Backround
In the past two years, I have run Workshops To Introduce Teachers of French, Spanish, German and Italian to the Content and uses of the Internet, using my Web site:
C.B.Putnam's Home Page:Putnam's Foreign Language Teaching Using the Internet,
which clusters sites in those languages grouped by themes. For each theme I suggest a number of specific activities for use in FL classes from Beginners to Advanced, FLES to HS levels.
Response from colleagues to my site and to my General Overview Workshop has been overwhelmingly positive. By email, regular post and face-to face, FL teachers tell of their perceived increase in proficiency and willingness to integrate Internet technology into their classes. Workshop participants give high marks to the interactive nature of the general training session. They find the highly functional thematic clusters of sites useful and praised the Workshop format with its built-in time for critical discussion. Comments from colleagues these past two years, however, indicate a strongly perceived need for stuctured, focused follow-up sessions.
These responses from throughout the FL profession, my efforts to connect the use of technology with the National Standards for FL teaching and the ACTFL Guidelines, and my research into technology training programs based on interactive reflective models of professional growth have led to the creation of an On-line Technology Literacy Course for FL teachers, K-12. Its design is based on an Language Learning Technology Module, identified by Kassen and Higgins in Technology-Enhanced Language Learning 1997 (p.270).
Rationale
It is evident that Teachers of FL are eager for technology literacy and find interactive and focused Workshops geared to K-12 FL classes to be of value as a useful first step. However, Workshops such as mine, with a general view of the Content of the Internet and Suggested Class Projects and Units, is by its scope limited. Despite its success as an Introduction to the Scope and Creative Uses of the Internet, colleagues decry the lack of time and opportunities for directed follow-up sessions with technology personnel and FL teachers together. Therefore, in addition to one-time general overview Workshops, I believe that teachers of FL K-12, would benefit from a series of limited-focus interconnectd sessions, with organized follow-up opportunities, shaped in part by the teaching goals and contexts of the participants.
Given the value of the Internet as a means for world-wide communication, I have designed First Stop In Cyberspace , an On-Line Inservice Course, as an interactive way for FL teachers to enhance their comfort level and their critically creative use of Internet Technology for the enhancement of the National Standards of FL teaching.
I have limited this On-line course to computers because I believe their use promotes the creative use of language. Unlike software programs which are geared to help discrete skill development (listening skills and the often mechanical recall of grammar and vocabulary), I believe that comfort with and the creative and critical adaptation of computers, and the Internet, into our FL classrooms is especially important. Inherent in this On-line course is the belief that the use of the Internet must lead participants to use language creatively.
Design
The design of this On-line course uses the five phases of the Language Learning Technology (LLT) Module, identified by Kassen and Higgins.
Session One ( What's Out there: On-Line Technology Training for FL teaching) serves as the 1.Preparation Phase with its study and analysis of current on-line and paper sources dealing with technology and also as the 2. Familiarization Phase with its suggested hands-on activities for learning the mechanics of the Internet.
Session Two (Useful Existing Sites) the Familiarization Phase, introduces C.B.Putnam FL sites and themes as a way for FL teachers to list, discuss and compare thematic ways of using Internet Technology.
Session Three the Exploration phase, focuses in greater depth on selected Putnam sites: participants select, rank, adapt, propose and discuss projects and activities according to predetermined stated criteria.
Session Four in the Integration phase, teachers work together melding ideals, ideas and goals and reality into a number of detailed learning/teaching units (Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced) with criteria and assessment strategies for the two Interactive aspects of the Internet.
Session Five the Integration Phase has teachers develop a range of specific class units (Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced)with criteria and assessment for the non-Interactive uses of the Internet.
Session Six in the Synthesis phase, teachers share with partners, modify then teach specific units. After Learner evaluations, teachers share the effectiveness, effort improvements of each unit.
The 5-part LLT design, developed as an Introductory TA Technology Training program at the University level interests me as a clear example of a reflective approach to professional growth. I share its insistence on a critical approach to technological literacy. The goals for this On-line course include:
comfort with the mechanics and the avoidance of indescriminate use of technology as an end in itself;
the integration of technology linked with a critical eye to its fit with the agreed-upon ends of FL teaching, from low-level (discrete skills development) to higher goals (the 5 "Cs" of the National Standards);
an increased sense of self as a creative, critical innovator and valuable team player.
Scope
The First Stop In Cyberspace On-line course limits the study and assessment of technology to the Internet. It will begin with the study in detail of two Interactive aspects of the Internet, where oral or written production in the FL is needed:
Intranet and Internet email, in directed and open-ended projects; and bulletin boards. In addition, it will focus on two Non-Interactive aspects of the Internet:
(on-line headlines/newspapers/magazines and poetry/food/online writing samples by young people in the target language.
Participants and Outcomes
Teachers of French, Spanish, German, and Italian (or any FL) will arrange to work together by language and/ or school levels (FLES/MS/HS), forming partners of manageable size, probably 3-5. Each group is expected to have access to a computer with modem (not necessarily in the classroom) for accessing on-line data, for follow-up tasks and activities and for focused exchanges with other groups of participants on a given topic or theme. As part of each session, participants must be willing to join in follow-up activities and to share insights with non-participating FL colleagues in their system. Each person must be willing to work collaboratively with others and to think creatively and critically about the use of each specific technology prior to sustained classroom use.
Participants will study the Content of one aspect of the Internet, selecting one or more follow-up activities to consider using, to alter and adapt for later use in their classes, then will share with others in their self-formed groups. Prior to actual class use, each variation on a specific technology will be assessed by group based on its clarity (how will students use and extend FL); the fit with the the National Standards and the stated guidelines for their teaching unit (is it sufficiently clear and complete for the age). Next the specific range of possible teaching activities and assessments will be agreed upon, with all agreeing that the selected activities and projects must be part of the regular class objectives. Then on to the in-depth study of a different aspect of the Internet. It should be noted that the end is not merely duplication or adaptation of discrete activities, but the creation of open-ended units and projects with specific outcomes for students delineated and justified in keeping with our National Standards and the groups we teach.
Participants need no prior expertise or experience. Needed instead is the following:
-a willingness to perfect one's mechanical training and knowledge bases of the Internet's content;
-a willingness to expand and enrich the classroom with the most meaningful, communicative experiences that use the Internet for our stated goals;
-a willingness to critique one's own ideas and those of others as a means to success for all.
The creation of useful, meaningful language experiences with clear directions and meaningful follow-up opportunities for all students is our aim. We will work together, keeping high standards in our promotion of the 5 "Cs": Communication, Connections, Culture; Comparisons and Community in ways appropriate for all FL students. We will pledge to speak honestly to one another and to support one another as we aim for teaching experiences that we agree reflect clearly our ends-in-sight. From my experience with FL colleagues, we are eager for reflective models of professional growth, such as this. I invite you with great anticipation to join me in this first On-line effort.
Return to Putnam's On-Line Course for Using Internet In K-12 Foreign Language Teaching