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Lessons observed and analysed for collecting data 5.1 – Lessons’ detailsAs planned before, I have observed all the lessons carried out in the multimedia laboratory with the class I have chosen for my case study from the 19th of March to the 24th of April. The period of time is longer than the month expected as it has included also Easter holidays. For each lesson observed, details concerning teachers, tasks and computer activities involved, online resources and materials to collect data used are provided. The data collected - lessons’ tapescripts, students’ questionnaires, subject-matter teachers’ interviews, my reflections and commentaries - can be found in Appendices 3 (p. 98), 4 (p. 120), and 5 (p. 137). Some work produced by the students as final products of the activities - Maths webpages, forum messages, letters - are in Appendices 6 (p. 141), 7 (p. 150), and 8 (p.157). The plans of two modules (email exchange and Algebra in English) of which the lessons observed are parts can be found in Appendix 2 (p. 92). 5.2 - 19th March lesson Task/s: the students, in pairs, type the letters previously written in class and then corrected by the teacher. The mistakes are only underlined in red, so they have to key them in correctly and ask the teacher for explanations about the mistakes they can’t understand. They work in pairs so that they can discuss the possible origin of the mistakes and the corrections to do. Computer activities involved in doing the task/s: the students create letters as Word documents and save them in their personal folders in the lab network. In particular, after setting the proofing language as “English”, they use Word’s spell check. All the letters will be pasted later in a unique document that will be sent to their American correspondents. Online resources used for carrying out or supporting the task/s: online dictionaries www.wordreference.com (see the homepage of this Website in fig. 1). Teacher/s present in the lesson: English teacher Materials used to collect data: - tapescript of the lesson recorded - my personal reflections - students’ questionnaires
Fig. 1 – WordReference.com homepage
Task/s: the students, in pairs, make written accounts of the problems and other activities done during the English/Maths lessons of the previous weeks. They work on the notes they have taken in class while doing the exercises, mainly algebraic word problems, and produce “Maths pages” to be inserted into the school Website, following a layout devised in class with the teachers of English and Maths. (Steps: Write the problem, identify the variable, derive the other values connected to the variable, produce a table with the problem’s data, write the equation, calculate the results, describe the reasoning from the beginning to the end). Computer activities involved in doing the task/s: the students create Word documents. The main difficulties consist in building a table where to write the data, inserting an image referring to the context of the word problem, choosing a background colour/image, choosing a font, in a few words creating a fine page from the points of view of the content, language and graphic interface. (See the Maths pages created in Appendix.....). Online resources used for carrying out or supporting the task/s: online dictonary, www.wordreference.com, search engines to find the images they need, www.yahoo.com, www.google.com, www.altavista.com, www.virgilio.com . Teacher/s present in the lesson: English teacher, Mathematics teacher, Mathematics assistant. Materials used to collect data: - my personal reflections - Maths teacher’s and assistant’s questionnaires - tapescript of the lesson recorded - students’ questionnaires 5.4 - 2nd April lesson Task/s: the students have different tasks and when they arrive at the multimedia lab they already know what they have to do. Some have to finish typing and correcting their letters, some have to complete their Mathematics pages, the ones who have finished all these activities have to enter a forum, read the replies to their messages and write new messages/replies. (See some samples of the work produced in Appendix.......). Computer activities involved in doing the task/s: the students complete their Word documents, or read and post messages in the forum. Online resources used for carrying out or supporting the task/s: online dictionary, www.wordreference.com, the forum inside a Website created to be a ‘meeting place for ESL/EFL students and teachers from the world’[1], www.eslcafe.com/discussion (see the homepage of this Website in fig. 2). Teacher/s present in the lesson: English teacher Materials used to collect data: - my personal reflections - tapescript of the lesson recorded - students’ questionnaires
Fig. 2 – eslcafe.com’s homepage
Task/s: the students, in pairs, do Mathematics activities online (algebra equations). Computer activities involved in doing the task/s: the students use the browser to enter the website indicated by the teachers and navigate through it in order to do the activities. Online resources used for carrying out or supporting the task/s: the Website with the algebra exercises, www.syvum.com/squizzes/algebra (see some pages of this site in fig. 3). Teacher/s present in the lesson: English teacher, Mathematics teacher, Mathematics assistant Materials used to collect data: - my personal reflections - Maths teacher’s and assistant’s questionnaires - tapescript of the lesson recorded - students’ questionnaires
Fig. 3 – syvum.com’s homepage 5.6 - 23rd April lesson Task/s: the students have different tasks and when they arrive at the multimedia lab they already know what they have to do. Some have to create, in pairs, new pages of Mathematics with other problems done in previous lessons; two students have to create a homepage containing the menu of the Maths activities, so that they can be sent to the webmaster of the school Website; two students have to copy and paste all the letters previously typed and saved by their friends in a new Word document and send it to their American correspondents using the class email address; the remaining ones read and reply to messages on the forum. Computer activities involved in doing the task/s: Some students write new Word documents, a couple of students use FrontPage to produce the homepage with the menu of their Maths pages and the links to them. Online resources used for carrying out or supporting the task/s: online dictionary, www.wordreference.com, the Website we use to find partners for our collaborative project and email exchange, www.epals.com (see the homepage of this site in fig. 4) , the forum www.eslcafe.com/discussion. Teacher/s present in the lesson: English teacher Materials used to collect data: - my personal reflections - tapescript of the lesson recorded - students’ questionnaires
Fig. 4 – epals.com’s homepage 5.7 - 24th April lesson Task/s: the students have to interactively solve word problems on a Website, following the steps and the hints suggested in the Website. Computer activities involved in doing the task/s: the students use the browser to enter the Website and navigate through it. Online resources used for carrying out or supporting the task/s: The Website with the word problems, www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/word/numbers/index.epl (see the homepage of this site in fig. 5), the online dictionary, www.wordreference.com. Teacher/s present in the lesson: English teacher, Mathematics teacher, Mathematics assistant. Materials used to collect data: - my personal reflections - Maths teacher’s and assistant’s questionnaires - tapescript of the lesson recorded - students’ questionnaires
Fig. 5 – algebra.com’s homepage |
