HIT: using technology in English classroom (Pt1)

[Peta Ward <petaw@IAFRICA.COM>]

rom owner-lm_net@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU Wed Sep 2 03:59:45 1998
Many thanks to all those who responded to my request for Using technology in
the English classroom.  There have been some really helpful responses which I
am posting for all to share and I am now armed with some excellent ideas to
present to the English Department.

I really appreciate the time and trouble taken to respond.

----

Peta Ward, Head of Media Centre
Hilton College
Private Bag 6001, Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal, 3245, South Africa
Tel: +27 331 430100          Fax: +27 331 430080
e-mail: petaw@iafrica.com    http://www.hilton.kzn.school.za


Some suggestions for integrating the Internet into the English Curriculum:

Author Study  - there is now an enormous amount of information available
Research to back up the study of classroom novels
Research for expositary articles in English & Snr English
Rather than printing out results of internet searches, note taking
techniques can be taught using a word document which can be opened
concurrently


I'm now at an elementary level, but if I could only use the computer for
one subject it would be langauage arts!  Writing is so much easier,
beginning to end with word processing.  Programs like Inspiration help
clarify the thought process.  Writing can so easily be rearranged and
edited by peers reading each others works.  The difference is amazing!!!!

There is a great grammar program called "Perfect Copy."  There is a junior
high and high school version.  One of the best programs around.  Great teacher
management and easy for students to use.


I teach english, and, on the rare occasion that I have been able to get into
a computer lab, have really found it useful.  The writing process is so much
easier if students can use a word processor.  After the first draft, the
writing is printed out, and students discuss with me and their peers any
improvements that could be made.  Revisions are relatively painless when the
work does not have to be rewritten.

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From: Peta Ward <petaw@IAFRICA.COM>
Subject: HIT: Using technology in English classroom (Pt2)

Have you tried  group writing - the students are in groups of four.  They
each begin a story - narrative or descriptive - and write for 10 minutes.
The story is then passed to the next person in the group, who continues it
etc. until all 4 have had a turn .  This is a great way for the reluctant or
unimaginative student to get started on writing -- having to write for only
10 minutes is not as threatening as setting out to write the entire story,
and they enjoy reading the other stories. Word processing makes the writng
and editing process so much easier.



I teach at a school in Queensland, Australia called All Saints
Anglican School. It is a Prep to Year 12 school and for about 5 years (I
think) up until about 2 years ago all children in years 5,6 and 7 had
their own laptops in the classroom.  Year 7 students are the last ones
to use this program. We used apple macs. I taught the Year 5 program for
two years and we mainly concentrated on Word Processing, Spreadsheeting,
Drawing, slideshows and a combination of these using Clarisworks which
was excellent. Children also presented most of their work on
Hyperstudio. At the time they were not linked to a modem so no email or
internet work was done. I have found that as children moved into the
Senior Schooli.e. Year 8 and above the laptops were mainly used as word
processors and after 3 years they were almost obselete and seemed very
slow. We now have 10 networked IBM computers in our Year 5 and 6
classrooms and this has also worked quite well- I taught Year 5 on this
program for a year and really enjoyed it as we had access to email and
internet but were still able to use word processing and spreadsheeting
programs. There is great debate in our school as to which is better
Laptops or Networked PCs. The laptop program was very costly, a computer
technician had to be employed just for the repair side and when they
broke down they were often out of action for quite some time so we
needed to supplement this with buying back old laptops and borrowing
them through the library.

Some of the pages on our website may suggest how we use ICT in English eg:
http://edweb.camcnty.gov.uk/hinchingbrooke/original/newssim.html
http://edweb.camcnty.gov.uk/hinchingbrooke/original/chirp.html
http://edweb.camcnty.gov.uk/hinchingbrooke/original/exteng.html
http://edweb.camcnty.gov.uk/hinchingbrooke/original/extension.html
http://edweb.camcnty.gov.uk/hinchingbrooke/original/lingo.html
http://edweb.camcnty.gov.uk/hinchingbrooke/original/newspaper.html
http://edweb.camcnty.gov.uk/hinchingbrooke/diaries/3diaries.html
http://edweb.camcnty.gov.uk/hinchingbrookelit/firsteditions.html



Our English teachers use them as word processors, with students writing
their papers, reports, etc. That is pretty basic.  They also are taught
how to do power point presentations, enhancing their written papers.  This
next year we are installing a computer production lab in a room off the
library which will have 10 64K RAM PCs, two HP 800 series printers, a
scanner, a digital camera, a video projector, and another device I can't
think of the name of.  The 10 PCs will be loaded with Adobe PhotoShop.
(Although after taking a workshop on how PhotoShop works, I think this is
overkill; PhotoDeluxe version would have been adequate.)  This is a little
off the subject.  What the English teachers us is a classroom set of
laptops--the production lab is the outcome of laptop users wanting more
sophisticated production facilities than the laptops.


If your school is like ours, not all students have computers at home.  We
use our laptops to be checked out by students needing to use word
processing.  All English assignments (9-12) must be typed on computers.
We have 3 labs to handle this but if the Eng. teachers had laptops in
their classrooms, they wouldn't have to march down the hall all the time
to the computer labs. Our English teachers would love to have them in
their rooms.  As is, we have 2 in the media center for checkout use and I
usually have a waiting list for them.

----

Peta Ward, Head of Media Centre
Hilton College
Private Bag 6001, Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal, 3245, South Africa
Tel: +27 331 430100          Fax: +27 331 430080
e-mail: petaw@iafrica.com    http://www.hilton.kzn.school.za

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