groups via an instant messagingprogram to practiseEnglish together,for exampleat the weekend. o Collaborative,task-oriented chats With this, learnersmeet via chat out of classto complete a real task, such as preparing a PowerPointpresentationor putting together the resultsof a survey which they will then presentto peersin the classroom.Typically,the learners 72

Howto use chat

arepreparingsomesort of 'product'togetheraspart of projectwork, and will probably havepreviously emailed a document or PowerPointpresentationto eachother, which they can then refer to during the chat itself. Informative or academicchats This kind of chat disseminatesinformation. For example,a learner or teacher givesa presentationon a topic via chat. This is then followed by a question and answerstage.Another exampleis where a learner or the teacherbrings specific questionson a topic to be explored in the chat itself. This approachworks well in the contextof a blendedlearningsolution,wherelearnersmeet someof the time We focus on blendedlearningsolutions online and someof the time face-to-face. in Chapters11 and 12. Practice chats Thesechatswill practisea specificfunction or form of language,or a specific skill or strategy,and will probablytake placeout of classtime. Examplesare:a voicechat practisinga telephonejob interview or indeedany telephonesituation; practisingcommunicationstrategiessuchascircumlocution to describean object;practisinga specificlanguageform suchasthe pasttense,or future tenses for predictions;and practisingpronunciationfeaturesvia voicechat.

Chatprograms Let's now look at some of the chat programs currently available,for both text and voice chat. On the next page is a screenshotof Skype (www.skype.com).The Skype screenshot showsboth text chat and voice chat in operation at the sametime. Most instant messagingapplications include webcam (web camera) facilities, so that you can not only text chat and voice chat, but you can also seeyour interlocutor, if they havea webcam installed on their computer. There are more sophisticatedprograms availablefor free,which allow video and audio conferencingalongsideother tools. One well-known program is NetMeeting(http://www. microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/), which works with Windows. If it is not already installedon your computer (for Windows 2000 and XP users),you can download it from the Internet (do a Googlesearchof 'download NetMeeting'),and all you need to use it is a microphoneand a webcam.Note, however,that with the a pair of headphones/speakers, advent of Windows Vista (2007),NetMeeting is being supersededby Windows Meeting Space.However,it is too early at the time of writing to state with any certainty whether NetMeetingwill continue to be supportedby Microsoft, and if so,for how long. Meeting Space,like NetMeeting,includesboth audio and video conferencingand a whiteboard facility, as well as program sharing and file transfer. Program sharing allows usersto look at the same'application'togetherat the sametime, for examplea web page,a photo or a PowerPointpresentation.File transfer allows usersto send text, audio or video files to each other, from within the program. Programs like NetMeeting can be used to teach remotely, or as part of a blended learning solution. The video function will only display two usersat once, so the video conferencingfacility is lessuseful for larger groups of learners,but verywell suited for one-to-one teachingor tutorials. It is alsoworth bearing in mind that more sophisticatedtypes of software like this require a reliable broadband connection to work well. 73

Chapter 6

Skypein action

tthy usechatIn languageteaching? A teacherdeciding whether to use chat with learners who meet face-to-face,on a regular basiswill probably want to ask the following questions: r Does using text or voice chat with learnersimprove their English? o What kind of English should learnersuse in chat? o What technical skills do teachersand learnersneed to be able to use chat? r What benefitsdoesthe useof chat bring to the classroom? o Is it better to usetext or voice chat with learners? Let's consider theseissuesone by one.

Doesusing text or voicechot with leornersimprovetheir English? There has been some researchinto how using tools such as synchronous text chat can improve learners'languageabilities. Studiesto date seem to point to text chat providing opportunities for negotiating meaning, seen as key to language acquisition by many

74

H o wt o u s e c h a t

linguists,but it hasalsobeennoted that online chat,especially text chat,doesnot follow the same rules of interaction as face-to-faceconversation.Text chat can often appear disjointed:conversationthreadsget lost or questionsare ignored;there are overlapping turns; and conventionsfor taking the floor are not automaticallyclear.Voicechat is more likely to makelearnersproducemore fluent language.

Whatkind of Englishshouldlearnersusein chot? Thereis the view that online text chat is the virtual equivalentto mobile phonetexting,in which abbreviatedforms,for example,CU L8r for seeyou later,are the norm. We would recommendthat studentsgenerallyusestandardwritten Englishconventionsin text chat and writers, and email.They aremore likely to be interactingwith other non-nativespeakers and abbreviatedforms can be confusing.And, after all, they are meant to be using chat as anotherway of improvingand practisingtheir English.Perhapsworth teachingare: . common abbreviationsusedin text chat,suchas btw for by the way,brb for be right back,cu for seeyou, and so on. . somebasicrulesof netiquette(or onlinecommunicationetiquette),which we coveredin Chapter5. Netiquettecan apply to both text and voicechat,and covers both how to behaveonline and somecommon conventions. o in text chat,introducinglearnersto somebasicconventionsfor turn-takingis worthwhilepreparationfor usingthis medium of communicationefficientlyand smoothly. . exampleconventionsincludeusing'...' to showthat you havenot finishedyour turn and typing i to askfor the floor. Belowis a short extractfrom a teachertrainingchat on the useof chat,which showshow suchconventionscanwork in practice: MoDERAToR: OK, [et'stry usingthe chat conventionsfor a while - it can feel a bit restrictive, but is probablynecessary ... MoDERAToR: whenwe try to discussmore'meaty'topics... MoDERAToRt suchas the next one ... MoDERAToR: the prosand consyou cansee for usingtext chatlike this with your own students- overto you! MIKE: ? MoDERAToR: Go Mike MrKE: students often use it anyway, so we should be ... MIKE: he tp i n gth e m w i th th i s re a l ti fe ski l t. lllLl

?.

SUE:

(

MoDERAToR: Go Jill,then Sue pro - it's fun, con:takestime ttLL: I think it's greatfor socialactivitiesand somelanguagelearning suE: games,and ... suE: don't they know moreaboutthis skill than us ... I meanis it a usefu[SKILLto teach? suE: Anyone? MoDERAToR:

Chapte6r

Similarly with voice chat, as learnersdo not see each other, conventionsare worth exploring,although the actual languageusedby learners,as it is in spokenform, will be closerto standardEnglish.Evenif you are able to usewebcamswith voice chat, it is still worth providingyour learnerswith someguidanceon turn-taking,asthe videoqualityon webcamstendsto be poor, with jerky imagesand sometimesa time lag betweenvoiceand image.For example,usingthe term Overor Doneto indicatethat you havefinishedspeaking is a simple and effectiveway to shareturns on voicechat,with or without a webcam. Chatswith more than two userswill typicallytakeplacein a blendedlearningcourse,or an entirelyonlinecourse.In thesecontexts,severallearnersmight meetin a textchatroom, call,with or without a teacher.In most chatswith more or on a Skypevoiceconference than two users,the teacheror a learnerwill takeon the role of moderator.The moderator turns in the chat,keepsparticipantson introducesthe chat,statesthe chatagenda,allocates track,providesbrief summariesof pointscoveredin the chatand indicateswhen the chatis conventionsfor usingboth text and voicechat, over.Belowis a summaryof somesuggested when therearemore than two userspresent.You'llnoticethat the conventionsusedduring call. a group voicechataresimilarto thoseusedfor a telephoneconference

Textchat

Voicechat

o Use? to ask for the ftoor.

. Usea conventionto ask for the floor - this couldbe via text, or a special phrasesuchas Turnplease.

. Use'...'at the end of your sentence to showthat you havenot finisheda contribution.

r Usea specialphraseor word suchas Averor Doneto showwhenyou have finishedspeaking.

r Use'.' at the end of your sentence to showthat you havefinisheda contribution.

o Oneparticipant shouldbe responsible for takingnotesduringthe chat.

r Usesquarebrackets[ ] to makean aside or an off-topic to anotherparticipant, remark.

The moderatorcan nominatequieter participants by nameto contribute.

r Explainabbreviations the first time you use them in a chat,e,g. btw = by the way.

Whattechnicolskillsdo teachersand leornersneedto be oble to usechat? The fact is that learnersare increasinglyusingtext and audio chat in their personallives,as instantmessagingsystemsbecomeincreasinglycommon, to communicatewith family and friends,so many are alreadyfamiliar with chat.Current chat softwareis very easyto install and use,so no specialtechnicalskills are neededby either teachersor learners,apart from knowing whereand how to type commentsin a chat window for text chat,and how to use or a headset,for voicechat. a microphoneand speakers, in text chat is their typing ability. One skillsareathat can put learnersat a disadvantage Slowertypistswill find it more difficult to contribute,asby the time their contribution has 76

H o wt o u s e c h a t

been typed out, the conversationmay havemoved on. Also, if the teacheris using the text chat script for languageanalysisafter the chat, it may be difficult to seewhat constitutes a mistake,and which learner errors are due to typographicalerrors (typos), or to the conventionsof text chat. Finally,althoughnot a'skill',usingvoicechatdoesrequirea reliablebroadbandInternet connection.If you havea dial-up/modem connection,it is probably saferto stick to text chatbecauseit generallytakeshigher connectionspeedsto transmit and receiveaudio and videodata.

Whatbenefitsdoesthe useof chat bring to the classroom? Using chat in the classroom- whether text or voice chat - can be hugely motivating to learners.By using chat with learners,the teacheris bringing current technologyinto the languagelearning process,creatingvariety by using a 'new' tool and also opening up the possibilityof contactingand communicatingwith classes in other partsof the world. There are increasingnumbersof teachersin all levelsof educationusing chat to connectlearners at a distance,from primary studentsto adults.We saw some real examplesof this at the beginningof the chapter. Chapter1l providesyou with suggestions of onlineteachergroupswhich you canjoin to link up with teacherswho regularlycarryout thesekinds of projectsin their face-to-face teaching.

ls it better to use text or voicechot with learners? Wefirst needto remind ourselves that textchatandvoicechataretwo entirelydifferentmedia. Textchatrequireswritten (typed) interaction,while voicechatrelieson spokeninteraction. Learnersareusingtwo differentsetsof skillsfor thesetwo meansof communication.At the sametime, manychatprogramscombinetext and voicecapabilities,and someincludeother interactivefeaturessuchaswhiteboardson which to'project'PowerPointpresentations, or to look at web pagestogetherduring a chat. With increasinglyeasyaccessto voicechat,it is probablyworth exposingyour learners to a combinationof both voiceand text chat,if possible.As with anytool, therearea number of advantagesand disadvantages associated with each,severalof which havealreadybeen mentionedabove,and which we summarisein the tablebelow:

Advantages

Textchat Voicechat . Learners . Learnersmay alreadyuse voice mayalreadyusetext chatat home. chatat home. r tsrings . Bringscurrenttechnologyinto into currenttechnology the classroom. the classroom. o Useof a newtoolcanbe . Useof a new tool can be motivating for learners. motivatingfor learners. r Enables learners to makecontact . Enableslearnersto makecontact with learners in othercountries. with learnersin othercountries. . A lowtechoptiofi. r 'Reat"oral practiceof [anguage.

C hapter6

r and easyto ? Non-threatening learnto use. r Chattranscriptcan be used later for languageanalysis. o Disadvantageso Textchat can be chaotic (overlapping turns,disjointed, . topic decay...). . Unclearwhethertext chat really o improveslearners'Engtish. . Do we needto teach'chat speak'? . Canbe difficuttto identiflrerrors vs. typosvs. non-standard'chat speak'. . Weakertypists are put at a disadvantage.

Voicechat softwareincreasingly easyto downloadand use.

Suitablefor very smallgroups only. Reliable broadband Internet connectionneeded. Recording a chatmay be complexand requireother software.

Howto start using text or yoicechat with learners To start using chat in the classroom,we would suggesta carefullystagedapproach,which will help get both learnersand teachersfamiliar with the chat program, how it works and what it can be used for. We would suggeststarting out with text chat, and then moving on to voice chat once learnershavehad a chanceto practisewith text chat.Ideally,using chat with learnerswould include a 'real' use of chat,for examplechatting to learnersin a different country, or using chat outside of classtime with learnersfrom their own class. Initially it is a good idea to use chat in classwith your learnersa couple of times,to help them becomecomfortablewith it, so that they can then go on and useit outsideclass.

Stept - lnstoll and learn to usethe software Download and install a popular instant messagingprogram which includesboth text and voice chat facilities(e.g.Yahoo!Messenger, MSN Messenger, GoogleThlk or Skype- this last is especiallyrecommended)to your school computers.If you are not familiar with instant messagingyourself,get a colleagueto practiseusing the program with you, and make sureyou understandthe basicsof how to usethe text and voice chat in your chosen program.Note that you will needa partner to do this.

