ICT+4+English+Teaching

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Here are the notes and the presentation files from my workshops conducted for the Education Bureau of Hong Kong in 2007 and 2008.

The Primary Presentation
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The Secondary Presentation
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Seymour Papert once said that putting a computer into a school is 'like putting a jet engine on a stagecoach - you gain a temporary increase in speed, but then the whole thing is wrecked!' (Kenny, //Times Educational Supplement//, 24 March, 2000)

1. A rationale for why we might consider using IT for effective English learning.
 * Programme Description :**

· Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Flat · Digital Natives being taught by Digital Immigrants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Prensky

The differences between digital native learners and digital immigrant teachers:
 * ** Digital Native Learners ** || ** Digital Immigrant Teachers ** ||
 * Prefer receiving information quickly from multiple multimedia sources. || Prefer slow and controlled release of information from limited sources. ||
 * Prefer parallel processing and multitasking. || Prefer singular processing and single or limited tasking. ||
 * Prefer processing pictures, sounds and video before text. || Prefer to provide text before pictures, sounds and video. ||
 * Prefer random access to hyperlinked multimedia information. || Prefer to provide information linearly, logically and sequentially. ||
 * Prefer to interact/network simultaneously with many others. || Prefer students to work independently rather than network and interact. ||
 * Prefer to learn “just-in-time.” || Prefer to teach “just-in-case” (it’s on the exam). ||
 * Prefer instant gratification and instant rewards. || Prefer deferred gratification and deferred rewards. ||
 * Prefer learning that is relevant, instantly useful and fun. || Prefer to teach to the curriculum guide and standardized tests. ||


 * Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj, The InfoSavvy Group, February 2003

2. Observation of sample lessons used on multiple computers and one computer per classroom for the teaching of English. These sample lessons include the use of: ‧Online resources for building English skills in young learners; http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml (Simple sounds games) http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/adventures/index.shtml (words and sentences) Is this sort of use of ICT for learning effective for learning?

‧Activities that can be done as a group on a screen or an interactive whiteboard with a data projector; Engage the kids by getting kids to the front of the class doing things that all can see. (Use the projector wand). Make sure that you can edit the objects using some software that allows for you to tailor the activities that you can put on the screen and interact with. The best of these that we have found is Easiteach. This will cost you but would be worth the investment as you now have access to tools to modify content and links to a lot of the content online. http://www.learningalive.co.uk/t_resources_results.aspx?prod=137&type=2

‧Collaboration tools that allow for classes to be linked across HK or the world;

Free resources include: ePals for email and other non-synchronous exchange http://www.epals.com/ Skype tools for kids to speak with other classes and groups. [|http://www.skype.com] Wikis that can be used for subjects http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis Kids can also record voice and simply store the audio on the desktop or the school network using Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Supported Resources Include: A supported lesson exchange (webconferencing) tool that is affordable for classrooms is http://www.e-lecta.com/ Podium for podcasting http://www.podiumpodcasting.com/podcasts/index.html is a great windows-based tool for getting kids up and running with the five P’s of podcasting in the one tool.

3. Hands-on practice on trial use of above tools and resources for the ability to create resources that can be used back at the participant's own campus. My Wiki for editing and adding pages and posts. http://xpatasia.wikispaces.com/ A copy of the Easiteach® reader software can be downloaded from here http://www.rm.com/Support/GeneralDownload.asp?cref=DWN605616 Alternately, a trial CD with case study videos, sample lessons and a 30-day trial of the Easiteach® software can be obtained for your school by sending a request to learningsolutionsasia@gmail.com Similarly a 30 day trial CD of Podium with some accompanying video case studies can be obtained for the school by contacting the same email i.e. learningsolutionsasia@gmail.com

4. Questions and answers and a challenge to participants to apply the teaching strategies learnt from the workshop within a month.

The barriers that potentially prevent me from making appropriate and meaningful use of ICT for learning in my classroom are:
The steps that I can take to remove these barriers are:

The target I will set for myself is to

The time that I will give myself to achieve this target is

Resources for blogging successfully:
Link to a [|Teachers TV video] on blogging case studies in the UK.