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INTRODUCTION
The
use of the Internet is becoming increasingly popular, especially
among young people. It has made it
possible to access an endless
amount of remote and freely distributed information and communicate
with one another in a fast and relatively inexpensive way.
As members of society, we know
how computers and Information Technology have changed our lives in
personal and social activities; as teachers, we realise that school
must introduce these powerful media into everyday learning activities,
and in English classes particularly, since English is the language of
global on-line communication.
This course is addressed to English
teachers of secondary schools (first to final years), who believe
the terms "teaching" and "technology" may not be
contradictory and would like to find out about effective ways to
introduce the Internet and New Information Technologies, in general,
into their classrooms.
The main aims of the
course are both to present the Internet as an environment in which
teachers and learners can create contexts for real communication and
to introduce the computer into language classes as the communicative
tool which can make this possible. Using the Internet, teachers and
learners can transform the realism of the contexts created in class
simulations into reality.
It is assumed that trainees will
have a basic competence in the main commands and functions of the
operating system (Windows 95 or 98), such as handling folders and
files, and using Microsoft Word.
From the strictly professional
point of view, they should be open-minded, non-sceptical towards the
introduction of Information Technology in the class, and have a
positive attitude towards challenge and innovation.
The natural setting for
the course is a multimedia laboratory, in which the trainees,
individually or in pairs, will practise what they are taught at
multimedia computer workstations connected to the Internet. The
laboratory will be equipped with the necessary software Windows
95, Windows 98, or Windows NT (operating system), Office 97 (WinWord,
Power Point), Microsoft Explorer or Netscape Navigator (browser),
Eudora or Microsoft Outlook (e-mail), Front Page 98 or Netscape
Composer (Web Page builder) and a digital projector connected to
the main computer.
An expert on computers and the
on-line world will introduce the technical aspects of each session and
will be tutoring the trainees during the practical stages.
The course will be a workshop,
consisting of five sessions of three hours each, mainly
experiential and practical. It is intended for a maximum of sixteen
teachers, with no more than two people at each workstation.
The workshop style has been
chosen to enable the teachers to get to know and stay in touch with
the computers and eliminate all their possible prejudices concerning
the idea of new technologies as cold and difficult, and only of use to
engineers or teachers of scientific or technical subjects. Moreover,
by practising personally, and putting themselves in their students
shoes, teachers will gain direct experience of advantages,
disadvantages, and even dangers to be carefully avoided, so as to
develop strategies that will prevent them from using new technologies
in inappropriate or counter-productive ways.
In each session the
trainees will have short plenary tutorials from a computer expert, in
which they will be taught how to use the hardware and the relevant
software; they will view and examine multimedia productions from
industry, students, teachers etc; they will be given tips, hints,
ideas, information about some possible ways to exploit the
potentialities of the media presented; they will plan and work on
their own projects, individually or in groups.
The skills acquired during the
course, the activities presented and any other project the teachers
might plan on their own, may be easily integrated into the language
syllabus, either in reinforcement phases or in project work
involving linguistic, cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies.
The linguistic skills involved
will be mainly reading (both intensive and extensive) and writing, but
listening and speaking may be practised as well either directly
exploiting the sound material provided on many Websites or in
expansion activities planned by the teacher on the material collected,
on letters written or received etc.
At the end of the course the
trainees will be expected to produce a personal/class/school home
page, personal/class e-mail exchanges, and a plan for a unit of work
using materials from the Internet.
The objectives
of the course are wide-ranging: partially technical, concerning the
acquisition of the skills required to use multimedia tools, but mainly
pedagogic, concerning the communicative activities in which such tools
may be used, including their broader educational value as tools for
authentic intercultural exchanges.