Stepz - A procticechat class Someof your learnersmay alreadybe familiar with text or voice chat. Find out if any of your learnersusechat,and if so,what for, for exampleto make friends on the Internet or to chat to family/friendsin other countries.Also, find out how many of your learnersare familiar with common instant messaging programssuch as MSN, Yahoo!Messenger or Skype. Once you haveestablishedhow much chat experienceand expertiseyou alreadyhave in the class,run a'practice'chat sessionwith your learnerson the computer,preferablyin pairs,with lessexperiencedchat userspaired with more experiencedchat users.Explain clearlythat the aim of the practiceclassis simply to encouragethem to chatto eachother to becomefamiliar with the software,evenif the situationis somewhatunrealistic,aslearners

78

Howto use chat

will be sitting together in the samecomputer room! Make clear to learnersthat the goal of using chat will be for them to usechat to practisetheir English outside class.Rememberthat before learnerscan chat together they will need to have createda usernameand password for the software,and to haveinvited eachother to join their contact lists. First, allow your learnerstime to get used to using text chat, then let them experiment withvoice chat,inthe samechatsoftware.This isthetimeto teachand practiseanynetiquette or turn-taking conventionsthat you would like your learnersto use in text or voice chat. On the next pageis a brief outline of a lessonfor a first text chat practice session.

Step3 - Contactwith onother class The potential of chat for linking groups of learnerswho are far apart,in real time, is vast. How can a teachergo about settingup sucha project?Through an internationalteachers' network (seeChapter I I ) make contact with teacherswho would like to link up their classes via chat, and together decideon a time to chat. It is well worth first getting the two classes to email each other to exchangesome personalinformation, so that learnersat leastfeel they know eachother a little before chatting online. You might even want to first set up a collaborativeemail exchange(seeChapter5) or a blog or wiki project (seeChapter7),and to usechat aspart of sucha project. To make the initial contact with a classin a different country lessintimidating for your learners,you may first want to set up severalencountersusing text chat only. Once learners feel that they know eachother a little, and are more comfortable not only with the medium but with chatting to eachother, you could introduce a voice chat. Seethe following section for how chatsbetweenlearnersin different countries may be structured and run.

Howto structurea text or yoicechatlesson Like any lesson,a chat lesson needs a clear structure and aims. First, ask yourself what learnerswill get out of your chat. If the chat is to be held, aswe suggest,betweenclassesin different countries, there are,aswe have said,severalbenefitsfor your learners: e contactwith other learners/cultures, and the motivation that this brings. . 'real'communicationwith a real purpose. . useof a new medium in the classroom. . a chanceto practisewritten and/or spokenEnglish. There are severalpossible groupings for running chats between two classesin different' geographicallocations: a If learnersin both classeshaveaccessto individual computers,they can simply be put in pairs, with one learner from ClassA being paired with one learner from ClassB. b If there are enough computers availablefor learnersto work in small groups on a single computer, clear guidelinesfor turn-taking in eachgroup need to be provided by the teacher. c In the singlecomputer classroom,an entire classcan useone microphonefor a voice chat, with the teacherallocating turns, introducing topics and signalling the variousstagesofthe lesson.

Ch ap ter6

Text chat practicesession(approximatelyone hour) . r We[1beforethe class,checkthat the text chat program(e.g.MSNMessenger or Skype)is installed. z At i'he beginningof the ctass,find out if your learnersare familiarwith instant messaging, and if so, what they use it for. Outtine the aim of the practicechatsession:to add eachotherto theirchat contact 3 lists,and to practiseusingtext chat,so as to be abteto use it outsideclassto practisetheir English. set up individuatuseraccountsin the chat program,and inviteeachother 4 Learners to join their contactlists. 5 Showlearnershow to usethe text chatfeatureof the program.Theeasiestway to do this is if you havea computerconnected to a data projector, and can projectthe you canwalk aroundthe classroom stepsyou take onto a screen.Otherwise, and help learners.ldeally,eachtearnershoulduseone computeralone,but learnerscan be pairedup and take turnsat chattingfor the tasksbelow. 6 Set the learnersa simpletask.Forexample,eachlearnerneedsto chatto five other classmembers,and find out one unusualthing abouteachof thesefive classmates. program Learners shouldnote down what they find out, eitherin a word processing or on a pieceof paper.Set a time limit,e.g.ten minutes. 7 Oncethe time is up, stop the class.Checkwhat they havefoundout abouteach other. 8 Repeatthe activity,changingthe task slightty.Thistime learnersneedto chatto five to find out how manybrothersand sistersthey have,and their differentclassmates, namesand ages.Again,learnersneedto note down the information. Givea slightly longertime timit,e.g.sevento ten minutes. 9 Oncethe time is up, stop the class.Checkwhat they havefoundout abouteach other.Who hasthe fewest/most Whatis the averagenumberof siblingsin sibtings? the class?Whatis the most commonnamefor boysand for girls? ro (OptionaD The aim of this final phaseis to providelearnerswith morepractice in usingtext chat,whilealso raisingawareness of the usefulness of the tool and addressing any questionsor difficultieslearnersmay havehad. lf the learnershave limitedEngtishproficiency, they coutddo this task in their first language. Pairthe learnersup. lf tearners are atreadyworkingin pairson a computer, then pair the computersup, so that you havetwo computerscommunicating via chat.Givethe tearnersa tist of questions(for exampleon a preparedhandout)that getsthem to questionsare: reflecton usingchat.Suggested . Haveyou usedtext chat before?What for? . Do you like usingtext chat?Why/lrVhy not? . Do you think usingtext chatis good for practising your English? not? WhyllrVhy . Whatdo you find easyabout usingtext chat? . Whatdo you find difficuttabout usingtext chat? . Howcouldwe usetext chatout of classtime to practiseour English? . Wouldyou [ike us to usetext chatduringctasstime?WhyAtrhy not?lf yes,how often,and what for? Givethe learnerstime to discussatt of the questionsvia text chat,and then conduct openfeedbackwith the class. u Follow-up: Announcehow you planto usetext chatas part of your teaching.For project,basedon the samplechat example,you may want to set up an internationaI lessonlaterin this chapter,or to set learnersregulartext chattasksto do with each otheras homeworkto practisetheir English. you couldusea similar Note:lf you plan to introducevoicechatto your learners, chat practicesession,simptysubstitutingvoicechat for text chat in the stepsabove, Or usetext chatfor stepsr-9 and introducevoicechat for step ro.

80

How to use chat

For text chat, we would recommend that learnerswork only in grouping a above,as text chat can be quite slow and unwieldS and becauseonly one usernameper computercan be used easily.This makesit ideal for pairwork, where eachmember of the pair has accessto a computer, but a lot lesseffectivefor bigger groupings. For voice chat all three groupings, a, b or c, can be used. Whichever of the above groupings most suits your context, it is not a good idea to simply put two classestogether via chat and leavethem to get on with it. Providing a clear structure for learnersto follow will give them a senseof purpose and also provide security, which is especiallyimportant if your learnersare communicating in a foreign languageat a distancewith people who they do not know very well, and if they are unfamiliar with the chat medium. Any chat lesson,whether using text and/or voice chat, should include the following broad stages: o An introductory/warmer phase This phasemay include detailedintroductions and an exchangeof personal information if learnersare chatting together for the first time, or it may consist of a simpleexchangeof information, suchas'What wasthe bestthing you did last weekend?'for learnerswho havealreadychatted in the past.This stageservesto set the sceneand actsas an icebreaker. .

o The main content of the chat This may consistof one main task,or a seriesof short tasks,which learnersneed to complete,and could be basedon a worksheetwhich learnershavebeen given before the chat. Seethe samplechat lessonbelow. o A closing stage In this stagelearnersmay summarisewhat they have coveredor achievedin the chat, and saygoodbye.The teachermight haveset a brief closing task, such as asking learnersto tell eachother one thing they haveenjoyedabout the chat.

A samptetert chatlessonplan This sample lesson describesa first text chat between two low languagelevel secondary school classeswho are geographicallyseparated,preferably in different countries. The aim of the chat is for learnersto find out things about their partner and to build up a profile of that partner.

Beforethe closs The teacherneedsto first make contact with the teacherof a similar classin terms of level, classsizeand accessto technology.As outlined earlier in this chapter,we recommend that the learnersfirst meet each other via an email exchange,or via a classproject using blogs or wikis, and that the chat allows them to meet in real time, but not for the first time. This makesthe experiencelessthreatening for learners,and provides a context for the chat encounter to take place.If learnersare able to exchangedigital photos of themselvesbefore the chat, this is a good idea,too, evenif this is only a photo of the entire class,but with the names of individual learners provided. Learnersalso need to be confident about how to usethe chat program.With the teacherof the other class,seta time for the chat,divide the learnersinto inter-classpairs and decideon what will be coveredduring the chat lesson.It

81

Chapter6

is also a good idea for you and the other teacherto have tried out the chat program from the computers to be used,in advance.

Classroommanagementissues Ideally learnersare put in pairs for the first chat, with one learner in ClassA and the other in ClassB, each sitting at an individual computer. For classeswith fewer computers than learners, learners can either conduct the chat in pairs, or consecutivelearners can be allowed accessto the samecomputer for a certain amount of time, e.g. 10 or 15 minutes. The logistics for conducting text chat in a single computer classroomare more complex, but could involve, for example, consecutivelearners or pairs of learners, each given 5 minutes to chat, and with the chat encountersspreadout over severalclasses.On the whole, though, we would recommend using voice chat rather than text chat in the singlecomputer classroom,as a text chat in this context is very slow and unwieldy, and those learners not directly involved in the chat will need to be kept occupied with other activities.

Duringthe chot First hand out worksheets,which your learnerswill need to complete during the chat itself. Note that eachpartner has a slightly different worksheet,with WorksheetA for learnersin ClassA and WorksheetB for learnersin ClassB (seeopposite). Note that thesesample worksheetscan easilybe changedto reflect adult interestsfor low languagelevel adult classes,and questionscan be added (or removed), or more open questions set for higher levels.Learnerstext chat to their partner in the other class,and make notes on their worksheets.Writing notes and text chatting at the sametime can be distracting, so an option here is to allow learners to simply chat, asking the questions on their worksheet,then ensurethat their chat scripts are saved.Each learner can then print out their chat script and complete the worksheetfrom that, once the chat is finished.

After the chat Eachlearner now has information about an individual in the other class,and can draw up a profile of that individual. This can be in the form of a written text or a grid, and ideally should include a digital photo of the learner. Theseprofiles can then be displayedin the classroomseparatelyor on a large poster, and digital photos of the profiles can be taken and emailed to the other class.Or the information collated could even be used td createa learner profile in an inter-classblog (seeChapter 7). Learnersin ClassA could be askedto decidewhose profile from ClassB is closestto their own: in other words, who is most like them.

A summaryof issueson usingtextand/orvoicechotwithlearners o Trythe software out in the computer room with the classbefore setting up the'real'chat. This enableslearnersto becomefamiliar with the chat program, with using chat itself, and for any technical limitations - such asbandwidth being too narrow to effectivelyusevoice chat - to becomeapparent in advance. This is also a chanceto introduce and practiseany netiquette conventionsand communication skills. o When using chat betweenyour classand a classin another country, allow them to first make contact with the other class,for examplevia a blogs project or email, 82

H o wt o u s e c h a t

ChatWo*sheetA aboutthesethings,andnotedowntheanswers: Askyourpartner Likesand dislikes: favouritefilm group/singer colour petanimat sport leastfavoutitsfood subjectat school colour Daily activities: Whatis your partnerusualtydoingat thesetimeson a Sunday? 8 a.m, 3 p.m. 6 p.m. 9 p.m.

things: Unusual thingsaboutyourpartner. Findout two unusual 2

I ChatWorksheet Askyourpartner aboutthesethings,andnotedownthe answers: Likesand dislikes; favouriteactor s0ng food subiectat school website fitm leastfiavoutite sport colour Dailyactivities: doingat thesetimeson a Saturday? usualty Whatis yourpartner 1 0 a. m . 1 p. m . 4 p. m . 7 p. m .

Unusurlthings: Findout two unusual thingsaboutyourpartner. 1 2

Chapter6

before getting them to use chat. Making contact can include exchangingbasic personalinformation and digital photos in advance.This way learnerswill have fewerinsecuritiesabout talking to'total strangers'online,a challengeevenin one'snative language. Set a clear task, or seriesof tasks,for the chat, so that learnersare not left wondering what to chat about. Ensurethat it is clear to learnerswhat the purpose of using chat is. As we mentioned earliet there is not much point using chat if the learnersinvolved are perfectly able to talk face-to-face!Using text or voice chat with the sameclassall together in the computer room is fine for trying out the softwareand becoming familiar with chat, but the use of chat will be far more effectiveif it mimics real life and is used to connect people who are geographicallyfar apart. Most effective of all is integrating chat into a wider project betweenclassesor countries, which alsousesother ICT tools suchasblogs,wikis or podcasting. The ideal group size for a text or voice chat is small! The bigger the group the harder it is for participants to contribute, and for the moderator to keep things on track - and this is especiallytrue of text chat. For us, an ideal group sizeis about 6 to 8 people for text chat, and 3 to 5 people for voice chat. Some chat software,such asthe chat functions found in certain Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), havebreak-out rooms for text chat. This meansthat a large group of usersin a text chat can be put into smaller groups, and eachgroup sent to a separatechat room. The moderator/teacheris then free to move between the rooms and monitor the chats. Record the chat. Most text chat programs will allow you to log (record) the text conversationas a transcript, which can then be used for analysisandlor a reminder of the content/topics coveredin the chat. Somevoice chat programs also allow recording, with the chat recordedas an audio file. Recordingchats, whether text or voice,is useful for learnerswho are not able to attend a chat, as they can read or listen to the chat later in their own time. Recordingchats also makesthe whole experiencelessephemeral,and provides a basisvia the : transcript or audio recording for later languageanalysis. Have a contingency plan! If your school'sInternet connection is down, or for any reasonyou are preventedfrom being able to usethe computer equipment, ensure that you have a backup plan to do something elsewith your learners!

