A lot of fuss is being made over the possibilities offered by the world
wide web. Fact is, the net does indeed offer loads of useful and topical information. The
other fact is, it is not always easy to assess the material quality. And
there is also the other other fact: Once the students realize that web
research is invariably connected with work, some of the initial lustre
wears off very rapidly. Nevertheless, work in the computer lab does make
for a nice change and the "find function" makes it easier to locate
information in longish texts. I have compiled a number of worksheets on
various topics (Australian Aborigines, Essay Writing, Anti-US Sentiment etc. etc.)
which you may download by clicking HERE.
Since I could't be bothered to list every individual file, I just wrapped
them all up into one zipfile, which unfortunately is quite big (nearly 1 MB).
If you cannot read PDF-files (Adobe), it's no use taking the trouble of
loading it down, however.
You surely have noticed that students quite enjoy writing texts on the PC? The following tasks can easily be prepared and they lend themselves to countless variations. In due time I will add some of my original material once I am sure that I do not infringe any copyrights. So here is a list of things I have done, which have worked reasonably well. Once you have started harnessing the PC as a writing tool, you will be astounded how many classical activities can be converted for usage in the computer lab.
I can hear you mumble away to yourself: Well, thatīs definitely not for me, too complicated, too much computer science, too kinky, too ...., but please hear me out, because this is VERY easy and it makes for interesting and easy lessons (on the teacherīs side, which canīt be all that bad). The idea is quite simple. Instead of conducting regular classroom discussions, which - as we all know - do not always work to our satisfaction, the discussion is held in a private chatroom. Now, if you know how to go about, you set up your own private chat - no sweat at all, but if you just want to use it: I have set up a chatroom, which is free for you to use and quite simple, too. You just enter your name, and hey presto, youīre already there.
Noah's Ark
Try this one and if it works, tell me all about it. (I havenīt tried it myself, yet).
Each student (or pair of students) gets a flashcard with the name of an animal on the front and three taboo words on the back side. Make sure there are always two animals represented (the animals went in two by two, hence the name of the game: Noah's Ark). It is the task of the chatter-animals/animal-chatters to find their respective counterpart ASAP. I have a number of flashcards (PDF-file) ready, which you may view here. You can also download the zip-file.What happened really?
Give the students the background to the story as described in this section. The students then ask you questions which you answer in the positive or negative. Of, course, the odd tip also keeps the motivation level up. If a student, or a pair of students, have found a solution you double click their nicknames and confirm their findings. I found this type of chat very stimulating and also challenging, since it requires that you are quick on the uptake and respond to a number of stimuli simultaneously.
Tip: I usually use PowerPoint and a beamer to give instructions to the class.Aliens among us
The class are told that a small number of aliens have managed to sneak into their class. By no means do they want to reveal their identity, but there is one thing we know: there is something odd about their language. The idea is that some students who assume the parts of police inspectors find out who the aliens are. I leave the organisational details up to you, but it may be a good idea to have students draw slips of paper with their assigned roles on them from an envelope. Language peculiarities may include:
Did I give you an idea? Try it out and tell me how it went.
- the speaker always uses the progressive form
- the speaker doesn't use any apostrophes
- the speaker uses only the passive voice
- the speaker uses "we" instead of "I" (pluralis majestatis)
- the speaker starts each statement with "I think"
Last modified: Sat April 28 00:12:10 CET 2002