Technology Tip of the Month
September, 1996: Innovative Introductions
by Deborah Healey
It's
September and time for new classes. We all generally begin with having
students introduce themselves to build class cohesion when starting a
new school term. It works to go around the room and have each student
stand up, say his or her name, and give a few salient features. However,
the technology-enhanced classroom can offer much more variety--and make
names more memorable--than just reciting and listening.
The Tech Tip this month will offer some suggestions, starting
with ones that require the least in terms of technology and going on
from there.
Audiotape Options
This approach offers some focused listening practice and would
especially appeal to learners from oral cultures. It is also helpful in
monolingual classes; speaking into the tape in English makes more sense
than speaking in a foreign language directly to
someone who shares your language. Each person can record a description
of him/herself onto audiotape. Depending on the learners' proficiency
level, the description can be a very short one--perhaps just name and
major interest--or a longer physical description without the name given.
Students can be doing the audiotaping while class is going on or during
breaks.
The class listens to each description and tries to identify the speaker.
The person guessed might be asked to repeat part of the description
rather than just saying "Yes" or "No," giving another opportunity for
the class to match a voice to a face and name.
Video Options
If the class
has a
camcorder available, students can record themselves on videotape. If the
video is played back with the monitor turned off, the activity works
like the audiotape exercise described above. An alternative is to have
the monitor facing only one person; that student must describe the
person on the videotape so that others in the class can identify him or
her. The video can be played with the sound on, giving more clues, or
with the sound off.
An advantage to video over audiotape is that the teacher can also use
the tape to help learn students' names. For that purpose, make sure
students say their names on the tape.
Computer Options
With a computer in the picture, more activities are possible. E-mail and
MOO options help visual-textual learners remember better; digitizing can
appeal to both visual-graphical and visual-textual learners when images
are accompanied by text. More on each of these options is below.
E-mail
Students can compose a paragraph about themselves to send to their
classmates via e-mail. With some systems, the person's name is not
evident from the e-mail address, making identification more of a puzzle
unless students include their name in the e-mail
message. Students can also store the information about their classmates
easily for future reference.
One of the opening day activities I've used in a classroom with e-mail
access is to have students go around the room adding their names and
e-mail addresses to each person's address book. It makes for an active
class, especially as students try to figure
out if they have the name and address for everyone in the class.
MOO or CHAT
MOO stands for 'Multi-user Object Oriented environment' (or
'dimension/dungeon,' reflecting its origins in the adventure
game-playing world). CHAT is a program used to connect to a 'Chat room.'
A MOO such as SchMOOze University (1) and a Chat room (2) offer an
online location that learners can connect to via the Internet, then use
for real-time discussions. A MOO and a Chat room are quite similar,
except that the MOO adds the ability to move to various locations, each
with its own description and possible activities.
Generally speaking, both a MOO and a Chat room are public places,
meaning that anyone who knows the location can connect. They are also
anonymous; people can connect with pseudonyms. These are strengths in
that the interaction is authentic--learners don't
know if the person they're typing back and forth to is someone in the
computer room with them or across the world. These are weaknesses in
that these locations attract predators, and learners should know not to
put their home addresses and phone numbers online.
Once connected to a MOO or a Chat room, learners can congregate in a
pre-arranged location to type introductions of themselves (or of the
person next to them). If the teacher gives each student a list of names
of students in the class, then each person can try to write the
pseudonym being used by each of his or her classmates and that person's
real name. To avoid computer burnout, students can be asked to get up
from the computer to go over to where the person is sitting to confirm
an identity they think they have discovered.
Digitized video/digital cameras
Some
computers, particularly newer Macintoshes, include the ability to
digitize video. This means that a camcorder can be attached to a special
connector on the computer, and when digitizing software is run, what the
camera sees will show up on the computer screen and can be captured in a
still picture or in some cases a QuickTime movie. The software converts
the analog image from the camcorder into a digital image that the
computer can display and store.
A digital camera such as the Connectix QuickCam or Apple QuickTake (3)
includes digitizing software, so the image it captures can be loaded
directly into a computer. Some digital cameras will let you take only
one picture at a time before saving it on the
computer; others give you a certain amount of storage space, so you can
take several pictures before having to download and save them.
Students can each save a picture of themselves into a pre-arranged
location on the disk (to make life easier for the teacher who has to
find all the pictures later). They can also save a spoken introduction
to accompany their picture, depending on whether
the activity will include listening practice. The teacher can put a
series of photos together to create sets of images that do not include
everyone in the class, then turn the printed set of images into an
information gap exercise. Students can sit back
to back, each with a set of pictures (but not necessarily the same set).
As the first person describes one of his or her pictures, the second
student checks to see if the person being described is or is not in
his/her set of pictures.
Alternatively, one person can have a printed set of descriptions to
match with the oral descriptions being given by the second person based
solely on the pictures. The second person can ask questions for
clarification, as needed. The final task would be to take the picture
and the description to the individual the others feel it belongs to and
get the person's name.
These ideas are not meant to be exhaustive, but to give you a place to
start from in using technology to add more spice to beginning of class
introductions. Good luck!
Notes
(1) SchMOOze U is at schmooze.cunyvm.cuny.edu--it's best to log in with
a MOO client such as MUDDweller or Tiny Fugue. You can find clients to
download by going to
https://www.shareware.com and searching for "MUD". You can get to
SchMOOze without a client through telnet:
telnet://schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu:8888.
(2) Chat rooms can be accessed in a variety of ways, though use of a
client such as Global Chat makes it easier. On many university
mainframes, just typing irc invokes Internet Relay Chat and connects you
to a default Chat room. You can find Chat clients
to download by going to
https://www.shareware.com and searching for Chat.
(3) A discussion about digital cameras took place on TESLCA-L recently.
Search for "digital camera" in the TESLCA-L archives or on DejaNews, https://www.dejanews.com.
If you have questions, comments, or for more information,
contact Deborah Healey, dhealey AT uoregon DOT edu
https://www.deborahhealey.com/techtips/sept1996.html
Last
updated 26 June, 2009