84

Howto usechat

concluslong I hthischopterwehave: r considered howchatcanbeusedbothin andoutsidetheclassroom. r lookedat variousUpesof chat. r givensomeexamples of chatprogriams. r discussed whya teachermlgfitwantto usechatwithlearners. r lookedat someof theadvantages of usingtextandvoicechatwith anddisadvantages learners. a r lookedin detailat howto lmplement andoutlined textorvoicechatwithlearners, textchatclass. sample r provided a finalsummary bn usingtextor voicechatwithlearners.

85

Blogs,wikisand podcasts r Soclalsoftware r Howto start uslng a wlkl wlth learners r BlogpIn languageteachlng r Howto start uslngblogswlth r PodcastsIn language teaching learners r WlklsIn languageteachlng r Howto createlearner podcasts

Social software Blogs,wikis and podcastsare all examplesof social software,computer tools which allow people to connect, to communicate and to collaborate online. A blog is essentially a web page with regular diary or journal entries. The term is short for web log.A wiki is a collaborativeweb space,consistingof a number of pagesthat can be edited by any user.The term comesfrom the Hawaiian word for'quick'. A podcast is an audio and/or video file that is'broadcast'viathe Internet and can be downloadedto a computeror mobile devicesuch as an MP3 player for listening/viewing. The word podcastcomesfrom combining iPod and . broadcast,iPod being the brand name for the Apple portable MP3 player.Although these three tools are different, we are grouping them together in this chapter asthey havecertain featuresin common when applied to the classroom: r They can be set up and usedby teachersand/or learners. o They can be used to connect learnersto other communities of learners,for exampleto a classin another country. r The ideasand content can be generatedand createdbylearners,either individually or collaboratively. Although the useof ICT tools such asblogs,wikis and podcastscan be very motivating for learners,teachersare themselvessometimesfearful of the technology,or feel that they are not technically competent enough to use thesetools. However,as we will see,all of these tools are easyto set up and use,with no specialisttechnical knowledgerequired. Another common misgiving is one related to content, and the lack of control that a teachermay feel about allowing learnersto generateand createtheir own content. Teachers may find themselvesthinking:'Will the content be appropriate?Will the languageusedby my learnersbe good enough?'In fact, thesetools engendera senseof social responsibility, with learners working collaboratively on content. Also, the public nature of the content created using these Internet tools ensuresthat accuracy and appropriacy become more important to learners. 86

Btogs,wikis and podcasts

Blogsin languageteachlng The most common type of blog is kept by one person,who will regularly post comments, thoughts, analyses,experiencesof daily life, interesting links, jokes or any other form of content, to a web page.Blogsmay consistof written text only, or they may include pictures or photos- photoblogs- or evenaudio and video. Most blogs will allow readersto comment on blog entries, thereby creating an online community around a common topic, interest or person. We can thus seewhy blogs are referred to as social software, as they set up informal grassrootslinks betweenblogs and writers/readersof blogs. Blogs will sometimesinclude a blogroll, or list of links to other blogs which the blog writer admires, thereby widening the online community of blog writers and readers. On the next pageis a classblog with entries from studentsstudying at a collegein the USA. The blog was set up aspart of an international exchangeof infomation with students in other countries. Blogs used in education are known as edublogs. Edublogscover a wide rangeof topics relatedto education,from musingson educationalpolicy and developments to learnercompositions. An edublog can be set up and used by a teacher,by individual learners or by a class. A teachermay decide to use a blog to provide their learnerswith news and comments on issues,extra reading practice or homework, online links, a summary of a classfor learners who were unable to attend, study tips, and so on. In this case,learners will accessand iead, and possibly add comments to, the blog outside the classroom.A blog set up and maintained by a teacher is known as a tutor blog. The teachermay decide to allow their learnersto write commentsin the blog. The one on page89 (top) is an exampleof a tutor blog set up by a teacher in Argentina for her Cambridge First Certificate Examination preparation class.In the blog sheprovides study tips, reviewsclasswork and provides extra links on specifictopics such aspronunciation. A teachermay encouragetheir learnersto eachsetup and maintain their own individual blogs. These are known as student blogs. Learners can be asked to post to their blogs once or twice a week, or however often the teacherjudges convenient, and content can range from comments on current affairs to descriptions of daily activities.Other learners, from the same class,from other classesor even from classesin other countries, can be encouragedto post comments and reactionsto student blog postings.The one on page89 (bottom) is an example of a student blog set up by a learner in Brazil. Student blogs lend themselveswell to teachertraining and development,too. A trainee teacher,for example, can be encouragedto reflect on what they are learning, or on classesthat they are teaching, by meansof a reflectiveblog. The third type of blog is the classblog, one used by an entire class.Again, this blog can be usedto post comments on certain topics, or on classwork or on any other issuethe teacherthinks interesting and relevant to learners.In a classblog learners all post to the sameblog.

87

Chapter7

A classblog

88

Blogs,wikis and podcasts

A tutorblog

OD200645-10,ilipc $id...

'Weekend" 6 thc abid

of {rEtcSorL.d

This w!.tdd ryB Ety !icc, bcsur pby ffi of 6i!83, litc plsy gffi, fiqds aod w $s midm ir4osiblc

(h 2006{X{4

I mt to ry friod'r bu d rc & r ht .,. ID s!&y rut to thc sh@ilg vitb s 3, it'r Ey !ioo.

,ilip6 5id.-

"my life" On tL. sbj*lof

ttuk8ori..d

Wdt Ds! b S& hto I ,lry s vilh Ey fridr I !o to rbo cie! vith tD@ Dd s to lo r ld of pls to8rths. SodiB I gp vllh Ey @d6 vatd w ldd of oy tim htcie Ad s'|r'iha I g.t at with D y pe&rt!. tidc In Sb Pulo rc he r lot of tiilge to do.

O 2006Ot-28 ,ftlipo $irt...

"about" O! tl. sblFi

of lh..btoriad

Ili pople, ny !@ lr Fdipo I'E 14 y6 old. I E bom i! Slo Palo Bnrjl ed I sudy i! ! Ftard rch@l olhd Lyc6c Prcr.I llE h6 b Slo P{do, rhcc e .ri'8. @y lo do h6 ud ffiyhilg is @1. I ajot brg otwith friad!. vddd eiw mvic....

A studentblog 89

Chap te Z r

Here are examplesof some ways in which you can use blogs with your learners.All or off the of theseblogscould include photos,which can be takenby learnersthemselves, (www.flickr.com). free photo-sharing such as Flickr Internet from or clip-art sites

Tutorblog

Studentbtog

Classbtog

r Set homework.

. Personal andfumily (inctuding information photos).

r Reactions to a film, article,classtopic, currentaffairs.

r Providea summary of classwork.

r Extrawriting practiceon classtopics.

r Thingstearnerslike/don't tikedoingin ctass.

. Providelinksto extra readingilistening material.

r Regutar comments on currentaffairs.

o A classprojecton any topic-

o Questionand answer (e.g.aboutgrammar, classwork).

. Research and present informationon a topic (e.9.an English-speaking country).

. Exam/Study tips.

. A photobtog on learner's countrylastholiday town.

to using blogs in the classroom.They provide a There are some obvious advantages 'real-world' tool for learnerswith which to practisetheir written English, as well as a way of contactinglearnersfrom other parts of the world if the blog is used as part of an internationalexchange.Evenif a studentor classblog is not sharedwith learnersin other partsof the world, a blog is publicly availableon the Internet.In theory anyonecan readthe blog,althoughonly invitedmemberscanbe givenpermissionto add comments. One of the issuesto bear in mind when settingup studentor classblogs is that of correction - how much help are learnersgiven with their written work? Learnerstend to want their written work in a blog to be as accurateas possible,given that the blog is publicly accessible, and the teacherneedsto be preparedto give learnersplenty of time for writing, reviewing,redraftingand checkingpostingsbeforethey are addedto the blog. Asking learnersto prepareblog entries in a word processingprogram, beforehand,and encouragingpeer review of work in progress,for example in pairs, can help with this process. A further areato consideris assessment. Giventhat a studentor classblog is essentially a written assignment,blog postingscan be used for evaluation.If the teacherintends to evaluateblog entriesas part of a writing assessment, aswith any written work the criteria for evaluationneedto be made clearto learnersin advance.Criteria will probablyinclude those used to evaluatemore traditional, paper-basedforms of writing, such as accuracy, fluency,coherenceand relevance,but they may also include criteria relatedto the visual natureof this electronicmedium, suchas the effectiveuseof visuals,or visualpresentation overall,and other areaslike the lengthof postingsand awareness of audience.

Blogs,wikis and podcasts

Howto start usingblogswith learners A simple blogs project that you can use with learnersof all levelsis to get your students to set up their own student blogs, writing about themselves,their interests,family, home, country,and so on, and including somephotos.

Stept - Settingup a sompleblog (t-z hours) At home beforeclasssetup your own blog, including information about yourselfsimilar to what you would like your learnersto produce. Doing this has severaladvantages: o It allows you to becomefamiliar with the blog interfaceand how it works. o It showsyour learnerswhat a blog is. o It providesa model for your students'blogsin terms of: content- what the learnerscan write abouq language- the levelof languageexpected;and look - for example,the blog could includephotos.

Stepz - Settingup student blogs (t hou| Once you have shown your learnersyour sampleblog, for which you could prepare some comprehensionquestionsto help them understandthe content,takethem to your computer room, and help learnersto setup their own blogs.If there arethe facilities for one computer per learner,eachlearnercan setup their own blog. If learnersneedto work in pairsor small groupsaround one computerterminal,one blog canbe setup per pair/group.In the caseof the single computer classroom,the teachercan set up a singleblog for the entire class,with it outsideof classtime. multiple usersaccessing Note that helping learnersto setup their own blogscan be quite labour intensive!You will find yourself answeringquestionsfrom learnerswho are all at various stagesof the setup process,so if possibleit is alwaysa good ideato put learnersinto pairs or small groups to set up their blogs,with one more tech-sawy learner per group to help out. Expectto spend one entire classon helping learnerswith the mechanicsof setting up their blogs. If you have the facilities to project a computer screenfrom a laptop connected to a data projector or an interactive whiteboard, you can take learnersthrough the blog set-up processstep by step on the screen,while they work on their computers.

Step3 - Posting to and visiting blogs (t hour) When learners have set up their own, pair or small-group blogs, they are ready to spend some time on preparing and posting content. Once the student blogs contain several postingsand photos,encouragethem to sharetheir blog addresses and to visit eachother's blogsand to post comments,or in the caseof a singleblog with multiple posts,encourage them to comment on eachother'spostsin the sameblog.

Step4 - Follow-up(z-3 hoursor severollessons) Both teacherand learnerswill havespentsometime on learningto useblogs,and on posting their initial blog entries,soit is well worth carryingon usingthe blogsfor more than a couple Learnerscan be encouragedto post regularlyover a certainperiod of time, for of classes. example,a term or a semester,with the teacherproviding ideasand suggestionsfor content. The blogscanbe kept asan internal classproject,or other classes canbe encouragedto visit and to comment on the blogs.Teacherscan evenjoin an international network of teachers

9l

Chapter7

(seeChapter 11) and get learnersfrom other countriesto visit and to comment on the student blogs.Blojs can be set so that only invited members havecommenting privileges, which givesthe blog some measureof security.This will be particularly important if you are working with younger learners. Note that it is normal for blogs to havea limited lifespan.Only 50 percent of blogs are estimated to be active three months after being set up. Blog fatigue, or blogfade,will set in, so it is often a good idea for the teacherto have a clear time frame in mind for a blog project,such as a term or semesteror a couple of months. If learners'interestdoesn'tflag after this time, the blogs can alwaysbe continued! You may want to experiment with using blogsfor differentpurposeswith the sameclasses.

Howto setup o blog There are a number of free blog sitesavailableon the Internet. Theseinclude: r Blogger (http://wwwblogger.com) r WordPress(http://wordpress.org) o EzBlogWorld(http://www.ezblogworld.com/) . BahraichBlogs(http://www.bahraichblogs.com/) o Getablog(http://www getablog.net/portal3.php) Below is the start-up pagefor creatingyour own blog in Blogger.

gLOGg OF NO'E {lii+ AFct.thln4ll

FANDOI' 8LOg3 Eil@

Createa blog in 3 easy steps:

wq@b

Publbh thd4hts

G€t

f!€&ek

Post

p|Itc

Go molile

Q cr"ruan*rnt f| namepurutos $

cnooseatemotae

A blog ls yor 6y{rue u€b site, r,lF yq @ qqbkly pGt thorgilr, inta-t with p.ode, rrd |w. All fq Ffi€E.

