Webtools - From Static to Dynamic

Molding the Internet to Our Purposes

• Language acquisition is the goal
• Teachers can use the Internet to
• Provide comprehensible input
• Present information for different learning styles
• Take a constructivist approach
• The task, not the tool

Some sites, from less interactive to more interactive

Links and More Links: general purpose pages

• ESL Study Hall from C. Meloni: http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gwvcusas/
• EL Easton's site: http://eleaston.com/english.html
• Linguistic Funland: http://www.linguistic-funland.com/teslact.html
• The English Zone: http://members.home.net/englishzone/
• Churchill House: http://www.churchillhouse.com/english/index.html

Creating Static Pages

• Web editors make it easy to do a page with links
• Use Netscape Composer to turn your bookmarks into a page - see the February 1997 Tech Tip for help
• Use MS Word to turn any document into a page - but watch out for bloat

Quizzes and More Quizzes

• Recognition level of knowledge
• Habit-formation
• Comfort (Maslow's hierarchy: safety need)

• Geography http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/quiz/geo4.html
• Body parts http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/vm/m-body.html

• Look to see if you're right
• Check mark or cross X

Which are more interactive? You be the judge.

• http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/9807/km-animalidioms.html (pull down to see answers)
• http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/quiz/cw1.html (click and check when done)
• http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/js/dt/mc-2000-01syn.html (click and check each one)
• http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/js/ck/ed-caps.html (type in answers)
• http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/200/reading/smicat1.htm
• http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~itesls/sp/

Beyond Quizzing

• SchMOOze (http://schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu:8888/)
• Randall's ESL Listening Lab (http://www.esl-lab.com/)
• CALL@Chorus.com (http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/call/cuttingedge.html)

So where's Internet interactivity?

• Email (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/keypal.htm)
• Student email lists ( http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/~trobb/slinfo.html)
• Chat - web-based, ICQ, IRC (see http://oregonstate.edu/dept/eli/april1997.html)
• Discussion on the Web (http://www.eslpartyland.com/stdisc.htm or http://www.eslcafe.com/discussion/)
• Writing help (http://web.missouri.edu/%7Ewritery/)
• Directed self-study on the Web - Webquests, "Places to Go, Things to Do"
• Whole-class or group activities on the Web
• Create your own pages, quizzes, etc.

Role of the Teacher

• Selecting material for comprehensible input
• Creating material - Hot Potatoes and Quandary authoring
• Setting tasks for different learning styles
• Bringing it back to the classroom and the curriculum

One-computer Classroom - a few possibilities

• Famous Personages from Tom Robb's students: http://www2.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/famous/
• Pizzaz from Leslie Opp-Beckman: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html
• See and solve: http://www.MysteryNet.com/thecase/see/see011/main.shtml

In the Lab

• ESL Independent Study Lab from M. Krauss: http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html
• ELC Study Zone: http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/index.htm
• Online Writing Lab: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/introduction.html

Integration into the Curriculum

Do pre-computer, on-computer, post-computer activities
Have a method for sharing finds and files to avoid reinventing the wheel

Constructivist Approach

Students create their own meaning from directed projects
Students are active and engaged
One-computer class or lab
From learning to acquisition - internalizing information
More about constructivism

A Sampling of Sites

• Cobuild concordancer: http://titania.cobuild.collins.co.uk/direct_demo.html
• Research-It: http://www.itools.com/research-it/research-it.html
• Travel sentences: http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~itesls/ts/directions.html
• Create your own quizzes: http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/js/project.html

or http://www.quia.com
or http://motted.hawaii.edu/
• Action mazes: http://www.tuj.ac.jp/cite/landlady/llady1.htm

Create your own maze with Quandary, http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/

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