In particular the trainees, at
the end of the course, should be able to:
- evaluate educational software
in order to find out the role played by the computer and,
consequently, the linguistic learning purposes it may be used for
- understand specific lexis
related to the Internet and multimedia in general
- gain awareness of the
potentialities of the Internet
- use a browser (Microsoft
Explorer or Netscape Navigator) to navigate the WWW
- use search engines to find
information;
- introduce a wide range of
authentic material from the Internet into the classroom
- motivate students by
introducing multimedia tools and up-to-date information from all
over the world
- discriminate between reliable
and non-reliable, useful and useless sources on the Web according
to specific purposes
- plan reinforcement activities
or research by browsing through relevant Web Sites, during or
after a unit, providing students with detailed instructions for
navigation, and tasks to fulfil
- use one or two programs for
handling e-mail
- initiate projects in which
students will use e-mail for interpersonal exchanges
- join a chat or newsgroups
according to specific personal or professional interests
- undertake co-operative
projects with partner-classes (e-mail exchanges, research, chats
etc)
- master the main commands and
functions of the software for authoring Web pages (HTML files)
- stimulate creativity by
building personal/class/school Web pages
- build up a personal/class/school
home page, using files created autonomously, copied from floppy
disks or CDs, or saved from the Internet
- change the role of the
teacher (facilitator/co-ordinator in project work, mediator in the
planning phase, sometimes learner from his/her most skilled
students in the phase of the production)
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PROCEDURE
Session
1
USING NEW
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN TEACHING
 Step
1 Time: 30 Objectives: 1
Materials: Power
Point slides, whiteboard, overhead projector
|
The
trainer
|
The
trainees
|
| Introduces
the concept of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning).
Brainstorms
trainees previous knowledge on the role(s) of the
computer in English language teaching, by eliciting 3 4
activities they (would) do using computers in their classes.
Organises the
suggestions in three groups corresponding to three main
roles: tutor, tool, medium.
|
Individually,
write 3 4 possible activities.
Present them to the
whole group.
|
Step
2 Time: 30 Objectives: 1
Materials: Power
Point slides, educational software, handouts
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
The
expert |
Presents
the three main phases in the development of CALL over the
last thirty years:
- behaviouristic CALL
- communicative CALL
- integrative
(multimedia)
CALL.
Distributes a handout
with their main features and some software in use for
English teaching.
|
In
groups, go through the programs, decide which phase they
belong to, define the role(s) of the computer when using
them.
Present the software
and their conclusions to the group.
|
Helps
the trainees running the software. |
Step
3 Time: 20 Objectives: 2
Materials: Power
Point slides, whiteboard, overhead projector
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
| Introduces
the concepts of multimedia, hypertext, and hypermedia by
eliciting definitions from the trainees.
Collects the written
definitions and distributes them to the groups.
Presents some
technical definitions from different sources.
|
Individually,
write their definitions.
In groups discuss the
definitions they are given.
Communicate their
conclusions to the group
|
Step
4 Time: 30 Objectives: 2 - 3
Materials: Power
Point slides, whiteboard, overhead projector
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
| Introduces
the history of the Internet and some facts about it.
After the trainees
have brainstormed English words related to it, writes the
words suggested on the whiteboard.
Discusses with the
trainees the meanings of the words.
Distributes a handout
containing an Internet glossary with the most frequent words
and acronyms.
|
Write
every word they know related to the Internet.
Give possible
definitions of them.
|
Step
5 Time: 20 Objectives: 2 - 3
Materials: Power
Point slides
| The
expert |
The
trainees |
| Asks
the trainees what they know about the services offered by
the Internet.
Illustrates its main
services: www, asynchronous (e-mail, mailing lists) and
synchronous (news-groups, chat lines) communication.
|
Report
what they know about the functions of the Internet. |
Step
6 Time: 50 Objectives: 4 - 5
| The
trainer |
The
expert |
The
trainees |
| In
pairs, practise using the browser, opening specific
locations, using search engines |
Explains
how to use a browser,
how to open URLs and
how search engines work.
Helps trainees
navigate the Net.*
|
In
pairs, practise using the browser, opening specific
locations, using search engines |
*In the sixth
step, more time might be needed if many of the trainees are absolute
beginners in the Internet navigation. In this case the trainer should
add some extra time, at the end of the session, completely devoted to
them.