The blog pagesfreely availableon the Internet tend to be very user-friendly,and setting up your own blog is usuallya straightforward process,with no specialisttechnicalknowledgeor expertiseneeded.You simply visit the homepageof the blog and follow the instructions.

92

Blogs,wikis and podcasts

Audio and videoblogs To be ableto createan audio or video blog, you needaccessto audio or video equipment, aswell asediting softwareand sufflcient spaceon a web serverto storethe multimedia files. Audio equipmentwill include a headsetwith microphone,and video equipment a digital video cameraor webcam,althoughwebcamimagestend to be of poorer quality overall. For audio blogging, Audacity is software which is easy to use (http://audacity. Also take a look at Audioblog (http://www.audioblog.com/)for more sourceforge.net/). details,while for video filesyou may want to look at Freevlog(http://freevlog.org/).Bearin mind that while the conceptof multimedia blogs is not overly complicated,you will need skills,and this may alsoimpact on your classroomtime sometime to acquirethe necessary planning kind to do this of project with your learners.You will needto spenda if you are little time training them, too. If, for example,you want to try adding audio to your blogs, you will first needto teachyourself to useaudio editing softwaresuchasAudacity,and then Belowis an exampleof a video teachyour studentsto useit, so they can recordthemselves. blog, or vlog, madeby a teacherliving in |apan,in which he commentson his daily life.

Wikis in languageteaching First of all, how is a wiki different from a blog?A blog is essentiallyan online journal or diary,usuallywritten by one person,which is addedto regularly.Most blogs allow visitors to add comments,which arethen visibleto the blog owner and alsoto subsequentvisitors who can in turn comment further. A wiki, on the other hand, is like a public website,or public web page,startedby one person,but which subsequentvisitorscan add to, deleteor changeasthey wish. Insteadof being a staticweb pageor websitelike a blog, a wiki is more word dynamic,and can have multiple authors.A wiki is like having a publicly accessible processingdocumentavailableonline, which anyonecan edit. 93

Chap terZ

Essentiallya wiki is not linear, like a blog. A blog consistsof a number of postings, which arepublishedon one web page,in reversechronologicalorder with the most recent postingat the top. A wiki hasa non-linearstructure,and pagesmay link backand forwards to other pages.It might be helpful to imaginethe differencelike this:

A blog

A wiki

nE_6=

*r n F . E E s b *f r .-tssLssrr{bry .8-qrb-\.. I I csdadt

I hd.... I bar.

a cone|*

txlr lS ttre€-r-|@.6r-pdt-.t..1i.?... lacomrilr

_w E*m+

I I

I

IL.ra.com.ilI

E" jE

EJ LE

One of the best-known wikis is Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), an online enryclopedia that anyonecan add to or edit. Wikipedia demonstratesseveralaspectsof socialsoftware:it is collaborativeand grassroots,displaysmultiple authorshipand is not'owned'by anyone. Its accuracy is a matter of debate.However, one analysis compares its overall accrlraq favourably to that of EncyclopaediaBritannica. The screenshotbelow shows the entry in Wikipedia for the word wiki.

Vu fr gte Itp tn d,W,

q e4

b rrt *W

Fedonl

f f i( 9 T$dMIdMWI

FAQI ,|@NM'

Fom wlhpadlE, tD fr.! encydopadla

.

94

Cde.b

fu. otlw BB, s* lMkl (dle4ttrbigpstloo). qWki&, fak guidellGs. FdintmdbrMtl tttL'goa w IUFTil>

@@ Link to electronic media I have created:my blog, PowerPoint presentations, audio and video presentations,a working wiki.

@

Links to other in the lastyear, including my contribudons to a European Union Socrates (Leonardo)prcject called'E biz' (E-Business).

An exampleof a student'sePortfolio I2l

Chapter9

and other files to be uploaded, aswell as having a blog and wiki integrated and providing featuresfor podcasling. Like most software that can be used for creating ePortfolios,Elgg allows content to be kept private, so that only designatedusers, such as a prospective employer or a teacher,can accessthe ePortfolio, and only with the owner's permission.

Interactivewhiteboards An interactive whiteboard (IWB) is made'interactive'by being linked to a computer which usesspecialIWB software.The three essentialcomponents neededto use an IWB are the whiteboard itself, a computer which has IWB software installed and a data projector (or 'beamer') which projects the image from the computer screenonto the whiteboard. What makes the interactive whiteboard different from a normal whiteboard is that the teacher usesa specialpen (or their finger with some makes of board) to manipulate content on the whiteboard itself, rather then using the mouse to manipulate imageson the computer screen,which the teachercan alsodo. The latestIWBs can alsobe usedwith a wirelesstablet PC (a smaller,hand-held computer) instead of a larger desktop or laptop computer. This has the added advantagethat it can be passedaround so that learnerscan manipulate the IWB from the tablet PC. The interactive whiteboard itself comesin different sizes,measureddiagonally across. The most common sizeis 190 cms (75 inches) across,and teacherstend to agreethat the bigger the board the more effectiveit is, as imagesare more clearly displayedon a larger board. A whiteboard can be mobile (that is, moved from room to room) or fixed, but a mobile board needsto be set up again each time it is moved, which can take time. There are also backlit interactive whiteboards which do away with the need for a projector, but theseare the most expensivekind of board. They are particularly useful in rooms with low ceilings. The main advantage of an IWB used with a computer and data projector over a'' computer and data projector usedon their own is that you can write on the IWB with your pen or finger and interact with what is on the screenfrom the front of the classrather than having to look down to your computer and using the mouse to control the screen.

lWBsin education The British Council has been influential in bringing IWBs to languageclassroomi outside the UK, introducing them into SoutheastAsia in 2003, and expanding their use of IWBs since then. In the UK itself, huge government investment from the early 1990shas seen IWBs appearingin primary and secondaryschools,and further education,on a large scale. Both are examplesof a top-down implementation of technology,with large organisations (in this case,the British Council and the British government) providing the impetus for the introduction of new tools in the classroom. Excellentclassroomworkis being done using IWBs atprimary, secondaryanduniversity level,aswell as in the languageclassroom.JustGoogle'IWB projects in schools',and you'll see a range of current and recent IWB projects in all sorts of school subjects.However, at the time of writing IWBs are being used mainly in large organisationslike the British Council, or arepart of government-lededucation initiatives,especiallywithin the European Union. This is down to the high costsassociatedwith IWBs. The hardwareoutlined aboveis expensive,and usually well beyond the budgetsof individual languageschoolsor education

122

Technology-based courseware

ministries in lesswealthy countries. Although the costsof the hardware involved in using lWBs are expectedto decreaseover time, they are likely to remain beyond the reachof most EFL teachersworldwide for some time to come.

UsinglWBswith learners If you are lucky enough to have accessto an IWB, you will know that the 'wow' effect is extremely high. In other words, IWBs look and sound impressive.Imagine a full-size colour screenin your classroom,with video, CD audio, pictures, interactive exerciseslike those found on a CD-ROM, accessto the Internet, and more, all instantly accessibleat the touch of your IWB pen. You can also use an IWB pen to write over the imageson the screen,highlighting things in different colours, using a variety of fonts and srylesto write in, or you can use the pen to hide and reveal imageson the screen.Items can be moved around the screenusing the pen, and previous lessonsand content can easilybe kept and retrieved,aseverything is savedon the computer.This meansthat a huge bank of resources is alwaysivailable at the touch of a pen. The experiencesand opinions of teacherswho have used IWBs in the classroomtend to be positive. Teacherspoint to increasedteacher and learner motivation through the introduction of a new (and impressive-looking)multimedia tool into the classroom- the 'wow'factor we mentioned earlier. Teachersalso appreciatehaving so many multimedia tools availablein one 'place' on the IWB. For example,at the touch of pen a teacher can pi^y u section of an auiio CD, bring up a transcripi of the audio, highlight or underline part of it, make it disappearagain while the audio is replayed,bring back the highlighted transcript, then move straight to a drag-and-drop activity basedon the sametranscript. IWBs are particularly effective for the'heads up' presentation stagesin a lesson,as the teacher can have learners all looking at and concentrating on the screenat the same

A teacheractivatesan IWB withhis finger r23

Chapter9

time. The teacher-canalso use content on the IWB to take the focus off themselves.This can be particularly useful for the modelling of language,for example the pronunciation of words or phrases.As IWBs can be connected to the Internet, excellentEFl-related or authentic content from a wide variety of sourcescan be accessedin seconds,and beamed up for the classto see.Another common use of IWBs is in conjunction with PowerPoint for presentations. Researchcarried out into the impact of IWBs suggeststhat they can directly affect learners'motivation and attention levels,but that there is no direct correlation between heavy use of IWBs and increasedtest scores.This suggeststhat although learners may 'enjoy'IWBs as tools, there is no direct evidenceto show that it actually improves their English. As with any new tool, it is as well to keep in mind some of the disadvantages associatedwith IWBs, namely their high cost and the fact that teachertraining in how to use IWBs effectivelyis often ignored. fu with any new tool, an IWB is only as good as the use that is made of it. There is a danger that IWB classescan becometoo teachercentred, with learners becoming a passiveaudience.However, as IWB manufacturers often point out, learnerscan also come up and usethe IWB themselves,to move items around on the IWB and indeed direct a part of the lesson.

IWBmaterialsond training Initially there were very few materials availablefor IWBs in the field of TEFL. Mainstream primary and secondaryeducation sawthe developmentof IWB materials to teachscience, maths, biology, geography,and so on, but the development of IWB software for the field of languageteachingwas slower to get off the ground. The early adoptersof IWBs in ELI found it extremelytime-consuming to produce their own IWB materials on the computer for use with classes,and publishers have responded to this by developing IWB software packages. IWB teachersstill canand do producetheirown materialsthough,andthesearetypical$ electronic materialsusing tools such asthose explored in Chapter 10,or any other material that can be displayedon a computer. Let's imagine a teacherwho wants to use imagesof animals in danger of extinction for a lesson,and finds that the IWB software availablein their school does not have any of theseimages.They simply go to an imagessite, such as Google images,or Flickr and download relevant images to the computer for dipplay on the tWB. Similarly, a teachermay decideto use a specificactivity which they havemade in Hot Potatoes(seeChapter 10) on the [WB, for remedial work on a certain grammar point with the class.SomeEFL publishers now produce IWB softwareto be used in conjunction with coursebooks.Theseare usually interactiveversionsof the coursebookitself,which can be displayedand manipulated on the IWB, rather than additional activities such as those traditionally found on coursebookrelated CD-ROMs. Tiaining for teachersin the useof a complex tool such asan IWB is important to ensure effectiveuptake. There is no point in a school spending considerablesums of money on an IWB if the teachersare unsure of how to use it or frightened of the technology.Large institutions which havetaken IWBs on board on a large scale,likethe British Council, will usually provide in-house training for their teachers,and severalof the IWB manufacturers, such as Prometheanin the UK, provide training and certification for fWB use,both faceto-face and online, aswell as IWB softwarefor mainstream school subjects.IWB suppliers provide online help and manualsfor using IWBs, aswell asshort hands-on demonstrations of how IWBs can work in the classroom,either live or on video. 124

courseware Technology-based

have: Concluslons I h thlschapterwe r discussed foundonCD-ROMs. thecontent r r r r

howDVDs canbeusedin class. considered tool. bothduringclasstime,andasa self-access lookedat waysof uslngCD-ROMs CD-ROMs. lookedat howto evaluate testing,progress testingand testingfordiagnostic computer-based considered exams. officiallyrecognised testing. r examined of computer-based anddlsadvantages theadvantages (electron r considered ic portfolios). ePortfolios r lookedat interactive whitriboards 0WBs)- whattheyare,howto usethemwith forthem. andtrainingareavailable andwhatmaterials learners

r25

Producing electronic materials r What are elestronicmaterlals? r What ls an authorlng tool? r Creatlngelectronicmaterlals r Uslngauthorlng tools to producematerials online

Whatareelectronicmaterlals? When we refer to electronic materialscreation and usein the context of this chapter,we are talking about informational resources,exercisesand activities that you createyourself and which your studentsuseon a computer asweb pageor CD-ROM content, or evenin printed form. The production of these materials may include working with external web pages, using web pagedesignskills,the useof small programs installed on your own computer or more complex CD-ROM production software.The choice of tool will be determined not only by the kinds of materials you want to produce, but also by the time availableto you and the resourcesat your disposal.It is beyond the scopeof this book to go into the more complex sidesof materials production, so here we will mostly be concentrating on simple web-basedmaterialsor materialspreparedusing web resources. Here we build on the word piocissing activities we coveredin Chapter 2 and the use' of websitesin Chapter 3, and look at printable resourcesas well as on-screeninteraction and activities sharedover a computer network. To get a good idea of the kinds of materials we're consideringin this section,take a look at the teachingresourcefrom the Activities for ESL Studentswebsite (http://a4esl.org/) on the opposite page. There are many reasonswhy you might want to create and use your own electronic materials in class.Firstly,you will be ableto provide extra practice for weakerlearners,and consolidation and review exercisesfor groups. Secondlp as you build up a collection of your own resourceswith your own learners'needsin mind, you will start to generatea large bank of materialswhich can be used in classor for self-studyat any point in the future. In classthesekinds of materials can provide a changeof pace and can be highly motivating. Learnersoften enjoy the chance of competing against the comput-erwith thesekinds of discreteanswerexercisetypes.If time is spent on feedback,you can checkwhich language areaslearnershave had problems with and provide further practice materials if necessary. A large school (or network of teachers)might even work electronic materials into a more collaborative project, building up a wide range of digital resourceswhich are then sharedbetweengroup members over a server. Thesemay be adaptationsof existing print materials in some cases,or completely new exercises.With the ready availability of web storage,thesecan be uploaded to a central repository, perhaps a wiki-based solution (see Chapter 7), or a more robust storageplatform such as a Virtual Learning Environment 126

Producing electronicmaterials

A Thea4ESLhomepagefeatures a wide varietyof exercises in manydifferentcategories (left-handcolumn)and in manydifferentlanguage (right-hand combinations column).

