An introduction to learning technologies

Transcription

An introduction to learning technologies – Trainer notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
By the end of this session participants will be able to:
 recognise the advantages and disadvantages of using learning technologies in
the classroom
 recognise issues when integrating learning technologies into a lesson or
course/syllabus
 produce a checklist of questions to ask when planning lessons with learning
technologies
SESSION LENGTH 90 minutes
Hardware
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS

Sufficient computers for participants to work at in small groups
 Projector/Interactive
Whiteboard
See the Learning Technologies Guide for general information about hardware and
software specifications.
MATERIALS
 An introduction to learning technologies
 Your experiences of learning technologies
 Advantages and disadvantages of learning technologies
 Questions to ask when integrating learning technologies
 Some teaching examples of learning technologies + Answer sheet
Procedure
1
Outcomes and introduction

Explain learning outcomes for session to participants using Slide 2 of An
introduction to learning technologies.

Explain why the term ‘learning technology’ is preferred to ‘ICT’.

Ask participants, in groups, to come up with a list of things that could be
classified as a learning technology.

List may include, but is not limited to:

Computer Aided Language Learning (CALL) software

Office applications (with or without capital ‘O’)

The Internet (this itself can spawn many technologies: search engines,
concordancers etc.)
 CD-R
OMs
 Interactive
 DVD
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
whiteboards
players
© The British Council, 2009
The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
 Mobile
phones
 Tablet
PCs

Basically, anything that can help someone learn
 Take feedback and collate the participants’ answers as a mindmap on the
board or use Slide 3.
See the Learning technologies guide to session delivery for the reasons behind the choice of
the term learning technologies rather than ICT.
2
Participant knowledge and experience

 Divide participants into groups and ask them to discuss the questions from
Your experiences of learning technologies.
 Ask participants if there were any interesting anecdotes and examples of the
use and non-use of learning technologies.
3
Integration at lesson and course level

 On the whiteboard/flipchart write integration at the lesson level and integration
at the school level and ask participants to brainstorm the different issues
involved.
 Here are some suggestions for the points to elicit (see Slide 4).
integration at the lesson level
integration at the school level
syllabus integration
cost
lesson planning activity types –
computer-work, pre-computer work and
post-computer work
modes of access (e.g. a computer and
projector in every classroom; class sets
of laptops; separate computer rooms)
availability of resources and equipment
teacher training (IT skills and
pedagogic usage)
The key thing to bring out is that the issues involved with integration at the lesson level
revolve around the pedagogic use of learning technologies. (See Slide 5) At a school level
the issues are related to management and logistical issues.
4
Brainstorm of advantages and disadvantages


Ask groups to do a quick brainstorm of advantages and disadvantages of
using learning technologies in class.
Answers will vary widely depending on the teaching environment.

Put four pieces of A3 paper on the walls. Two should be headed Advantages
and two Disadvantages. Divide the participants into 4 groups and give them
2 minutes to write their thoughts on the paper.
 Feedb ack ideas
 Hand out Advantages and disadvantages of learning technologies as a
summary.
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Tip – If you have access to Word, a projector and a printer, collate the feedback on
Advantages and disadvantages of learning technologies before printing and handing out.
5
Questions to ask yourself when integrating learning technologies into a
lesson 


Explain to participants that we must rationalise the inclusion of learning
technologies in a lesson.

In groups, ask participants to come up with a list of questions to ask when
integrating learning technologies into a lesson. Provide an example or two.
(See Slide 6 of An introduction to learning technologies)
 See Questions to ask when integrating learning technologies for
suggested questions.
Ask participants to consider the learning technologies that they use in class
and answer the questions from Questions to ask when integrating learning
technologies for each one.
Tip – Provide a couple of practical uses of PowerPoint when providing examples of the
questions by using Slide 6 of the PowerPoint show. The first example (What are the learners
getting out of this activity?) needs to be elicited word-by-word from the learners (e.g. elicit
the first word by telling participants it’s a question word etc.). The second example (Is it
worth the effort?) is jumbled up, the answer revealed upon clicking.
6
Some teaching examples of learning technologies


This stage provides some practical applications of the technologies and a taster of
some of the websites and activities that participants will be introduced to in other
TeachingEnglish Learning Technologies for the Classroom sessions.

Explain to participants that they are going to have a look at some teaching
ideas for exploiting websites and activities using common software.

Participants must discuss why they may be useful in relation to the
advantages that were discussed in stage four and the points that were raised
in the last stage. Participants should also consider potential disadvantages
and solutions to using resources such as YouTube and Wikipedia.
 Hand out Some teaching examples of learning technologies and ask
participants to have a look at the four websites and two activities using Word
and PowerPoint and make notes under the subheadings available.
 Feedb ack using Some teaching examples of learning technologies –
Answer sheet.
Expand on one of the teaching ideas in this worksheet by using the resource
as if in the classroom with participants taking the role of students.
This content uses a video hosted on YouTube – Where the hell is Matt? This content is also
available. This video content is also available to watch at http://www.vimeo.com/1211060
and available for download from http://www.stridegum.com/#/mattsplace/ if you do not have
access to YouTube or cannot stream video.
Tip – Provide participants with access to the TeachingEnglish Learning Technologies for
the Classroom online course at the end of this session.
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 Your experiences 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?
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 Advantages and disadvantages of learning technologies
The following is a list of just some of the advantages and disadvantages of using learning
technologies in class.
Advantages
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
Disadvantages
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
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 Questions to ask when integrating learning technologies
Is the learning technology stage of the lesson relevant/appropriate? (Think about aims, length of time it will
take, type of resources needed, level of language etc).
Does the learning technology stage fit into the lesson as a whole? Are there pre- and post- tasks?
Does the use of the learning technology fit with the syllabus? (Not fitting a lesson around the learning
technology).
How do the learners benefit from using the learning technology in the lesson?
Does it motivate students or improve the learning experience?
Does it help the students understand more easily?
Are there any other benefits of using the resource e.g. IT skills acquired, learner autonomy
enhanced?
How does the teacher benefit from using the learning technology in the lesson?
Is it worth the effort? Can the materials be reused or shared with other teachers?
Can another resource be more easily used instead, and be as effective?
Is the resource being used because it helps achieve the aims of the lesson or because it makes life
easier for the teacher?
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 Some teaching examples of learning technologies
Look at the websites and activities below.
Make notes under the headings for each idea.
The weather - http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-gamesweather.htm
Students complete the weather after listening to a weather
report.
Advantages of this idea:
Notes
Website/activity
Cubeez - http://www.cubeez.com/container_movie.php
The teacher guides students through an interactive story
Click on the orange character on the home page to see this
content.
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YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/
Students watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY&feature=user
as part of a lesson on countries.
Students create an entry in this user-generated encyclopedia on
their school.
Advantages of using YouTube in general:
Advantages of using Wikipedia in general:
Disadvantages of using YouTube in general:
Disadvantages of using Wikipedia in general:
Solutions:
Solutions:
Notes
Website/activity
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Using PowerPoint to create a photo dialogue
In this activity students add speech to pictures representing
everyday situations.
Notes
Website/activity
Using Word to edit a text
In this activity students complete a text in Word that has
had all the verbs removed.
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 Some teaching examples of learning technologies – Answer sheet
Look at the websites and activities below.
Make notes under the headings for each idea.
The weather - http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-gamesweather.htm
Students complete the weather after listening to a weather
report.
Website/activity
Cubeez - http://www.cubeez.com
The teacher guides students through an interactive story
(click on the orange character on the home page to see this
content).
Notes




fun, colourful characters and exercises will attract and
engage young learners
immediate feedback will reinforce language
content promotes student-centred classes
other areas of the site can be used by very young
learners.
 voices of native speakers increase authenticity
 interactive
 provides instant feedback
 learner can control speed
 text can be turned on or off.
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Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/
Students watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY
as part of a lesson on countries.
Students create an entry in this user-generated encyclopedia on
their school.
Website/activity
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/
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



Advantages of using YouTube in general:

Notes







huge variety of content means that there is always
something available to illustrate a point
students can upload their own content
students can control what they watch and how many times
they watch something making learning more learner
centred.
huge amount of information available to students on any
subject.
 authentic resource
 provides text and images to aid understanding of topic
 editable – students can create their own content =
motivating.

Disadvantages of using Wikipedia in general:
lots of temptation to watch irrelevant content if students
are allowed individual access
some content may not be suitable for younger students
user generated comments may not be suitable
poor bandwidth can stop streaming videos.



Solutions:




it is motivating to see your work published on the internet
following other articles can provide a clear structure for
writing
allows for collaboration and peer reviewing
following how the text is edited by other users can provide
further learning opportunities.
Advantages of using Wikipedia in general:
Disadvantages of using YouTube in general:



video adds variety to the classroom
this video is enjoyable
provides a motivating way to learn countries and helps
memory by linking images from that country
lots of opportunities for starting discussions.
usage requires good classroom management
pre-viewing is essential
comments can be hidden
if the video is played once it is stored on the computers
memory, so next time it plays more quickly.
some basic mark-up is needed (you have to produce some
basic coding to create hyperlinks, emphasis etc)
difficult to do as a whole class activity so would need
access to a computer room
the language level of Wikipedia may be too high for some
students.
Solutions:


students can produce content in Word and leave it to the
teacher to publish
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page is a simplified
version of wikipedia with simple words and grammar.
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Website/activity
Using Word to edit a text
Using PowerPoint to create a photo dialogue
In this activity students complete a text in Word that has had In this activity students add speech to pictures representing
all the verbs removed.
every day situations.
Notes





easily created and saved
can be recycled
students can work at their own pace
editing function of Word makes this activity neater than
paper equivalent
any text can be used.
NOTE:
This worksheet is available in the TeachingEnglish Learning
Technologies for the Classroom online course at
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/mod/res
ource/view.php?id=215 (log in required).



fun to work with images and text
student paced – allows for stronger and weaker students
to take part in the same activities
can help students develop IT skills
NOTE:
This PowerPoint is available at the TeachingEnglish Learning
Technologies for the Classroom online course at
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/mod/res
ource/view.php?id=116 (log in required).
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Evaluating and selecting websites
Evaluating and selecting websites – Trainer notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
 describe how web addresses are formed and how this can help us as teachers
 list a set of criteria to evaluate websites and apply this criteria to the evaluation
of websites
 select suitable websites for teaching based on these criteria
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS
Hardware

Whiteboard
MATERIALS
 Evaluating and selecting websites
 What are URLs?
 Evaluation of web resources + Answer sheet
 Evaluation of web resources
 Sites for evaluation (two versions)
+ Answer sheets
 A framework for evaluating websites
Procedure
1 Learning
outcomes

 Go through the learning outcomes for the session using Slide 2 of Evaluating
and selecting websites.
 Elicit some reasons why participants (or people in general) use the Web.
2 Website
URLs


 Show Slide 3 of Evaluating and selecting websites and ask participants to
answer the three questions.
 Take feedback.
 Question 1 - Explain what a URL is.
 Question 2 – Show Slide 4 of Evaluating and selecting websites.
Explain the format of URLs and how you can strip them back to find what you
are looking for.
As an example use this fake address
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish.html and strip it back to find
the correct site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ and find the learningenglish
link. N.B. It is in the bottom left pane entitled Related BBC Sites.
 Question 3 – Show Slide 5 of Evaluating and selecting websites.
Elicit what the five examples of domain names on Slide 5 mean and ask what
other domain names participants know.
 Explain how these can help evaluate the validity of the content of a website.
For example a .org site may be more objective than a .com website and the
information contained on a .edu site may be more accurate than on a .com
website.
If the participants have little experience of using the World Wide Web, use
and selecting websites.
Evaluating
Tip – More information on URLs at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_toplevel_domains
3 Evaluating
websites

 Show Slide 6 of Evaluating and selecting websites.
 Reveal criteria and ask participants to think of one or two points for each.
The evaluation of web resources is necessary to determine the reliability, accuracy and
currency of the material. Teachers should critically evaluate websites when selecting
resources for use in the classroom and when planning.
Pupils should also be taught the value of this process when exploring the Web so they can
make best use of the vast and sometimes overwhelming array of information at their
disposal.
4
Extension of criteria

 Ask participants to open Evaluation of web resources.
 Ask participants to copy and paste the blocks of text under the correct heading.
 Provide participants with the complete worksheet for reference (Evaluation of
web resources – Answer sheet).
Criteria based on criteria from BECTA:
http://schools.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=is&catcode=ss_to_es_tl_uor_03&rid=9926
5
Evaluation of websites



 Split participants into a maximum of 5 groups.
 Cut up the list of websites from Sites for evaluation and give each group one
set and ask them to evaluate them against the criteria from the previous
worksheet and make brief notes using A framework for evaluating websites.
 Regroup participants and ask them to share their experiences and feedback on
the best sites using the headings in the criteria.
 You may wish to comment on some using the notes on Sites for evaluation -
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Answer sheet, for example the appropriacy of adverts in some of the sites.
 Hand out the appropriate page of Sites for evaluation - Answer sheet for
reference.
There are two versions of Sites for evaluation worksheet: one with websites aimed at
primary learners and one aimed at secondary and older.
Check all links before the session.
These sites are a mixture of ELT and non-ELT sites and some need players for Flash and
Shockwave. See the Learning technologies trainer guide for links if these need downloading.
Tip – If possible, provide the document as an electronic copy so participants can click on
the links.
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 What are URLs?
Draw a line from the question to the answer.
What is a uniform resource locator
(URL)?
A .org website is usually the
website of a non-profit
organisation, a .com is a
commercial site. This knowledge
can help when evaluating
websites.
What is the difference between a
.org website and a .com website
and why is it useful to understand
the difference?
It is useful to know how URLs are
constructed so you can use it to
help find what you are looking for,
even if the link no longer works.
Why is it useful to understand how
URLs are constructed?
This is another name for a web
address. It usually starts www.
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 Evaluation of web resources
Cut and paste the text below under the correct heading.
Accuracy and acceptance
Authority and coverage
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Audience and relevance
Educational focus
Ease of use
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Where is the content published? What is the domain name of the website? Is it published by
a large organisation, or on a personal website?
Does the website cover the topic fully?
Does the site provide information/advice/ideas/other choices?
Is there an explicit educational focus to the content?
Will it support learners with different learning styles? How does it use media to cater for
people with auditory, visual, kinaesthetic or other preferences?
Does it have links, or refer to, the appropriate stages of the National Curriculum or
examination body?
Does the information appear to be accurate?
Is it based on opinion or fact?
Are additional references given?
Is the site specifically aimed at adults? If so, beware of inappropriate material.
Is the content relevant?
Does the material provide everything that is needed?
Could more relevant material be found elsewhere, for example in a book or magazine?
Does the content have authority?
Where does the content originate from?
Is it clear who is the author and publisher of the site?
Can the information be verified from other sources, whether online or hard copy?
Is the spelling and grammar correct?
Is the content dated?
Are they qualified to provide information on this topic?
Is the material biased?
Can the author be contacted?
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When was the content last updated?
Are all links up-to-date and valid?
Are any areas of the site ‘under construction’?
Does it provide links and references to other materials?
If links to other materials are provided, are these evaluated or annotated to provide further
information?
Does the site contain any advertising? Does this influence the content?
Is the site easy to use?
Is the site well structured?
Is it easy to find relevant information?
Who is the intended audience for this content?
Is the content easy to read and understand?
Is the site specifically aimed at children? If so, is the level and tone of the content
appropriate?
Does the site load quickly?
Is the site attractive in design?
Is the content copyright, or can it be used providing the source is acknowledged?
Is the site technically stable?
Is the content in an easy to use format?
What facilities does the site provide to help locate information?
Does it have a search facility? Is the menu navigation logical? Does it provide a site map or
index?
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 Evaluation of web resources 1 – Answer sheet

Does the information appear to be accurate?

Is it based on opinion or fact?

Are additional references given?

Can the information be verified from other sources, whether online or hard copy?

Is the spelling and grammar correct?

Is the content dated?

When was the content last updated?

Are all links up-to-date and valid?

Are any areas of the site ‘under construction’?

Does the content have authority?

Where does the content originate from?

Is it clear who is the author and publisher of the site?

Are they qualified to provide information on this topic?

Is the material biased?

Can the author be contacted?

Where is the content published? What is the domain name of the website? Is it published by a
large organisation, or on a personal website?

Does the website cover the topic fully?

Does the site provide information/advice/ideas/other choices?

Does it provide links and references to other materials?

If links to other materials are provided, are these evaluated or annotated to provide further
information?

Does the site contain any advertising? Does this influence the content?
1
Based on http://schools.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=is&catcode=ss_to_es_tl_uor_03&rid=9926
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
Who is the intended audience for this content?

Is the content easy to read and understand?

Is the site specifically aimed at children? If so, is the level and tone of the content appropriate?

Is the site specifically aimed at adults? If so, beware of inappropriate material.

Is the content relevant?

Does the material provide everything that is needed?

Could more relevant material be found elsewhere, for example in a book or magazine?
Educational focus

Is there an explicit educational focus to the content?

Will it support learners with different learning styles? How does it use media to cater for people
with auditory, visual, kinaesthetic or other preferences?

Does it have links, or refer to, the appropriate stages of the National Curriculum or examination
body?
Ease of use

Is the site easy to use?

Is the site well structured?

Is it easy to find relevant information?

Is the content in an easy to use format?

What facilities does the site provide to help locate information?

Does it have a search facility? Is the menu navigation logical? Does it provide a site map or
index?

Does the site load quickly?

Is the site attractive in design?

Is the content copyright, or can it be used providing the source is acknowledged?