Top
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Session
2
PLANNING
LESSONS USING THE WWW
 Step
1 Time: 20 Objectives: 2 3 4 - 5
Materials:
handouts with instructions and URLs
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
The
expert |
| Presents
an activity consisting of finding information on a topic on
the Web in fifteen minutes.
Gives a list of URLs -
some related to the topic; some not.
|
In
pairs, use both URLs and search engines to find information.
At the end of the
activity report on the pathways they have followed to find
the information, using the back/ forward buttons as help.
|
Helps
the trainees navigate.
|
Step
2 Time: 30 Objectives: 3 - 4 8
Materials:
handouts with instructions and Websites addresses
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
The
expert |
Gives
trainees three Website addresses dealing with the same
subject, one for each (eg space, school, music, computers,
literature, etc) to analyse according to given parameters:
communication
- target population
- language style
- items contained in
the address (eg com, edu, org, etc).
|
In
pairs, go through the sites and classify types of source (eg
school/university, company presentations, commercials,
personal pages, international associations etc) according to
the parameters given.
Report conclusions to
the rest of the group.
|
Helps
the trainees navigate. |
Step
3 Time: 30 Objectives: 4 8
Materials:
handouts containing the list of Websites addresses
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
The
expert |
| Introduces
information about reliability of sources and "suitability"
for students.
Gives some tips on
recognising unsuitable sources and preventing students from
entering them (back button, History).
Distributes a handout
containing a list of addresses concerned with education and
the teaching of English. Visits some of them with trainees.
|
Visit
the sites presented by the trainer. |
Helps
the trainees navigate. |
Step
4 Time: 40 Objectives: 3
- 6 - 7 - 9
Materials: Power
Point slides
| The
trainer |
| Presents
planning of some lessons for reinforcement and expansion on
a topic related to a unit, carried out by using the Internet
as a teaching resource where all the skills are activated.*
Presents planning of
some lessons of grammar reinforcement based both on specific
Websites addressed to EFL teachers and on Websites whose
content is linguistically related to structures and to the
type of text, register, style, language function to be
practised.**
Presents activities in
which the "guided" exposure to such an amount of
authentic material is directed towards the development of
students learning skills and learning autonomy. In this
case the activities are aimed at the production of personal
study resources and at fostering the ability to discriminate
and systematise information to be used in further activities
(notes, textual schemes, site maps, page layouts, process
description flowcharts, etc).
|
*Eg:
teacher
divides the class in two groups and gives them pre-lab
instructions to look for information about a topic probably
unfamiliar to students; 3 4 sites to visit; some keywords to
enter in the search engine
teacher gives
instructions for a treasure hunt surfing the web, searching for
information and using the information collected for problem-solving
teacher gives
some site addresses and asks students to find a number of pieces of
information they dont know about a topic they have just studied
and some of which seem different from what they already know or
which seem to be contradictory in different sources.
teacher gives
some Website addresses providing rhyme-engines (data-bases where you
can insert the word you want to find a rhyme for and even the topic
for which you are using it) to produce poems according to a pattern
(limerick, ballad, sonnet etc) and make students work in groups or
individually, if they prefer. The poems created will be posted onto
a Website for young poets or sent to (exchanged with, completed by)
e-friends.
Other tasks as
follow-up activities, such as information gap activities to complete
charts, oral/written reports, simulations of interviews, debates,
quizzes, TV news, famous programmes, role-plays or real e-mail writing
to people met on the sites visited, letters of enquiry to
companies, tourist information offices, institutions etc.
**Eg:
Biographies
of famous living people for examples of present perfect/present
perfect continuous/ past simple
Websites on
history for simple past/past perfect etc.
Scientific,
technical Websites for passive forms/relative pronouns/complex noun
phrases/ conditional sentences/modal verbs etc.
Personal home
pages for be/have/simple present/present continuous
etc.