B A sampleintermediate grammar multiple-choice exercisefrom the site. The learneris givena gapped sentenceand hasthree choiceswith whichto fill it. Feedback is givenaftereach question,and a scoreis kept.

Anlnals

t.-Iu@|Iry a.dEddb

C A sampleintermediate vocabularycrosswordon animals,with cluesdownthe right-handside of the quiz grid itself.Learnerstype one letterin eachgap in the grid.

eJd.fi.,dEffi

@@

127

Chapter10

(seeChapter 11) or a Content ManagementSystem(seeChapter 12). In many casesthe wiki approachmight be the ideal option, asit allowsall contributors to work towards a final resourcebasedon the'rough copies'providedby the contributors,which can be addedto and refined until the group is happy with the end result. Thesecan then be downloaded by individuals, and customisedto suit their particular teaching needs.

Creatlngelectronicmaterialsonline One of the easiestways of getting started in this areais to use some of the simple exercise generatorswhich can be found online. Theseproduce a variety of exercises,from printable resourcesto be taken into classto exerciseswhich can be turned into web pagesand made availableon the Internet, both for your learners and for other teachersifyou decideyou want to sharethem. One of the most popular is the DiscoverySchool Puzzlemaker(http:ll puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/). This features a variety of different exercisetypes, including traditional onessuchasword searches.

FIIYDTHEFRUIT WDCYDNAYDOAXYSR I

KL

M RNHVF

IP R IA E

ET ANARGEM OPL EPY ORANGEEOJ

TLP GTE

HCAUCM IBGL ET OCE RBWKEHDT WNBDDL J UXYIL REAM AAPL UM OPNT PSYHT URM NL T IF OEPARGREDT F YT F IM F ANOQVYF ASUC T GEOEUNKPAHGQOJ GEL

KNNBEKF DL OK E

RBZ BIOAT JRPVT YV CIKYPCQHAZ BM KF O UF SOHPSOKIVNL OC

In this caseyou haveto print out the pageand photocopy it for your class.You could export the content to Word which would allow you to add imagesof fruit to the task. Puzzle makers are ideal tools for reviewing vocabulary, and take the hard work out of preparing many different quick quizzes.In addition, you can give your students the opportunity to prepare quizzes themselves using these tools. Another useful tool is Smile (http://smile.clear.msu.edu). This tool allowsyou to createa free accountin which to manage your own online bank of exerciseswith student tracking and a good variety of exercisetypes.Here you can choosefrom multiple choice,true/false,drag and drop, 128

Producing electronicmaterials

sentencemix, paragraph mix, cloze and multiple select.Activities are created online and can be done by learners entirely online, although some, such as cloze texts, are suitable for printing out and doing offline. This is an ideal site for exam preparation classes.One of the major advantagesof a site like this is that it allows you to build up a manageable collection of exercises,making it easierto addressthe individual problems of particular learners,but also to make consistentuse of web-basedexercisesthroughout the duration of a course.This will help to give your learnersan idea of why they are being introduced to thesematerials,and also give them a good overview of what they are covering online. The subject of learner tracking and Learner ManagementSystemsis dealt with in greaterdetail in Chaptert l.

Whatis an authoringtool? An authoring tool is an installableprogram that allowsyou to creatematerialsin electronic format wt"richcan then be distributed on a CD-ROM, DVD, USB pen drive, floppy disc or via a web page to your learners.Authoring programs are used to make CD-ROM-based referencetools like Microsoft Encarta (seeChapter 8), but also more simple resourceslike information leaflets,brochures,handouts and interactive exercises. Most teacherswill perhaps not have a need for the more expensiveand professional solutions, although any centre involved in blended learning solutions (see Chapter 11) which use custom-developedmaterials might be well-advised to look at digital content developmentasaviablewayof making interactiveand multimedia-basedmaterialsavailable to its learners.As with a lot of high-end technology,it should be borne in mind that the learning curve for a lot of thesepackagesis steep,and that proficient production will havea significant drain on both financial and staffing resourcesduring the developmentalphase. Authoring tools usually feature a simple design interface, with drag-and-drop elementsallowing you to add pictures, soundsand video material to the screen,along with navigational options such as forward and back arrows, and content menus. Some of the more professionalauthoring tools have complex programming languagesallowing you to control what happensin greaterdetail, but thesewill require a degreeof expert knowledge which most teacherswill probably not have the time or inclination to acquire.Therefore you would be well-advised to ensure that any software you choose is going to be useful to you. This can be done by downloading and installing trial versionsbefore making any purchasingdecisions. If you would like to explore the commercial side of multimedia creation,you may like to look at Mediator (http://www.matchware.com/en/products/mediator/edu/why.htm), Macromedia Director (http://www.adobe.com/products/director/) or Neobook (http:// www.neosoftware.com/nbw.html).Here we will be considering free or reasonably-priced resourcesfor content creation, allowing you to experiment without spending any or very much money.

Usingauthoringtoolsto producematerials Perhaps the most famous authoring tool in our field is Hot Potatoes.This is a small Windows or Mac program that createsa variety of exercisesand can be freely downloaded for educational purposes (http://hotpot.uvic.cal). This program will install on your own

Chapter10

computer and allow you to createweb-basedexercisesof the following tfpes: . o r o o o

multiple choice short answer jumbled sentence crossword matching/ordering gap-fill

It alsoallowsyou to include audio files in MP3 format and will evenallow you to storeyour exerciseson a central serverso that they can be accessedfrom anywherewith an Internet connection. To get started, install the program and find it in your program folder. When you first start it up you will be presentedwith the following screen.

From here you can chooseone of the tools. Let's take a look at creating a simple exercise. Click on fQuiz to get started (seepage 131 top). Here you can put_the title of the exercise, and start by adding question 1.There are four answersto my first question,eachwith their own feedback,and answer B is marked as the correct one (seepage 131 bottom). Now click the up arrow next to Ql on the screenand add a secondquestion, with answersand feedback.Don't forget to mark the correct answer.Continue doing this until you have made your quiz. Now it's time to actually createthe quiz as a web page.First make sure you saveyour quiz so that you can return io it later to make edits if you needto (File - Savei.Now we will turn this into an interactive web page.Click on'File - CreateWeb page' and then choose the'Webpagefor v6 browsers'option. Give the filename and then saveit. You should now be able to look at it in a web browser. 130

Producingelectronicmaterials

No. that's in France.

CorecdWitha population d...-

Nc'tiafs in Spain(ad if: nothe csltdridtetlL

Ro4eiethec4{td of haly- so fs notthaton€.

- hsfs in Seain.hn ffs notthe

andifsthe @tal, $& a poprdaEon of-.-

131

Chapterro

That's how the_barebones of all the quizzesgeneratedby Hot Potatoeswork. If you want to delve deeper into things like formatting the output, changing colours, and so on, then you should look in the Options menu when you are creating a quiz, or investigatethe 'Help' file that comeswith the program. There are also plenty of tutorial exampleson the Hot Potatoeswebsite (http://hotpot.uvic.caltutorials6.htm). Once you have createda set of exercises,you can packagethem all together using'The Masher'.This is a utility accessedfrom the start page of the Hot Potatoesprogr:rm which will guide you through linking a set of individual items into a small learning package,with full navigation between the various elements.You can then distribute these on discs, or memory sticks or CD-ROMs, or put them on a websiteif you or your school has one.

lnteractivestories Another areato explore in electronic materials,and a move awayfrom straightforward test and practiceexercises, is the creation ofinteractive storieswhere learnersreadscenariosand then make choicesto decidewhat they will do at certain key points. Theseare excellentfor readingcomprehensionpracticeor assmall-group discussionsthat encouragecollaborative and critical thinking skills. They encouragelearnersto develop a wide range of skills from listening to debating, agreeingand disagreeingand making points and supporting them. Sincetheseare basicallytext-driven activities,you should be able to produce them for any level. You can see some examples of typical interactive stories (or reading mazes) here (http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary/version_2/examples/ ). Thc EYllbndladyAstlon Hue

Castarvay

t32

Producingelectronicmaterials

In the exampleson the opposite page,the reader is presentedwith a scenario and a set of choiceson each screen.Each time a choice is made the story unfolds further. The Evil Landlady Action Maze is basedaround the scenarioof an ESL student at a Canadian university who is having problems with her landlady, while the Castiiway Maze involves learnersin a strugglefor survival on a desertisland.This desertisland scenarioin particular is a familiar languagepractice tool, presentedin a slightly different way. The examples below were made with a piece of software called Quandary. A demonstration version of the software is available (http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/ quandary.php), and provides enough information for you to get an idea of whether the softwareis useful to you or not. Download the demo version from the Half BakedSoftware site above. Note that the full program costs $50 at the time of writing. Here's how it works:

You need to give your readingmaze a title (ExerciseTitle) and then give the opening screen a title (Decision Point title). Now start by describing the opening scenario of your maze (Decision Point contents).The idea now is to add two (or more) choicesfrom this opening screenand further screenswhere the story will develop.Click on'+ New Link'. Select'Create a new decision point'and give it a relevant title. Do this for the choicesyou want to offer your learners.In our example on the next page (top), they can decide to go shopping or wait until tomorrow. Notice that the'Go shopping' option is now automatically linked to Decision Point 2 and'Wait till tomorrow' is linked to Decision Point 3. Use the forward arrow next to the Decision Point number to advanceto Decision Point 2 and add the text for that option. Do 133

Chapterro

the samewith Decision Point 3. Now you will have an opening screenwith two options, eachlinked to another screen(seebelow). When you have finished your small miLze,save it (File - SaveFile) and then convert it to a web-basedactiviry for your learners.You can

r34

P r o d u c i ne gl e c t r o n im c aterials

do this by clicking'File',then'Export to XHTMLI When it has finished,you will be ableto preview it in your browser. Thesearejust a coupleof optionsfor creatingonline materials.Indeedthe areaof online materialscoverssucha wide variety of formats and storageoptions that we are reallyonly ableto scratchthe surfacehere.Exploring someof the sitesand programswe havecovered herewill help to giveyou an ideaof the kinds of things that can be producedwith very little technicalknowledge(designed,as the majority are,by teachersrather than technicians), but you will probablywant to searchfurther to get an ideaof the biggerpicture.Make sure that you brush up on your searchskills from Chapter3 beforeventuring on to seewhat's out there.To getyou started,hereare a few more examples: CI a r i ty S oftw a r e (hftp: //www. clarityenglish.com/ ) Clarity has a long history in producing English languagerelated products, and their authoring tools are both reasonablypriced and easyto use.Have a look at their Author Plus Pro and TenseBusterprograms,which can be usedfor a variety of different exercise types,including audio, graphicsand video content,and allow for the creationof listening It alsohasa sophisticated interactivedictationsand presentations. comprehensionexercises, through the materials. learnertracking option, allowing you to seeyour learners'progress

- Softwarefor Teaching CreativeTechnology

(http://www.cict.co.uk/software/textoys/index.htm ) FeaturesQuandaryand other usefultools including a marking program for incorporating into Word (Chapter 2), a clozeprogram called WebRhubarband a text reconstruction wherelearnersreconstructwritten textsfrom smallerchunks. program calledWebSequitor, Theseare all good programs,producedby the lead developerof the Hot Potatoessuitewe looked at above. QUIA (http:iiwww.quia.com/subscription/) serviceallowing for the creationof varioustypesof activities, This is a subscription-based surveysand web pages,aswell asextensivelearnertrackingoptions.The siteoffersa variety of ready-madetemplatesfor materialscreationand the ability to set up a study spacefor your learners,aswell asaccessto over two million activitiesalreadyin the library.

