IT
ICT IN THE CURRICULUM | ICT IN YOUR COURSE | BUSO | WEBQUESTS | WE(BLOGS) | PODCASTS | SCRAPBOOKS | ELECTRONIC LEARNING PLATFORM
INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD/ONE COMPUTER CLASSROOM | MANUALS
The curriculum has a number of learning goals that can only be achieved by means of new technologies. It is evident that English Language Teaching requires IT-skills. Autonomous or project-based work is very often impossible if IT-technologies are not available. Our teachers need training in the use of electronic learning platforms, podcasts, webquests, blogs, website building, forums and all means of e-communication with pupils, heads and colleagues.
The VVKSO organises training modules which respond to your needs and interests on all levels: http://www.vvkso-ict.com/
The Regionale ExpertiseNetwerken (REN) offer a whole set of courses as well. They can customize their courses and tailor them to the needs of your school. They act in two ways:
1. They organise training
2. They offer technical support through a helpdesk.
On the website of Karel Van Rompaey you find some thoughts about why and how ICT should be integrated in your lessons. Karel uses excellent examples of technological support and has designed a model IT-class:
http://fuzzy.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/taalklas/frames3.htm
Possible learning goals
Survey of 10 IT-supporting devices in language acquisition. Powerpoint on this.
Colleague Josée Machiels sent me a website with exercises for special needs schools (buso): Wai Not?
There are thousands of interesting Webquests with extensive assignments. Most of them consist of an introduction, a description of the assignment and process and an evaluation grid. Many of them have been designed by American and Canadian teachers. Webquests offer excellent opportunities for group work. If you wish to use one, type the search word Webquest + the topic you wish to work on in your brownser and there you go...
| Wat? | Niveau |
| An example of a webquest on fast food (third grade, VOET gezonde voeding) |
** |
| A Canadian collection of webquests (nutrition, health, eco) |
alle |
| An extensive webquest bank from Virginia |
alle |
| A task sheet with http://www.howstuffworks.com/ |
** |
| Instruction sheet: how do I design a webquest? Examples |
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| A shopping trip in Harrods? (Spes Nostra, Heule) |
** |
| Liverpool Webquest (by J. Delbaere) |
** |
| London Webquest (by J. Delbaere) |
A blog is a personal site structured as (and originally meant as) a diary. The user can put photos, texts and links on a web page and build up the page as an electronic diary. The writer can decide on whether he makes his blog public, allow mails or link it to a chatbox. Blogs are more and more used in academic and professional contexts and allow teachers to publish website materials without using web building programmes such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage.
| Using blogging in the English classroom. |
Blogger:
http://www.blogger.com/start
Blogdrive: http://www.blogdrive.com/
Ivan Lietaert (St.-Aloysius, Menen) has designed his own blog with a project on Scientific English.
These sites are collages with lots of visuals, including photos of important objects, maps, extracts from papers, anecdotes, posters, pages from diaries,.. which allow students to develop a virtual portrait, a digital museum, a virtual fieldtrip, a photo essay in a creative way.
Some examples:
| A scrapbook on Mark Twain |
| A photo essay on the Dust Bowl |
| A collage on Duke Ellington |
An Electronic Learning Platform (elektronische leeromgeving = ELO) is a web-based set of digital means that provides opportunities for e-learning. Its users (both teachers and students) have access to a safe environment by means of a user's name and a personal code. Some well-known ELO's are EloV (Blackboard), Smartschool, Dokeos, Claroline, Moodle, StudyPlanet (Tools2Team) and BZL Digitaal.
The main functions:
Source: Henk Verdru, http://www.digitaledidactiek.nl; https://www.kuleuven.be/icto/bv/bv.php
Protected e-learning environments are used by more and more teachers in our schools. For communication with students abroad we have eJournal and eTwinning projects, sponsored by the European Community.
Moreover, our students have lots of opportunities in order to communicate in informal networks.
Computers in language teaching have created opportunities for autonomous learning and remedial training, but it now becomes clear that a language teacher needs to acquire new IT-skills while teaching in the classroom. Publishers have started editing new electronic textbook materials for Interactive Whiteboards or One Computer Classrooms along with their paper books.
The Interactive Whiteboards in British schools are manufactured by Hitachi, Smartboard or Promethean, known with us as Activboard. Twenty percent of British secondary school classrooms are equipped with such a board and primary schools have them in large numbers as well.
Advantages:
Teachers can introduce multi-media: define words by means of images, use movies, visually support their content;
They project answer keys;
With the new types of interactive whiteboards, students can answer yes/no, cast their vote and even write sentences on the whiteboard from a pad or tablet in the classroom;
Board manufacturers now also provide software;
Students like the approach;
You can save your lesson on your disk;
You use your electronic learning platform in the classroom or bring your materials on a stick and do no longer need overheads, TV sets, posters, CD players ….
Disadvantages:
Teachers need training;