Dictionaries
or glossaries to develop students vocabulary and awareness of the
connections between words and context
Mailing lists
about hobbies, music, sport or any other interest for reading/writing
informal messages and staying in touch with up-to-date (varieties
of) English
Electronic
libraries for literary works, authors biographies
Schools,
colleges, universities for essays, tutorials, transcripts of
lectures, students projects for interdisciplinary project work
and content-based units
A wide range of
task-based activities may be used, such as making hypotheses,
questionnaires, summaries, open dialogues, interview simulation,
gap-filling, sentence completion etc before, while or after visiting
the site.
Websites can be
an incredibly rich source of material to be exploited in many
directions and for many purposes, both linguistic and content-based.
Step
5 Time: 10 Objectives: 9
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
The
expert |
| Invites
the trainees to choose a topic on which they will plan a
lesson. |
In
pairs, choose the topic and find the suitable sites. |
Helps
the trainees find the sites. |
Step
6 Time: 50 Objectives: 3 4 5 -9
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
| Helps
the trainees while they are working. |
In
pairs, plan the lesson.
Briefly present the
layout of their lessons to the whole group.
|
Top
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Session
3
ON-LINE
COMMUNICATION (E-MAIL, CHATS, NEWSGROUPS
 Step
1 Time: 10 Objectives: 10
Materials: e-mail
software (Eudora or Microsoft Outlook)
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
The
expert |
| Makes
the trainees run the e-mail program and, in pairs, find out
and practise its main functions. |
In
pairs, practise the main functions of the program. |
Helps
the trainees in running the program. |
Step
2 Time: 30 Objectives: 3 4 5 8 - 10
Materials: handouts with
instructions of the tasks, e-mail software (Eudora or
Microsoft Outlook)
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
The
expert |
| Gives
the trainees, divided into 5 groups, some key words (eg
e-mail, e-mail tutorial, e-mail message, etc) to be inserted
into a search engine, and a different task for each group.
Ex: Find answers to
the following questions on the Web or in the software you
are using.
Group 1
- What do the
abbreviations "cc" and "bcc" mean?
- What do you type in
the "subject" field?
Group 2
- List the operations
you perform to compose and send a message.
- Why do you need a
password to check the incoming mail or to enter the
program?
Group 3
- What is an "attachment"?
- What do you do to
add attachments to a message?
Group 4
- What are "emoticons"
- What is the meaning
of the @ symbol?
Group 5
- What is a mailing
list?
10) What is a
newsgroup?
|
In
groups, perform their tasks both by running the program and
searching the Web. |
Helps
the trainees both with navigating and with handling the
program. |
Step
3 Time: 30 Objectives: 3 4 10
Materials:
handouts, Power Point slides
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
| Collects
information from the groups and, when necessary, clarifies
and integrates it.
Distributes a handout
containing a brief tutorial on e-mail, mailing lists,
newsgroups, plus some useful addresses related to them.
Summarises the main
points both coming from the trainees search and presented in
the handout.
|
Report
the information they have found according to the
instructions received, both searching through the Web and
running the program. |
Step
4 Time: 30 Objectives: 3 11 13 - 17
Materials: Power
Point slides
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
| Presents
an experience of an e-mail exchange project, involving
students, schools, teachers (of other subjects, too) from
different countries, and its development during the year
both planned and unexpected.
Shows some letters
sent and received by students and teachers, the steps of the
project (from an interpersonal exchange to co-operative work
on topics of common interest), and its final products.
Lists with the
trainees the linguistic skills and the communicative
strategies involved and improved, as well as the influence
of this work on motivation and language skill acquisition.
|
Evaluate
the project presented from the linguistic, metacognitive and
affective points of view (skills and communicative
strategies involved). |
Step
5 Time: 20 Objectives: 3 11 13 7 - 17
Materials:
e-pals.com
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
| Gives
the trainees some Website addresses where they might search
for partner classrooms.
Show one of them in
particular (www.epals.com global classroom exchange) and
all the services it provides entering school data into a
database, searching for a partner classroom, private and
public chat rooms for teachers, students, e-pals.
|
Visit
the Website and realise the opportunities it offers . |
Step
6 Time: 60 Objectives: 3 11 12 - 13 6 - 7 - 17
Materials:
e-pals.com
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
The
expert |
| Invites
the trainees to simulate the search for a school partner and
introduce data (students age, language, country, etc)
into the sites database.