Is the site technically stable?
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 Sites for evaluation
Sites aimed at older secondary students and adult learners
In groups look at the following links and think how suitable they are for your needs. Think about
possible uses and positives and negatives of each site. Use the evaluation criteria to help you.
Group A
http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.exploratorium.com/
http://www.planplanet.org
Group B
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://kids.yahoo.com
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/index.html
Group C
http://www.videojug.com/
http://www.britannica.com
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/11_16/
Group D
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
http://infoplease.com/
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/
Group E
http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heroMachine2/heromachine2.asp
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/
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 Sites for evaluation – Answer sheet
Sites aimed at older secondary students and adult learners
Group A
Accuracy & Acceptance
Authority & Coverage
Audience & Relevance
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Content is from the users so not always accurate.
Content is from the users so may be biased, unqualified.
Aimed at all, so there may be inappropriate materials. Biggest store of
online videos on any subject.
No explicit education use.
Easy to search but content is often removed so links can easily be
lost. Access may be blocked by school authorities.
http://www.exploratorium.com/
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Content is from The museum of science, art and human perception in
California, USA so should be accurate. It is regularly updated.
Lots of ideas, references and no advertising.
Aimed at native speakers so language level can be high.
Explicit education focus.
Easy to navigate. Video content has multiple watching options for
different bandwidths.
http://www.planplanet.org/world/index.php
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Contains basic geographic information on countries which seems to
be accurate.
Content from a UK child-centred community development charity.
Aimed at native speakers but language level should not be too much
of a challenge.
Focus on understanding how people live in other countries. No explicit
ELT focus but resource for geographical projects
(http://www.planplanet.org/world/index.php).
Easy to navigate. Needs Flash.
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Group B
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Content is written by users so some information may not be verifiable.
Constantly updated.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia for more information.
Contains Material is user-generated so care needed but does contain
information on many, many subjects that other online encyclopaedias
do not.
No advertisements.
Writing and editing sometimes leads to grammatical inaccuracies.
Explicit education focus. Contains details for how to cite articles which
may be useful. Could be useful for project work. Also contains links to
materials that may be free to use within copyright laws.
Fast search engine. Articles contain links to other articles where they
exist so it is possible to follow themes.
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Frequently updated. No language errors.
Well-known publisher. Lots of advertising that may distract.
Site is aimed at children although older secondary students may find it
childish.
No explicit educational materials although lots of content can be used
for project work.
Contains a search engine which provides only results which are
appropriate to children.
Attractive and easy to navigate.
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/index.html
Educational Focus
Ease of use
n/a
Has some distracting advertising.
Some games links to public game rooms which may not be
appropriate.
May help practise spelling. Could be used as a fun end to a lesson.
Games are easy to use. Depends on Flash so would need this
installed.
Page 26 of 194
Group C
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Some content uploaded from users so hard to verify. Most content is
made by the website company and has been used by trusted media
providers such as Virgin, Guardian, MSN etc
User-generated content is subjective.
Some materials may be inappropriate, especially for younger children.
There are US, UK and International versions of the website available.
Lots of How to videos which can be the basis of lots of language
exercises. Does have a specific educational section http://www.videojug.com/tag/education - which has videos linked to
common curriculum areas.
Easy to search for content. Requires Flash. Streaming videos may be
slow if you don’t have a fast Internet connection (although there are
low bandwidth versions of videos).
http://www.britannica.com
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Trustworthy publisher, content written by experts in their field.
Authoritative author. Does not have the coverage of user-generated
encyclopaedias.
Aimed at English speaking adult readers.
Explicit educational focus but does not link to curriculum. Very text
heavy.
Internal search engine. Navigation is a little complicated.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/11_16/
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Trustworthy publisher.
Materials may be UK-centric. Lots of information on all major subject
levels.
Aimed at UK secondary school children. Lots of GCSE (English
secondary exam) revision materials which may or may not be useful.
Explicit educational focus with direct links to UK curriculum. Good for
cross-curricular activities.
Well designed website. Easy to navigate. Colourful.
Page 27 of 194
Group D
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Trustworthy publisher. Content is based around BBC news content so
up-to-date and relevant.
Authoritative author. Ability to leave comments and communicate with
other users.
Aimed at learners of English. Contains materials for developing
grammar and vocabulary plus much more. No advertising.
Explicit English language educational focus.
Easy navigation. Links to other learning resources.
http://infoplease.com/
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Developed by Pearson Education - a reputable education company.
Contains a dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, encyclopaedia plus articles
written specifically for secondary-aged children. American-centric.
Some of the language may be difficult. Contains adverts and has popups.
Educational resources for cross-curricular subjects.
Easy to navigate.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Reputable company. Accurate information.
Lots of resources on important issues.
Aimed at promoting global citizenship. Aimed at school children and
teachers although language may be difficult for some learners. No
adverts.
Lesson plans and resources for teachers on British curriculum
subjects. Not specifically designed for English language teaching.
Some content is slow to load due to size. Requires Flash.
Page 28 of 194
Group E
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Content is regularly updated.
Written by ELT specialists. No advertising.
Aimed at English language learners, teachers and parents. Activities
for classroom teaching and self access. Helpful tools for students with
weaker English such as double-click dictionary.
Designed for English language learners, teachers and parents.
Contains ideas for using the resources http://www.britishcouncil.org/parents-using-learnenglish-kids.htm
Clear topics. Colourful and easy to navigate.
Educational Focus
Ease of use
n/a
Contains adverts.
Aimed at fans of superheroes and comic books. Content relevant for
practising certain language areas.
Not intended for education use but can be used for a fun way to
practice descriptions and abilities of superheroes.
Requires Flash. Can be slow to download although has options for
users with slow connections. Application can be used online only.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Trustworthy publisher. Content is based around BBC news content so
up-to-date and relevant.
Authoritative author. Contains further information on news items.
Aimed at UK school children. Focuses on news articles that are of
interest to children.
No explicit educational focus for ELT but can be used as basis of
projects. Contains a teacher’s section http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/teachers/default.stm
Colourful icons. Designed for young Internet users.
Page 29 of 194
 Sites for evaluation
Sites aimed at primary learners and younger secondary students
In groups look at the following links and think how suitable they are for your needs. Think about
possible uses and positives and negatives of each site. Use the evaluation criteria to help you.
Group A
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/menu.shtml
http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/
Group B
http://www.enchantedlearning.com
http://www.starfall.com/
http://switchzoo.com/zoo.htm
Group C
http://www.cubeez.com/
http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html
http://www.puzzlemaker.com
Group D
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/storycircle/
http://genkienglish.net/games.htm
Group E
http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2601&e=gamesByAge&mcat=game_preschool&site=us
http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/H/hoobs/activities/index.jsp
Page 30 of 194
 Sites for evaluation – Answer sheet
Sites aimed at primary learners and younger secondary students
Group A
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/menu.shtml
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Trustworthy publisher.
Content from BBC. Possible to contact authors.
Aimed at primary-aged children.
Has explicit language focus. Contains teacher’s area
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/notes/notes.shtml) with lesson
plans and worksheets to accompany resource.
Easy to use for young learners. Download times may be slightly slow
for users with low bandwidth.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Reputable publisher.
Lots of different stories but doesn’t have practice for all sounds of the
language and doesn’t have menu of what sounds are practiced in
what story.
Also available in Spanish. Aimed at children learning to read English.
Provides practice of phonics and reading. Very visual.
Requires Flash. Not all links working (e.g. Teacher’s Guide) at time of
writing. Requires audio playback.
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Contains basic geographic information on countries which seems to
be accurate.
Content from a UK child-centred community development charity.
Aimed at native speakers but language level should not be too much
of a challenge.
Focus on understanding how people live in other countries. No explicit
ELT focus but resource for geographical projects
(http://www.planplanet.org/world/index.php).
Easy to navigate. Needs Flash.
Page 31 of 194
Group B
http://www.enchantedlearning.com
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Factual and accurate.
Biased towards US audience – focus on US festivals and geography.
Aimed at children and teachers.
Explicit educational focus with information on popular topics such as
animals, dinosaurs etc.
Contains subscription information at very top which distracts from
content – you need to scroll down to get free content. Basic page
which downloads quickly. Contains search engine.
http://www.starfall.com/
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Easily linked to curriculum which teach phonics.
Covers a wide range of English sounds.
Aimed at children including very young learners; colourful, easy to use
and helpful for reading practice.
Specifically designed to help young learners read in English.
Sometimes a little hard to navigate but generally fine.
http://switchzoo.com/zoo.htm
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Information on animals seems to be correct.
Contains adverts and promotions of own paid-for products.
Aimed at children. Relevant for any lessons where students have to
describe what an animal looks like or provide information on its
habitat.
Contains information on animals and how they live. Ability for users to
create own animals and write parallel texts. Results can be printed out
for further language analysis.
Requires Flash. May be slow on computers with slow connectivity.
Page 32 of 194
Group C
http://www.cubeez.com/
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Does not regularly update content.
Little advertising (some for own products).
Based on UK TV series for pre-school children. Lots of areas with
relevance to various parts of syllabus.
Has an explicit educational focus. Areas such as Big Book are
excellent for interactive story telling.
Requires Flash. Can be slow to initially launch on slow computers.
http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Published by educational company that helps children develop
reading skills.
Website links to company website.
Aimed at children learning English although Strong American accents
and fast speech in instructions in some of the games may be difficult
for learners to understand.
Focus on English language learning.
Not immediately obvious what rules to some games are. Requires
Flash.
http://www.puzzlemaker.com
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Discovery Education – reputable company.
Site provides links to lesson plans section. Has some advertising.
Aimed at teachers but could also be used by students to make their
own puzzles to test their classmates.
Specific educational focus. Puzzles best used for revision.
Easy-to-use, step-by-step puzzle generator that produces puzzles
(word search, crosswords etc) but use r needs an idea of what each
puzzle looks like before they can start producing their own.
Page 33 of 194
Group D
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/storycircle/
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Reputable publisher.
BBC has excellent reputation for producing children’s content.
Contains materials to extend the stories
Aimed at children. Stories are sometimes based around characters
from BBC TV programmes that may not be relevant to students in
every country.
No ELT focus but lots of resources that can be exploited in the English
classroom. Excellent for children learning to read.
Easy to navigate for children. Requires Flash. Site provides links to
technical help.
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Content is regularly updated.
Written by ELT specialists. No advertising.
Aimed at English language learners, teachers and parents. Activities
for classroom teaching and self access. Helpful tools for students with
weaker English such as double-click dictionary.
Designed for English language learners, teachers and parents.
Contains ideas for using the resources http://www.britishcouncil.org/parents-using-learnenglish-kids.htm
Clear topics. Colourful and easy to navigate. Pages tend to be long so
lots of scrolling necessary.
http://genkienglish.net/games.htm
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Ability to subscribe (via RSS) to get latest content. Appears to be
developed by one person only (references to ‘me’) which may affect
accuracy.
Provides list of curriculum ideas
(http://genkienglish.net/curriculum.htm) Provides songs, flashcards
and games for subject areas.
Aimed at English language learners and teachers.
Specifically aimed at teachers of English.
Pages tend to be long so lots of scrolling necessary.
Page 34 of 194
Group E
http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2601&e=gamesByAge&mcat=game_preschool&site=us
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Recently updated.
Well known company for children – Fisher Price, although not
necessarily known for education.
Aimed at (American) parents to use with pre-school children.
Explicit focus on phonics.
Resources can be slow to download.
http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/H/hoobs/activities/index.jsp
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Accurate content.
Channel 4 produced which is a UK TV company with strong
educational focus.
Based around a UK children’s TV series called The Hoobs. This may
not be relevant to learners not in the UK.
Has interactive and printable educational resources.
Can be slow to load. Flash needed (but links to download).
Educational Focus
Ease of use
Frequently updated. No language errors.
Well-known publisher. Lots of advertising that may distract.
Site is aimed at children although older secondary students may find it
childish.
No explicit educational materials although lots of content can be used
for project work.
Contains a search engine which provides only results which are
appropriate to children.
Attractive and easy to navigate.
Page 35 of 194
 A framework for evaluating websites
Look at the websites you have been given and make comments for each criteria. Write down the name of the websites in the space provided.
Criteria
Site 1:
Site 2:
Site 3:
Accuracy &
Acceptance
Authority &
Coverage
Audience &
Relevance
Educational
Focus
Ease of use
Page 36 of 194
Integrating the Web
Integrating the Web – Trainer notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
 integrate web resources into lessons
 critically evaluate web-based activities
SESSION LENGTH
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS
 develop their own web-based lesson ideas
90 minutes – 120 minutes. Stage 6 (Designing a Web-based lesson) can be
dropped to make the session shorter.
Hardware

Whiteboard
Save participant worksheets to each computer either locally or though a shared
folder.
MATERIALS
 Integrating the Web
 Exploiting the Web + Answer sheet
 Supporting language skills + Answer sheet
 Lesson plan A – Film reviews
 Evaluating web-based lessons + Answer sheet
 Lesson plan B – New wonders
 Lesson plan C – Superheroes
 Lesson plan D – An adventure
 Suggested websites for lesson integration (two versions) + Answer sheets
Procedure
1 Learning
outcomes

 Explain learning outcomes for session to participants using Slide 2 of
Integrating the Web.
This session assumes participants have done, or would be aware of issues covered in, the
Evaluating and selecting websites session.
2
Use of the Web


 Hand out Exploiting the Web or put the questions on the board and give
participants 10 minutes to discuss.
 Take feedback from participants referring to the answer sheet.
Page 37 of 194
Integrating the Web
3
Integrating web resources


 Regr oup participants.
 Hand out Supporting language skills and ask participants to make notes
under the headings.
 Elicit the purpose of this activity – to show that all the EFL skills we have as
teachers should not be forgotten when we integrate learning technologies into
our lessons.
 Feedback with the whole group. Answers will vary depending on facilities
available to participants in their own school settings.
Tip – If you’re using a computer and projector to deliver the session, type directly into
Word during feedback so this can be printed off and given to participants later.
Tip – Extensive notes on the criteria to use for evaluating websites can be found in the
Evaluating and selecting websites session and from BECTA:
http://schools.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=is&catcode=ss_to_es_tl_uor_03&rid=9926
4
Evaluating a lesson plan



 Remind participants of the criteria for evaluating websites.
 Put participants into groups of 2 or 3. Ask participants to open Lesson plan A
– Film reviews on their computer and have a look through the lesson and look
at the links.
 Hand out the Evaluating web-based lessons worksheet and ask the groups
to make notes under each of the questions.
 Take feedback using Evaluating web-based lessons – Answer sheet.
There are four lesson plans in all: A, B, C & D. Choose the most relevant ones for this stage
and stage 5 depending on the age of students the participants teach.
5 Participant
evaluation



 or

 Split the group in two and ask each group to open one of the remaining lesson
plans (Lesson plan B – New wonders, Lesson plan C – Superheroes or
Lesson plan D – An adventure) ensuring both groups are looking at different
plans.
 Ask participants to look through the lesson plan and have a look at the featured
sites.
 Give each group another copy of Evaluating web-based lessons and ask
them to complete it.
 Pair participants so each one has looked at a different lesson plan and ask
them to explain the lesson and compare notes.
 Take feedback as a whole group using the suggested answers in Evaluating
web-based lessons – Answer sheet.
Page 38 of 194
Integrating the Web
6
Designing a web-based lesson



 Ask participants to choose one or two links from Suggested websites for
lesson integration.
 Give groups another copy of Evaluating web-based lessons to make notes.
 Ask for feedback on the lessons they have just created and ask if there are any
other factors they can think of to consider when integrating websites.
 Provide participants with Suggested websites for lesson integration – Answer
sheet for their reference.
This section can be dropped if time is short. Participants would still benefit from
the list of websites and ideas on the worksheet and possibly looking at some
and making suggestions on how they could be exploited.
There are two copies of Suggested websites for lesson integration – one for primary and
one for secondary learners.
Page 39 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Exploiting the Web
Discuss in groups
1. What is needed for successful use of the World Wide Web from the point
of view of the…?
organisation
teachers
students
2. How can the Web be used in language teaching?
3. How good is EFL material on the Web?
4. What topics can you find on the Web?
Page 40 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Exploiting the Web – Answer sheet
Discuss in groups
1. What is needed for successful use of the World Wide Web from the point
of view of the…?
organisation
support in terms of technical and professional development, training time & recognition,
syllabus integration
teachers
Web literacy, searching skills, knowledge of available resources, methodology,
information handling skills, ability to assess student needs and skills, confidence
students
skimming/scanning onscreen, searching, note taking, editing, presentation
2. How can the Web be used in language teaching?
Key points:

accessing authentic reading materials

using it as a bank of different types of texts / genres

taking part in communication projects

conducting research projects

using it for reference

using it for student publishing

using it for language exercises
3. How good is EFL material on the Web?
Key points:
Mixed but a lot of good stuff out there and improving. The Web's real use is as a source of
authentic material (and communication).
4. What topics can you find on the Web?
Key points:
Is there any that aren’t on the Web? Themes could include: news, foreign culture, popular
culture (films, music, showbiz), general areas such as environment, crime, food, health, travel
etc.
Page 41 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Supporting language skills
Make notes in the boxes below.
What things do you need to consider when using websites for a lesson?
Make a list of exercises you use in class to develop
receptive skills (listening and reading)?
Make a list of exercises you use in class to develop
productive skills (speaking and writing)?
How could the Web be used to support these skills? How could the Web be used to support these skills?
Page 42 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Supporting language skills – Answer sheet
Make notes in the boxes below.
What things do you need to consider when using websites for a lesson?




Educational focus

Ease of use
See http://schools.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=is&catcode=ss_to_es_tl_uor_03&rid=9926 for more
details.
Make a list of exercises you use in class to develop Make a list of exercises you use in class to develop
receptive skills (listening and reading)?
productive skills (speaking and writing)?
 Prediction
 Pronunciation exercises
 Extracting specific info or detail e.g. how
many? how often?
 Role plays
 Getting a general picture – reading/ listening
for gist
 Any functional writing/speaking activity
 Recognising function or discourse patterns
 Deducing meaning from context
How could the Web be used to support these skills? How could the Web be used to support these skills?
 Looking at headlines on a news site and
predicting the news
 Skimming and scanning articles
 Comparing genres
 Providing the opportunity for student control
– e.g. students can read/listen at their own
pace, repeating as many times as they want
 Discussions based on visuals
 Commentary based on visuals e.g.
describing a video clip while partner has their
back to the board
 Summarising audio, video, text materials
 Discussions based on text e.g. news
headlines
 Providing fast reference e.g. dictionaries to
aid understanding
 Writing questions (for another group or
partner) based on text e.g. BBC news
 Using video for listening exercises to provide
context and other visual aids
 Explaining how to do something e.g. play a
game to partner
 Collaborative writing
Page 43 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Lesson plan A – Film reviews
Level:
Intermediate, secondary
Theme: Films
Focus:
Reading, writing
Aim:
For students to produce a short written review of a film
1.
Ask learners to discuss which films they have seen recently. Check what is currently being shown
locally and ask learners which films, if any, they would like to see. A few copies of local papers or
entertainment guides would be useful here.
2.
Elicit what they know about the series of films Harry Potter.
3.
Ask learners to make some notes about the outline of one of the Harry Potter films in about 150
to 200 words (or any other recent release if they haven’t seen any of them).
4. Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4420000/newsid_4424500/4424518.stm
for the plot summary of the forth film Goblet of Fire. (There are other reviews available through
BBC Newsround at http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/reviews/default.stm)
5. Get students to fill in the following table:
1. Who directed the film?
2. When was it released?
3. What negatives does the
reviewer mention?
4. What is the Newsround rating?
5. What sub-headings are used?
6. Click on the link at the bottom
Click here to say what you
thought of it!
Are the readers’ reviews
generally positive or negative?
6.
Ask students to write their own review about a movie of their choice using the same subheadings.
Page 44 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Evaluating web-based lessons
Once you have looked at the lesson plan, make some comments under these questions.
Lesson plan: ____
1)
How would this lesson fit into a syllabus?
2)
What level of English would a student need to use this?
3)
What pre- and post-task activities could be used?
4)
What computer skills would the students need?
5)
What language skills is this lesson practising?
6)
What anticipated problems can you think of when using this idea?
Page 45 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Evaluating web-based lessons – Answer sheet
Lesson plan: A – Film reviews
1)
Any lesson about writing reviews or discussing opinions.
2)
Pre-intermediate +. The BBC website is written for children who speak English as a first
language but the language is not particularly complex.
3)
There are some good suggestions in the lesson plan for pre-task activities: talking about what
films the students have seen recently.
Post-task activities could include process writing where students swap computers and check
another student’s review for language and content and give feedback to the original student.
4)
Typing and browsing
5)
Scanning for specific information.
Writing in a particular style.
6)
Students may not have seen the example film.
The film used as an example will date quickly.
Links may stop working.
Page 46 of 194
Integrating the Web
Lesson plan: B – New wonders
1)
The 7 Wonders of the World is a common theme in many coursebooks.
2)
Intermediate +. There is a lot of complex information to process for learners.
3)
For a pre-task activity the teacher could elicit a number of questions to answer: When was it
built? Why was it built? etc.
4)
Searching.
5)
Skimming, writing, collating information.
6)
The language content may be complex.
Page 47 of 194
Integrating the Web
Lesson plan: C – Superheroes
1)
Any lesson about abilities or describing people.
2)
The language focus would inevitably be for a lower level. The website does not require a high
level of English.
3)
Post-task – students could vote for their best superhero.
4)
Ability to navigate around a Flash application.
5)
Describing people.
6)
Need Flash player and is quite data-heavy so can take some time to load.
Students can take too long producing their superhero.
Page 48 of 194
Integrating the Web
Lesson plan: D – An adventure
1)
Any lesson about going on holiday.
2)
The site is aimed at pre-school children who speak English as a first language so would be
suitable for lower primary children who are learning English as a foreign language.
3)
Pre- or post-task – students could do the Learning Wall activity on the same page.
4)
Ability to point and click.
5)
Narrative tenses. Holiday vocabulary.
6)
Need Flash player.
May need to be teacher led if students cannot read well enough.
Page 49 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Lesson plan B – New wonders
Level:
Theme:
|
Focus:
Aim:
Intermediate, upper primary or secondary
Three of the new seven wonders of the world: Great Wall of China | Colosseum
Machu Pichu
Reading, speaking
To describe information about one of the 7 Wonders
1. Pre-task warmer
Write the names of the three wonders on the board and ask if the students have heard of them.
Brainstorm as much information as possible: where they are, what they were for etc. Put their
suggestions on the board in three columns.
Divide the class into pairs. Assign each pair one of the three wonders.
2. Research
Ask each group to research their topic using at least two of the sites below and to confirm or correct
the information on the board. Tell them also to make brief notes on the main points they have missed
and other interesting information they find so they can report to the rest of the class later. Set a time
limit of 20 minutes.
Main research sites:




Britannica – free encyclopaedia http://www.britannica.com/
Encarta – free encyclopaedia http://encarta.msn.com/
Wikipedia – user-generated encyclopaedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Official New 7 Wonders site – http://www.new7wonders.com/
Checking unknown words

Cambridge learners’ dictionary http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
3. Post-task activity
Divide the class into new groups of 3 so each person in the group has looked at a different wonder.
Give them 5 to 10 minutes to exchange information. Each group appoints a spokesperson who
reports to the rest of the class on the main points of interest.
Page 50 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Lesson plan C – Superheroes
Level:
Theme:
Focus:
Aim:
Pre-intermediate, upper primary or lower secondary
Superheroes, personalities, abilities
Speaking
To use descriptive language to describe the attributes of a superhero.
1. Pre-task warmer
Brainstorm superheroes that the students know and write them on the board, e.g. Batman, Superman,
Wonder Woman and get students to say something about their personalities (good, evil etc.) and
abilities (Superman can see through walls etc).
2. Building a superhero
If possible demonstrate how to create a superhero using the website:
Ask students to work in pairs/threes and go to the website and make their own superhero on their own
computers.
If you have access to a colour printer, the students can add colours to their superhero. If you don’t
have colour printers, then print the superheroes out blank and the students can colour them in
themselves.
3. Language focus
Ask students to write about their superhero using the following prompts:








My superhero’s called _______________________.
My superhero’s personality:
My superhero’s appearance:
My superhero wears…
My superhero can…
My superhero can’t…
My superhero likes….
My superhero doesn’t like…
4. Post-task activity
Ask students to describe their superhero to different groups.
Page 51 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Lesson plan D – An adventure
Level:
Theme:
Focus:
Aim:
Young learners
Going on an adventure
Reading, speaking, writing
To compose a story about an adventure
To use past tenses to retell a story
1. Pre-task warmer
Explain to students that they are going on an adventure.
Elicit places they would like to visit, how they would like to get there and what they would take.
2. Group Story Telling
Do this as a whole class activity.
Go to www.cubeez.com and enter the site. Click on the third Cubee (the orange one) to enter Big
Book.
Click on the golden book clasp to start. Start by entering in the class name and choosing one of the
Cubeez to share the adventure with.
Go through the story, eliciting vocabulary at each stage. Elicit suggestions from the learners for each
choice. Allow the learners to select what they want.
3. Individual story making
At individual computers direct students through the same process as above.
4. Student led writing
Once students have completed their story online, ask them to write sentences about their adventure.
Give sentence heads as necessary, for example:
 I went to the [jungle/seaside/park}
 I went by [train/ship/helicopter]
 I took [an umbrella/a cap/boots]
 etc.
Page 52 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Suggested websites for lesson integration
The following sites are aimed at secondary students and adult learners.
Choose one of these websites and consider how it could be integrated into a lesson.
Make notes using the worksheet Evaluating web-based lessons.
Exploratorium – http://www.exploratorium.com/
Encarta – http://www.encarta.com
Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Encyclopaedia Britannica – http://www.britannica.com
Yahoo! Kids – http://kids.yahoo.com
VideoJug – http://www.videojug.com/
BBC Schools – http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/11_16/
Fairground Spells – http://www.channel4learning.net/sites/fairground/index.shtml
BBC Learning English – http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
Oxfam – http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/
Planet – http://www.planplanet.org/games/index.php
LearnEnglish Kids – http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids.htm
BBC Newsround – http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/
Room Maker – http://elouai.com/new-room-maker/index.php
Hero Machine – http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heroMachine2/heromachine2.asp
Page 53 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Suggested websites for lesson integration – Answer sheet
The following sites are aimed at secondary students and adult learners.
Here are some ideas for how they can be used in the classroom.
Exploratorium – http://www.exploratorium.com/
Use the ideas in http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/index.html to practice following instructions in
English.
Encarta – http://www.encarta.com
Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Encyclopaedia Britannica – http://www.britannica.com
Students think of a topic that interests them and write some questions they would like answered.
Another student uses the website to find out the answers.
Yahoo! Kids – http://kids.yahoo.com
Students choose their favourite jokes from the Joke section. Alternatively a set of questions could be
set and the students have to find the answers using the safe search engine.
VideoJug – http://www.videojug.com/
Students watch videos of how to make things (for example, playdough http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-playdough) and try and explain it to a partner who has not
watched the same video.
BBC Schools – http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/11_16/
Although for a specific UK exam, the writing tips at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/english/writing/index.shtml would help all English learners.
Fairground Spells – http://www.channel4learning.net/sites/fairground/index.shtml
Use the Ferris wheel game to practice double vowels in spelling as a fun activity at the end of a class.
BBC Learning English – http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
Listen to Flatmates, an online soap opera, weekly.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/). After each episode, ask students to
predict what will happen in the next.
Oxfam – http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/
Lots of topical lesson plans available with lesson plans. For example about climate change
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/climate_chaos/
Planet – http://www.planplanet.org/games/index.php
Split the class into four groups and get them to research a different country in the Where in the World
section.
Students use the Story Maker (http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-writing-storymaker.htm) to create
stories then write there own without the support.
Children’s BBC Newsround – http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/
Page 54 of 194
Integrating the Web
Split the class into groups. Each group takes one section of the website (news, sport, music etc) and
writes a summary based on the news topics on the page.
Students create their own rooms then write a description of it. The students then swap descriptions
and try to recreate the room from the writing alone.
Students create their own superhero and write a description and details of their superheroes abilities.
Page 55 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Suggested websites for lesson integration
The following sites are aimed at primary students.
Choose one of these websites and consider how it could be integrated into a lesson.
Make notes using the worksheet Evaluating web-based lessons.
Enchanted Learning – http://www.enchantedlearning.com
Switch Zoo – http://switchzoo.com/
Scholastic – http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/learn.jsp
Cubeez – http://www.cubeez.com/
BBC CBeebies Story Circle – http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/storycircle/
BBC Primary – http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/bitesizeprimary/
Page 56 of 194
Integrating the Web
 Suggested websites for lesson integration – Answer sheet
The following sites are aimed at primary students.
Here are some ideas for how they can be used in the classroom.
Enchanted Learning – http://www.enchantedlearning.com
Students choose an animal to study and find out as much information from the website before
producing a poster for the class.
Switch Zoo – http://switchzoo.com/
Students create their own animals and write about the habitat and behaviour and come up with an
original name.
Scholastic – http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/learn.jsp
Students go through the Clifford Interactive Storybooks and select the different answers each time to
see how the words sound.
Cubeez – http://www.cubeez.com/
Guide students through the interactive story in Big Book by clicking on the orange character on the
home page. Get students then to create their own story and write about it.
BBC CBeebies Story Circle – http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/storycircle/
Use these stories through the projector with your students.
BBC Primary – http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/bitesizeprimary/
Ask students to produce top selling products by using the correct adjectives and adverbs in
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/activities/adjectives_adverbs.shtml.
Split the class into groups. Each group takes one section of the website (news, sport, music etc) and
writes a summary based on the news topics on the page.
Students create their own rooms then write a description of it. The students then swap descriptions
and try to recreate the room from the writing alone.
Students create their own superhero and write a description and details of the superheroes abilities.
Choose a story and watch it on the computer. Put all the main nouns from the story on the board (all
the names, places and other important parts of the story) and then get the students to retell it.
Page 57 of 194
Office applications for whole-class teaching
Office applications for whole-class teaching – Trainer notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
 evaluate and produce a number of teaching ideas using Word and PowerPoint
 evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of doing activities on a computer
as opposed to similar paper-based activities
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS
Hardware

Computer with Internet connection. [The session can be done without an
Internet connection by leaving out stage 5].
Whiteboard
MATERIALS
 Office applications for whole class teaching.
 Where have all the verbs gone? + Answer sheet
 Task analysis + Answer sheet
 The longest sentence
 Weed Read + Answer sheet
 Advantages and disadvantages of using Office software
 What’s going to happen? (In a folder named What’s going to happen)
 All the Js
Procedure
1
Learning outcomes and introduction

 Explain learning outcomes for session to participants using Slide 2 of Office
applications for whole class teaching.
 Ask participants to discuss the questions on Slide 3 of Office applications for
whole class teaching.
 Take feedback as a group bringing out the following points:
Benefits
Word: Useful for taking feedback for worksheets, neat, editing facility can aid
understanding and learning. Can be emailed to students.
PowerPoint: Useful for presenting, can aid learning if used correctly.
Animation can be useful. Can be used to embed other files (video, Flash etc).
Can be emailed to students.
Page 58 of 194
Problems
Text may be too small. Can make lessons very teacher centred. Boring
PowerPoint presentations can distract and have been proven to hinder
learning.
All the Word activities are suitable for students to do in a room with multiple computers
working at their own computers but these activities also work well done through a projector
for the whole class. If you happen to have a wireless keyboard you can use in the
classroom, they are great to use for these activities.
2
Where have all the verbs gone?