Conclusions r r r r r

I ln thischapterwehave:

exercises. varioustypesof interactive considered whichallowfor thecreation of interactive exercises. lookedat websites reasons for usinginteractive exercises with learners. examined a varietyof exercise types. learnthowto produce produced readingmaze. an interactive Yo U c AN H E AR Tw O TE A C H E R S TA LK TN G O N T HE C D -R O M ABOUT HOW THEY CREATE THEIR OWN MATERTALS AND WATCH A TUTORIAL ON USING HOT POTATOES-

e-learning: onlineteaching andtraining r What is e-learnlng? r Teachlngand learnlngonllne r Goursedeslgnfor online learnlng:eramples r Coursedesign for onllne learnlng: conslderatlons

r Howto get started with onllne learning r Teachertralnlng and onllne learnlng r Dlscusslonllsts andonllne gloups

Whatls e-learning? Sofarwe havelookedmainlyattheuseoftechnologytoenhancecourseswheretheclassroom and face-to-facecontactsare the main element.Here we look specificallyat online teaching and learning, that is teachingand learning done mainly at a distance,usually via a personal computer and the Internet. We havealreadylooked at some of the tools that can be used as part of an online course,for exampleonline referencetools in Chapter 8. e-learning refers to learning that takes place using technology, such as the Internet; CD-ROMs and portable deviceslike mobile phones or MP3 players. There are several terms associatedwith e-learning,which are often used interchangeablyand which can be rather confusing. Let's take a quick look at some of the main terms here: o Distance learning The term distancelearningoriginally applied to traditional paper-baseddistance coursesdeliveredby mail. Nowadaysdistancelearning includes learning via technology such asthe Internet, CD-ROMs and mobile technologies(seeChapter 12), hencethe newer term e-learning.Distanceor e-learningareoften used as umbrella namesfor the terms below. . Open learning This is one aspectof distancelearning and simply rqfersto how much independencethe learner has.The more open a distancecourseis, the more autonomy the learner has in deciding what coursecontent to cover,how to do so and when. r Online learning This is learning which takesplacevia the Internet. As such,online learning is a facet of e-learning.

t36

Onlineteachingand training

o Blended learning This is a mixture of online and face-to-facecoursedelivery.For example,learners might meet once a week with a teacherface-to-facefor an hour, and do a further two hours'work weekly online. In some situations the digital element is done offline with a CD-ROM.

andtearningonline Teaching How does online learning actually work in practice?The following scenariosare examples of learning situations which make use of the computer, but they are not necessarilyall examplesof online learning. o Learnersin a self-studycentre,or at home, usea CD-ROM which provides them with extra practice of what they have done in class. o During class,learnersare taken to a computer room, and do exerciseson a languagewebsiteon the Internet, in pairs. o Learnersuse an ICT tool, such asblogs,wikis, chat or podcasts,for project work, either inside or outside the classroom. .

o Learnersemail their homework or classassignmentto the teacher,who marks it and emails it back to learners. r The teacherusesa blog to provide learnerswith online links for reading and listening, homework assignments,and summariesof classworkfor learnerswho miss class. r The classroomis equipped with an interactivewhiteboard, which is regularly used in class. r Learnersmeet face-to-faceonly once a month, and do classworkusing email, chat, phone and sharedactivities on the Internet.

We would argue that only the last scenarioaboveis an exampleof online learning. In fact, in this case,as the learnersdo meet face-to-face,we are talking about blended learning, a mixture of online and face-to-facecoursedelivery. Key to the conceptof online learning is that a very significant part of the coursedelivery and courseworktakesplacevirtually, using the Internet. At one end of the scalewe have a 100 percent online course,where learners never meet face-to-face,and all course content and courseworktakesplaceonline, and at the other end of the scale,a blended option where most coursework takes place face-to-face,but there is a regular and carefully integrated online component to the course. Online learning is often delivered via a learning 'platform' or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Also known as a Learner Managernent System (LMS), or a virtual classroom,a VLE is a web-basedplatform on which course content can be stored. It is accessedby learners on the Internet, and they can not only see course content, such as documents,audio and video lectures,but also do activities such as quizzes,questionnaires and tests,or usecommunication tools like discussionforums or text and audio chat.Newer VLEs even integrate blogs and wikis. Increasinglypopular in the VLE world is Moodle, an open sourceVLE which is free.Other well-known VLEs areWebCT,which recentlymerged with Blackboard,and First Class,although neither of theseis free. r5/

Chap t e r 1 1

The advantageof a VLE for coursedeliveryis that everythingis in one place,and most VLEs provide tracking facilities, so that the online tutor can seewho hasloggedin when, and seewhat activities learnershave done, or what documents and forums they have VLEs also usuallyprovide fairly sophisticatedtools for assessment accessed. and grading, with recordskept for eachlearner.Thus a teachercan evaluatea learner'swritten work in the VLE, as well astheir contributionsto forums,and thesegradesare or assignments automaticallyrecorded.Resultsfor automaticallygradedactivities(like quizzesor tests)will alsobe fed into the learners'grade book'with the learnerableto consulttheir gradesand checkprogressat any point. With this combination of automaticallygradedactivitiesand VLEsprovide a much richer tool for learnerevaluationthan, for example, tutor assessment, where a CD-ROM, learnerassessment will normally be basedon automaticgradingonly.

Coursedesignfor online learning:examples What might an online courselook like?Let'slook at someexamples. Courser: A roo percentonline languageleaming cource Thiscourseis likelyto be instigatedby an institutionin responseto a perceiveddemandin the market,or perhapsas part of a governmentsponsoredinitiative.Thecourseis not unlikea coursebook online,with ten unitscoveringthe four skitls(reading,listening,writingand speaking), grammarand vocabulary. Learners work theirway througha seriesof materialsand activitiesontine,whichinctudereadingand listeningtexts,and writing,grammarand vocabulary activities.Manyof the activitiesare selfmarking,with feedbackgivenautomatically by the computer,but activities suchas writingtextsare sent to a tutor via email.Speakingis dealtwith via a phoneor Skypetutorialeveryunit (seeChapter6), and learnersalso needto sendregularvoicemailto their tutor.Thecoursecan be takenby an individuatlearner,who worksthroughthe coursemateriats at their own pace, or by small groupsof learners,who all start at the sametime, and haveset deadlinesfor work. Forexample,learnersneedto completeone unit per month,and certainactivitieswithinthat unit by specifieddatesin the month. In the caseof a smal[group,additionalfacilitieslike onlineforumsand a E text/audiochat roomare providedfor groupmembersto discussissuesand materials, and to meetin regularly, with and withouta tutor.

{ourse z: A blended languagelearning course A languagelearningcoursedeliveredZ5 percentonlineand z5 percentfaceto-face.Thiscourseis similarto Courser in that it is tikelyto be instigated by an institutionin responseto a perceived demandin the marketor as part of a government-sponsored initiative,but learnersmeetoncea monthfaceto-hce in a groupwith a teacher.Simitarmaterialsto thosefound in Course r coveringthe four skills,grammarand vocabulary are deliveredboth online and face-to-face, but speakingactivitiesare carriedout mainlyface-to-face. Phonecontactand Skypemay provideextraspeakingpracticefor learnerson this course.

138

Onl i ne teachi ng and trai ni ng

Course3: A face-to-facelanguagelearning so$Ee wlth additional online materials A typicallanguagelearningcourse,whichusesonlinetools to supportand lessons.Stricttyspeakingthis is not an onlinecourse, extendfuce-to-face but it is the way most teachersget involvedin ontinelearningand become moreconfidentwith usingonlinetools with their learnersat a distance.The teacherusesthe followingonlinetools: . a tutor blog to provideextra readingand tisteningpractice,to set of classwork. homeworkand to providesummaries r Learners whichare returnedvia emailthe teacherall classassignments, email. r The teacheroffersregularchat sessionvia Skypefor the learners,outside classtime, for exampleeverysecondweekendat a specifictime,for an hour. r Theteacherdoesproiectwork with the classinvolvingICTtools like blogs, learnersto work on theseprojects wikis or podcasts,and encourages outsideclasstime, in virtualgroups. will Typically,a teacherwith a personalinterestin integratingtechnologyinto their classes start off with a Course3 approach,but the reality is that many teachersare increasingly finding themselvesin the position of being askedor told to use a Course I or Course2 approachas part of an institution-wide online learning initiative. In this situation, it is essentialfor the teacherto havea cleargraspof the fundamentalsof online coursedesignas well asan overviewof the kinds of tools and softwareavailable,including their limitations, many of which we haveexploredin previouschapters.

work. A tutor blogsummarisinga recentclassand providinglinksfor extraout-of-class t39

Chapteru

conslderations Coursedesignfor onlinelearnings In designingonline learning courses,there are certain questionswhich the coursedesigner or individual teacher needsto consider carefrrlly if the coursesare to be of good quality. If you are thinking of trying out elementsof online learning with your own learners,or are involved in larger scaleonline learning projects, the list of questions below will help you to bear in mind some of the key considerations.For a courseor study programme to demonstrategood practice in online learning, the following questionsneed to be answered satisfactorilyat the designstage.

Deliverymode . Is the coursepurely online, or doesit include blended learning?If blended, exactlywhat percentageof the coursetakesplace face-to-face,and how often do learnersmeet? o What elementsof the coursecontent are deliveredonline, and what elementsare deliveredface-to-face? o How exactly are the online components of the coursedelivered?By email and chat?In a VLE?Via an ad hoc collection of online tools like Skype,email and Yahoo! Groups? o Can a CD-ROM provide a useful meansof delivering digital content for elements that are difficult to download, for examplevideo content? o Is the method of delivery suited to the content?In other words, if an online coursepromisesto teachand practisepronunciation, but the delivery mode is via email, it is unlikely to work! o What elementsof the coursewill take place synchronously,that is, in real time, and what elementsasynchronously,that is, not in real time? What synchronous and asynchronoustools will be used? o Does the coursecontent and deliverv mode reflect the learners'needs?

Taskdesignond moteriols e What materialswill be used for the coursecontent?Will they be tailor-made content and activities,or will existing resourceson the Internet be used? o What issuesof copyright need to be taken into account,if you are using existing activities,graphics and websitesavailableon the Internet? r Is content attractively presentedand varied, for examplewith graphicsand animation? Is there a range of media used- audio, video, text - and a range of tools - forums, text/audio chat, email, voice mail? . Are different task types provided?For example,are all the grammar exercises drag-and-drop or are various activity types available?

140

Ontineteachingand training

o Do task t)?es appealto a variety of learner styles? . Are there plenty of opportunities for interaction betweenlearners,and between learnersand tutors, built into the tasksand overall coursedesign?

Leorners r Are the learnerscomputer literate, or will they need training to usethe online tools?If training is needed,how will this be provided? o To what extent are the learnerspreparedfor and suitable for e-learning?How will their courseexpectationsbe dealt with? r Will the coursebe individual self-study,or will learnerswork through the course material at the sametime, in small groups?What is the maximum sizefor a group? o If the courseis 100percent online and group-based,how and when will group formation and socialisingactivitiesbe integrated?How will learnersbe made to feelpart of an online learninggroup? o How much tutor support, and accessto tutors, will learnersbe given?

Teacher/Tutors o Are the tutors experiencedin e-learning,aswell as computer literate, or will they need training to deliver the course?If training is needed,how will this be provided? o To what extent will tutors be involved in coursedesign,or will they simply deliver the course? o What is the ratio of learnersto tutors, and how many hours a week are tutors expectedto work on the online component of a course? o How much support are tutors given,and bywhom?

ond evaluation Assessment o How will the success- or otherwise - of the courseitself be evaluated? o Will the coursebe evaluatedas it is running (known as'formative assessment')or only at the end ('summativeassessment')? o How will learners'courseworkbe assessed and graded? o How will tutors'performance be evaluated? As we seeabove,many of the issuesinvolved in online instructional designarenot dissimilar to the considerations for putting together a face-to-facecourse, where we also need to ensure that course content meets our learners' needs,catersto a range of learning styles and has evaluation proceduresin place.One of the keysto effectiveonline coursedelivery, though, is that the tools chosenfor the tasksmatch the aims of the activity and course.