Invites the trainees
to simulate their school subscription into the sites
database (presentation of the school/class, reasons for
starting an international e-mail exchange, favourite types
of school). The trainees may really subscribe, if they want
to.
Creates a private chat
room for the trainees, following the instructions provided (choose
user name/password).
Makes the trainees
chat, after entering the shared user name and password.
Invites the trainees
to join a public chat-room on the Website.
|
In
pairs, simulate the search for a school partner and read the
presentations of the schools matching the search.
Simulate (or enter)
their subscription to the Websites database.
Chat both in private
and in a public chat-room.
|
Helps
the trainees in handling the different activities. |
Top
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Session
4
WEB PAGES
BUILDING (preparing material)
Step
1 Time: 20 Objectives: 2 16 15 7 - 17
Materials: Power
Point slides
| The
expert |
| Gives some
basic information on building hypertexts/hypermedia (logic
map, node, links, etc.) |
Step
2 Time: 20 Objectives: 3 16 6 - 15 7
Materials:
Websites created by teachers, students, schools.
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
| Presents
some personal Websites built by teachers, students, classes,
and schools, universities sites, from different countries.
Invites the trainees,
in pairs, to choose a (small) one and graphically represent
the map of the site (pages, links, page items).
|
Analyse
the Websites presented.
Choose one and draw
the logic map of the site.
|
Step
3 Time: 30 Objectives: 14
Materials:
Software for authoring Web pages (Front Page 98)
| The
expert |
| Explains
some basic functions of Front Page 98, (a program for
authoring Web pages) to enable trainees to build up their
own personal Homepage. |
Step
4 Time: 10 Objectives: 16 15 - 17
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
| Invites
the trainees , in pairs, to build up the map of their own
"shared" Homepage (2 4 linked pages maximum),
and a plan of each page (content and layout). |
In
pairs, make the map of their Homepage.
Make the layout of
each page.
|
Step
5 Time: 90 Objectives:14 16 15 - 7
Materials: Software for
producing different types of files. Floppy disks or CDs
containing files to be used.
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
The
expert |
| Helps
the trainees while they produce material for their own
Homepages. |
Start
creating the files to insert in their Homepages and save
them into folders. |
Shows
how to save files from the Internet.
Shows how to scan an
image.
Shows how to record
sound with the microphone or from a CD.
Gives a handout with
the most common file extensions referring to different types
of files (text, image, sound, video) underlying the
importance of limiting the file size for producing Homepages/Websites,
which must be fast and easy to access.
Distributes some
materials on floppies or CDs, which may be used by trainees
to make their own Homepages.
Tutors the trainees
while they produce the files for their Homepages.
|
Top
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Session
5
HOMEPAGE
PRODUCTION AND PRESENTATION
Step
1 Time: 60 Objectives: 4 5 15 16
Materials: CDs/floppy
disks containing useful files to copy.
|
The
trainer
|
The
trainees
|
The
expert
|
| Helps
the trainees while they produce material for their own
Homepages. |
In
pairs, go on producing and saving the files for their
Homepages. |
Helps
the trainees in producing or copying files. |
Step
2 Time: 90 Objectives: 14 16 15 7 - 17
Materials: Front
Page 98
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
The
expert |
| Helps
the trainees while they build their Homepages. |
Create
their own Homepage with Front Page 98, by assembling the
files according to the map previously planned.
Create links to other
pages/Web sites and/or e- mail addresses etc.
|
Helps
the trainees. |
Step
3 Time: 30 Objectives: 14 16 15 7 - 17
| The
trainer |
The
trainees |
The
expert |
| Views
the Homepages created.
In the end, briefly
evaluates with the trainees the possible linguistic,
meta-cognitive and affective influence of such an activity
on their students.
|
Present
their own Homepages.
Evaluate possible
results of such an activity with the students.
|
Views
the Home-pages created. |
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