 Project the Where have all the verbs gone? document.
 Put participants into groups and ask them to complete the task verbally.
 Invite one participant to the front to take feedback from the rest of the group.
Ask this participant to enter the verbs as they rest of the group make
suggestions.
 Encourage negotiation when alternative suggestions are made.
 Provide the answer to the task.
 Hand out Task Analysis and ask participants in groups of 2/3 to complete the
section for this activity.
 Feedback as a group.
Tip – Take this opportunity to introduce some techniques to view and navigate
documents:
 setting the Zoom to 140%
 usin g Full Screen though the View menu
 hol ding down Ctrl on the keyboard and using the scroll wheel on the mouse to
zoom in and out
Zoom settings are accessible through View > Zoom.
3
The longest sentence



 Project The longest sentence onto the board.
 Give the keyboard to one participant and ask them to add one word to extend
the sentence.
 Take feedback from the rest of the group on the validity of the word added.
 Pass the keyboard to the next participant and ask them to add one more word.
 Continue passing the keyboard around until you have a long sentence.
 Ask participants to discuss the benefits of doing this exercise and add
comments to Task Analysis.
Tip – If participants have large classes, these activities could precede similar activities
done at workstations or as paper-based activities. It’s still beneficial to have the example
done through a projector as this exposes students to examples and suggestions, and
models exactly how the exercise could be approached.
Page 59 of 194
4 Weed
read




 Project Weed Read onto the board.
 Ask participants to spend a couple of minutes in groups to find the superfluous
words.
 Invite one participant to the front to take feedback from the rest of the group.
Ask this participant to colour the erroneous words red using the Font Colour
tool.
 Ask participants to discuss the benefits of doing this exercise and add
comments to Task Analysis.
5
What’s going to happen?



The following stages look at the uses of PowerPoint other than as a presenting tool.
This activity uses embedded videos
 Open the What’s going to happen? PowerPoint within the folder What’s going
to happen and go through the videos taking note of when to pause the video.
 Elicit examples of the target language (It’s going to… etc)
 Take feedback on this PowerPoint; it’s validity as teaching tool, the difficulty in
creating it.
 Ask participants to complete the appropriate section of Task Analysis and
feedback together.
These videos were purchased from http://www.visit4info.com/ and copyright sought from the
respective advertising agencies.
When using this PowerPoint ensure the PowerPoint and the videos remain in the same
folder and you Enable Macros if prompted when opening the file.
Tip – The same result can be achieved by creating hyperlinks to videos hosted in sites
such as YouTube. However, in some schools and countries the use of YouTube is not
allowed or may be very slow.
If you want to use YouTube and are likely to have a slow connection, load the videos into
separate browser windows before the session.
2 Drilling
vocabulary



 Go through All the Js and elicit the items of vocabulary as they appear.
 Use the Felt Tip Pen option to draw lines between the vocabulary and the
images on slide 17.
 Ask participants to complete the appropriate section of Task Analysis and
feedback together.
Tip – The Felt Tip Pen is accessible by right clicking during a presentation > Pointer
Options > Felt Tip Pen
Page 60 of 194
3 Reflection

 Go through Advantages and disadvantages of using Office software and elicit
any further suggestions and include them in the table.
Tip – As further evidence of the usefulness of using word processors for whole-class
teaching, save the final document and pass it on to the participants later.
Page 61 of 194
 Where have all the verbs gone?
All the verbs have been taken out of this text. Work with a partner to put them back in again.
These friends of mine a new carpet, so they to the shop and one and
the carpet-fitter round to fit it while they out at work. When he, he that
there a bump right in the middle. He that this be a pack of cigarettes
that he absent-mindedly, so he up and down on the bump until it flat.
The family home and the carpet. Then they the man if he their pet
canary 1 which missing. It then that he his cigarettes on the hall table!
1
A canary is a small yellow bird.
Page 62 of 194
 Where have all the verbs gone? – Possible answer
All the verbs have been taken out of this text. Work with a partner to put them back in again.
These friends of mine needed/wanted a new carpet, so they went to
the shop and chose/bought one and the carpet-fitter came round to fit
it while they were out at work. When he finished, he
realised/saw/noticed that there was a bump right in the middle. He
thought that this must be a pack of cigarettes that he absent-mindedly
misplaced/lost, so he jumped up and down on the bump until it was
flat. The family came home and saw/ looked at/inspected the carpet.
Then they asked the man if he had seen their pet canary which was
missing. It was then that he saw/noticed his cigarettes on the hall
table!
Page 63 of 194
 Task analysis
Look at the different activities below and make notes under each heading.
Task
Language focus
Computer skills
Comments/Observations
Where have all the
verbs gone?
The longest
Sentence
Weed read
What’s going to
happen?
All the Js
Page 64 of 194
 Task analysis – Answer sheet
Look at the different activities and make notes under the headings below.
Task
Where have all the
verbs gone?
The longest
sentence
Language focus
Computer skills
Narrative tenses.
Also need to
understand the
whole context.
Cursor position,
typing, spacebar,
undo?
Changing font
colour makes it very
easy to see
changes.
Adjective, adverbs,
quantifiers, linkers
Cursor position,
typing, spacebar,
undo?
Target language is quite
advanced but IT skills are fairly
simple.
More than one possible answer
allows for group negotiation.
More than one possible answer
allows for group negotiation.
This activity can be easily
extended into an analysis of
parts of speech by getting
students to colour each part of
speech in a different colour.
Weed read
Collocation,
grammar, syntax
Highlighting
This can be used for any text.
The Word version can be
printed out and done individually
before using the projected
version as feedback
What’s going to
happen?
Going to for future
prediction
None for students.
Ability to search for
videos on Web and
attach hyperlinks.
Pre-teaching of some
vocabulary may be necessary.
Activity loses impact if the
videos are too well known.
All the Js
Vocabulary
beginning with the
same sound
None for students.
Quite advanced for
teacher to make.
Need knowledge of
animation.
Time consuming to make but
nice way or involving learners.
Page 65 of 194
 The longest sentence
Look at the sentence below. Add words to the sentence to make it longer.
Rules:
1. The sentence must be grammatically correct
2. Only one word at a time can be added
3. The teacher must agree that the word is suitable
The man gave the girl a rose.
Page 66 of 194
 Weed read
Read the text below. There are ten extra words in the text. Highlight the extra words.
Thousands of miles from an earth, on the far away side of the universe is a small planet, Fliptune. It is
dark and is cold, far from the sun, behind a much bigger planet.
Little green aliens are live there. They use the torches to see.
One day, a young alien, Neila, did put the wrong batteries in her torch.
Suddenly there to was a dazzling beam of light house. It went up into the sky, around the sun, and
was hit planet earth.
The light hit a boy called Billy and his animal dog, Splodge. Neila quickly turned the torch off, but the
pair were sucked up by the light.
Page 67 of 194
 Weed read – Answer sheet
Read the text below. There are ten extra words in the text. Highlight the extra words in red.
Thousands of miles from an earth, on the far away side of the universe is a small planet, Fliptune. It is
dark and is cold, far from the sun, behind a much bigger planet.
Little green aliens are live there. They use the torches to see.
One day, a young alien, Neila, did put the wrong batteries in her torch.
Suddenly there to was a dazzling beam of light house. It went up into the sky, around the sun, and
was hit planet earth.
The light hit a boy called Billy and his animal dog, Splodge. Neila quickly turned the torch off, but the
pair were sucked up by the light.
Text from http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-cold-planet.htm
Page 68 of 194
 Advantages and disadvantages of using Office software
Word processors
Advantages
Disadvantages

Easy to edit


Can keep electronic copies for future
reference
Word processing skills may not be up to the
task (even if English skills are)

Reading/processing text on screen is not to
so comfortable

One student controls all input (need to
manage student-computer interaction)

Unsuitable for long texts or complex tasks
where text can not be seen as a whole or
where constant scrolling between rubric
and text is required
 Promotes

negotiation
Involves all students regardless of level
Presentation software
Advantages
 Looks
Disadvantages
good

Can embed links to Internet

Pre-prepared so leaves more time in class
for teaching

It can include pictures, sounds, and
movement

Can take time to produce good looking
presentation

It can be used to present too much, without
interaction

The teacher can lead too much
Page 69 of 194
Using Office applications in a computer room
Using Office applications in a computer room – Trainer notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
 evaluate Word and PowerPoint based activities and teaching ideas
 describe the advantages and disadvantages of using Office applications
instead of paper-based activities
SESSION LENGTH 90 minutes-120 minutes
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS
Hardware

MATERIALS
Whiteboard
folder.
 First to third + Answer Sheet
 How people live + Answer Sheet
 Descriptive story
 Passive process + Answer Sheet
 Evaluating computer based activities + Answer Sheet
 Advantages and disadvantages of using Office software
 Using Office applications in a computer room
 Add a caption
 The classroom bomb scare
 A monster story in clip art
Procedure
1 Learning
outcomes

 Explain learning outcomes for session to participants using Slide 2 of Using
Office applications in a computer room.
 Ask trainees if they have ever used Word or PowerPoint in a computer room
and ask participants to share experiences.
2 Benefits
 Elicit from participants some of their perceived benefits of using Word for
writing exercises. There’s no right or wrong answer here, but try and steer
participants into thinking about ease of editing, ability to save, ability to move
text around easily etc.
 Take notes on the whiteboard/flipchart for later.
Page 70 of 194
3
Introduction to activities




 At their computers in groups of 2 or 3, ask participants to open First to third.
 Ask participants to complete the exercise.
 Elicit what level they think this is for and what technical skills students would
need to do the exercise.
 Ask participants to complete the first section of Evaluating computer based
activities.
 Feedback as a group using Evaluating computer based activities – Answer
sheet.
4 Anal ysing exercises







 Split participants into groups of 2 or 3 and allocate each group one of the three
remaining Word activities (How people live, Descriptive story or Passive
process).
 Ask each group to open their document, complete the task and fill in the
relevant section of Evaluating computer based activities.
 Group participants into new groups of 3 so each member of the group has seen
a different exercise.
 Ask each group member to show the others the exercise they have looked at
and discuss their effectiveness.
 Take group feedback using Evaluating computer based activities – Answer
sheet.
5
Photo for captions



The rest of the session will focus on student led activities using PowerPoint.
 Open
Add a caption on the facilitator’s computer using the projector/IWB
and look at the instructions and example together with the group.
6

Do a second example together, eliciting appropriate functional language for
the situation.

Ask the participants to open a copy on their computers.

Walk the participants through the process of creating speech balloons and
adding text.

Ask participants to fill in Evaluating computer based activities and take
group feedback using Evaluating computer based activities – Answer sheet.
Photo and picture stories


 Elicit what a photo story is and where you might see one – a story with pictures
and speech bubbles, often found in children’s magazines.
 Show participants the example photo story: A classroom bomb scare
Page 71 of 194
 Show participants a similar activity type, but this time making use of Clip Art:
A monster story in clip art.
7
Planning for using PowerPoint

 As a group, consider how producing something similar would need to be
planned and what issues need to be considered.
 Ask participants to brainstorm in groups and then take feedback using Slide 3
of Using Office applications in a computer room.
Planning: Storyboarding, taking photographs, making photographs available on
computers, ensuring students have the necessary computer skills to add
callouts and images.
Issues: Getting photos onto computers can take time, may need more than one
digital camera, students can spend more time animating story and finding
suitable clip art than producing language.
8 Wrap
up

 Ask participants if they have thought of any different uses for the software
throughout the session.
 Go back to the list of benefits and issues from stage 2 and see if participants
want to add anymore.
 Provide a copy of Advantages and disadvantages of using Office software.
Tip – Other activities that work well on word processors involve process writing using
Track Changes, using PowerPoint to present findings from a survey
Page 72 of 194
 First to third
Replace ‘I’ with ‘She” in the following passage. You can use Find and Replace for this task (Edit >
Replace…).
Make any further changes as necessary.
Example:
She comes from France.
I come from France. I am 22 years old and work for a manufacturing company. I am responsible for
sales and marketing. I live in a small flat with my husband, who is a teacher. We don’t have any
children.
I have a brother and sister who are younger than me. My brother is studying at university and my
sister still goes to school.
I have lots of hobbies. I like swimming and playing tennis and I also go to the cinema quite regularly. I
sometimes go fishing with my husband at weekends.
Page 73 of 194
 First to third – Answer sheet
Replace ‘I’ with ‘She” in the following passage.
Make any further changes as necessary.
Example:
She comes from France.
She comes from France. She is 22 years old and works for a manufacturing company. She is
responsible for sales and marketing. She lives in a small flat with her husband, who is a teacher. They
don’t have any children.
She has a brother and sister who are younger than her. Her brother is studying at university and her
sister still goes to school.
She has lots of hobbies. She likes swimming and playing tennis and she also goes to the cinema
quite regularly. She sometimes goes fishing with her husband at weekends.
Page 74 of 194
 How people live
Use following information to create two texts, one about Bedouin, the other about Bushmen of the
Kalahari. You can either use Cut and Paste or drag the text into the boxes.
Be careful: the sentences in each group are not in order!
Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, many Bedouin
started to leave the traditional, nomadic life
In 2002, the Botswana government forced all the
Bushmen from their lands
The government has given several different justifications for their action:
especially as grazing ranges have shrunk and population levels have grown.
Similarly, go vernment pol icies in Egypt, oil produ ction i n Li bya an d the Gulf, and a d esire fo r imp roved
standards of living have had the effect that most Bedouin are now settled citizens of various nations,
that it was "to enable them to share in the wealth of the country";
which forced many of them to give up herding for standard jobs.
within the borders of that country and "resettled" them in fixed encampments.
that it was for purposes of nature conservation; that it wa s too expensive to continue to supply them with water
(the water table had been lowered by farming and other development);
rather than nomadic herders and farmers.
In Syria, for example, their way of life effectively ended during a severe drought from 1958 to 1961,
that it was for their own good to become settled and "civilized".
Traditionally they would herd camels, sheep, and goats, while riding on highly prized horses, moving according
to the seasons for grazing lands.
Nonetheless, the London Daily Telegraph of October 29, 2005 reported that the government had begun another
wave of forced removals.
But a differe nt group, (the Botswa na Centre fo r Human Rights), disp ute thi s, claimi ng th at the G overnment's
motives are simply altruistic, yet misguided.
The Bedouins were traditionally divided into related tribes, each led by a Sheikh.
For centuries and into the early 20th century they were known for their fierce resistance to outside government
and influence.
The camp aign gro up Su rvival Internatio nal say the real reason fo r the re -settlement is to fre e up the la nd for
diamond mining.
Page 75 of 194
 How people live – Answer sheet
Cut and paste the following information to create two texts, one about Bedouin, the other about
Bushmen of the Kalahari.
Be careful: the sentences in each group are not in order!
Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, many Bedouin
started to leave the traditional, nomadic life
In 2002, th e Botswana government fo rced all th e
Bushmen from their lands
especially as gra zing range s have shru nk a nd
population levels have grown.
within the borders of th at country a nd " resettled"
them in fixed encampments.
The Be douins were traditi onally divid ed into related
tribes, each led by a Sheikh.
The gove rnment ha s given se
justifications for their action:
For centuries and into the ea rly 20th century th ey
were kn own for their fierce re sistance to outside
government and influence.
that it was for purposes of nature conservation; that it
was too exp ensive to continue to supply them with
water (the water table had been lowered by farmi ng
and other development);
Traditionally they woul d herd camel s, she ep, a nd
goats, while riding o n hi ghly pri zed h orses, m oving
according to the seasons for grazing lands.
veral differe nt
that it was "to enabl e them to share in the wealth o f
the country";
In Syria, for example, their way of life effectively
ended during a severe drought from 1958 to 1961,
that it was fo r their own good to become settled and
"civilized".
which force d many of the m to give up herdi ng fo r
standard jobs.
The campaign group Survival Internati onal say th e
real reason for the re-settlement is to free up the land
for diamond mining.
Similarly, g overnment policies i n Egypt, oil
production in Libya an d the Gulf, an d a de sire fo r
improved standards of living have had the effect that
most Bed ouin are now settled citizen s of vario us
nations,
rather than nomadic herders and farmers.
But a different grou p, (the Botswa na Centre for
Human Rights), di spute this, clai ming that the
Government's motives are simply altrui
stic, yet
misguided.
Nonetheless, the London Daily Telegraph of October
29, 20 05 reported that th e gove rnment had begun
another wave of forced removals.
Page 76 of 194
 A descriptive story
The following story is rather uninteresting. Add some descriptions, dialogue, etc, to improve it.
The man walked down the road. He saw a woman. He said something. She replied. Then they went
somewhere. When they got there they did something. He felt happy/ sad/ (other feeling). She went
somewhere. He went home. Something exciting/ terrible/ (other adjective) happened.
Page 77 of 194
 Olive Oil
Below is a text written by a farmer on his blog site to describe how olive oil is produced on his family
farm.
1.
Change each verb to the correct active or passive form.
2.
Use the words below to link your ideas more clearly:
First / Next / Then / After that / Finally
Olive Oil
Olives [grow] for olive oil production in North Africa for thousands of years. On my family farm, the
olive oil [make] from the fruits of our own trees. A harvesting team [hand pick] the olives, the leaves
and twigs [remove], they [wash] and [pat] dry. The olives [take] to a mill. They [crush] in an old
stone mill. The oil [separate] from the crushed fruit.
This sort of olive oil is called extra-virgin. When someone [dip] a little bread into it they [eat] the soul
of the olive itself.
My Aunt also [preserve] her own olives which [make] a delicious treat.
The farm also [produce] fresh butter, we [make] cooking oil too. The butter [churn] daily from raw
milk resulting in a rich, nutty flavour.
Page 78 of 194
 Olive Oil – Answer sheet
Below is a text written by a farmer on his blog site to describe how olive oil is produced on his family
farm.
1.
Change each verb to the correct active or passive form.
2.
Use the words below to link your ideas more clearly:
First / Next / Then / After that / Finally
Olive Oil
Olives have been grown for olive oil production in North Africa for thousands of years. On my family
farm, the olive oil is made from the fruits of our own trees. First, a harvesting team hand pick the
olives, next the leaves and twigs are removed, they are then washed and patted dry. After that the
olives are taken to a mill. They are crushed in an old stone mill. Finally, the oil is separated from
the crushed fruit.
This sort of olive oil is called extra-virgin. When someone dips a little bread into it they eat the soul of
the olive itself.
My Aunt also preserves her own olives which makes a delicious treat.
The farm also produces fresh butter, we make cooking oil too. The butter is churned daily from raw
milk resulting in a rich, nutty flavour.
Page 79 of 194
 Task analysis
For each of the activities you see in the session, make notes under the headings below.
Task
Language focus
Computing
functions
1 First to third
2 How people
live
3 Descriptive
story
4 Passive
process
5 Add a
caption
Page 80 of 194
 Task analysis – Answer sheet
Look at the different activities and make notes under the headings below.
Task
Language focus
1 First to third
2 How people
live
3 Descriptive
story
4 Passive
process
Computing
functions
1st v 3rd person
present tenses
Basic typing, deleting
and insertion
Find and Replace
Discourse, coherence,
sentence ordering
Blocking and moving
text
Cutting, pasting,
dragging
Undoing
Descriptive writing –
adjectives, adverbs,
etc
Active v Passive
Adding sequencers to
text
Students could be asked to
change back to first person to
reinforce grammatical changes
needed.
Make sure the Grammar check
is turned off (Tools > Options
> Spelling and Grammar >
Check grammar as you type)
Makes a coursebook text more
interesting.
This could be used for tapescripts too.
Inserting text is suited to wordprocessing.
Inserting text
Deleting and typing
Re-formatting text
Possibly not a very appropriate
base story for some students.
Important to turn off the
Grammar Check to do this
(Tools > Options > Spelling &
Grammar > Check grammar as
you type).
Similar idea can be used for
practising other verb forms.
More complex computing skills
needed than in word
processing.
5 Add a
caption
Functional language
Adding AutoShapes
Adding text to
AutoShapes
Lots of copyright free images
can be taken from Creative
Commons for this type of
activity:
http://search.creativecommons
.org/
Page 81 of 194
 Advantages and disadvantages of using Office software
Word processors
Advantages
Disadvantages
Easy to edit
Reading/processing text on screen may
not be comfortable
Can keep electronic copies for future
reference
Ordering sentences/paragraphs can be
easier on paper
Saves paper
Produces a clean copy – paper-based
Texts can be too long for onscreen
version is messy
viewing
Can compare original with final saved
Word skills can get in the way of the
version
language task
Develops keyboarding/word-processing
Students may be using computers all day
skills
and don’t want to use them when studying
a language
Teacher can keep a copy – permanent
record of progress and common errors
Most exams are still handwritten so hand
writing is still a necessary skill
Children like doing it
Writing on computers is now a natural
Need to be careful with instructions –
way to write
staged and simple – what instructions can
be given in class and what are given on
Grammar and spell check provides instant
the document?
feedback
Can use tracking changes for peer editing
and process writing
Presentation software
Advantages
Looks good
Easy to combine pictures and text
Helps promote IT fluency
Students like it
Can be saved and distribute
Can be used for language activities, not
just presentations
Disadvantages
Can take time to produce a good looking
presentation
Can require a lot of planning time
Students can spend more time playing
with images and animation than
producing language
PowerPoint presentations can be very
boring
Page 82 of 194
Searching and copyright-friendly resources
Searching and copyright-friendly resources – Trainer Notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
 distinguish between the different types of search engines and explain how they
work
 make practical use of search engines with students
 design lessons with an awareness of copyright issues and with knowledge of
copyright-free materials that teachers can use
Note: There is further information on safe searching with young learners in the
TeachingEnglish – learning technologies session: Safe surfing.
SESSION LENGTH Approximately 90 minutes
Hardware
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS

Whiteboard
folder.
MATERIALS
 Searching and copyright on the Web
 Using Google in the classroom + Answer sheet
 Copyright quiz + Answer sheet
 Copyright-free resources
Procedure
1 Learning
Outcomes