141

Chapter11

Howto get st4rtedwith onlinelearning If you are new to online learning, but would like to experiment with it, as with anything new it's a good idea to start small. The examplesusing simple online tools in the Course 3 scenarioaboveare a good way to start. If you are teachingadults, it is useful to first discuss with your learnersthemselveswhether theywould like to havean online component added to their face-to-facecourse.Many adults spend a lot of time in front of a computer at their workplace, and may not seethe point of spendingextra time out of classdoing more work in front of one. Others value the social elements of their languageclasses,and may not enjoy communication with their peerswhich is not face-to-face.Only if you can convince your learners (and yourself) of the added value that online learning can bring to their languagelearning,should you try it out. Your learners'needs,likes and learninggoalsneed to be taken into account to avoid the gratuitous application of online learning for its own sake,which will only alienatelearners. In the caseof secondaryschool learners,many of them will already be familiar with Internet tools like blogs,wikis and chat, and will probably embracethe use of technology in the classroommore readily than adults. As with using any new tool with learners,it is useful to find out what level of expertiseand experienceyounger learnersalreadyhavewith any tools you may want to introduce into your teaching. If you are involved in a scenariomore like Course I or Course 2 above,our first piece of advice is that, if you can,you should do a courseonline yourself, as a learner.This does not necessarilyneed to be a languagecourse,but could be in an areathat you are interested in (cooking, photography or linguistics, for example) or a teacher development course online. Research,aswell asanecdotalevidence,suggeststhat effectiveonline tutors usually have previous experienceas online learners.Certainly being an online learner oneself is the fastestand most effectiveway of getting insights into the online learning and teaching process,aswell as familiarity with the tools and softwareavailable. If you areinvolved in a scenariosuchasCourse f ( 100percentonline), specialattention needsto be paid to the development of group dynamics online and to online socialisation processes. Probablyoneof the most importantthings for teachersand institutionswho getinvolved in online learning is to realisethat online learning is not a cheap and easyalternative to face-to-facelearning. Quite the opposite, in fact. The more effective an online course is, the more time it has been given, at the design and developmentstagesand also during the tutoring stage.|ust ask anyone with any online tutoring experiencewhether they think face-to-faceteaching or online tutoring is more time-consuming! In the online context, individual learnersoften haveunlimited accessto their tutors by email, and this may result in learners having unrealistic expectationsof their tutors in terms of responsetime and availability. It's always a good idea to clearly establishfrom the outset how long a tutor will taketo respondto learners'onlinework or emails.A24- to 48-hour turnaround time is often stipulated. If synchronousaccessto tutors is included in a course,for examplevia Skype,the tutor can specifr'office hours'when they are availablefor audio (or text) chat. Finally, here is a summary of tips to keep in mind if you are consideringworking with online learning. The tips below refer mainly to 100 percent online courses,but severalof them will be relevant to blended coursesaswell. . Thkean online course.Experiencingonline learning yourself will make you much more awareof - and empatheticto - difficulties your own online learnersmay r42

O n l i n et e a c h i n ga n d t r a i n i n g

encounter,aswell as issuesof online group dynamics,the importance of contact with the tutor, and so on. Ensurethat all designand delivery issuesare resolvedat the planning stage.See the checklist above.Be preparedto spend a lot of time on coursepreparation and on tutoring. Find out about your learners'expectationsabout the online course,and dealwith any unrealistic expectations,early on. Createinteractive tasksat the beginning of your online courseto introduce the learnersto the technicalitiesof the online environment if you are using a VLE. Createan online community by providing opportunities for learnersto interact with eachother and to get to know eachother socially from the very beginning of the course. Createspaces,communication channelsand norms for dealing with issuesand conflict. This can be done both publicly and privately, and should be available throughout the course. Establishnorms, protocols or guidelinesfor group interaction and behaviour. Thesecan be negotiatedby participants or provided by you. Provide clear guidelinesasto tutor roles,contact times and turnaround time for responding to work and emails. Allow for group closureby, for example,celebratingachievements,disseminating and providing for products,providing feedback,designing'closing'activities contact and development. post-course

Teacher trainingandonlinelearning So far we havebeen looking at online coursesfor learners.Let's now turn our attention to online coursesand professionaldevelopment groups for teachers.With increasingaccess to the Internet, teachers,too, can find opportunities for professionaldevelopment which do not involve expensivecoursesor travel. Any searchin Google using combinations of words like'teachingEnglishi'TEFL,'Certificate','online'and'training'willbring up links to a wealth of online courses,certificates,diplomas and degreesfor teachers.Online training courseson offer include: o short methodology coursesfor teachers,for exampleTeachingYoung Learners, TeachingListening or Using Drama in the Classroom. . pre-servicecertificate courses. . in-service diploma courses,for examplethe Tiinity Diploma or Cambridge ESOL DELTA. o MAs and university diplomas. Someof thesecoursesare offered by establishedand reputabletraining bodies or academic institutions.Othersarenot. Someareexamplesof good practicein online learning.Others are not. How doesthe teacherwho wishesto pursue professionaldevelopmentat a distance, whether via a formal accreditedacademiccourse,or a shorter teacherdevelopmentcourse,

Chap t e r 1 1

distinguish betweenwhat are and what are not valid training courses?The obvious answer is that for more formal and academic coursesensure that the course is accreditedby a recognisedbody, while for more informal courses,make sure the course providers are known and respectedin the field. Also, make sure that the course'spurported aims are in fact compatible with online delivery.For example,any pre-serviceteachingcoursewhich is deliveredfully online is likely to lack credibility, as observedface-to-faceteaching practice is a usual requirement of thesecourses. Quite apart from the issueof accreditationand validation, online training coursesalso need to demonstrate current best practice in the field of online learning. Our checklist of issueson course design above can help you decide whether an online training course is actually any good in terms of content and delivery.To choosean online course,you should have clear answersto most of the issuesraised in the course design section, either via the courseweb page,or in email correspondencewith the courseproviders. For the teacherwho does not wish to embark on a course,but would like to keep upto-date with issuesin the field, or developtheir skills more informally, there are number of options online.You could join or set up an online discussiongroup, subscribeto blogs or podcasts,or read online journals or magazines.In the next sectionwe will look specificallyat online discussionlists and groups, and how thesemight help with teacherdevelopment.

Dlscussion tlsts andonlinegroups Youwill haveprobablycomeacrosstermslike'mailing list]'discussiongroup','Yahoogroup' or others to describegroups of people connectedby a common professionalinterest like teaching or teachertraining who are in contact with each other via email. As is often the casewith theseterms, they tend to be usedinterchangeably,although there are in fact some differences,which we should clarifr. A mailing list is the simplest form of email communication, and is informative." Typically a mailing list disseminatesinformation, for example on forthcoming online coursesor conferences,or new materials or articles,to those who sign up and join the list. One exampleis the British Council's ELIECS lists, which keep members around the world informed of events,activities, coursesand grants (http://www.britishcouncil.org/eltecsjoin.htm). A mailing list is best comparedto a snail mail, or normal mail, newsletter,which members receiveregularly,and which keepsthem up-to-date. A discussion list is similar to a mailing list but will allow for and encouragediscussion of topics and issues.A lot of these are run using mailing list software called Listserv or Majordomo, and are based in universities around the world. Two very popular ones are TESL-I (http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/-tesl-l/)and NETEACH-L (http://hunter.listserv. cuny.edu/archives/neteach-l.html). Messagesfrom a discussionlist are sent to membersby email. They are not viewed on the Internet, although there is usually a searchablearchiveof past messages availableon a server. A discussion group is similar to a discussionlist, and usesnot only email but typically also offers a location online where documents,files and photos can be stored,and perhaps other facilities for members,such astext chat, a calendarand accessto a member database. On the oppositepageis a screenshotof a well-known discussiongroup site,Yahoo!Groups. On the left-hand side of the screenyou can seethe various facilities that this particular discussion group offers. Members who join this group can have the messagesposted by

144

O n l i n et e a c h i n ga n d t r a i n i n g

Actlvlv

lr|sody Fct F{6

sllhla

7 d.yr:

1 tlor Mmbq

. 2 tltr

M6sa€6

D.GID'tlon

Photos Ll{q

Ml+s

Thir ir tb. ofEcid li$ of tlc IATEFL Tah.r wbrits rt:

Tilinc[

ed EdudoR Sp6id llbst

Goup (fTEd SIG),M.t. ruE r.hr you vitit thc lidr

S*^,

f66l

hEp:/wjh6ed/tgit

Pdb' tlmb€c Cd"nd..

ilo.i n6t lrmg6 (Ooupby TopE)

tvbs^q

|-----l

r,"oo

Sbrt To'tc

PqiEt! Ildlo ThidcE.Iln Dottucifir itko${ro 'rdydie" mutd bc pl.r$d to tDow !boo! od Grtly Fosad,sdBcl!,2@l:l!9n

oo tbL li$.but il aGobvio8

Re$E t for aLi.re D.rcott..tuq^Equt brhclp rith MA @hEtrdioi'Bh.a olgC Could yo rpc oc tiil b @apkE I bricf Pffia.Fn h rl.2m!:r7 F BEC I Bdrbh Co@[ 29llovobcr,2006ltcllo

thd bcof

rd.ptlnt b rtw@nHtr

FTlhh wkrtier acr.rht 29 Noy 06 od *lco@ b tbcDstcbfolthc88c I Britirh Crurcil rib,Tehilt

you

lnd

sll&bErduln e qh lSdEml dareddlbtt Offi I sd hl

Nk Pefq rfk.po4tFy@...

Reproducedwith permissionof Yahoo!Inc. @2007 by Yahoo!Inc. YAHOO! and the YAHOO! logo are trademark of Yahoo!Inc.

other group memberssentto them either asindividual emailsor in one daily digestemail, or memberscan decideto receiveno email,and to onlyview messages byvisiting theYahoo! group site itself. IATEFL (The InternationalAssociationof Teachersof Englishas a ForeignLanguage) has severaldiscussiongroups which useYahoo!Groups,basedaround individual Special Interest Groups (SIGs), such as teachertrainers, teaching young learners,testing and learningtechnologies,and so on (http://www.iatefl.org). assessment, Mailing and discussionlistsand groupsaresimply waysin which groupsof peoplewith common interestsuseemail to communicate.As we haveseenabove,the main differences between different types of lists and groups is between how much discussion/interaction takes place, and what tools are availableto members. There is, however,another sort of group in which not only is there a lot of discussionand interactionbetweenmembersbut also sharedresponsibilities,tasksand activities.Thesegroups are known as communities of practice,or CoPsfor short.When a CoP is an online group,it is calleda'distributed'CoP. Two exemplary CoPs in the teaching profession are the Webheadsgroup and the Dogme group, both of which useYahoo!Groups to communicate,and both of which we highly recommendjoining. . Webheads (http://www.webheads.info/) Theseare a group of ESL/EFLteachersand trainersfrom around the world, who discusshow to usetechnology with their classes.Members try out various technologiesand tools with their own classes,make contact with other Webhead classes by using ICT tools like chat,blogsand wikis, and then discusshow these impact on their own classroompractice.

145

Chapter11

. Dogme (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dogme/) Theseare a group of teachers,trainers and materialswriters interestedin exploring how to teachwithout using materialslike coursebooks,and using the learnersthemselvesas resourcesto generatecontent and dialogue.Like Webheads, Dogme members often try things out in class,then discussthem afterwardswith the group. Both of thesegroups display the characteristicsof CoPsoutlined below. . Belonging to the CoP is voluntary. o Goalsfor the group are negotiatedby the members.For example,a CoP of secondaryschool teachersmight as a group decide to examine,discussand work with the issueof discipline in their classesfor a month. o Someroles in a CoP are assigned(for example,PersonX alwaysuploads files for the group); other roles are emergent(for example,PersonY is an expert on topic 1,and PersonZ is an experton topic 2,and dependingon which topic is under discussion,Y or Zwill play a leadingrole). o The CoP will produceartefacts,or'resources',likeguidelinesor PowerPoint presentations,which will be archivedfor the group to access. o The issuesdiscussedby the group will be put into practice by group members. For example,if the group discussesan issuelike discipline in class,memberswill then try out specificdiscipline strategieswith their own classes. . The CoP will engagein overt reflection about what they are doing - what works well and what doesn't,and why and how practice can be improved. . Usually a CoP will haveseveralcore memberswho contribute regularly to discussions,and many more boundary members,who may follow discussions but not take part. Theseboundary members may well take what they learn in one CoP to another CoP. Most teachersinvolved in online development will belong to several mailing lists and discussiongroups, and eachlist or group will usually display its own characteristics.Some online teachers' groups, like the Webheadsand Dogme groups described above, have a constant stream of messages,which can add up to hundreds of messagesper month. Others, like the ELIECS lists, will have a couple of messagesa da5 usually consisting of information about forthcoming eventsand projectsrelatedto the EFL/ESLprofession.Still others, like some of the IATEFL SIG groups, may lie dormant for months, then are very busy for a period of weeksasa planned discussionon a certain topic is held. None of these different types of lists or groups is inherently'better' than any other. It's simply a matter of each teacherjoining those groups they feel will be of most benefit to them. We belong to over 30 discussionlists and groups betweenus! One way of dealing with the inevitably large amounts of email generatedby belonging to severalonline discussionlists or groups is to haveyour subscription to the group set to receiving only one daily digest email per day,or to no mail, so that you regularly visit the site itself to read messages. As we have seen,the Internet brings a wealth of opportunities to the teacher and teachertrainer for continuous professionaldevelopment,as well as for contact with other t46

O n l i n et e a c h i n ga n d t r a i n i n g

teachersaround the world with similar concernsand interests.One way of keepingup with developmentsin our field is to belong to at leastsome of the groups we mentioned in this chapter.

hove: chapterwe Conclusions I ,rnthis r r r r r r

with e-learning. definedsomeof the termsconnected of onlinecoursesfor learnersof English. lookedat examptes whendesigning an onlinecourse. whatneedsto betakenintoaccount considered lookedat howto get startedwith offeringonlinecoursesto learners. discussed onlineteachertrainingcourses. for teachersonline,suchas otherprofessional development opportunities discussed groupsandontine(distributed) of to mailinglists,discussion communities betonging practicer

