Transcript Language skills in today’s social environment

Applying ICT
Nick Cherkas
[email protected]
2011
Session Aim
To introduce you to tools
and activities which you
can use and adapt to
integrate ICT into your
classroom and syllabus.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this session you will have:

Seen and practised using three online
teaching tools
 Seen demonstrations of, and practised using,
lesson and activity ideas in different areas of
ICT (e.g. Web 2.0, Office applications) *see next slide
 Examined the advantages and disadvantages
of using ICT in the classroom and developed
key points to remember for their personal
situation.
Areas of ICT
 Office
applications
 Web 2.0
 Online writing – solo and
collaborative
 Social networking
 Listening and Speaking
Your experience of learning technologies
1) When did you first use a computer?
2) When did computers become part of your life?
3) When did you first use computers in the classroom (as a
teacher or as a student)?
4) What learning technologies do you have access to in your
school?
5) Have you used learning technologies in your teaching? What
did you use? How did you use it?
6) Are there any learning technologies you have access to but
you don’t use? Why not?
Why should you use ICT?

Interactive – it can give feedback and evaluation and, unlike a teacher, never tires of giving feedback
repeatedly

Multimedia – it provides a combination of media (text, graphics, sound, and video) in one place

IT skills acquired – students learn IT skills

Student paced – students can work through the material at their own speed

Variety = Fun! – novel and entertaining, and can add variety to courses

Presentation quality – work on the computer is often neat

Authentic – content of CD-ROMs and the Internet is often written by native speakers

Real communication – lots of ‘community’ functions on the Internet such as forums, email etc.

Storage – you can save work for future access and sharing

Motivating – for all the above reasons
And what are the challenges?

Technical issues – if technical support is not easily available, teachers may need more training, or be
confident enough to ask their learners if they know how to solve the problem

IT skills required – for software and the Internet

Mixed ability and degrees of comfort with technology – both learners and teachers

Student objections – students may have had bad learning experiences in the past, they may use computers
excessively in other subjects

Can seduce teachers – “I’ll get a coffee while they get on with it”, “I haven’t had time to plan a lesson – I’ll
take them into the computer room” etc. Need to be careful about technology leading pedagogy, and using
technology as an easy option

Integration problems – teachers don’t use the equipment and software available

Classroom management – teachers may have to change their classroom management techniques

Accuracy of language and appropriacy of content on the Internet may not always be suitable

Distraction – many Internet sites have a lot of distracting advertisements, and it’s easy for learners to get lost
Office applications
1.
Where have all the verbs gone?
2.
Weed read
Microsoft Word in the classroom
Is  …
 Easy to edit and adapt
 Easy to keep
 Professional looking
 Conducive to negotiation
and communication
 Multilevel friendly
But  …
 Needs to be managed to
ensure that one student
does not control
everything
 Can be unsuitable for
longer or more complex
text, unless you edit the
text carefully
PowerPoint in the classroom
…
 Includes variety and
multimedia
 Looks good –
motivating and
rewarding for
students
 Prepared in advance
– can be edited &
saved

…
 Can lead to lack of
interaction
 Danger of DEATH
BY POWERPOINT

Web 1.0 / 2.0?
The interactive web, AKA Web 2.0. Which of these statements apply to
Web 2.0 and which to Web 1.0 (the internet before it was interactive)?
The Internet is mainly for reading only.

The content on the Internet is controlled by the
users.

Web content is available through a variety of
media.


Content on the Web is mostly text based.

It is easy for users to publish content.
Web content can be delivered to the user
when it is published.
It is possible to leave comments on other
people’s content.