 Go through the learning outcomes for session using Slide 2 of Searching and copyright on
the Web . Slide 3 of Searching and copyright on the Web includes a nice quote:
“As someone once said, the Web is like one great big, wonderful library. You enter the front
door, and there are all the books... piled in the middle of the floor!”
 Ask participants to discuss the questions on Slide 4 of Searching and copyright on the Web
2 Googling


 Hand out Using Google in the classroom.
 Ask participants to work though the questions and consider how they could
make use of these functions of Google in a classroom setting.
 Take feedback from the group using the teaching ideas in Using Google in
Page 83 of 194
the classroom – Answer sheet.
The last point on common usage may open up a good discussion to end
with. Are the teachers from a descriptive or prescriptive school of grammar?
The Internet is about people power but what will happen to the language?
Take this opportunity to warn participants about advertisements on search result pages.
These are links companies pay to appear based on the keywords searched for and often do
not contain information that is useful.
3
What to search for

 Open Slide 5 of Searching and copyright on the Web.
 Pause the slide after the search terms (“language teachers” and “starting to
search”) and get participants to type the search terms into Google. The search
should bring up http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm
 Continue with the slide and ask participants to answer the questions:
 Take feedback as a group. Answers:
What things shouldn’t you search for? Books, especially modern books, audiovisual materials, anything under copyright. However Google Books
http://books.google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp is a growing resource.
Is it easy to get downloadable audio/visual materials on the Web? No but it is
getting easier although copyright is an issue. There is a growing amount of
user-generated content through websites such as YouTube that can be
exploited. It is less likely you will easily find audio and video from TV, films or
published music.
What’s the most important thing to think about when beginning a search?
Choose your keywords carefully.
4
Where to search

 Go through Slides 6 to 8 of Searching and copyright on the Web.
Give each group a different search engine (including one meta-search
engine and one from slide 7) and ask them to search for a topic of their
choosing or give them one – try learning technologies).
Ask groups to compare the type of results they get.
 Using slide 9 of Searching and copyright on the Web ask participants to
discuss the issues covered.
 Take feedback. Point to bring up:
Teachers must be very careful when allowing students to search.
Using a safe search engine such as the one at Yahoo Kids
(http://kids.yahoo.com/ ) is a safe way of protecting children.
Schools can also use filtering software to ensure certain websites cannot be
accessed. Teachers must remain vigilant at all times.
We must expect that some students may be more proficient at using technology
Page 84 of 194
than the teachers. These students should be encouraged so that they don’t
have to ‘dumb down’ when they come to school.
Tip – Encourage participants to use ‘Ctrl + F’ to search for key words within the page.
This helps them jump to the paragraphs that are most relevant. It speeds up page scanning.
There is further information on safe searching with young learners in the TeachingEnglish –
learning technologies session: Cyber well-being.
5 Cop yright quiz


 Ask participants why it is important to consider copyright.
 Take feedback. Points to bring up:
Breaking copyright can lead to legal proceedings against the person and the
school. There have been many cases of schools being fined for using materials
that break copyright. It is very easy to track web-based materials such as
images if they are copied and the copyright holder can track usage.
 Put participants into small teams and distribute Copyright quiz.
 Take feedback using Copyright quiz – Answer sheet.
6 Cop yright-friendly resources

 Ask participants to look at the resources on Copyright-friendly resources and
rate them for usefulness.
 Take feedback as a whole group on which ones are most useful.
Page 85 of 194
 Using Google in the classroom
In small groups, work through the questions below.
As you complete the quiz think about how you could integrate the Google features into a lesson?
1)
What is US$1000 in British Pounds?
Tip – Write $ in full (i.e. dollars).
2)
What is 15ºC in Fahrenheit?
Tip – You don’t need to type in º (degrees).
3)
What is the very latest news on Madonna? (Google news)
Tip – Go to News. Type latest news on Madonna. Note the difference if you only type in her name.
4)
Find a picture of JK Rowling (Google images)
Tip – Click on Images.
5)
How many lesson plans about comparatives can you find? Now find one in PowerPoint format.
Tip – Type into search bar: comparatives lesson plan filetype:ppt
6)
What does pedagogy mean?
Tip – Type define: pedagogy
7)
What’s the temperature in London?
Tip – Type Weather: London
8)
What’s the more common – present simple or simple present?
Tip – Do two searches using quotation marks “” to get results for that exact phrase.
Page 86 of 194
 Using Google in the classroom – Answer sheet
In small groups, work through the questions below.
As you complete the quiz think about how you could integrate the Google features into a lesson?
1)
What is US$1000 in British Pounds?
In the classroom this may be useful when doing any work mentioning foreign currencies to give a context. [Trainer
notes – choose a local currency].
2)
What is 15ºC in Fahrenheit?
15C in F works (Answer = 59). Useful in any class when conversions needed to make something clear in the
conventions the students are used to.
3)
What is the very latest news on Madonna? (Google news)
This could be the basis of some project work.
4)
Find a picture of JK Rowling (Google images)
Again this could be the basis of some project work although bear in mind copyright issues.
5)
How many lesson plans about comparatives can you find? Now find one in PowerPoint format.
Filetype: will list this type of file on the Internet. Useful for searching for materials but you must be critical.
6)
What does pedagogy mean?
Define: provides a list of definitions with links to where the definitions come from. A very useful tool for teachers and
students alike.
7)
What’s the temperature in London?
This only works for major cities. Useful for project work or lessons about the weather.
8)
What’s the more common – present simple or simple present?
This can be a quick check if a teacher is unsure about the most common spelling or collocation when more than one
exists. In this example, Present Simple is more common; just.
Page 87 of 194
 Copyright quiz
Answer the questions below in pairs.
1)
How long does copyright last for?
a) 30 years after the death of the creator
b) 70 years after the death of the creator
c) 100 years after the death of the creator
2)
Does the creator need to register his/her copyright for it to be protected?
a) yes
b) no
3)
All materials published on the Web are subject to copyright.
a) true
b) false
4)
All clipart is free from copyright.
a) true
b) false
5)
It is permitted under copyright laws to make use of song lyrics from the Web for classroom
exercises.
a) true
b) false
6)
I am allowed to make one copy of an educational CD-ROM for backup purposes.
a) true
b) false
Page 88 of 194
 Copyright quiz – Answer sheet
Answer the questions below. Answers taken from British Council copyright guidelines.
1)
How long does copyright last for?
a) 30 years after the death of the creator
b) 70 years after the death of the creator (50 years in the case of audio and video recordings,
audio and video broadcasts, and computer-generated works)
c) 100 years after the death of the creator
2)
Does the creator need to register his/her copyright for it to be protected?
a) yes
b) no
3)
All materials published on the Web are subject to copyright.
a) true
b) false
4)
All clipart is free from copyright.
a) true
b) false
5)
It is permitted under copyright laws to make use of song lyrics from the Web for classroom
exercises.
a) true (http://www.lyricscafe.com/ is an example of a site you can use)
b) false
6)
I am allowed to make one copy of an educational CD-ROM for backup purposes.
a) true
b) false
Page 89 of 194
 Copyright-free resources
Follow the links to the following resources on the Internet and give it a rating in terms of usefulness for
the average teacher. You may also want to make some notes to help you recall site content.
Rate the sites using 1 = invaluable to 5 = useless.
If you know of any more sites, please add them to the list and tell your partner about them.
Resource
Notes
Wikimedia Commons
Rating
1 2 3 4 5
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Clip art
1 2 3 4 5
http://hcmc.uvic.ca/clipart/
1 2 3 4 5
Business Balls
http://www.businessballs.com/freeonlineresources.htm
Project Gutenberg
1 2 3 4 5
http://www.gutenberg.org/
1 2 3 4 5
Pics4learning
http://pics4learning.com/
Open Photo
1 2 3 4 5
http://openphoto.net/
Feature Films
1 2 3 4 5
http://www.archive.org/details/opensource_movies
Creative Commons
1 2 3 4 5
http://www.creativecommons.com
Page 90 of 194
Cyber well-being
Cyber well-being – Trainer Notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
 appreciate how cyberbullying can affect students and make suggestions in
order to resolve it
 list a set of rules to keep children safe on the Internet
 recommend a number of sites which can be used with children to help young
people manage the risks of the Web
SESSION LENGTH
1.5 hours
Hardware
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS

Whiteboard
See the Learning Technologies for the Classroom Guide for general information
about hardware and software specifications.
MATERIALS
 Cyber well-being
 Let’sFightItTogether-guide
 Bullying across technologies + Answer Sheet
Procedure
1 Learning
Outcomes


Explain learning outcomes for session to participants using slide 2 of
Cyber well-being.

Introduce the concept of cyber well-being.
Important things that need to be covered here:
o
technology is now embedded in everyday life for many of our
students
o
students need to be able to keep themselves safe within this
environment
o
teachers have a responsibility to understand the dangers of
technology as well as the opportunities. Teachers need to manage
the risks involved
o
this is a responsibility for all teachers who use technology regardless
of the subject
Tip – a useful analogy is that of learning to cross the road safely – First we teach
children to hold hands with more and more emphasis on thinking, looking and listening. This
leads to the next step of crossing without holding hands, but still under supervision before
they can be safely left to manage the risks of the road themselves.
Throughout this education, the environment they are in supports them with signs, an
expected behaviour from clues around them (green man, crossing etc) but the children need
to learn about what the environment is saying.
Page 91 of 194
Cyber well-being
Going online should be the same – supervising young people to navigate the online
environment and manage the risks involved. We should be teaching them to look for the
signs of danger and how to deal with it.
This analogy taken from the Byron Review (see next info box for link).
2
What risks are there?


Ask participants to brainstorm the risks students face with regards to
technology.

Use Slide 3 of Cyber well-being to feedback:
o
bullying using technologies (cyberbullying)
o
dealing with inappropriate content
o identity
security
o impersonatio n
o
viruses and hackers
o
marketing, advertising and spam
Slide notes provide descriptions of these issues.
A much deeper understanding of the issues can be obtained by reading the Byron Review, a
report written for the UK’s Department for Children, Schools and Families on the use of
technology by children.
See http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/byronreview/ for more details.
3 Cy berbullying



Explain initial focus on cyber bullying.

If appropriate, ask participants if they know of any examples of bullying in
their school/organisation and who this affects and how.

Explain to participants they are going to watch a video which looks at how
cyberbullying can occur and what effects it can have.
Play video - http://www.digizen.org/cyberbullying/film.aspx. Slide 4 of
Cyber well-being links to this page.

Ask participants for their reactions to this video. Ask whether this scenario
seems familiar or is possible in their culture.

Ask participants to discuss the following question in small groups:
What makes cyberbullying different to other forms of bullying?

Feedback using Slide 5 of Cyber well-being.
The last activity is based on page seven of  Let’sFightItTogether-guide (pdf)
Tip – Open the video at http://www.digizen.org/cyberbullying/fullFilm.aspx before the
session starts to allow it to fully download before you play it. The video has also been
publish on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dubA2vhIlrg.
Page 2 of 4
Page 92 of 194
Cyber well-being
4
5
Cyberbullying across technologies




Explain to participants that different technologies present different
challenges.

Ask participants to work in small groups. Give each group with either
Bullying across technologies - group A or Bullying across technologies group B so there are equal groups of As and Bs.

Give participants five minutes to make notes on the possible cyberbullying
activities that each technology could be used for.

Pair groups together and ask them to share what they have discussed,

Feedback using the answer sheet or Let’sFightItTogether-guide (pdf)
pages eight and nine.
Intro to safe surfing

 The rest of this workshop is devoted to safe surfing.
 Using Slide 6 of Cyber well-being direct learners to
http://www.britishcouncil.org/parents-help-internet-safety.htm .
Allow participants 5 minutes to read through the information and then report
back to each other to see how much they can recall.
Tip – Before the session, open this site into your browser and open a shared folder which
participants will be able to access. Drag the Internet explorer symbol in the top left of your
browser into the folder window to copy a shortcut to this site to the folder. In the session, the
participants can now easily access the site.
6
5 steps to safe surfing

 Using Slide 7 of Cyber well-being show participants the mnemonic SMART
and ask them to work out the missing word.
 Reveal the words by clicking through the custom animation.
7 Resources
 Ask participants to navigate to http://www.britishcouncil.org/parents-helpinternet-safety.htm and ask them to look at the resources available through the
links on the left.
 Feedback as a group on anything of interest found and whether anything could
be used with their students. Some points that you may wish to bring up:
o
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/help/web/staysafe aimed at primary
students. Cartoon available which uses SMART rules seen in last
step.
o
http://www.gridclub.com/freearea/tasters/cybercafe/base.htm
contains information about different technologies instant messaging,
email, online forums. Explains what they are and what to be careful
of.
o
http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/ has content for under 11s and over 11s.
Also contains lesson plans and other information for teachers and
Page 93 of 194
Cyber well-being
resources for parents and carers.
o
http://www.childnet-int.org/kia/ is aimed at adults. It includes content
for secondary school teachers.
o
http://www.getsafeonline.org/ is aimed at self help and is aimed at
computer owners.
Tip – Another excellent resource is http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/ which has resources
aimed at different age groups.
8
Safe surfing quiz – optional activity
Participants will need access to the Learning Technologies for the Classroom online
course to complete this stage. This gap fill activity asks participants to complete the
text from http://www.britishcouncil.org/parents-help-internet-safety.htm

Ask participants to log into the online course and navigate to the Cyber wellbeing unit.

Ask participants to open and complete the gap fill activity in section five Stay
SMART. Available at
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/course/view.php?i
d=27
Page 94 of 194
Cyber well-being
 Bullying across technologies – Group A
Look at the different technologies below and the type of activity users can do with them. Then consider the possible bullying that could take
place using these technologies.
Technology
Mobile phones
Activities
Possible cyberbullying
 Chat, send and receive text messages and pictures,
take photos, access the internet and email, share
content with friends and family
Instant messaging
(IM)
 Chat live via text with other designated friends online
Chatrooms and
message boards
 Chat live with, or put messages up for, groups of people
around the world about common interests
Email
 Communicate online at home and school and in the
office
Webcam
 A small digital camera on a computer. Record
photographs or video, or see someone to whom you are
talking live
© This text is subject to Crown copyright, reproduced with kind permission from Childnet International. Original can be found at
http://www.digizen.org/downloads/Let%27sFightItTogether-guide.pdf
Page 95 of 194
Cyber well-being
 Bullying across technologies – Group B
Technology
Social network sites
Activities
 Make friends and keep in touch via
personalised homepages, blogs and photos
Video-hosting sites
 Share video clips
Virtual-learning
environments (VLEs)
 A school site set up for students. Access
assignments, tests, activities, message boards,
chat rooms and instant messaging at school
and maybe also at home.
Gaming sites, consoles
and virtual worlds
 Online gaming sites: chat with players across
the world
 Handheld consoles: chat with people in the
same virtual environment
 Virtual worlds: design avatars – figures that
represent individuals in the virtual world
Page 96 of 194
Cyber well-being
 Bullying across technologies – Answer sheet
Technology
Mobile phones
Activities
 Chat, send and receive text messages and
pictures, take photos, access the internet and
email, share content with friends and family
 Sending nasty calls or text messages including threats,
intimidation, harassment
 Taking and sharing humiliating images
 Videoing and sharing acts of bullying
Instant messaging (IM)
 Chat live via text with other designated friends
online
Chatrooms and message
boards
 Chat live with, or put messages up for, groups
of people around the world about common
interests
Email
 Communicate online at home and school and in
the office
Webcam
 A small digital camera on a computer. Record
photographs or video, or see someone to
whom you are talking live
 Make friends and keep in touch via
personalised homepages, blogs and photos
 Hacking into another’s account and sending unpleasant
messages
 Sending nasty messages or content
 Sending nasty or threatening anonymous messages
 Ignoring individuals.
 Persuading people to give out private information for
purposes of exploitation
 Harassing someone by repeatedly sending unwanted
messages
 Sending unsuitable images/video clips
 Forwarding someone else’s personal emails
 Sending computer viruses
 Producing inappropriate content after
persuading/threatening children to act or talk in a
provocative way, leading to further manipulation
 Posting nasty comments, humiliating images/video
 Hacking into another’s account and sending unpleasant
Social network sites
Page 97 of 194
Cyber well-being
Technology
Video-hosting sites
Virtual-learning
environments (VLEs)
Gaming sites, consoles
and virtual worlds
Activities
messages.
 Rejecting or excluding peers by refusing to return or
acknowledge messages; blocking contact by deleting
people from their friendship lists or using ‘ignore’
functions
 Creating a fake profile to pretend to be someone else,
e.g. to bully, harass or get the target into trouble
 Share video clips
 Posting embarrassing, humiliating video of someone
 Posting inappropriate messages or images
 A school site set up for students. Access
assignments, tests, activities, message boards,
 Hacking into another’s account to post inappropriate
chat rooms and instant messaging at school
comments or delete school work
and maybe also at home.
 Name-calling
 Online gaming sites: chat with players across
the world
 Abusive/derogatory remarks
 Handheld consoles: chat with people in the
 Picking on weaker or less experienced users, repeatedly
same virtual environment
killing their characters
 Virtual worlds: design avatars – figures that
 Forwarding unwanted messages to other devices in the
represent individuals in the virtual world
immediate vicinity
Page 98 of 194
Ideas for school links projects
Ideas for school links projects – Trainer notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
 compare a number of tools for collaborating with partner schools
 develop and plan project ideas for school links projects
 assess the usefulness and impact of such projects.
SESSION LENGTH 90 minutes +
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS
Hardware

Whiteboard
MATERIALS
 Ideas for school links projects
 7 tips for a good school links project

View from my window – Teacher pack
 Find someone who…
 A day in my life + Answer sheet
 View from my window – quiz + Answer sheet
 Email exchange projects + Answer sheet
 7 tips for a good school links project + Answer sheet
 Useful links for schools links projects
Procedure
1 Learning
Outcomes


 If it is suitable Find someone who… can be used as a warmer. All the
questions relate to ideas used throughout the session.
 Explain the learning outcomes for the session to participants using Slide 2 of
Ideas for school links projects.
 Ensure participants are aware what a school link – doing projects with two (or
more) classes in a school which is not in the same country.
Although useful for English language teachers this session is also appropriate for teachers of
other subjects and Department of Education heads.
Page 99 of 194
2
Benefits of doing school link projects for students and teachers

 Using Slide 3 of Ideas for school links projects ask participants to discuss the
benefits of doing school links projects.
 Take feedback revealing benefits, firstly for students and then for teachers.
Use the page notes on the PowerPoint slide for more information on the benefits.
3
Introducing exchange resources

 Using Slide 4 of Ideas for school links projects introduce participants to
eLanguages, ePals and Rafi.ki.
 Give students a brief overview of each one using the notes on Slide 4.
Explain that this session will not explain how to use these tools –
comprehensive instructions are available on each website.
4
A day in my life – An example project idea


The following stages look at specific examples of projects and asks participants to
think of ways to exploit and extend the activities.
 Hand out A day in my life, ask participants to read the text and guess where
the writer is from (Malawi).
 Put participants into groups and ask them to consider question 2. Use A day
in my life – Answer sheet for feedback.
 Ask participants to navigate to
http://www.elanguages.org/view_pagecontent.php?resourceid=18809;id=p2353
a1i340#p2353a1i340 and answer the questions in Part 2.
 Us e A day in my life – Answer sheet for feedback.
Tip – Download some of the PowerPoints the example schools have uploaded to provide
extra ideas.
Tip – If it is not possible to share this link through a shared drive, ask participants to enter
‘eLanguages’ and ‘18809’ into Google to find the resource.
5
Practising writing



 Ask participants to describe what they can see out of the nearest window or (if
there are no windows) close their eyes and picture the view from their
classroom window.
 Explain this is the premise of another project idea that can help student develop
an understanding of internationalism and also practice writing.
 Hand out View from my window – Teacher pack (pdf) and View from my
window – Quiz and ask participants to answer the questions on the project
idea,
 Take feedback using View from my window – Quiz – Answer sheet
Page 100 of 194
6 Email
projects


 Ask participants how they communicate with friends and family overseas. They
are most likely to mention email. Ask which email providers they use and
whether these would be appropriate for use for school projects. (They are most
likely to use Yahoo/GMail/Hotmail, and no, they are not appropriate).
 Hand out Email exchange projects and ask participants to work through the
two tasks.
 Us e Email exchange projects – Answer sheet for feedback.
 If appropriate, show students http://www.epals.com/ as one example of a safe
tool to enable email exchange projects between schools.
Teachers may be concerned about security of using emails with students. See
http://www.epals.com/groups/support/pages/internet-safety-tips.aspx for ePals Internet
Safety Tips.
7
What makes a good project



 Go through the PowerPoint 7 tips for a good school links project, stopping
after the 7th tip (Slide 8). Slide notes are available for extra information.
 Hand out the participant worksheet 7 tips for a good school links project and
ask participants to complete the gaps to recall the 7 tips. Feedback using 7
tips for a good school links project – Answer sheet.
 Go through Slides 9 & 10 asking students to discuss what is wrong with each
example.
 Take feedback using the Slide notes.
This PowerPoint presentation has been adapted from an eLanguages presentation entitled
What makes a good eL project page. Available at
http://www.elanguages.org/view_pagecontent.php?resourceid=36285
Although the tips were written explicitly for eLanguages they are valid for all online
collaborative projects.
8 Overview

 Ask participants to go over the ideas and discuss their usefulness and usability
in their context.
 Take feedback and share ideas for adapting these ideas.
 Provide participants with Useful links for schools links projects as a list of
resources and ideas mentioned in this session.
Other ideas for using these resources:

Produce a class magazine co-written between two schools

Record a list of sayings/idioms in your native tongue and upload them (embedding
in PowerPoint) and comment about their literal and metaphorical meanings.
Page 101 of 194
 Find someone who…
Go around the room and find one person who can answer yes to one of the statements below. Find
out any extra information you can. You need a different name for each statement.
Find someone who
Name

has taken part in a school links project before with a school
within your country

has take part in a school links project before with a school in
another country

communicates with a friend from another country

has a great view from their classroom window

has used email with their students

has taught their students how to write informal emails
Page 102 of 194
 A day in my life
Part 1
Look at the text below taken from an example project on eLanguages.
1)
Where do you think the writer is from?
2)
How could this idea be exploited and extended for a school links project?
A NORMAL DAY OF MY LIFE
by Shuko Mfaume
Firstly, early Mondays I wake up and make my bed. After making my bed I am off to the bathroom, I
brush my teeth and take a shower. Later, after the shower, I sweep my room. If am late I mostly find my
roommate sweeping for me.
I usually take my breakfast at six o’clock. After taking my breakfast I am free to go to school but before
that the matron stops me and checks me if am clean. When am on my way to school I meet other students
who look clean and I always admire them.
The first period is assembly then two periods Biology and after its break which I usually look forward to.
During break I rush back to the hostels where they give us fritters and some tea. I go back to class to learn
Physical Science, Computer and Business Studies which I usually enjoy.
Lunch is next. I walk to the hostels slowly since it’s a one-hour break. I eat rice and beans.
Part 2
Follow this link and answer the questions below:
http://www.elanguages.org/view_pagecontent.php?resourceid=18809;id=p2353a1i340#p2353a1i340
1)
What is the aim of the project?
2)
How many schools are involved?
3)
What have the pupils uploaded?
Page 103 of 194
 A day in my life – Answer sheet
Part 1
Look at the text below taken from an example project on eLanguages.
1)
Where do you think the writer is from?
Malawi
2)
How could this idea be exploited and extended for a school links project?
Students could write something similar and post it onto eLanguages to share with the partner
school.
Students could chose someone from the partner school and read their profile and compare the
similarities and differences in their lives.
Students could write ten questions they want to ask their partner and post onto the discussion
boards.
A NORMAL DAY OF MY LIFE
by Shuko Mfaume
Firstly, early Mondays I wake up and make my bed. After making my bed I am off to the bathroom, I
brush my teeth and take a shower. Later, after the shower, I sweep my room. If am late I mostly find my
roommate sweeping for me.
I usually take my breakfast at six o’clock. After taking my breakfast I am free to go to school but before
that the matron stops me and checks me if am clean. When am on my way to school I meet other students
who look clean and I always admire them.
The first period is assembly then two periods Biology and after its break which I usually look forward to.
During break I rush back to the hostels where they give us fritters and some tea. I go back to class to learn
Physical Science, Computer and Business Studies which I usually enjoy.
Lunch is next. I walk to the hostels slowly since it’s a one-hour break. I eat rice and beans.
Part 2
Follow this link and answer the questions below:
http://www.elanguages.org/view_pagecontent.php?resourceid=18809;id=p2353a1i340#p2353a1i340
1)
What is the aim of the project?
To explore the theme of a typical day in the life of young people in their countries
2)
How many schools are involved?
Two - Bambino High School in Malawi and Old Hill Primary school in the UK
3)
What have the pupils uploaded?
Photos from school, Word documents with students writing on a typical day, PowerPoints with
profiles of themselves
Page 104 of 194
 View from my window – Quiz
Answer the questions below based on
View from my window – Teacher pack.
1)
What age group is this project aimed at?
2)
How many lessons would this project take?
3)
What are the learning objectives of lesson 1?
4)
Where can you find the example text (taken from Hard Times by Charles Dickens)?
5)
6)
At what stage do learners post their writing on the Internet?
7)
What could be done with a partner school once you have posted your classes
descriptions?
Page 105 of 194
 View from my window – Quiz – Answer sheet
Answer the questions below based on
1)
View from my window – Teacher pack.
What age group is this project aimed at?
UK students aged 11-14. However, as students whose first language is not English, it
could be done with older students. However, there isn’t anything overly complex in the
idea and could also be done with younger students if modified.
2)
How many lessons would this project take?
Two, although this could be extended (see ideas for question 7)
3)
Students learn what is meant by adjectives and how to write an effective piece of effective
writing.
Students prepare a rough draft describing the view from their classroom window or a
classroom in another country.
4)
Where can you find the example text (taken from Hard Times by Charles Dickens)?
Resource Sheet 1
5)
Students review again what constitutes an effective piece of extended writing.
Students review other students’ work and make constructive suggestions.
This exercise is a good example of process writing.
6)
At what stage do learners post their writing on the Internet?
Once a final piece of writing has been agreed upon. (At the end of lesson 2).
7)
What could be done with a partner school once you have posted your classes
descriptions?
 compare and contrast their own views and views from other countries
 write questions for a partner school based on their views
 exchange photos of their views
 extend this to be the view from their bedroom/their ideal home
 discuss what they see in the 4 examples in Resource Sheet 3 (different cultures will
see different things)
Page 106 of 194
 Email exchange projects
Part 1
Here are two ideas for email exchange projects. 1
Put the numbers one to four in the left column of each sample exchange.
Sample exchange 1
Sample exchange 2
Students are encouraged to make contact
at least once a month with the teacher
suggesting possible topics. Students are
encouraged to write about the topic and
then move on to whatever content they
want to include.
In the final third of the month, students
send and receive messages in which they
talk about their reactions to the news
items and have the opportunity to ask
follow-up questions.
One set of students make the first contact
with a letter of introduction and details of
Christmas in their country. The other
students reply before the Christmas
holidays.
On the first of every month the teacher
decided on a topic of world interest and a
topic of national interest.
Students in both countries send off a brief
description of themselves at the beginning
of a school year.
During the next 10 days this material is
used in class by teachers, and students
compare reactions in both countries to the
item of world news, as well as learning
what is important to their partners on a
national scale.
Students are allocated two partners in the
other country.
By the 10th of each month, the students
send off any information they can gather
related to the two topics.
Part 2
With a partner, consider the positives of doing email projects and what problems may be encountered
when taking part in an email exchange with a partner school? Think about: language, technical
issues, motivation etc.
1
Ideas taken from Dudeney, Gavin (2007): The Internet and the Language Classroom: A practical guide for teachers
Second Edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Page 107 of 194
 Email exchange projects – Answer sheet
Here are two ideas for email exchange projects.
Put the numbers one to four in the left column of each sample exchange.
Sample exchange 1
Sample exchange 2
Students are encouraged to make contact
at least once a month with the teacher
suggesting possible topics. Students are
encouraged to write about the topic and
then move on to whatever content they
want to include.
4
One set of students make the first contact
with a letter of introduction and details of
Christmas in their country. The other
students reply before the Christmas
holidays.
3
Students in both countries send off a brief
description of themselves at the beginning
of a school year.
1
Students are allocated two partners in the
other country.
2
4
1
3
2
In the final third of the month, students
send and receive messages in which they
talk about their reactions to the news
items and have the opportunity to ask
follow-up questions.
On the first of every month the teacher
decided on a topic of world interest and a
topic of national interest.
During the next 10 days this material is
used in class by teachers, and students
compare reactions in both countries to the
item of world news, as well as learning
what is important to their partners on a
national scale.
By the 10th of each month, the students
send off any information they can gather
related to the two topics.
Part 2
With a partner, consider the positives of doing email projects and what problems may be encountered
when taking part in an email exchange with a partner school? Think about: language, technical
issues, motivation etc.
Points to bring up:

this is highly motivating for students as they are using language for real conversation –
because of this students often want to spend a long time writing their messages

don’t worry about total accuracy – too much correction may inhibit students’ desire to
communicate

emails are usually informal – there may be the need to do some skills work on informal
writing first

a good working relationship with the partner school is needed so students know their mail
will be replied to

it’s best to pair students with another pair so students have two points of contact (useful if
a student is away/ill)
Page 108 of 194
 7 tips for a good school links project
Complete the following sentences.
4)
Make sure that the project allows your class to i____________ with the partner class. Don’t
create projects that don’t need an i____________ partner.
5)
Aim to create quite s____________, manageable projects (lasting maybe two or three classes)
rather than ones that take weeks. Better to create a number of short, s____________ projects
than one big one.
6)
Have a l____________ number of project stages - between four and six is ideal.
7)
Make sure each stage has a clear learning o____________.
8)
Don’t make a lot of work for yourself building the c____________ of your project. Don’t spend a
lot of time creating r____________ that the students will spend little time on. Get the students to
create or source resources where possible.
9)
Don’t add resources that are too b____________. Rather than one long movie, u____________
a number of smaller movies.
10)
Be clear, consistent and informative in naming project s____________ and r____________.
Page 109 of 194
 7 tips for a good school links project – Answer sheet
Complete the following sentences.
11)
Make sure that the project allows your class to interact with the partner class. Don’t create
projects that don’t need an international partner.
12)
Aim to create quite short, manageable projects (lasting maybe two or three classes) rather than
ones that take weeks. Better to create a number of short, successful projects than one big one.
13)
Have a limited number of project stages - between four and six is ideal.
14)
Make sure each stage has a clear learning output.
15)
Don’t make a lot of work for yourself building the content of your project. Don’t spend a lot of
time creating resources that the students will spend little time on. Get the students to create or
source resources where possible.
16)
Don’t add resources that are too big. Rather than one long movie, upload a number of smaller
movies.
17)
Be clear, consistent and informative in naming project stages and resources.
Page 110 of 194
 Useful links for schools links projects
First Steps
http://www.globalgateway.org.uk/
The gateway to educational partnerships between schools
and colleges across the world.
http://www.globalgateway.org.uk/
Default.aspx?page=3406
Teachers’ ICT toolkit – options for ways to work with
schools in other countries.
http://rafi.ki/index.php
Rafi.ki homepage – a website for projects and real time
communications.
eLanguages homepage – a website for sharing project
materials.
ePals homepage – a secure email service for use in
schools.
http://www.elanguages.org/
http://www.epals.com/
Example Projects
http://www.elanguages.org/
view_pagecontent.php?resourceid=
18809;id=p2353a1i340#p2353a1i340
A Day In My Life – an example of an eLanguages project.
http://www.elanguages.org/find_project.
php
Project search for eLanguages (select English under
language and choose your age group in project type).
http://www.epals.com/projects/info.aspx
?DivID=index
Ideas for projects from ePals.
Page 111 of 194
Using the interactive web in the classroom
Using the interactive web in the classroom – Trainer notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES

identify and list the main features of the interactive web

recommend a number of teaching ideas using some of the latest web
technologies.
SESSION LENGTH 90 minutes – 120 minutes
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS
Hardware

Whiteboard
See the Learning Technologies for the Classroom Guide for general information
about hardware and software specifications.
MATERIALS
 Using the interactive web in the classroom
 What is the interactive web? + Answer Sheet
 Practising tenses with Bubblr
 Using Bubblr
 Creating collaborative stories with Writeboard
 Using Writeboard
 Practising directions with Google Maps
 Using Google Maps
Procedure
1 Learning
outcomes

Explain learning outcomes for session to participants using Slide 2 of Using the
interactive web in the classroom.
The interactive web has been chosen to describe “Web 2.0” as this is less technical than
‘Web 2.0’. This stage of web development has also been labelled ‘the participatory Web’,
‘the read/write Web’, ‘the living Web’ and many more names
2
How the Web has changed – discussion activity

Split participants into small groups.

As a whole group, ask participants to suggest ways in which the web has
changed over the last ten years.

Feedback, making notes of key words that define the interactive web on a
flipchart/whiteboard.
Words that may come up which could be linked to the interactive web may
include:
interactive collaborative
communicative
participatory
Page 112 of 194
interlinked sharable
3
Defining The interactive web
download
upload


Ask participants if they had heard of the term ‘The interactive web’ or ‘Web
2.0’ before and ask if anyone can supply a definition.

Split participants into three groups and ask them to search for this term on
the Internet. Provide five minutes for this task.

Feedback asking participants to reference their information.
If participants are mentioning sources such as YouTube, Wikipedia etc
explain that these are all example of The interactive web resources.
Use Slide 3 of Using the interactive web in the classroom to illustrate what
The interactive web means to web users. This slide contains notes to
illustrate this point.

A video on the differences between ‘Web 1.0’ and ‘Web 2.0’ with a focus on the English
language classroom can be seen at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NfpkVYXpvyE
4
Affordances of the interactive web


Ask participants to complete What is the interactive web?.

 Feedb ack using What is the interactive web? – Answer sheet.
5
Using the interactive web tools in the English language classroom
The following stages look at practical applications of using the interactive web tools
in the English language classroom. Participants will look at:

one example of using The interactive web for vocabulary and grammar using
a photo sharing website

one example of a collaborative writing exercise using a collaborative writing
tool

one example of a speaking and listening activity using online maps.
In each activity participants will be provided with an overview of the technology, a
lesson plan using the technology, a justification for using the tool and a step-by-step
guide on how to use the tools.
If you have less time, split the participants into three groups. Have each group look at one of
the following activities. When they have finished, put the participants in new groups, mixing
the original groups, and ask participants to feedback on the activities they looked at.
6
The interactive web tools for practising grammar and vocabulary



Either provide participants with Practising tenses with Bubblr and ask
participants to read through the lesson plan and look at the example
provided.
Or
Work through the steps in the lesson plan on Practising tenses with Bubblr
as if the participants are students.
Page 113 of 194

Provide participants with Using Bubblr.
If time permits, ask them to work through the steps in the instruction sheet.

7
Ask participants for their reaction to the activity.
The interactive web tools for collaborative writing



Either provide participants with Creating collaborative stories with
Writeboard and ask participants to read through the lesson plan and look at
the example provided.
Or
Work through the steps in the lesson plan on Creating collaborative
stories with Writeboard as if the participants are students.

Provide participants with Using Writeboard.

8
The interactive web tools for practising directions



Either provide participants with Practising directions with Google Maps
and ask participants to read through the lesson plan and look at the example
provided.
Or
Work through the steps in the lesson plan on Practising directions with
Google Maps as if the participants are students.

Provide participants with Using Google Maps.

9 Conclusions

Ask participants to work in groups to say how these tools could be used in
their teaching situations, thinking of different applications for the tools.

Feedback as a whole group.
 Possible
answers:
Bubblr:

Students choose photos to describe a sequence of events then use
these as a basis of a creative writing exercise

Students can create a picture dictionary

Students could create comic strips

More ideas at http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2008/10/exploitingimage-sequences.html.
Writeboard:

Students can keep a vocabulary record, building it over the course of
Page 114 of 194
a study programme

Students write compositions for peer review. Fellow students edit
each others work and then make changes to their original piece
based on the peer edits
Google maps

the teacher can read out directions and students follow the
instructions

more ideas at http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2008/05/goolge-mapsfor-directions.html
Page 115 of 194
 What is the interactive web?
The interactive web is often called ‘Web 2.0’.
Are the following comments more likely to be about Web 2.0 or Web 1.0? Write ‘1’ or ‘2’ next to the
comments. 1
1. The Internet is mainly for reading only.
2. The content on the Internet is controlled by the users.
3. Web content is available through a variety of media.
4. Content on the Web is mostly text based.
5. It is easy for users to publish content.
6. Web content can be delivered to the user when it is published.
7. It is possible to leave comments on other peoples content.
8. Web users can work collaboratively regardless of time and distance.
9. You need to register and sign into websites.
10. There are few content creators on the Web.
11. Users’ profiles are available for other users to see.
12. Content can be shared easily between websites.
13. It is not possible to tag content, i.e. give content keywords which makes
the content easier to be found when using search terms.
1
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
Page 116 of 194
 What is the interactive web? – Answer sheet
The interactive web is often called ‘Web 2.0’.
Are the following comments more likely to be about Web 2.0 or Web 1.0? Write ‘1’ or ‘2’ next to the
comments. 2
1. The Internet is mainly for reading only.
2. The content on the Internet is controlled by the users.
3. Web content is available through a variety of media.
4. Content on the Web is mostly text based.
5. It is easy for users to publish content.
6. Web content can be delivered to the user when it is published.
7. It is possible to leave comments on other peoples content.
8. Web users can work collaboratively regardless of time and distance.
9. You need to register and sign into websites.
10. There are few content creators on the Web.
11. Users’ profiles are available for other users to see.
12. Content can be shared easily between websites.
13. It is not possible to tag content, i.e. give content keywords which makes
the content easier to be found when using search terms.
2
1
2
2
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
2
2
1
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
Page 117 of 194
 Practising tenses with Bubblr
Overview of technology
Bubblr (http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr) is a tool that allows users to create strips of photos and
add text through the addition of speech bubbles. The images are all from Flickr
(http://www.flickr.com), an online photo-sharing website where users can upload their photos and tag
them so that they are easily searchable.
Lesson plan
This lesson plan would be used as a revision of tenses.
1. Show students three pre-prepared sentences on a Bubblr strip and ask a student to read the
sentences out.
See http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/?id=13297 for an example of the verb jump.
2. Elicit the tenses used in the sentences.
3. Explain to students that they need to think of a verb and come up with their own strip showing
the use of the verb in three different tenses.
4. Ask students to go to Bubblr (http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr) and enter their verb into the
Search flickr images by…Tag box.
5. Ask students to find three suitable pictures that could be used with three different tenses: one
in the present simple, one in the past simple and one in the present continuous.
6. Ask students to write their three sentences in speech bubbles – one speech bubble per
picture. Ask students to consider carefully which type of speech bubble best illustrates their
tense.
7. Ask students to share their set of pictures with each other by sharing the name of their strip on
the whiteboard. Students can then see each other’s strips in the archive.
Justification
Allowing students to choose their own pictures helps to show whether they have a good
understanding of the semantic differences between the verb structures.
Page 118 of 194
 Using Bubblr
1. Go to Bubblr at http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr
2. Enter a key word into the Tag box and click Go.
3. Scroll through the thumbnails at the top of the page. The
thumbnails scroll automatically when you place the
mouse curser near the right side of the screen. Click on
show next for more.
4. Choose an appropriate image and drag it into the middle
5. Drag a speech bubble onto the image and enter text into
the speech bubble.
6. More images can be dragged into the centre, either onto
the previous image to replace it or either side of the
image to add to the strip.
7. Click Publish and enter your details (note – you do not
need to enter any personal information) and click Done.
8. Click on View Archive to see the strip in the archive
(listed by name). Click on it to get the unique URL.
9. If you can’t see your strip, sort the list by date.
Page 119 of 194
 Creating collaborative stories with Writeboard
Writeboard (http://www.writeboard.com/) is a web-based tool that allows users to create a shared
document. The document can be edited by other users and different versions can be compared.
Lesson plan
In this lesson plan students finish a short story after being given the opening paragraph.
Before the lesson create a number of Writeboards each containing a different opening paragraph. (As
an example see the screenshot at
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/file.php/1/_files_for_face-toface_course/Writeboard_screenshot.jpg)
1. Ask students to work in groups, give each group a different Writeboard – see – see Using
Writeboard for instructions on setting this up.
2. Give students enough time to complete the story in any way they see fit.
3. Remind students to Save their story frequently with their name.
4. Ask students to move to a new computer and read the story their classmates have written.
While they are reading the story they must edit the story for grammatical and lexical errors.
Tell them to save their work with their name.
5. Ask students to go back to their original
computer and compare versions (select
two versions in the Versions bar on the
right and click quick compare).
6. Students now can produce a final version taking into account what their peers have
suggested.
Justification
Proof reading is a valuable real-world skill as is the ability to work together to produce a text. By
comparing versions students are made to look at their own grammatical and lexical choices.
Page 120 of 194
 Using Writeboard
1. Go
2.
to http://www.writeboard.com/
Enter the details in the Create a
writeboard box.

Name your writeboard.

Choose an easy to remember
password and enter an email.
 Check
 Click
the terms box.
Create the Writeboard.
3.
Enter your text and click Save.
4.
Make a note of the URL (copy this to a document you can share with your students).
The text in this example is the opening paragraph from Roald Dahl’s The Landlady available from
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/landlady_text.pdf
Page 121 of 194
 Practising directions with Google Maps
Google Maps is a free mapping service accessed at http://maps.google.com. As well as zooming in
on any corner of the world it allows users to create directions between any two locations.
Lesson plan
1. Choose an area of your town and print off a map from Google maps that contains two
landmarks.
2. In class give students this map and read aloud directions from point A to point B. Students
must follow your instructions and say where they are.
3. Ask students to choose two points on the same map and decide how they would provide these
directions.
4. Ask students to locate this route on Google Maps and check against the directions provided by
Google.
5. Ask students to revise their directions accordingly, then work in pairs giving their partner
directions from A to B without showing their partner their map. Their partner must follow the
directions on their own map.
An example route, from Trafalgar Square to Piccadilly Circus in London can be seen at:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Trafalgar+Square,+Westminster,+London,+UK&daddr=Pic
cadilly+Circus+Station,+London+Underground+Ltd.,+Piccadilly+Circus,+London,+W1V+9LB,+UK+(Pi
ccadilly+Circus)&hl=en&geocode=%3BCWTyIYbnOmOJFQr7EQMdivT9_yHElVVFUFb9ew&mra=pe
&mrcr=0&dirflg=w&sll=51.512715,-0.132606&sspn=0.022595,0.055275&ie=UTF8&ll=51.508945,0.1314&spn=0.01226,0.02708&z=15
Justification
Using real maps provides a realistic task for learners. By using Google Maps learners can choose any
maps from around the world, providing this choice provides extra motivation for learners.
Page 122 of 194
 Using Google Maps
1. Go to http://maps.google.com/.
2. Click Get Directions.
3. Enter the departure and
destination points.
4. Select Walking from the drop down menu and click Get Directions.
If you have not provided enough information on the locations you will be provided with a
selection of alternatives from which to choose. Either select one of the alternatives or enter a
refined location (e.g. by adding the town name to the street name).
5. You will then see a map of the
route. Make sure that Map is
selected rather than Satellite or
Terrain.
6. You can then Print or Link to
this map.
7. The printed version provides a couple of choices:
Page 123 of 194


the ability to include a large map of the total journey
the ability to provide small maps of each stage of the journey alongside the directions.
Page 124 of 194
Collaborative online writing
Collaborative online writing – Trainer Notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES

identify and list the features of wikis

access a number of wikis used in English language teaching

evaluate writing activities using wikis
 identify
reasons for using wikis

produce writing lesson plans using wikis

create their own wikis (optional).
SESSION LENGTH 90 minutes (up to two and a half hours if you plan for participants to create a wiki)
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS
Hardware

Sufficient computers with internet access for participants to work at in
pairs/small groups
whiteboard
MATERIALS
 Collaborative online writing
 What is a wiki? + Answer sheet
 Collaborative online writing examples + Answer sheet
 Suggested resources and further reading
Preparation note
This session requires you to complete the following tasks before the session:
1. Create a wiki site using http://pbworks.com/ similar to http://ltpeerreviewwriting.pbworks.com/.
You will need to create an account if you do not have one.
When creating your wiki you will need to have as many group pages as there are pairs of
participants in your training session.
You will also need a writing task for participants to complete. This could be an IELTS style writing
question, the start to a short story or anything that will enable the participants to write a few
paragraphs.
You will also need classroom accounts for your participants so they have a username and
password. This is done through Settings > Users > create accounts for your students.
To see instructions on how to set up this type of activity watch the tutorial which forms part of the
online version of this session. Available at
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/file.php/15/Tutorials/Peer%20review%20
writing%20wiki.htm. To access this resource, please use the following username and password:
demoparticipant | D3mo
Page 125 of 194
Procedure
1 Learning

Outcomes

Explain learning outcomes for session to participants using Slide 2 of
Collaborative online writing.
2 Brainstorm ing writing activities

This activity asks students to consider what writing activities they do in class.
3

Split participants into small groups and ask them to brainstorm common
writing activities they do with their students.

Use Slide 3 of Collaborative online writing when taking feedback and elicit
and add any others that groups came up with.

Explain to participants that wikis can be used to help learners with many of
these activity types and have specific benefits over traditional methods.
Features of wikis



Ask participants if anyone can provide a description of a wiki.

Ask participants to open What is a wiki? at their workstation and enter the
search terms into a search engine and look at the example links.

Either hand out a hard copy of What is a wiki? and ask participants to tick
the true or false boxes, or work with the soft copy and replace the boxes with
an x.
 Us e What is a wiki? – Answer sheet to take feedback.

For feedback, look at some of the main features of wikis using the examples
from the participant worksheet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_technologies and
http://thisisanexamplewiki.pbworks.com/.
o edit button [For http://thisisanexamplewiki.pbworks.com/ use the
following log in details: username: wikiuser0001, password:
zebra4coconut]
o
history button/Page history
o
discussion feature (in Wikipedia)
o comments

(in http://thisisanexamplewiki.pbworks.com/)
To highlight the ease of how wikis can be edited, choose a relevant page of
Wikipedia and show how an edit can be made and how the history of
revisions can be seen.
Page 126 of 194
Tip – If the participants have a high level of English, they may benefit from this useful
video which explains what wikis are in simple terms. Available from Common Craft at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY or http://dotsub.com/view/77366331-a04d48f0-8cab-cb5e278c4033
4
Using wikis in ELT

The following three stages will focus on the use of wikis in English language
teaching.
5

Ask participants to brainstorm potential benefits of using wikis from what
they have seen so far or from their past experience.

Take any feedback. Don’t worry if participants don’t come up with huge lists
at this stage but steer them towards considering the benefits of collaboration
offered by using wikis in class.