Preparing for the future r Thestateof theart : Howtokeepup-to-date r Webz.o

r Thefuture of onllne learnlng r Vlrtual learnlng r m-learnlng

Thestateof the art In the ten yearsthat we have been training teachersto use technology in ELI, the pace of changehasbeen slow.However,there are signsnow that the paceis beginning to accelerate with the advent of more user-friendly tools and software, and greater opportunities for more formalised training. Indeed, it is rare these days for any teacher not to have made some small investment in the use of technology in their work, from the teacherwho uses a word processorto put together worksheetsto the more active userswho are members of online communities of practice groups. One of the main entry points into technology for a lot of teachershas been their own experienceof it in the form of distancetraining, with more and more busy professionals finding themselvesonly having the time and resourcesto developprofessionallyby taking advantageof online coursesin teachereducation - from short skills-basedcoursesto the longer in-service training like the distance learning version of the DELTA. Courses like thesehave obliged many teachersto engagemore with technology,which has resulted in a changeof attitude. Ratherthan learning technologyskills in isolation, they haveseenat first hand how technology can enhancetraining, and these experienceshave permeatdd their own professionalpractice. In general secondary and primary education, one of the more remarkable success stories has been the uptake of interactive whiteboards (IWBs). The UK stateprimary and secondarysector,for example,has an averageof 7.5 IWBs per school to date,and the UK is the biggestmarket for [WBs in the world, with salesin2004 being eighty times higher than in Germany.Elsewhere,the Enciclomedia project in Mexico aims to provide over 13,000 elementaryschoolswith IWBs and Internet connectivity in the long term. Yet government funded projects on this scaleare still remarkably rare, in part at leastbecauseof the high installation costs. The successof this technology is largely due to the fact that it uses a very familiar metaphor - the board - and consigns the computer to a secondaryor almost invisible role in the classroom.This is a role envisagedby StephenBax in his article'CALL - Past, Presentand Future',where he suggeststhat technology needsto become'invisible',to both

148

Preparingfor the future

the teacherand the learner,in order to be fully integratedinto the learning process.It needs to becomeas natural a part of the classroomas more traditional, longer-established'tools' like the coursebookor dictionary. His article is availableonline (http://www.iateflcompsig. org.uk/media/callpastpresentandfuture.pdf).It is logical to assume, therefore, that if producersmanageto manufacturecheaperunits, and the ELI publishing industryproduces interesting and stimulating software, the IWB stands a real chance of being the first modern technologicalteachingtool to bridge the gap betweenthe'technophiles'andthe 'technophobes'.Although, aspointed out in Chapter 9, if training is poor, the introduction of this technologywill not be a success. But what else might we expect in the future? Any predictions made in a book like this one will undoubtedly be subject to revision over the next few years,but we hope that our suggestionsand areasfor further study will prove useful to you. One thing that is certain is that while the teaching profession may not be changing as quickly as we might have expected,technology is still moving on at an astounding place,and the software and hardware we use are gradually converging into deviceswhich are more user-friendly and which integrate a myriad of servicesin one place. Lastly,the pace of changewill vary for different groups of teachers.Some groups will move very quickly to adopt new technologiesand new habits while others will remain largely unaffectedby technological changes.There will be no one big movement or trend, but rather a range of trends, some fast moving, others slow.

Howto keepup-to-date In Chapter 11we coveredvarious waysof interacting with other colleaguesinterestedin the useof different technologiesin the classroom,and looked at websitesand online groups for continual developmentin this area.But accessingthesedifferent websitesand joining these online groups doesraisethe issueof how to managea potential delugeof information and ideas.Imagine that you regularlyread five blogs relatedto teaching,and another three blogs related to using ICT in the languageclassroom,as well as trvo online journals which are published monthly. Calculatethe amount of time you would spend every day going to all thesesitesto checkon the latestpostings.This is where RSS,or ReallySimplySyndication, can make a huge differenceto our everydaylives by helping us cope quickly and efficiently with the large amounts of new information produced daily. RSSrefers to a way of reading content from blogs and websites.How does this work? You install an RSSreaderlike Sharp Readeron your computer, or usean online readerlike Bloglines,and everytime you open the reader,it automatically goesalong to all of the blogs and websitesyou are subscribedto, checksfor new postings and articles, and downloads the headlinesof these into your RSSreadet in a list format. You can then skim through these headlines to get an idea of recent postings or articles. To actually read any of the new content, you simply click on the headline, and you are taken to the story itself. RSS allowsbusy people to skim alarge number of websiteson a daily basis,quickly pinpointing interesting articles.It is, basically,a time-saver.

Chapte 12 r

Webz.o The way we work with technologyis undergoinga swift period of change,and the emphasis now is very much on the emergenceof what hasbecomeknown asWeb 2.0,which perceives the transition of the World Wide Web from a disparate collection of websitesto a fullyfledgedcomputing platform, which deliversservicesand applications(softwareprograms) to end users,whereverthey may be. This is resultingin a vast collection of websitesand serviceswhich are more social in nature, inviting people to sharewhat they find, what they do and what they learn in a wide variety of contexts.You may read, for example, about social bookmarking, where people keep their bookmarks or favouriteson a website insteadof on their own computer.Thesebookmarksaretaggedand described,and anyone - asyou can from also using the site can benefit from your collectionof useful addresses theirs. A good exampleof a socialbookmarking site is Del.Icio.Us(www.del.icio.us).In the screenshotbelow you will see a collection of teaching-relatedbookmarks shared by a Dodge.This bookmarkingcan saveother teacherstime by giving them colleague,Valentina the benefit of another user'sexperienceand research.However,it must also be borne in mind that more accessto this kind of information does not necessarilymake life easier, havingasit doesthe potentialto overwhelmthe userwith information and sourcesof good material.One of the more important skills to be developedin the future will be that of sifting largequantitiesof information into useablechunks,and we will all needto develop fasterinformation processingand evaluationskills if we are to makethe most of this new platform, which is where softwaretools like RSSprove so useful.

/ vale24 / i---l ffi a"t.t"lo.us

poFrlJ I E6d loeln I r.elltdl

p60er oa42 " slid I latd , WkiMafix - Comparg lh6m all nv6 rhrs b$tuafewlki,..svodby1oh€rper$n,,idaya0o

Y AJdlo 0 {do 4nF 38 podc6t ,O PodcarirE 'It podcsri.B-olr 3r Padc8le r gbgs

NeMbos Roviow - lnt6m€tApplicauong Software senrs l&kmarkgstltl $lBare .efr6wmsgdin€...2days690 tonewibes FeadDemon 2 Roview - lntemot Applicalions Sonwara svs *iis ICTr€viewmagelno...2 dsyselo b FIS-$

I blio

Edus€w Foundalion Grents ProgramfiF sve hrs b CFPSLeleami.0.-. 3awdby6 oEE tsof ls .- 3 dsls aoo

ss utig

BBC NEWS I Technology I Blogging 'set b peak next yea/ F€ m1$ b b{ogblossilosgif,g6ddo ..,*rii!d:{t?q5:E*i#dit{ii ..,4dayssoo MFLE - C|Balivs teachlng in modem languages svorhls roCAi-L€Tsllaboreiive blo{spM€5rlBanin!lanluage ...sv6d by9g&ftteofe ...4daysaoo edu@Ion Comic Lile plasq svdlhis [email protected]...

4 dalssgp

EvoDone's got an oTwin sorn€wh6rs... I Global classrooms I Educalioncuardian.co.uk lo afilcleE$inftifig..-sved by2 [email protected] Second Lil6 Educalion Wiki - SimTGach sve$ls b wikrs sl... €=E=ffit... onffi 10 Wkipodia and Edtannica: Ths Kld's All Right (And So'E the O{d Man) uve ws b wk Irud€ wibsskp€dia ..idirf,Sfidli0ftnfrtf.friii*iffi... ondoc10 . erlle I lda,

pao. 1 o{

'€

h.lp

0M hie

t0 HaoEfi 33 UofiirE 6ll blog! r Ecm .t c.AE I FCE 2 IELTS i Urfly . ltsly il lt8y r r,EdG I t{apolitaD I Rofng t SCSD v Olrltm 9 C*LL t2 chd I colltbq.awg 15 ffinudcdlr 10 ffimudty

We havelooked at other socialsiteslike wikis and blogsin the courseof this book, and the list is growing. You can now find community-driven sitesin many areas,from placeswhere 150

Preparing for the future

people sharetheir music tastesand discovermusiciansrecommendedby other users,to collaborativeonline calendarsand enormouscollectionsof imagesand videosall uploaded, describedand made availableby the usersthemselves. It hasalwaysbeensaidthat content is king, but what is interestingabout this changeis that the content is now not necessarilythe domain of the bigger commercialcompanies, who are in a position to chargefor what they supply,but is increasinglysuppliedby users for users.You only have to look at the number of public-producedvideos and images making their way on to websitesand newsprogrammesto seehow the model is changing. MySpace,a social networking site primarily used by younger Netizens has recently been linked to the successof pop artistsThe Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen, while other social sharing sites have been the launch pad for musicianssuch as Sandi Thorn, who attractedover 100,000listenersto her concertsbroadcastover the Internet.It is this longhailed democratisationof content,and user-drivensites,which is marking the changein the way that the Internet deliverscontent.

Thesesiteswould seemto havea part to play in languageteaching.When the consumer also becomesthe producer,sharedknowledgeand resourceswill take on a greatervalue, allowing teachersto pick and choosewhat they want to use in eachclassand promoting In effect,the use of social greaterpersonalisationof the teachingand learning processes. websitesshould encouragea more eclecticapproachto teaching,and it is to be hoped that the teachingexperiencewill be further enhancedby the teacher'sability to provide tailored practiceand personalisedlearning opportunities for each individual, without the effiort this may haveinvolvedin the pre-digitalage.

r5l

Chapter12

Not only will this shared approach enhancelanguageteaching, but it will also have an impact on continuous professional development, with teachers creating their own personalisedpages,drawing together blog feeds,video materials, essaysand articles from a variety of sourcesinto an ever-changingpersonal development site of their own. A site like this will constantly evolve and update to suit the teacher'sdevelopmental needs at any given point, and as such will be vastly different from more formal learning situations, and be basedon'just-in-time'solutions to particular training needswhich involve a wider collection of people, all working towards sharedgoals.In effect,Web 2.0 may well become the biggest training institution in the world. You can find out more about Web 2.0 by looking it up in Wikipedia. If you want to investigatethe kind of things which can be done in Web 2.0,you could start by looking at'All Things Web 2.0' (http://www.sacredcowdung. com/archivesl2006| 03| all_things_web.html).

Thefutureof onlinelearning One of the real growth areasover the next few yearswill be in the areaof distributed learning and training. This is particularly relevantin contextswhere the costsof a few computersand a good Internet connection arefar lower than the more traditional approachof transporting participants and tutors to a location for face-to-facetraining. In the training area,some organisations,such as the Cultura Inglesa schools in Brazil, have already been using this systemfor someyearsto reach its teachersthroughout the country, and with considerable success.Other organisationssuch as the British Council and International House also use online training solutions for teacher training via a virtual learning environment (VLE). What we expect to seehappening is more online training, but combining VLEs with the socialtools mentioned in the Web 2.0 section aboveand other virtual reality environments which add the feeling of actually'being there'to what can otherwise be perceivedto be a lonely experiencefor the trainee. We would also expect to seea changein the way people learn languages,and the way they continue with their professionaldevelopmentor lifelong learning as time constraints put more strain on their everydaylives.This can alreadybe seenon a small scalein many languagecentresaround the world, with students no longer attending timetabled classes for a certain number of hours per week,but preferring to undertake a lot of the repetitive work in self-access mode, and meeting colleaguesand a tutor for tutorial-based sessionson an ad hoc basis.Theseso-calledhybrid coursesare not only a reaction to the market and to the frantic paceof life of many people,but they also exist to cater for a changing clientele, a more'wired'community - the Net generation. Online learning will probably also mutate into a hybrid form of how it is currently delivered. At the moment organisations tend to use a VLE to deliver online learning, but these servicescan often be sterile in terms of providing the kind of communication opportunities we usually consider vital to the languagelearning process.It is highly likely that the more static material which can be offered in a VLE will be complementedby some of the social siteswe mentioned above,and better synchronoustools such as peer-to-peer voice chat via Skypeor similar software.This integration of serviceswill allow for a more rounded user experience,and significantly improve the uptake in the area of language learning and teachingonline. It will also probably be the casethat thesewill be combined with software that more actively encouragesthe developmentof communities of practice (see Chapter 11) to t52

Preparingfor the future

further enhancethe social constructivist nature of the learning taking place there. These may be tools assimple aswikis and blogs,but may alsobe something along the lines of Elgg which is A Web publishing Learning Landscape(http://www.tesl-ej.org/ej34lm1.html) application combining the elements of weblogging, e-portfolios and social networking designedto promote learning through sharing of knowledge,conversationand reflection in a social/academicsetting'.

Findingout more A good place to get started would be to investigateVLEs (Virtual Learning Environments) which we have focused on already,and Content Management Systems (CMSs). A CMS is a web-basedapplication that allows for the creation and managementof information - you might like to think of it as a more structured kind of wiki. Essentiallyit is an online repository which can be stocked with web pages,documents, downloads of multimedia files and other resources.It can be managed by a group of people, making it a useful collaborative.environment in terms of pure information sharing. Basically it makes the publishing of web pageseasierand more structured. A good exampleof a CMS is Etomite (www.etomite.org). With excellentdocumentation and community support, it is a userfriendly entry point into the world of information management.Again, this can be freely downloaded,installed on a computer at home and experimentedwith. Etomite is relatively easyto install, and very easyto manageand use.A good useof such a systemwould be for a staff