Web users can work collaboratively
regardless of time and distance.
You need to register and sign into
websites.
There are few content creators on the
Web.
Users’ profiles are available for other
users to see.
Content can be shared easily between
websites.
It is not possible to tag content,
i.e. give content keywords which makes
the content easier to be found when using
search terms.
Based on Cormode, G. & Krishnamurthy, B. "Key differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0" First Monday [Online], Volume 13 Number 6 (25 April 2008). Online at
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2125/1972, last accessed November 2008
Collaborative writing - Wikis
True
♣
Wikis are usually written by one person.
Wikis are always web based.
♣
The readers of the site can edit the content, making changes to what
has previously been written by other readers.
♣
You can usually see a ‘history’ of changes made to the content
and/or revert back to earlier versions.
♣
♣
You need to know how to write HTML/code websites to use a wiki.
Wikis can be on any subject.
False
♣
It is not possible to protect a wiki from editing by people who are not
invited.
♣
Wikis cost lots of money to set up.
♣
Wikis are always neat and carefully built.
♣
Using Wikis
Wikis are usually written by one person.
Wikis are collaborative working areas. They can be written by one person but are generally
not.
Wikis are always web based.
Similar activities could be done using a word processor and track changes but this solution
would not offer some of the main benefits of using a wiki such as publishing.
The readers of the site can edit the content, making changes to what
has previously been written by other readers.
It is possible in many wikis to set the level of permissions so only approved people can make
changes.
You can usually see a ‘history’ of changes made to the content
and/or revert back to earlier versions.
This is one of the main features of most wikis.
You need to know how to write HTML/code websites to use a wiki.
Most wikis provide a text editor that can be used just like a word processor. Some wikis, such
as Wikipedia, require a special mark-up language to create links and formatting but this is
not as complex as HTML or other computer languages.
Wikis can be on any subject.
Imagination is the only boundary.
It is not possible to protect a wiki from editing by people who are not
invited.
Some wikis charge for this level of permission but mostly this function is freely available.
Wikis cost lots of money to set up.
Most wiki tools usually have a number of plans available with some advanced features (such
as branding, back-ups, hierarchical permissions) that require a fee. However, basic plans are
free. Everything in this session can be done for free.
Wikis are always neat and carefully built.
Wiki content is created by users so would not be of ‘professional’ quality at times.
Social networking
Over to you!

Your students use facebook all the time
to communicate – but how can you use
facebook as a tool in class?
Listening and speaking
Here are a list of pros and cons of using online video clips. Decide whether each one is a
pro or a con. Some could be both. Be prepared to justify and explain your choice.
Add any more to the list that you can think of.






Short clips

Bandwidth and

connection speed 
Authenticity

Preparation time
Suitability of content

Variety of topic
Being up-to-date
Reliability
Quality
Can lead to autonomous
development
Student centred
Engaging
Listening and speaking

Short clips = Pro
Watching video, especially authentic video can be very demanding for students, so short clips are less
demanding on student attention span and can be exploited more easily for repeated viewing.

Bandwidth and connection speed = Con
You need a reliable fast connection to view video online, especially if you have a number of students all
watching simultaneously from different computers

Authenticity = Pro + Con
Authentic video and authentic language can be very motivating for students, but it can also be very difficult for
them to understand.

Preparation time = Con
Using video clips from the Internet often means that you have to find appropriate clips and prepare the
materials yourself. This can be very time consuming.



Suitability of content = Pro + Con
The wide range of materials available online means that you can find something to link into almost any topic,
but it also means that there is a lot of very inappropriate materials available that you wouldn’t want your
students to see.
Also many sites contain advertising which further raises questions about suitability.
It’s also important to think about the suitability of the video with regards to the syllabus. It’s been known for
teachers to use videos in order to kill time without any specific learning objectives.
Variety - Pro
There is now a huge amount of video content on the Web so you can find pretty much anything you want.


Listening and speaking

Being up-to-date = Pro
You can find materials that are very up-to-date and relate to what is currently happening in your students’
lives.

Reliability = Con
Websites, internet connections and the URLs can be very unreliable. Video clips that you find online in one
place on one day can be gone by the next. – You can use Jing to combat this


Quality = Con
The visual and audio quality of many online clips can be very poor.
Autonomous development = Pro
Helping your students to exploit online video and understand how to stop / start / pause the video player as
they do tasks can help them to become more autonomous learners.

Student centred = Pro + Con
The abundance of video content means students can focus on topics that interest them.
Giving students the opportunity to work on the tasks on their own computer means that they can control the
pace of the lesson and work at their own speed. This also means that some students may finish much faster
than others.

Engaging = Pro
Because video content is controllable, can be on any topic and contains audio and visual elements, learning
through videos can be a very engaging process.

Action Plan

Think about what we have covered in
today’s session

How will you use any new ideas which
have come out of this workshop?
Three more tools for teaching

http://vocaroo.com/


http://mailvu.com/


Record and send voice emails
Record and send video emails
http://www.techsmith.com/jing/

Record a video, with sound, of the content
of your computer screen.
Thank you for taking part…
…and good luck with
using your ideas!
[email protected]
Facebook: Nick Cherkas