Ask participants why collaborative writing is beneficial to students. Use Slide
4 of Collaborative online writing for feedback.
Using wikis for process writing and peer reviewing

Ask participants whether they do any peer reviewing exercises with their
students. Brainstorm with participants the potential positives and negatives
of such an exercise.
Positives
o
students learn from each other
o
the emphasis to correct is taken off the teacher which leads to
greater learner independence
o
promotes collaborative learning.
Negatives
o
students do not like pointing out errors in their peers’ work
o
students may not recognise the mistakes their peers are making.
This stage takes students through an activity using a wiki for process writing and
peer correction. The participants take on the role of the student.

Explain the task: Participants, in pairs, need to write a short essay/story in a
wiki. Their peers will then edit this text before the versions are compared and
a final version is produced.

Ask participants to open the wiki that you have previously created based on
http://ltpeerreviewwriting.pbworks.com/ see Preparation note. Follow the
procedure below (steps 1 – 8).
1. Give pairs a number on a piece of paper. This is the group number they
should visit to write their essay.
2. Students log on to the wiki using their username and password.
3. Explain the writing task to the participants. Set a reasonable time limit
(ten minutes) and ask them to write the first draft individually at their
computers. After ten minutes ask participants to save the page and
Page 127 of 194
return to the home page.
4. Collect in the pieces of paper with the numbers on and redistribute them
so everyone now has a different number.
5. Participants open this group's page. They must now make any changes
they think are necessary to make the text grammatically and lexically
more correct. Encourage them to expand on the text to make it more
interesting (i.e. focus on engaging the reader as well as just accuracy).
Participants save their changes.
6. [Optional] Repeat this process, redistributing numbers. This time they
are editing someone's work that has been already edited once. The
participants should be encouraged to look at the Page history function
of the wiki to see what changes have already been made. Don't forget to
ask them to save their work when they have made their changes.
7. Ask the participants to return to their original text and spend time looking
at the changes that have been made by looking through the Page
history.
8. The participants are now in the position to produce a final version.
Take feedback on the activity. Ask participants about the perceived benefits
of doing this type of activity. The following points may come out of this
discussion:

o
This activity reflects real process writing where a teacher with a red
pen is not necessarily available
o
Students are made to consider and reflect on why something has
been changed. Is the edit correct or was the original correct?
o
Ingrained errors may be highlighted to the author
o
This process can be continued outside class
o
The final piece is published and can be used as part of a portfolio of
work/shared with parents.
This activity works well with students working individually rather than in pairs. However, pairs
is more practical if there are large class numbers.
The above steps can be compressed to save time, although participants should be made
aware that in a real teaching situation more time would be given to each step.
Tip – If participants will have access to the Learning Technologies for the Classroom
online course in Moodle, there is an animated tutorial showing them how to build such a wiki
at
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/file.php/15/Tutorials/Peer%20revie
w%20writing%20wiki.htm
6
Other uses of wikis




Explain to participants that they will now explore some wikis that have been
used by students in the class or are aimed at teachers.

Put participants into small groups and hand out Collaborative online
writing examples and ask participants to explore the wikis and complete the
table.
Page 128 of 194
Ask each group to present one of the wikis they looked at. There are
exploitation ideas in Collaborative online writing examples – Answer
sheet.

Ask participants to make a list of the benefits of using wikis. Use slide four of

Collaborative online writing activities for feedback.
to
Ask participants if they found or know of any other wikis that they would like
share.
More examples of wikis in education can be found at
http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-morecollaborative-and-interactive-classroom/
7
Creating your own wiki [OPTIONAL]
This stage allows students time to create their own wiki and thus get to know the
interface, have time to ask questions and play with the settings in a supportive
environment.
All the wikis highlighted below are easy to set up. Choose one of the following
depending on personal preference:
 Wikispaces
 PBworks
- http://www.wikispaces.com/
- http://pbworks.com/
Wetpaint wiki - http://www.wetpaint.com/

The aim of this section should be produce a wiki and share it with other participants
in the workshop in order to familiarise with these tools.
Participants could work in groups to develop a practical use of wikis that
would be suitable for their students and present this idea to the class.
This stage is optional and should only be attempted if you have about two hours available for
the workshop.
Tip – A comparison of the wikis above can be found at
http://www.wikimatrix.org/compare/PBwiki+Wetpaint+Wikispaces. (PBwiki is an old name for
PBworks). Other wikis can also be compared by visiting http://www.wikimatrix.org.
Tip – There are instructional videos on using Wetpaint wiki at
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2008/05/using-wikis-for-teacher-development.html
8
Conclusions and reflections



Ask participants to work in small groups and come up with five ideas for
using wikis (this does not have to be just for teaching in the classroom).
Refer back to Slide 3 of Collaborative online writing for this.

Ask participants to present their ideas to the group.

Provide participants with Suggested resources and further reading for
reference.
Page 129 of 194
 What is a wiki?
Go to Google (www.google.com) and enter the search term Define: wiki.
See an example wiki at http://thisisanexamplewiki.pbworks.com/ and look at the Wikipedia entry for
wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_technologies) to see examples of wikis.
Look at these statements and say if they are true or false of wikis.
True
False
1. Wikis are usually written by one person.


2. Wikis are always web based.


3. The readers of the site can edit the content, making changes to what
has previously been written by other readers.


4. You can usually see a ‘history’ of changes made to the content and/or
revert back to earlier versions.


5. You need to know how to write HTML/code websites to use a wiki.


6. Wikis can be on any subject.


7. It is not possible to protect a wiki from editing by people who are not
invited.


8. Wikis cost lots of money to set up.


9. Wikis are always neat and carefully built.


Page 130 of 194
 What is a wiki? – Answer sheet
Go to Google (www.google.com) and enter the search term Define: wiki.
See an example wiki at http://thisisanexamplewiki.pbworks.com/ and look at the Wikipedia entry for
wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_technologies) to see examples of wikis.
Look at these statements and say if they are true or false of wikis.
True
False
1. Wikis are usually written by one person.


Wikis are collaborative working areas. They can be written by one
person but are generally not.
2. Wikis are always web based.






This is one of the main features of most wikis.
5. 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.
6. Wikis can be on any subject.




Some wikis charge for this level of permission but mostly this function
is freely available.
8. 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.
9. Wikis are always neat and carefully built.


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.
3. 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.
4. You can usually see a ‘history’ of changes made to the content and/or
revert back to earlier versions.
Imagination is the only boundary.
7. It is not possible to protect a wiki from editing by people who are not
invited.
Wiki content is created by users so would not be of ‘professional’
quality at times.
Page 131 of 194
 Collaborative online writing examples
In small groups, look at the following wikis and make notes in the table.
Briefly describe the wiki, considering:
 the aim of the site
 the intended audience
Wiki
url
Cinderella:
Their story
http://cinderella-theirstory.wetpaint.com/
Technology
in ELT
http://technogogyelt.wet
paint.com
Educational
wikis
http://educationalwikis.
wikispaces.com/
Summer
school
wikipaper
http://s6summerschool.
wikispaces.com/
CAE Words
http://caewords.wikispa
ces.com/
Page 132 of 194
How could this idea be extended and exploited
either as a teacher or a student?
 Collaborative online writing examples – Answer sheet
In small groups, look at the following wikis and make notes in the table.
Wiki
Briefly describe the wiki, considering:
 the aim of the site
 the intended audience
url
How could this idea be extended and
exploited either as a teacher or a student?
Cinderella:
Their story
http://cinderella-theirstory.wetpaint.com/
Wiki for students to add to a story and enhance
it. Pages are also available to tell the story from
different perspectives.
Student generated texts could be used as a
basis for similar activities.
Students could each take a different perspective
of the story and develop this perspective.
Wikis provide an excellent tool for collaborative
writing exercises with students extending stories.
Technology
in ELT
http://technogogyelt.wet
paint.com
Aimed at teachers to explore the use of
technology in the ELT classroom.
Useful for professional development
Educational
wikis
http://educationalwikis.
wikispaces.com/
A wiki for teachers to collaborate with ideas on
how to use wikis.
This wiki is aimed for all area of education, not
just ELT. There are lots of good examples of
educational wikis that can spark ideas.
Useful for professional development
Summer
school
wikipaper
http://s6summerschool.
wikispaces.com/
This wiki provides students with a space to
produce their own magazine style website.
CAE Words
http://caewords.wikispa
ces.com/
A class wiki where students have added content
based around the lexis that has come up on their
course.
Page 133 of 194
Wikis make it very easy to publish content onto
the Web which is motivating for students.
This idea could be used throughout the term with
sections added as topics are met in syllabus.
Can be used over a whole course.
This idea would lend itself to collaboration with
other teachers.
The following lists contain some suggested resources and extra readings on the use of wikis and
blogs.
Creating wikis
Wikispaces
http://www.wikispaces.com/
A website that allows users to easily create wikis. Free for basic plans. See
http://www.wikispaces.com/help+teachers for details on setting up special education
versions.
PB works
http://pbworks.com/
A website that allows users to easily create wikis. Free for basic plans. See
http://pbworks.com/academic.wiki for their educators’ page.
Wetpaint wiki
http://www.wetpaint.com/
A free website that allows users to easily create wikis. See
http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/?t=anon for information in Wetpaint wikis in education
and http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/ for examples of wikis in education.
Writeboard
http://www.writeboard.com/
A free, simple collaborative writing tool for groups to collaboratively write single page
documents.
Further reading
The STOLEN principle
http://stolenprinciple.pbworks.com/
Advice on how to create good educational wikis.
The Wiki Revolution
http://tesl-ej.org/ej44/m1.html
Academic (but accessible) paper on the uses of wikis in ELT.
Using wikis for teacher
development
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/search/label/wiki
Blog post on using wikis for professional development including training videos.
Other wikis of note
Simple English Wikipedia
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
A Simple English version of Wikipedia – useful for lower level students.
Page 134 of 194
Online writing for students and teachers
Online writing for students and teachers – Trainer Notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES

identify and list the features of blogs

access a number of blogs used in English language teaching and learning
 identify
reasons for using blogs.
SESSION LENGTH 90 minutes (up to 2.5 hours if you plan for participants to create a blog)
Hardware
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS

whiteboard
MATERIALS
 Online writing for students and teachers
 Typical features of blogs + Answer sheet
 Exploring the blogosphere + Answer sheet
Preparation note (optional)
1. Create a blog using Blogger (www.blogger.com) similar to http://teachingenglishusingblogs.blogspot.com/ for stage seven (optional).
Procedure
1 Learning

2
Outcomes

Online writing for students and teachers.
Features of blogs



Explain the focus for this session will be on the use of blogs.

Ask participants if anyone can provide a description of a blog.

Ask participants to open Typical features of blogs at their workstation and
enter the search terms into a search engine and look at the example links.

Either hand out a hard copy of Typical features of blogs and ask
participants to tick the true or false boxes, or work with the soft copy and
replace the boxes with an x.
 Us e Typical features of blogs – Answer sheet to take feedback.

Open the example blog (http://quickshout.blogspot.com/) and look at some
of the main features with the participants.
o
reverse chronological order
Page 135 of 194
o comments
o
links to previous posts.
Tip – If the participants have a high level of English, they may benefit from this useful
video which explains what blogs are in simple terms at:
3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI or

http://dotsub.com/view/dc75c2e2-ef81-4851-8353-a877aac9fe3c
What’s in a blog


Ask participants to write down five things they would expect to get from a
blog. Answers may include:
o
personal (subjective) opinions on a particular subject
o
comments by other people who are interested in this topic
o
the ability to subscribe to the blog (see stage ten)
o
chronologically ordered content
o diary-like
o
links to previous posts
o
information on the writer
o
links to external websites
o
mostly text (but can also contain pictures, videos and/or audio).

Ask participants if any of them keep a blog and ask them to share
experiences.

Using Slide 3 of Online writing for students and teachers introduce some
terminology and ask participants to guess the meanings.
o Blog
(noun): derived from web log; an online journal
o Blog
(verb): to update/write a blog
o Blogger
(noun): someone who keeps a blog
o Blogospher e (noun): the collective online world of all blogs
4
Exploring the blogosphere


This stage introduces participants to a number of blogs that are related to English
teaching or education in general.
There is a mixture of developmental blogs, class blogs and personal reflection blogs.
Teachers may be interested in following these and may find ideas that they can use
with their students.

Split participants into three groups and give them three of the blogs from the
cut up version of Exploring the blogosphere.

Ask participants to explore the three blogs and make notes.

After sufficient time ask participants to regroup in threes so each new group
contains one person who has looked at different blogs.
Page 136 of 194

Participants feedback to each other.

Take whole-group feedback on anything particularly useful or relevant.
Show a personal favourite at this point and explain why you like it.
The very nature of blogs makes the content of the blogs featured in Exploring the
blogosphere likely to change. Check all blogs are still live and that the content is still
appropriate. If some of the blogs on the worksheet are no longer accessible or usable, then
http://edublogawards.com/ may be useful to find new blogs. This site provides links to the
best blogs of the year (these cover all areas of education).
Class blogs are often hard to find on the Web as their access is generally restricted to the
students.
5
An introduction to RSS

Use Slide 4 of Online writing for students and teachers to show the RSS

. Ask participants if they saw it in on any of the wikis and blogs
symbol
they looked at.

Highlight this feature on some of the blogs and/or wikis that they have seen
in this session.

Explain to participants that if a user sees this symbol it means that they can
subscribe to the content and receive notifications of changes without having
to return to the website.
Tip – Set up an account at Google Reader (http://reader.google.com) or a similar service
and subscribe to one of the blogs from stage nine showing how, once the feed has been
added, users can see the latest content within the reader.
6
Conclusions and reflections


Ask participants to work in small groups and come up with three ideas for
using blogs.

Ask participants to present their ideas to the group.
 Provide Suggested resources and further reading to participants for
reference.
7
Setting up a blog – optional stage
In this stage users will create a blog using Blogger, a simple blog tool from Google.

Ask participants to open the group blog you have created for this stage and
read the task (see Preparation note).

If users have a Google account, they can use that to create their blog. If not,
creating a Blogger account will generate a Google account.

Ask participants to create their blog and post the URL to the session blog as
a comment.

Show the settings section of the session blog. There are some important
areas to explain about the settings:
o
It is possible to make the blog private and by invitation only. This
Page 137 of 194
may be useful for a class blog where there are child protection
issues.
o
Comments can be moderated. This is important to prevent offensive
posts.
o
The blog administrator can add users manually. This would be
needed if the teacher was creating a class blog with a limited
membership.
Page 138 of 194
 Typical features of blogs
Go to Google (www.google.com) and enter the search term Define: blog.
Go to http://quickshout.blogspot.com to see an example of a blog.
Go to Blogger (www.blogger.com) to see a tool used to create blogs.
Look at these statements and say if they are true or false of blogs.
1.
Only registered writers can add to the main content area.
2.
True
False


The articles usually appear in reverse chronological order.


3.
There is usually an archive of previous posts and links to other sites that
the author thinks would be of interest to the readers.


4.
Blogs only contain text.


5.
The readers of the site can edit the content, making changes to what has
previously been written by other readers.


6.
You can subscribe to blogs.


7.
They typically provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such
as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online
diaries.


8.
Readers can usually add comments in reply to what the authors have
written.


9.
You can see a ‘history’ of changes made to the content and revert back to
earlier versions.


10. It costs money to set up a blog.
Page 139 of 194
 Typical features of blogs – Answer sheet
Go to Google (www.google.com) and enter the search term Define: blog.
Go to http://quickshout.blogspot.com to see an example of a blog.
Go to Blogger (www.blogger.com) to see a tool used to create blogs.
Look at these statements and say if they are true or false of blogs.
1.
Only registered writers can add to the main content area.
2.
True
False


The articles usually appear in reverse chronological order.


3.
There is usually an archive of previous posts and links to other sites that
the author thinks would be of interest to the readers.


4.
Blogs only contain text.


5.
The readers of the site can edit the content, making changes to what has
previously been written by other readers.


6.
You can subscribe to blogs.
See stage five later in this session.


7.
They typically provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such
as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online
diaries.


8.
Readers can usually add comments in reply to what the authors have
written.


9.
You can see a ‘history’ of changes made to the content and revert back to
earlier versions.




10. It costs money to set up a blog.
Page 140 of 194
 Exploring the blogosphere
Take three of the blogs below and complete the table.
Share what you found with other groups.
Blog and URL
1. Larry Ferlazzo’s
websites of the day:
What’s it about and what themes are
covered?
Who is the intended
audience for the blog?
What features are included?
http://larryferlazzo.edublog
s.org/
2. Madness in the
Method:
http://mrscaldwell0.edublo
gs.org/
3. Teaching Journal:
http://joychou.blogspot.co
m/
4. Grammar Guy:
http://azargrammar.com/gr
ammarGuy/
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5. Learning technology
teacher development
blog:
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.
com/
6. Mr C’s Class Blog:
http://mrcsclassblog.blogs
pot.com/
7. Daily English activities:
http://daily-englishactivities.blogspot.com/
8. British Council Italy :
http://romelfblog.blogspot.
com/
9. Don Ledingham’s
Learning Log:
http://edubuzz.org/blogs/d
onsblog/
Page 142 of 194
 Exploring the blogosphere – Answer sheet
Take three of the blogs below and complete the table.
Share what you found with other groups.
Blog and URL
What’s it about and what themes are
covered?
1. Larry Ferlazzo’s
websites of the day:
Websites that can be useful in English language
teaching
Who is the intended
audience for the
blog?
EFL teachers
http://larryferlazzo.edublog
s.org/
2. Madness in the
Method:
Class blog with exercises for the students
Class students
(Their parents?)
(Other teachers?)
Reflections on her professional development
Peers who may be
interested in likeminded career
development
Language teachers,
linguists
http://mrscaldwell0.edublo
gs.org/
3. Teaching Journal:
http://joychou.blogspot.co
m/
4. Grammar Guy:
http://azargrammar.com/gr
ammarGuy/
From the first post: “This is our chance to
discuss troublesome parts of the language, vent
frustrations in trying to teach or learn it, talk
about pet peeves concerning how the language
is used, and offer amusing, insightful
observations on this means of communication
we call English”
What features are included?
 Feeds
 Comments
 Links
 Favourite links
 Bookmark tools
 Comments - her students
posting comments on the blog
posts
 Bookmark tools
 Blogroll (suggested links)
 History
 Comments – mainly around
career development
 Profile
 Comments including questions
regarding grammar
 Blog is one part of a bigger site.
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5. Learning technology
teacher development
blog:
Learning technologies websites, applications
and the classroom usage of these tools.
Language teachers
interested in learning
technologies
Classroom content, news about the class and
the blog
Mr C’s students, their
parents and the public
Activities for English language teachers
EFL/ESL students
The aim of this blog is to provide support to
students between lessons, giving them advice
on how to use the Internet to learn and practise
their English. It is not strictly speaking a class
blog.
A reflective journal focusing on reflective and
experiential learning.
Students at the British
Council Rome and
beyond
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.
com/
6. Mr C’s Class Blog:
http://mrcsclassblog.blogs
pot.com/
7. Daily English activities:
http://daily-englishactivities.blogspot.com/
8. British Council Italy :
http://romelfblog.blogspot.
com/
9. Don Ledingham’s
Learning Log:
http://edubuzz.org/blogs/d
onsblog/
Teachers
 Commenting
 Polls
 Most read
 Links
 Past postings
 RSS
 Links to microblogs (Plurk,
Twitter)
 Students have their own blogs
 Comments
 Inline dictionary (double click on
any word)
 Comments
 Polls
 Links to other blogs
 Sitemap
 Ability to print page
 Tag board
 Comments
 Links
 Archive
 Comments
 Links to other blogs
 Searchable by category
Page 144 of 194
The following lists contain some suggested resources and extra readings on the use of blogs.
Creating blogs
Blogger
http://www.blogger.com
Easy to use blogging tool that allows users to create a blog in three steps.
Edublogs
http://edublogs.org/
Educational focused blogging tool to create personal and class blogs.
21 classes
http://www.21classes.com/
Tool to create class blogs with privacy features.
WordPress
http://wordpress.com/
Popular provider that allows you to publish blogs.
TeachingEnglish
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blog
British Council’s main teachers site that allows you to post blogs and read other teacher’s
blogs.
Further reading
Blogging for ELT
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/blogging-elt
Article on the uses of blogs in English language teaching.
Weblogs for Use with ESL
classes
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell-Weblogs.html
Description of different blogs options in English language teaching.
http://e-wot.com/2008/08/blogging-with-secondary-students-inBlogging with Secondary
singapore/
Students in Singapore
Notes and slides from a presentation on using blogs with secondary students using 21
classes.
Page 145 of 194
Social networking for educational use
Social networking for educational use – Trainer Notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES

evaluate social networking sites for educational use

understand the risks and opportunities of using social networking sites in
education

list a number of ideas and examples of social networking sites
Hardware
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS

whiteboard
MATERIALS
 Social networking for educational use
 Benefits and opportunities + Answer sheet
 Barriers and risks + Answer sheet
 Ideas and examples + Answer sheet
Notes
1. This session will be of most relevance to upper secondary and tertiary teachers.
2. This session aims to investigate the possibilities these websites offer as opposed to training
participants how to explicitly use the tools.
Procedure
1 Learning
Outcomes

Explain learning outcomes for session to participants using Slide 2 of Social
networking for educational use.
2
Common social networking sites


Ask participants if they can name the most popular social network sites in
the world at the moment. Use a local example if participants may be unsure
of what a social network site is.

Feedback using Slide 3 of Social networking for educational use. Provide
the numbers of users that are registered to show the impact that these sites
have made.

Ask participants to form small groups and discuss the following questions.
Use Slide 3 of Social networking for educational use to display the
questions.
o
How many people have used a social network site?
Page 146 of 194
o
What have you used them for?
o
Have you used them with your students?
o
Are you aware how popular they are with your students?
Take feedback as a whole group.

Facebook and MySpace were the most popular general profile-driven social networking sites
at the time of writing (September 2009).
This is highly susceptible to change and should be checked before the session. A list of
social networking sites with the number of registered users can be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites.
Tip – Many countries have their own highly popular social networking sites such as
http://xiaonei.com/ in China and http://odnoklassniki.ru/ in Russia. Add sites to the
list which are relevant to your audience.
3
Describing social networking sites


Using the question on slide 4 of Social networking for educational use, ask
participants to complete the definition of a social networking site.

Use the quote from Digizen for feedback:
Social networking services can be broadly defined as Internet- or
mobile-device-based social spaces designed to facilitate
communication, collaboration and content sharing across networks
of contacts.
(from http://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/what.aspx)
There are numerous social networking sites but they share some common
features.

Ask participants to suggest what users can do on a social networking site.

Take feedback using Slide 5 of Social networking for educational use.
Digizen (http://www.digizen.org/) is a digital literacy site from Childnet International. Digizen
approaches young people’s engagement with new media head on – taking a balanced view
of the dangers and helping children, young people and adults to recognise, prevent and
respond effectively to challenges. (From Becta, the UK government agency for technology
in learning (http://news.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=37216&CFID=889636&CFTOKEN=ee1d70843
5e93cd6-09C7F451-9AA3-2DC1-FFA444A9578CA914).
4
Affordances of social networking sites


Ask participants to brainstorm what users can do on social networking sites.
If participants do not have a lot of experience of using social networking
sites, allow them to do some online research using the social networking
sites themselves and Wikipedia.

Feedback using slide 6 of Social networking for educational use.
Page 147 of 194
5
Using social networking sites in education (jigsaw reading)
  



This section explores the potential benefits, opportunities, barriers and risks of using
social networking sites along with some ideas and examples.
The activity takes the form of a jigsaw reading where participants will focus on one
of these areas then feedback to each other.

Split participants into three groups. Explain each group will look at a
different aspect of social networking sites.

Hand out the relevant worksheet, either Benefits and opportunities,
Barriers and risks or Ideas and examples.

Ask them to open the relevant link and work in their groups to answer the
questions.
Give participants approximately twenty minutes to do this.
Inform participants that there is a glossary at
http://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/glossary.aspx which they may find
useful.
Provide participants with a further few minutes to decide which information is
the most relevant for them to share with the group.

Regroup participants into three new groups with an even mix from the
previous groups so that each group contains participants who have looked at
each area.

Ask participants to feedback to their new groups on their area.
In case of poor Internet connections, the three pages that participants are asked to visit
have been saved as offline content. See benefits.html, risks.html and ideas.html.
Tip – The ideas and examples section contains a link to a Facebook site that can only
be access with a Facebook account. You may wish to set up a fake account in
order for participants to gain access.
6
Discussion – how should we use social networking sites

Split participants into two groups and ask them to discuss and come up with
points around the following headers:
o
positives of using social networking sites
o
negatives of using social networking site
o
potential areas where social networking could be used to enhance
learning

Ask participants to feedback their feelings.

Conclusions the trainer may wish to share with the participants include:
o
Learning English will probably be a secondary benefit of using social
networking sites. Digital literacy and social skills are the primary
areas where students may benefit.
o
E-safety is of particular importance and educators have a duty to
Page 148 of 194
inform young people of the risks involved and how to manage them
o
Impersonation and identity theft are real problems
o
Because of this educators need to make themselves aware of the
issues involved in SNS
o
Risk management is necessary rather than scare tactics or
prohibition
o
There is a risk of teachers intruding on their students’ personal space
by using social networking sites (and students on teachers’).
Page 149 of 194
 Group one – Benefits and opportunities
http://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/benefits.aspx
Part one
Visit the site linked above and answer the following questions.
1. What skills can social networking sites (SNS) develop?
2. How can SNS develop creativity?
3. Why is it important that the social skills that SNS develop is done supportively rather than
independently?
4. What does the report say is an important workplace skill?
5. What are e-portfolios?
6. What does it mean to manage your web presence and why is this important to learn about?
7. How can SNS act as a motivator?
8. How can SNS prevent cyberbullying?
Part two
You are going to feedback to the other groups. Decide what the most important information is and
how you are going to present it.
Page 150 of 194
 Group one – Benefits and opportunities – Answer sheet
http://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/benefits.aspx
Part one
1. What skills can social networking sites (SNS) develop?



Publicly presenting themselves, making and developing friendships and being
regarding as trustworthy (personal skills)
Navigating social spaces, participating in social groups
Listening and compromising skills (as users work together).
2. How can SNS develop creativity?
Social networking services rely on active participation: users take part in activities and
discussions on a site, and upload, modify or create content
 Showcasing content.

3. Why is it important that the social skills that SNS develop is done supportively rather than
independently?

Going to a social networking service for the first time as a young person alone can be
compared to a young person’s first solo trip to a city centre, and thus is important for a
young person to know how to stay safe in this new environment.
4. What does the report say is an important workplace skill?

Managing an online presence and being able to interact effectively online.
5. What are e-portfolios?

E-portfolios are an online space where learners can record their achievements and
collect examples of their work.
6. What does it mean to manage your web presence and why is this important to learn about?


The impression we make on other people through the Web
It is essential for getting the most out of communications platforms and for keeping
control of any personal information that we choose to share.
7. How can SNS act as a motivator?

Using shared events and calendars, i.e. working publicly or in groups.
8. How can SNS prevent cyberbullying?

If a teacher asserts a presence online, it sends a clear message that they know what
services are popular with their learners and understand the usefulness of these
services to them.
Page 151 of 194
 Group two – Barriers and risks
http://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/risks.aspx
Part one
1. What is a common difference between educators and young people when it comes to the
Internet?
2. With regards to social networking, what have the media focused on, and as this fair?
3. Some schools and organizations in the UK have blocked access to social networking sites
(SNS). Why is this over-reactionary?
4. How can posting on SNS result in detrimental effects even years after the posting?
5. How can educators get around the problem of being seen as invading their students personal
online space when using SNS?
6. What is grooming?
7. What advice can be given to young people regarding SNS?
Part two
You are going to feedback to the other groups. Decide what the most impoartnt information is and
Page 152 of 194
 Group two – Barriers and risks – Answer sheet
http://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/risks.aspx
Part one
1. What is a common difference between educators and young people when it comes to the
Internet?

Many young people see the Internet as an ubiquitous, always-on extension of their
physical space which has always been around. This is not true for educators.
2. With regards to social networking, what have the media focused on, and as this fair?


Media coverage has tended to focus on the negative aspects of services, for example
the presence of predatory adults who want to use services to contact and groom young
people
Over-emphasising these types of activity is not useful in supporting young people to
recognise, manage and negotiate risk for themselves.
3. Some schools and organizations in the UK have blocked access to social networking sites
(SNS). Why is this over-reactionary?


It is not recognising the ways in which social networking services can be valuable to
students
This can make it difficult for staff to explore or experiment with sites, or to respond to
reports of cyberbullying or other inappropriate activity by their learners taking place on
such services.
4. How can posting on SNS result in detrimental effects even years after the posting?


Postings stay online long after the event so anything risqué or defamatory written in
jest in youth may still be around for future peers, colleagues and bosses to find
Social searches and face recognition software will make this is even easier in the
future.
5. How can educators get around the problem of being seen as invading their students personal
online space when using SNS?


Find a site that doesn’t require people to be friends to be members of the same group
(i.e. that has an additional level of access permissions)
Consider sites that students don’t have a personal attachment to, so that students can
establish a professional account, and make sure that appropriate behaviour is
discussed and negotiated before using the platform.
6. What is grooming?

An adult making contact with a child in an online environment, developing a
relationship with the child, manipulating the child’s emotions with the intention of
arranging a meeting and sexually abusing the child. This is usually done through
Page 153 of 194
impersonation.
7. What advice can be given to young people regarding SNS?






Understand what permission settings are available and how to use them
Do searches using your name to see what information is accessible online
Understand how to identify and report inappropriate behaviour on sites being used
Don’t give out too much personal information on SNS
Be careful when you sign up to anything that involves giving access to an address
book
You should never feel bullied into accepting people as ‘Friends’.
Page 154 of 194
 Group three – Ideas and examples
http://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/ideas.aspx
Part one
Visit the site linked above focusing on the Profile-based social networking services: Bebo, Facebook,
MySpace section.
Answer the following questions.
1. How can social networking sites (SNS) be used to engage with students?
2. What is ‘friending’? What difficulties could this present to teachers using a social networking
site with their students?
3. Is social networking only limited to computer users?
4. According to Nicole Ellison, what are two benefits of using a social networking site like
Facebook in an academic setting?
5. What did Ellison conclude regarding SNS (according to her blog entry http://nellison.blogspot.com/2007/12/ecar-facebook-as-teaching-tool.html)?
6. Who produced the Students Against Closures site, why and what is this a good example of?
7. What blocks can be found on the Students Against Closures site?
8. What is one way Warwick university is connecting with its learners and what information can
users find?
Part two
You are going to feedback to the other groups. Decide what the most impoartnt information is and
Page 155 of 194
 Group three – Ideas and examples – Answer sheet
http://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/ideas.aspx
Part one
Visit the site linked above focusing on the Profile-based social networking services: Bebo, Facebook,
MySpace section.
Answer the following questions.
1. How can social networking sites (SNS) be used to engage with students?
 Setting up a school profile to provide information about the institution.
2. What is ‘friending’? What difficulties could this present to teachers using a social networking
site with their students?
 Adding people to your friends list
 When is a teacher a teacher or a friend?
3. Is social networking only limited to computer users?
 Mostly, but mobile technology is allowing content to be uploaded/downloading.
4. According to Nicole Ellison, what are two benefits of using a social networking site like
Facebook in an academic setting?
 Respond to students as part of their daily routines, support digital literacy and social
engagement.
5. What did Ellison conclude regarding SNS (according to her blog entry http://nellison.blogspot.com/2007/12/ecar-facebook-as-teaching-tool.html)?
 Facebook has real potential to be used in limited contexts but I believe institutions of
higher education should exercise caution when it comes to using Facebook for graded
assignments and the like.|
6. Who produced the Students Against Closures site, why and what is this a good example of?
 Students to protest against proposed school closures in Edinburgh. It shows how
students can use SNS to coordinate activities.
7. What blocks can be found on the Students Against Closures site?
 Forums
 Comments
 Members
 Moderators
 Blogs
 (Also photo stream, video box, video blogs, polls although these aren’t used).
8. What is one way Warwick university is connecting with its learners and what information can
users find?
 Through its MySpace page
 The page provides: information about the university, contact information, videos about
life on, etc.
Page 156 of 194
Practising listening & speaking with online audio
Practising listening & speaking with online audio – Trainer Notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES

understand the potential of audio technologies for receptive, productive and
communication skills development

evaluate a range of audio resources

create their own digital audio
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS
Section 7 can be dropped to make a shorter session of 90 minutes.
Hardware


Whiteboard
Microphones and headphones / speakers for each computer
Software

Audacity software (Can be downloaded free at
http://audacity.sourceforge.net)

FlipzTV Lip sync software (Can be downloaded free:
http://flipz.tv/downloads.html)
MATERIALS
 Practising listening & speaking with online audio
 Assessing web-based audio tools + Answer sheet
 Evaluating podcast materials – Group A, Group B & Group C
 Creating digital audio – Group A, Group B & Group C
 Further reading and resources
Procedure
1 Learning

2
outcomes

Practising listening & speaking with online audio.
What skills are practised?


Using Slide 3 of Practising listening & speaking with online audio ask
participants what skills can be practised using digital audio.
Feedback using Slide 3 of Practising listening & speaking with online
audio. Things to bring up during feedback:
Page 157 of 194
3
o
Digital audio can be used to practise both listening and speaking.
o
Importantly it can be used to enable communication, which can be
either synchronous (i.e. at the same time as in a telephone
conversation) or asynchronous (i.e. not at the same time, as in
leaving a recorded message).
What technologies are available?




As a whole group, Slide 3 of Practising listening & speaking with online
audio, ask participants if they know of any web-based resources that fit into
these technologies.

Feedback as a whole group. Do not worry at this stage whether participants
can name any.

Tell the participants that they are going to look at some web based
applications that exploit digital audio.

Split the participants into at least three groups. Give each group a set of
websites from Assessing web-based audio tools.

Ask them to look at the sites and decide how the technology on those sites
could be used and which category from Slide 3 they fit into.

Once they have had sufficient time to explore the websites, regroup them to
show and tell about the sites they explored (make sure the new group has
one person from each of the original groups if possible).

Provide the answer sheet for reference to all participants.
4 Explaining
podcasts


Using Slide 4 of Practising listening & speaking with online audio ask
participants to discuss the two questions in small groups.
What is a podcast?
What do you need to listen to one?

Use Slide 5 of Practising listening & speaking with online audio to provide
a description of the technical side:
A podcast is a digital audio file that is located on a web server. Users
subscribe to the podcast using a feedreader such as I-Tunes, Netvibes etc.
The feedreader is then automatically informed when the podcast is updated
and the audio file is sent to the user’s computer. The user can then listen to
the audio on their computer or download it onto a portable device.

a description of the content side:
In terms of content, a podcast is structured audio text (has a beginning,
middle and end section), usually following a common entertainment genre
such as a talk show or magazine type programme. The content is usually
scheduled at regular intervals (each day / week) and each episode follows
the same or similar structure to build into a series.

Page 158 of 194
a description of the equipment side:
You can listen to a podcast either on your computer or on a portable device
such as MP3 player, mobile phone etc.
The term podcast is a portmanteau of the words "pod" – play-on-demand and "broadcast".
Tip – The video Podcasting in Plain English provides a clear explanation of podcasts.
Available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-MSL42NV3c, http://www.commoncraft.com/podcasting
and http://dotsub.com/view/d9363172-5f90-4db2-a6f8-bce35a8e5d1e (subtitled version).
5
Evaluating podcast materials



Explain to participants they are going to evaluate some podcasts and find
out what makes a good podcast.
Split participants into three groups and provide each group with Evaluating
podcast materials Group A, Group B or Group C respectively.
6

Once they have finished examining the sites, regroup them again to
compare and ask them to attempt to formulate criteria for evaluating
podcasts.

Take feedback on possible factors of a criteria using Slide 8 of Practising
listening & speaking with online audio.
Creating digital audio - staging


Tell the participants that they are going to create their own digital audio file,
but before they do this they should think about the stages involved in
creating the content before they actually get to the recording stage.

Give them a few moments to consider and then show them the ten important
considerations using Slide 9 of Practising listening & speaking with online
audio.
Tip – The PowerPoint notes on slide 9 provide extra information on each consideration.
7
Creating your own audio projects



Explain to participants that they will produce their own audio files to provide
hands-on experience.

Remind participants that they should consider how they could adapt the
ideas for their own teaching situation.

Ask participants to remain in the same groups as for stage 6.
 Give out Creating digital audio – Group A, B or C and ask the participants
to create an audio about Podcasting for trainee teachers. Ask then to
prepare and structure their content first, then they should watch the video to
see how to use the software.

Page 159 of 194
Once they have watched the video they can use the software to prepare
their own audio materials.

Once each group has finished their podcast ask them to show and tell their
results.

Ask participants to reflect on the experience in small groups using Slide 10
of Practising listening & speaking with online audio.
Tip – The videos linked to from the worksheets on YouTube are also hosted on the
online course. URLs as follows:

Group A (Podomatic) –
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/file.php/21/Video
_files/podomatic.mov

Group B (Flipz) –
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/file.php/21/Video
_files/flipz.mov

Group C (Audacity) http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/file.php/21/Video
_files/audacity.mov
You will need an account with the Learning Technologies for the Classroom online course
and access to the Using online audio unit. Alternatively, log in at
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/ using the following log in details:
Username: demoparticipant
Password: D3mo
8 Project
9
ideas


Ask participants to brainstorm ideas for using this technology in their
teaching environment.

Feedback using Slide 11 of Practising listening & speaking with online
audio to generate more ideas.
Further reading and resources
 Hand
Page 160 of 194
out Further reading and resource for participants reference.
 Assessing web-based audio tools
Look at these different web based applications and find out which can be used:
1.
As a listening resource
2.
To record speaking
3.
To enable synchronous (real time) communication
4.
To enable asynchronous communication.
Group A
 Odeo:
http://odeo.com/
 Chins wing: http://www.chinswing.com/
 Skype:

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/
Listen and Write: http://www.listen-and-write.com/
Group B
 Podomatic:
 Vaestro:
http://www.podomatic.com/home
http://vaestro.com/
 Google
Talk: http://www.google.com/talk/intl/en-GB/
 Howjsay:
http://www.howjsay.com/
Group C
G
cast: http://www.gcast.com
 Voicethread:
 Tokbox:
 Forvo:
http://voicethread.com/
http://www.tokbox.com
http://forvo.com/
Page 161 of 194
 Assessing web-based audio tools – Answer Sheet
Look at these different web based applications and find out which can be used:
1.
As a listening resource
2.
To record speaking
3.
To enable synchronous (real time) communication
4.
To enable asynchronous communication.
Group A
 Odeo:
http://odeo.com/
Can be used both as a source of listening materials, but you can also use it to create your own
podcast audio.
 Chins wing: http://www.chinswing.com/
Can be used to create asynchronous communication.
 Skype:

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/
Can be used as a tool to enable synchronous communication.
Listen and Write: http://www.listen-and-write.com/
Can be used as a source of listening materials.
Group B
 Podomatic:
http://www.podomatic.com/home
podcast audio.
 Vaestro:
http://vaestro.com/
 Google
Talk: http://www.google.com/talk/intl/en-GB/
Can be used as a tool to enable synchronous communication.
 Howjsay:
http://www.howjsay.com/
Can be used as a source of listening materials for individual words and for pronunciation drills.
Group C
 G cast: http://www.gcast.com
podcast audio.
 Voicethread:
http://voicethread.com/
 Tokbox:
http://www.tokbox.com
Can be used to create asynchronous communication, but can also be used for synchronous
real time communication.
 Forvo:
http://forvo.com
Can be used as a source of listening materials for individual words and for pronunciation drills.
Page 162 of 194
 Evaluating podcast materials – Group A
Explore the websites below and assess the audio materials. Use these questions to guide you.
5.
Does the webpage look professional?
6.
Has the site been up dated recently / regularly?
7.
Can you find the audio file and preview it easily without downloading the entire file
first?
8.
Is the sound quality good?
9.
Does it play reasonably quickly?
10.
Do you need to register or pay?
11.
What level of learners would it be appropriate for?
12.
Is the content appropriate?
13.
Is the length of the audio appropriate?
14.
Is the file size reasonably small for downloading (above 2 - 3 Mb is likely to take a
while to download)?
15.
Are there any accompanying materials such as exercises or tape scripts?
16.
Are the accompanying materials useful / pedagogically sound?
17.
Is there an RSS feed? Is it easy to find and subscribe to?
18.
What other significant things do you notice?
19.
Rate the podcast on a scale of 1 (=poor) to 10 (=excellent)
Breaking News English -
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/
Business English Pod -
http://www.businessenglishpod.com/
LearnEnglish Kids -
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-listen-up.htm
The Road Less Travelled - http://tinyurl.com/95pljy
Poem of the Week -
http://potw.podbean.com/
Page 163 of 194
 Evaluating podcast materials – Group B
1.
2.
3.
first?
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
while to download)?
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
ESL Pod -
http://www.eslpod.com/website/
BizEd -
http://www.bized.co.uk/dataserv/chron/audio.htm
BBC World news for children -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/wnc/
EatFeed -
http://www.eatfeed.com/
Podictionary -
http://podictionary.com/
Page 164 of 194
 Evaluating podcast materials – Group C
1.
2.
3.
first?
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
while to download)?
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Podcasts In English -
http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.htm
LearnEnglish Professionals - http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-professionals.htm
Fairy Tale Corner -
http://www.chestnutbay.com/ftc.htm
Vicky and Jen -
http://vickyandjen.com/
LearnEnglish Elementary Podcasts
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-elementary.htm
Page 165 of 194
 Creating digital audio – Group A
You are going to create a digital audio file.
1.
Your target audience is trainee teachers.
2.
Your aim is to inform them about what you feel are the key learning points from
this session.
3.
Prepare the text for your content.
When you are ready, you can watch the video tutorial showing you how to create your audio file.
Watch and create your own recording.
Use Podomatic

Watch the video tutorial at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmyMAUCHzrY

Now sign up on the http://podomatic.com/ site and create your own podcast.
Page 166 of 194
 Creating digital audio – Group B
1.
2.
this session.
3.
Use Flipz TV

Watch the video tutorial at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEHiENOsgII

Then use Flipz TV software to create your audio file. You can download the
free software from: http://flipz.tv/
Page 167 of 194
 Creating digital audio – Group C
1.
2.
this session.
3.
Use Audacity

Watch the video tutorial at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8X0d7Kf0qM

Then use Audacity to create your audio file. You can download Audacity
free software from: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Page 168 of 194
 Further reading and resources
Further reading:
Podcasting in ELT
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/podcasting-elt
How Podcasts and Other Media Feed Learning Addiction
http://www.mindspacesolutions.com/blog/?p=38
Podcasting in Plain English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-MSL42NV3c
Think Listening Articles on TeachingEnglish
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/listening/recent
Creating audio Visual Monologues
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2007/04/creating-audio-visual-monologues.html
Interactive presentations
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2007/09/interactive-presentations.html
Skype Part 1: Recording Audio
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2008/05/skype-part-1-recording-audio.html
Skype Part 2: Creating an Online Workspace
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2008/06/skype-part-2-online-workspace.html
Podcast directories
Educational podcasts for teaching and learning - http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/
Podcast Alley - http://www.podcastalley.com/
UK Podcasts - http://www.ukpodcasts.info/
Tutorials
Using Audacity - http://trainingvideos.hscs.wmin.ac.uk/audacity1/index.html
Using Podomatic - http://trainingvideos.hscs.wmin.ac.uk/easyPod/index.html
How to create a podcast using GarageBand (for MAC only) http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#garageband-podcast
Page 169 of 194
Practising listening & speaking with online video
Practising listening & speaking with online video – Using online video
LEARNING
OUTCOMES

list a range of online video resource and explain how they can be exploited

explain the pros and cons of using web-based video

evaluate some examples of generic lessons for exploiting web based video

create their own video based tasks and lessons using some common video
sharing sites.
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS
MATERIALS
Internet access capable of streaming video
Enough computers to work in pairs or small groups
Headphones or speakers
Webcams (optional)
Data projector
 Practising listening & speaking with online video
 How video is being used online + Answer sheet
 Uses of online video
 Video pros and cons + Answer sheet
 One minute world news - A video lesson plan + Answer sheet
 The song is about… - A video lesson plan + Answer sheet
 Task types for exploiting video clips + Answer sheet
Procedure
1 Learning
Outcomes

Explain learning outcomes for session to participants using Slide 2 of Practising
listening & speaking with online video.
2
Exploring what's available



Ask participants what web-based video sites they use and what they use
them for. (This could be in their everyday life or in their teaching).

Explain that they are going to explore some of the variety of types of webbased video that are available.
 Hand out How video is being used online and ask participants to work in
pairs to explore and categorise the types of video website.
Explain that participants will have time to explore the sites in greater depth
later so this stage should be about understanding the purpose of the
websites.
Page 170 of 194
Check that these websites are accessible in your location. There are examples of cases
where sites such as YouTube are banned in a country. If this is the case, edit the
worksheets accordingly.
If possible, save the worksheets to the computers the participants will be using to save
paper and make clicking on links easier.
3
Examples of using online video


 Hand out Uses of online video and ask participants to look at the teaching
ideas and say how appropriate they would be for their teaching situation.
Ask participants to feedback in small groups.

If you believe there are some ideas that just would not be possible in your participants
situation (e.g. not having access to webcams/certain sites), edit the worksheet accordingly.
Tip – To keep the section short, divide the sites between participants and then group
participants to feedback.
If you are likely to be short on time, reduce the number of sites participants look at.
4
Pros and Cons of online video




Ask the participants if they ever use online video in the classroom and find
out if they had any problems.
 Hand out Video pros and cons and ask participants to sort the points
mentioned into pros or cons and try to think about justifying their answers.
They can work in pairs to do the task.
Ask participants to add any extra pros and cons they can think of to the list.

Feedback as a whole group using Slide 3 of Practising listening &
speaking with online video. adding any extra suggestions as necessary.

Provide participants with the suggested answers (Video pros and cons –
Possible answers).
5 Comparing
two lessons





Tell the participants that they are going to look at two generic lesson ideas
for exploiting web-based video. One to exploit a news broadcast and another
for exploiting a music video.

Split participants into pairs/small groups. Hand out One minute world news
- A video lesson plan to half the groups and The song is about… - A video
lesson plan

Once participants have been through the idea ask them to complete the
reflection task.

Pair groups and get participants to explain their idea and thoughts to the
other group.

Take whole group feedback using the Answer sheets as necessary.
Page 171 of 194
6
Creating video tasks



Tell the participant that they are now going to create their own video lessons.
 Hand out Task types for exploiting video clips. Participants should look at
the tasks together and check that they understand them. Clarify any they
have problems with.

Participants find video clips from the sites that they looked at in part 2. Ask
them to try to find a clip that they can use with one of the tasks from each
section (e.g. a different clip for each activity)

Once completed, put them into new groups to show and tell what they have
found.

In feedback show them some of the sample answers and they can look at
the videos to see how they might use them.

If there is time, ask them to try to produce a complete lesson plan for one of
the video clips.
Tip – Provide participants with Task types for exploiting video clips - Answer sheet for
their
reference.
Page 172 of 194
 How video is being used online
Statements a-l show different ways video is being used online. Websites 1-12 provide examples of
these uses. Look at the websites and match them to the use by writing the number in the correct box.
a. To create video dictionaries
g. To enable communication
b. To develop translation skills
h. To send greetings
c. To teach people how to do
things
d. To share information about
products
e. To create debate and exchange
ideas
f. To help parents find video for
their children
i.
To learn and teach languages
j. To
entertain
k. To educate
l.
To make your own movies
1. http://bigthink.com/
7. http://www.monkeysee.com/
2. http://dotsub.com/
8. http://www.tokbox.com/
3. http://langolab.com/
9. http://www.totlol.com/
4. http://teachertube.com/
10. http://www.wordia.com/
5. http://www.bubblejoy.com/intro.php
11. http://www.youtube.com/
6. http://www.expotv.com/
12. http://www.xtranormal.com/
Page 173 of 194
Using online video
 How video is being used online – Answer sheet
Statements a-l show different ways video is being used online. Websites 1-12 provide examples of
these uses. Look at the websites and match them to the use by writing the number in the correct box.
a. To create video dictionaries
b. To develop translation skills
c. To teach people how to do
things
d. To share information about
products
e. To create debate and exchange
ideas
f. To help parents find video for
their children
10
2
7
6
1
9
g. To enable communication
h. To send greetings
i.
To learn and teach languages
j. To
entertain
k. To educate
l.
To make your own movies
1. http://bigthink.com/
7. http://www.monkeysee.com/
2. http://dotsub.com/
8. http://www.tokbox.com/
3. http://langolab.com/
9. http://www.totlol.com/
4. http://teachertube.com/
10. http://www.wordia.com/
5. http://www.bubblejoy.com/intro.php
11. http://www.youtube.com/
6. http://www.expotv.com/
12. http://www.xtranormal.com/
Page 174 of 194
8
5
3
11
4
12
Using online video
 Uses of online video
Here are some pedagogical suggestions for exploiting each of these sites. Try to decide which ones
would be appropriate for your students and teaching situation. Tick the box that is most suitable.
1. Big Think - http://bigthink.com/
Go to the ‘topics’ part of the site at: http://bigthink.com/topics select a topic and a video. Ask your
students to watch the video, make a summary of the main points and then list some of their own
opinions on the topic. When they come to class they can then debate the topic in groups.
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
2. Dotsub - http://dotsub.com/
Go to the ‘latest’ section of Dotsub at: http://dotsub.com/view/latest/ find a video that hasn’t been
transcribed. Ask your students to listen to the video and transcribe it in English or translate it into their
own language. They can then register and add their translation / transcription to the site, or wait for
the video to be transcribed and compare to their own version.
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
3. Langolab - http://langolab.com/
Go to http://langolab.com and find a suitable video for your students to watch. Ask them to watch it
and make notes of any new vocabulary words. They can get definitions of words by clicking on the
words in the transcript.
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
4. TeacherTube - http://teachertube.com/
Go to the Science channel within TeacherTube at
http://www.teachertube.com/channel_detail.php?chid=59. Find a video that describes a process or
experiment of some kind. Ask your students to watch the video and make notes about the process.
They should then illustrate the process with drawings and then describe what is happening in each
drawing.
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
Page 175 of 194
Using online video
5. BubbleJoy - http://www.bubblejoy.com/intro.php
This site is particularly suitable for students learning greetings related to particular times of year
(Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s day etc.). After your students have studied some greetings, they
can go to: http://www.bubblejoy.com/begin.php and select a suitable video greeting card. They can
then record their message and send it to someone in the class or to their parents. (The students will
need a webcam to do this).
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
6. ExpoTV - http://www.expotv.com/
Give your students a shopping list of 2 – 3 products that they need to buy and specify a budget. Ask
them to go to http://www.expotv.com/ and try to find the best products for the money they have. They
should watch the reviews of each product they buy and make notes of its best features.
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
7. Monkey See - http://www.monkeysee.com/
Ask your students to go to the magic tricks section of the site at:
http://www.monkeysee.com/video/subcategory/6?subcategory=86 They should watch a video and
learn how to do a magic trick. Then come to class and show and teach other students how to do the
trick (in English if they can)
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
8. Tokbox - http://www.tokbox.com/
Try to find an English speaker who is able to give a short talk to your students. Ask them to prepare a
short interview and some questions for the speaker. Set up your computer in class and make a
conference call to the speaker. Get your speaker to do their talk and answer your students’ questions.
(To do this both you and your speaker will need to register for a free Tokbox account. You will also
need a webcam).
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
9. Totlol - http://www.totlol.com/
Find a suitable story for your students in the stories section of the site at:
http://www.totlol.com/video.php?catid=15 make a copy of the web address and give it to your
students. Ask them to take the address home and watch it with their parents.
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
Page 176 of 194
Using online video
10. Wordia - http://www.wordia.com/
Go to the site and find some suitable video entries about words. Ask your students to watch them and
make notes about what information is included about each word. (Wordia definitions often include
short stories or anecdotes too). Then start a word of the day project with your students. Each day get
one or two students to prepare information and a short story related to word, then record their story
with a video camera or webcam. Keep the videos and review them regularly to help students
remember their vocabulary.
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
11. YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/
Ask your students to go to YouTube and do a search based on the name of your country. Ask them to
try to find a video that shows what’s best about your country (could be music, landscape, tourist sites,
food etc.) Ask them to make a note of the address of the video the prepare a short presentation telling
people why they feel this displays what’s best about their country.
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
12. Xtranormal - http://www.xtranormal.com/
Ask your students to produce a dialogue based around some functional language that you have been
working on in class. Give them time limits – twenty minutes to write the script and five minutes to add
affects.
Suitability for my
teaching situation
Not at all suitable


Highly suitable
Page 177 of 194
Using online video
 Video pros and cons
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
Being up-to-date
Bandwidth and connection speed
Reliability
Authenticity
Quality
Preparation time
Can lead to autonomous development
Suitability of content
Student centred
Variety of topic
Engaging
Page 178 of 194
Using online video
 Video pros and cons – Possible answers
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.
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.
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.
Page 179 of 194
Using online video
 One minute world news - A video lesson plan
Look at the following lesson idea and work through the stages then attempt the reflection task at the
bottom.
You’ll need: Internet access, speakers/headphones
Site: http://news.bbc.co.uk
1. Turn off the sound on your computer
2. Go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk
3. Click on the link ‘ONE-MINUTE WORLD NEWS’ to launch the video
4. Watch the video without the sound and try to decide how many news stories were included in
the report.
5. Once you have finished watching the video for the first time, discuss with a partner what you
saw and what you already know about the news stories.
6. Now watch the clip again with sound and see if you were correct about the number of news
stories also try to make notes of any factual information included on the stories (names, place
figures etc.)
7. Remember you can pause the video if you need to make notes.
8. Watch and listen again and then try to expand your notes into a brief summary of each news
article.
9. Close the video and go back to the webpage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
10. See if you can find any text articles related to the video. Use these articles to check the
accuracy of facts you wrote down.
Reflection task
Discuss these two video activities:





What skill(s) does this activity develop?
What level would this activity be appropriate for?
How does the activity provide ‘structure’ to support the development of the skill?
Considering the pros and cons of using video content, what issues should you consider when
using this activity?
How would this activity fit into the syllabus?
Idea from Nik’s daily English Activities http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/2008/09/1-minute-listening-activity.html
Page 180 of 194
Using online video
 One minute world news - A video lesson plan – Answer sheet
bottom.
Site: http://news.bbc.co.uk
1. Turn off the sound on your computer
2. Go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk
3. Click on the link ‘ONE-MINUTE WORLD NEWS’ to launch the video
4. Watch the video without the sound and try to decide how many news stories were included in
the report.
5. Once you have finished watching the video for the first time, discuss with a partner what you
saw and what you already know about the news stories.
6. Now watch the clip again with sound and see if you were correct about the number of news
stories also try to make notes of any factual information included on the stories (names, place
figures etc.)
7. Remember you can pause the video if you need to make notes.
8. Watch and listen again and then try to expand your notes into a brief summary of each news
article.
9. Close the video and go back to the webpage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
10. See if you can find any text articles related to the video. Use these articles to check the
accuracy of facts you wrote down.
Reflection task





The news activity focuses on developing the skill of listening for specific information, though
students do also use the ability to take notes and read to confirm their answers.
The news activity could be done by an intermediate level learner. It would be possible to do
the activity with a lower level if the teacher confirmed the students’ answers rather than asking
them to look on the website.
The news activity provides structure for students listening by asking them to view only without
sound the first time. It also exploits their existing knowledge of news genre and their existing
knowledge of international news to help them understand the audio text.
Suitability of content - what would you do if there was any particularly disturbing news (e.g.
many deaths from an earthquake, terrorist attack) at the time you ran this lesson?
Page 181 of 194
Using online video
 The song is about… - A video lesson plan
bottom.
Site: http://www.youtube.com/members?s=mv&t=w&g=1
1. Go to the Musicians channel on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/members?s=mv&t=w&g=1
2. Type in the name of a singer or band you like and click on search.
3. Find a video clip from this singer/band and watch it.
4. Now write about the clip. You can use these starter sentences to help you:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
The mood of the music is…
The song is about…
The singer's voice is…
The singer reminds me of…
The video makes me think of….
What I like about the song is…
What I like about the video is…
I don't like….
5. Once you have finished change places with a partner and watch the video they wrote about.
Also let them watch the clip you chose.
6. Complete the same sentences about your partner’s video clip.
7. Once you have watched both clips use your sentences to discuss the two video clips.
Reflection task





First published on Nik’s Daily English Activities http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/2008/09/write-music-video-review.html
Page 182 of 194
Using online video
 The song is about… - A video lesson plan – Answer sheet
bottom.
Site: http://www.youtube.com/members?s=mv&t=w&g=1
1. Go to the Musicians channel on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/members?s=mv&t=w&g=1
2. Type in the name of a singer or band you like and click on search.
3. Find a video clip from this singer/band and watch it.
4. Now write about the clip. You can use these starter sentences to help you:
a. The mood of the music is…
b. The song is about…
c. The singer's voice is…
d. The singer reminds me of…
e. The video makes me think of….
f. What I like about the song is…
g. What I like about the video is…
h. I don't like….
5. Once you have finished change places with a partner and watch the video they wrote about.
Also let them watch the clip you chose.
6. Complete the same sentences about your partner’s video clip.
7. Once you have watched both clips use your sentences to discuss the two video clips.
Reflection task





The music video activity focuses on developing the speaking ability, specifically for talking
about music, though students do also need to write a complete the sentences.
This video activity could be done with pre-intermediate students, though the degree of
grammatical accuracy of the sentences and the amount of detail they would be likely to
produce would be quite low and the activity would probably work better with higher levels.
The music video activity provides structure for the speaking, by supplying the sentence heads
for students to complete.
YouTube always suggests videos based on key words – this can lead to unsuitable content.
First published on Nik’s Daily English Activities http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/2008/09/write-music-video-review.html
Page 183 of 194
Using online video
 Task types for exploiting video clips
Below are three video task categories: Silent viewing tasks, Listening tasks and Watch and Respond.
From the list of video sharing websites below try to find one clip to use with one task from each of the
three categories and justify your use of the video.
http://www.vimeo.com
http://www.totlol.com/
Silent viewing tasks
Watch and script
Ask students to watch a clip with the sound muted and try to script what they think the people
in the clip are saying.
This works best with clips that have two or three people interacting in familiar settings.
Observing culture
Ask students to watch clips and compare the culture depicted within the clip to their own
culture.
This works well with clips that depict everyday life in the target culture.
Watching for mood / character
Ask students to watch a clip and try to describe what people are feeling and why and what
kind of character they are.
This works best with clips that have people interacting.
Watch and describe
Ask students to watch a clip and to describe what happens in the clip. This can be done
verbally or orally.
This works best in clips that have plenty of activity and excitement
Watch for processes
Ask students to watch and order / note down steps in a process.
This works well with instructional clips such as cooking videos or showing how to do things.
The witness
Ask students to watch clips and then be a witness and describe either what happened or
visual descriptions of people.
This works well with video clips from films with crimes taking place.
Listening tasks
Watch and transcribe
Ask students to watch a clip and write down what they hear as a dictation activity.
this works well when the clip is quite short and the sound quality is good.
Specific information
Ask students to listen for specific facts and information.
This works well when you create true false statements for students so that they don’t have to
write too much and they know what to listen for.
Page 184 of 194
Using online video
Comprehension
Ask students to listen and answer questions.
This works best when the answers required are quite short and don’t require them to stop and
write a lot.
Pronunciation - Intonation
Give students transcripts to accompany video clips and ask them to listen and mark on
features of intonation that indicate mood or attitude.
This works well with clips that show people interacting with strong emotions.
Watch and respond
Did you agree?
Ask student to watch and see if they agree with the information being given.
This works well with clips such as interviews where opinions are being given.
What did you like?
Ask students to watch and decide if they like what they see.
This works well with entertainment videos such as music videos or with clips which show other
cultures or exotic places.
What will happen next?
Ask students to watch the first part of a clip and then describe what they think will happen
next. Students then watch and check.
This works well with video clips that show narrative
Page 185 of 194
Using online video
 Task types for exploiting video clips – Possible answers
Below are three video task categories: Silent viewing tasks, Listening tasks and Watch and Respond.
From the list of video sharing websites below try to find one clip to use with one task from each of the
three categories and justify your use of the video.
http://www.vimeo.com
http://www.totlol.com/
Silent viewing tasks
Watch and script
Ask students to watch a clip with the sound muted and try to script what they think the people
in the clip are saying.
This works best with clips that have two or three people interacting in familiar settings.
Example video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cupjgkDoddU (also at
http://englishonline.org.cn/en/learners/how-to/story1 )
This video is short and it is clear from the title and the people’s expressions what is
happening. This activity type practises fluency by getting students to put themselves in the
shoes of someone else.
Observing culture
Ask students to watch clips and compare the culture depicted within the clip to their own
culture.
This works well with clips that depict everyday life in the target culture.
Example video:
http://www.vimeo.com/3231693
This video shows a very normal birthday party. It’s very short and visual, but carries a lot of
cultural information.
Watching for mood / character
Ask students to watch a clip and try to describe what people are feeling and why and what
kind of character they are.
This works best with clips that have people interacting.
Example video:
http://www.vimeo.com/3005428
This video shows a people expressing a god range of different emotions. The causes are often
not stated openly, but are implied, so this pushes students to rely on their understanding of
non verbal communication.
Watch and describe
Ask students to watch a clip and to describe what happens in the clip. This can be done
verbally or orally.
This works best in clips that have plenty of activity and excitement
Example video:
http://www.totlol.com/watch/Cgv3afo0Fqk/Experiment-Extreme---Vancouver-Film-School(VFS)/0/
This video has plenty of visual activity and should keep the students engaged. There are a few
surprises and unexpected twists and the action and emotion is very visually coveyed, so it isn’t
language dependent.
Page 186 of 194
Using online video
Watch for processes
Ask students to watch and order / note down steps in a process.
This works well with instructional clips such as cooking videos or showing how to do things.
Example video:
http://www.totlol.com/watch/AiBJ7IPKVTI/Halloween-Recipe---Marshmallow-Ghosts-AndGhouls/0/
This video shows some a simple process and includes on screen text support that should help
students with note taking. The visual side very much reinforces the audio script, so students
should understand what is happening even if they aren’t sure about the language.
The witness
Ask students to watch clips and then be a witness and describe either what happened or
visual descriptions of people.
This works well with video clips from films with crimes taking place.
Example video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t9UEEGrH8Q
This video shows a crime but shouldn’t be disturbing as it isn’t violent at all and is quite
humorous. It also contains no language so students will be able to understand what’s
happening and focus on observing ready for the speaking activity.
Listening tasks
Watch and transcribe
Ask students to watch a clip and write down what they hear as a dictation activity.
this works well when the clip is quite short and the sound quality is good.
Example video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ULF_uvRAHI
This video has good well-paced clear audio. The visuals support the understanding of the
audio text. The speaker is very clear, though the language level is slightly complex. One or
two minutes of the video should be ample.
Specific information
Ask students to listen for specific facts and information.
This works well when you create true false statements for students so that they don’t have to
write too much and they know what to listen for.
Example video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCWGNWdH_Ps
This video shows some simple conflicts based around understanding of specific facts and is
very much language rather than visually dependent, so should work well for checking
understanding of specific information.
Comprehension
Ask students to listen and answer questions.
This works best when the answers required are quite short and don’t require them to stop and
write a lot.
Example video:
http://www.totlol.com/watch/feVkqk2SciA/Billy-And-The-Witch%3A-A-Halloween-Story-FromSpeakaboos/0/
This video combines text with mages and audio so should be easier for lower levels to deal
with. There’s also quite a lot of information in then story, so there is plenty of content to base
the questions around.
Page 187 of 194
Using online video
Pronunciation - Intonation
Give students transcripts to accompany video clips and ask them to listen and mark on
features of intonation that indicate mood or attitude.
This works well with clips that show people interacting with strong emotions.
Example video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teMlv3ripSM
This video shows a good range of emotion and shows contrast between polite and impolite
interactions. The script is quite simple and the same phrases are often repeated in different
ways with increasing degrees of emotion.
Watch and respond
Did you agree?
Ask student to watch and see if they agree with the information being given.
This works well with clips such as interviews where opinions are being given.
Example video:
http://www.totlol.com/watch/6CyANGM1U8Y/When-I-Am-President/0/
This video has a good range of different opinions given by different children. Most of the
opinions expressed are quite simple and won’t be too difficult for students to remember.
What did you like?
Ask students to watch and decide if they like what they see.
This works well with entertainment videos such as music videos or with clips which show other
cultures or exotic places.
Example video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmR1wcQuvsE
This short video clip of Bali shows a range of quite striking images. It’s short and is set to
music rather than being language dependent so students can focus on the visual.
What will happen next?
Ask students to watch the first part of a clip and then describe what they think will happen
next. Students then watch and check.
This works well with video clips that show narrative.
Example video:
http://www.totlol.com/watch/HO3tscCAVJ8/The-Chubb-Chubbs/0/
This is a nice short video that is very visual and has some nice surprising and dramatic
moments. It’s also not too language dependent and is entertaining enough to hold students’
interest.
Page 188 of 194
Getting to know the online course
Getting to know the online course– Trainer notes
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
This session is designed to familiarise participants with the TeachingEnglish Learning Technologies for the Classroom online course.
It is intended to be delivered to either those who have already taken the face-toface course or are only intending to take the course online.
This can also be used for prospective trainers and moderators of Learning
technologies for the classroom online to familiarise themselves with the online
environment.

log on to the Learning Technologies for the Classroom online course

navigate the online environment

provide an overview of the online course

show that they are able to post to forums.
TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS
Hardware

Whiteboard
MATERIALS
 Getting to know the online course + Answer sheet
Preparation
Participants will need to be added to the Learning technologies for the classroom online course before this
session.
Please send the Excel spreadsheet (Course_participants_and_trainers_LTC_self_access.xls) that is
contained in the folder to your regional online course administrator or contact
learningtechnologies@britishcouncil.org for more details.
Procedure
1 Learning
Outcomes
Explain learning outcomes for session to participants.
2


Hand out the participant worksheets.
There are four tasks that should be done in lockstep, i.e. pause after the completion
of each task to take feedback.
Page 189 of 194
The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations.
We are registered in England as a charity.
 Getting to know the online course
Follow the tasks below.
At the end of each task stop for feedback and discussion before moving to the next task.
Task one

What do you expect to get from the online version?

What similarities and differences do you expect compared to the face-to-face version?

What support will participants need?
Think about how this content is delivered and how interaction will differ from a face-to-face course and
an online course.
Task two – Logging on
Go to http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/.
Your username is firstnamelastname for example johnsmith.
Your password is changeme.

How do you log on?

What happens the first time you log on?

What are your first impressions of the site?
o
Think about navigation, content and support.
Task three – Getting started
1.
Go to the Getting Started unit and complete sections one, two and five.
2.
Make sure you leave a message in the forum in section two and reply to at least one other
message.
Page 190 of 194
Task four – Activity types
What activity types can you find on the online course?
Look at the following resources and answer the following questions:
1.
What is the role of the participant?
2.
What are the learning outcomes?
3.
How does it differ to face-to-face learning?

Section seven of An introduction to learning technologies.
(http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/course/view.php?id=11).
 In
Integrating the Web, the wiki called Wiki - Suggested websites for lesson integration
with secondary students at
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/mod/wiki/view.php?id=221.
 Section one of Cyber well-being
(http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/course/view.php?id=27) [don’t
read the full report as you won’t have time].

Section one and two of Using office software for whole-class teaching
 Section one of Using the interactive web in the classroom

Section three of Collaborative online writing

Section two of The future and the end
Page 191 of 194
 Getting to know the online course – Answer sheet
Follow the tasks below.
At the end of each task stop for feedback and discussion before moving to the next task.
Task one



What do you expect to get from the online version?
What similarities and differences do you expect compared to the face-to-face version?
What support will participants need?
Think about how this content is delivered and how interaction will differ from a face-to-face course and
an online course.
Key things for discussion:





participants work asynchronously (i.e. not at the same time as in face-to-face)
there is more need for self discipline if someone is following the whole course
there is an online community of practice which, to work, needs to support itself by participating
in online forums
because units aren’t time bound there is more opportunity for extending what is covered in the
face-to-face course
the content can be accessed anywhere, anytime – it is more self-paced. This is perfect for
‘just-in-time’ training for when participants need to access the information at a specific time for
their teaching purposes.
Task two – Logging on
Go to http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/.
Your username is firstnamelastname for example johnsmith.
Your password is changeme.



How do you log on? From the front page.
What happens the first time you log on? Forced to change password.
What are your first impressions of the site?
o Think about navigation, content and support.
Key things to bring out:
 navigation through top level drop-down menu
 use of breadcrumbs to aid navigation
 help and support content available under horizontal menu
 blocks on left hand side provide access to content, participants and progress.
Page 192 of 194
Task three – Getting started
1.
Go to the Getting Started unit and complete sections one, two and five.
2.
Make sure you leave a message in the forum in section two and reply to at least one other
message.
Feedback – what is the point of this? To get participants used to online environment, provide feeling
of community.
Section five will introduce participants to more features of the online environment.
Task four – Activity types
What activity types can you find on the online course?
Look at the following resources and answer the following questions:
1.
What is the role of the participant?
2.
What are the learning outcomes?
3.
How does it differ to face-to-face learning?
Section seven of An introduction to learning technologies.

Self reflection and further reading. Reflective practice forms an important part of the
course.
 In
Integrating the Web, the wiki called Wiki - Suggested websites for lesson integration
with secondary students at
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/mod/wiki/view.php?id=221.
Participants add content to develop a community resource.
 Section one of Cyber well-being
(http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/course/view.php?id=27) [don’t
read the full report as you won’t have time].
Exercise, reading and discussion forum. Exercises are interactive and the participant can
keep track of their grades. Forums allow discussion around readings and other content on
the site. They differ to face-to-face discussions as they are asynchronous (i.e. not at the
same time).

Section one and two of Using office software for whole-class teaching
Introductory reading and forum about experiences. Participants share and respond to
experiences.
Page 193 of 194
 Section one of Using the interactive web in the classroom
Reflection; participants are provided resources to help them construct meaning. In the next
section a commentary is provided.

Section three of Collaborative online writing
Reflection, lesson idea and tutorial. Participants should be able to run the lesson by the
time they have finished.

Section two of The future and the end
Quiz which looks at whole course. The focus of the quiz is on the teaching implementation
of the learning technologies.
Page 194 of 194

An introduction to learning technologies

Transcription

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