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1999
281
Gnutzmann Küster SchrammIt’s the Pedagogy, not the Technology, we have to worry about:
121
1999
Franziska Lys
Barr and Tagg (1995) challenge American colleges to redefine their goals and shift from an “instruction” to al “learning” environment, thus allowing students to engage in more cooperative and constructive learning environments. Currently available technology makes such a paradigm shift possible. However, resources need to be carefully integrated and placed in a pedagogically meaningful context in order to be useful for class work: It is not the technology, it is the pedagogy we have to be concerned with. This paper shows how various technologies can be integrated into the curriculum to enhance the learning process. It also offers suggestions for Web-based activities that are cooperative and constructive.
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Franziska Lys It's the Pedagogy, not the Technology, we have to worry about: Developing new tasks for a changing language curriculum Abstract. Barrand Tagg (1995) challenge American colleges to redefine their goals and shift from an "instruction" to a "learning" environment, thus allowing students to engage in more cooperative and constructive learning environments. Currently available technology makes such a paradigm shift possible. However, resources need tobe carefully integrated and placed in a pedagogically meaningful context in order to be useful for class work: lt is not the technology, it is the pedagogy we have to be concerned with. This paper shows how various technologies can be integrated into the curriculum to enhance the learning process. lt also offers suggestions for Web-based activities that are cooperative and constructive. 1. "You must be really desperate to think of anything so dumb [...]" About twenty years ago, Olsen (1980) surveyed foreign language departments at four-year colleges about the use of computers in language instruction. Eighty-seven percent responded that computer-assisted instruction (CAI) was not in use and would not be considered in the future. When the departments were asked whether they would introduce computer assisted instruction by 1980, many thought it was a waste of time and energy and feit that resources could be better used for the purchase of library books. "Don't do it. It's a very stupid idea. Language is a living thing. You must really be desperate to think of anything so dumb". 1 Today, many teachers have recognized the enormous potential of technology for enriching the quality of language instruction. Computers have become a desired commodity in many schools and universities. Ravitch ( 1998) pointed out that the investment in technology in American schools had risen to $ 5.2 billion for the year 1998. By that time, seventy percent of American schools (eighty percent of high schools) were on-line. Glennan and Melmed ( 1996) showed that the number of students per computer in public schools (kindergarten through 12th grade) had declined drastically from 125 students per computer in 1983 to merely nine students per computer in 1996. 2 A freshmen poll taken at the beginning of the fall semester at the University of California at Los Angeles indicated that the use of the internet as an educational tool by college freshmen has become "a way of life". Four out of five freshmen surveyed (82.9 percent) indicated that they used the internet for research or homework. 3 Also cited in Bush (I 996). A more complete ! ist can be found in Fidelman's article ( 1998), Table 4, p. 46. This study was mentioned in The New York Times, Monday, January 25, 1999. lFLIJJlL 28 ( 1999) lt's Pedagogy, not the Technology, we have to worry about ... 129 Fidelman (1998) reported the results of a survey whose goal it was to.tracl< the growth in the use of the internet by language professionals such as language teachers, translators, and interpreters. Responses were solicited from users of on-line discussion lists. The results showed a dramatic increase in the use of intemet services such as listservs, e-mail, discussion groups, and the World Wide Web from 1994 to 1996. 4 The percentage ofWeb users had increased from twenty-nine percent to ninety-seven percent within four years. The time a person spent using the Web had increased from four times a month in 1994 to about once every workday in 1996. Almost half of the respondents stated that they had prograrnmed a document in HTML and fifty-nine percent had used the Web for teaching. Using the Web as a library tool was the most common activity reported. Other popular Web teaching activities were: putting course syllabi, reading assignments and links on-line; collecting cultural information; and teaching students to make a homepage. Practicing with on-line grammars, listening practice, and reading news passages were uses less often cited. 2. Technology and its Impact on Education Barrand Tagg (1995) challenge American colleges to redefine their goals and shift from an "instruction" to a "learning" environment. In a "learning" environment, the aim is not to "transfer knowledge from faculty to students", but to "elicit student discovery and construction of knowledge"; it is not to "offer courses and programs" but to "create powerful learning environments"; it is not to "achieve access for diverse students" but to "achieve success for diverse students". In the "learning paradigm", faculty are primarily designers of learning methods and environments, and faculty and students work in teams with each other to create cooperative, collaborative, and supportive tasks with an emphasis on interaction, conversation, and language use. Technology has the potential of facilitating such a shift. First, computers give students and teachers easy and instant access to up-to-date information about a country and its culture. Second, the information is available not only as text, but may be presented in an expanded environment that includes pictures, illustrations, sound files, and/ or video files. Third, this expanded context can easily be manipulated and shared among other Iearners. The visual aspect of technology is far superior to text-based media in portraying events or concepts. Pictures, sound, and video create a real sense of place offering vivid images of people and their Jives in the target culture by showing inside glimpses of everyday affairs. In addition, the capability of sharing that technology is superior to the situation of a closed classroom environment. Sharing information allows instructors and leamers to reach out, to explore, to compare. Both aspects of technologyvisualizing and sharing information are strong motivators for Iearning a language, because what students Iearn can be made more interesting, accurate, and relevant, and Ianguage tasks become more creative and collaborative. Computers take advantage of an expanding world and open "the closed laboratory and classroom learning to a vast world of potential" (Patrikis 1995). 4 Fidelman hadcompleted two previous surveys, one in 1994 and one in 1995. The numberofrespondents to these surveys had doubled over the two-year period. lFJLlllL 28 ( 1999) 130 Franziska Lys 3. The Integration of Technology into the Curriculum Although the desire for most instructors to include technology in their teaching is strong, not all instructors may know how to actually use and integrate technology. The survey "Teacher Quality: A Report on the Preparation and Qualification of Public School Teachers" showed that only twenty percent of the 4000 teachers surveyed nationwide said that they were confident in using modern technology. 5 Such a low level of confidence may indicate a lack of understanding different technologies as well as lacking knowledge about the affect of technology on pedagogy and its successful integration into the dassroom (see also Fuerstenberg 1997). Technologies continue to evolve at an increasing pace. As new technologies develop, so will the possibilities for integrating them into the curriculum, for it is not the technology that makes teaching successful but the care and thought given to the pedagogical integration of these technologies and the dynamics and opportunities that result from it. A study at the Califomia State University at Northridge (Schutte 1997), for example, showed that students who studied _in a virtual dassroom (with text posted on-line, e-mail and newsgroups, real-time chats with dassmates) tested twenty percent better than those who studied in a traditional dassroom. The success was attributed to the fact that students in the virtual dassroom spent more time working with each other than students in the traditional dassroom. The addition of technology resulted in more group work, which led to better test scores. The successful use of technology, therefore, is "highly dependent on the quality of the implementation of the entire instructional process" and depends largely on the ability of the teacher to articulate the new media with sound pedagogical goals and principles (Cubillos 1998). 3.1 Initial Planning is Crucial Whether to use technology in teaching languages and in what capacity depends on three basic issues: 1. The technical set-up of the institution; 2. The teachers' and students' computer skills; 3. The overall goals of the dass and how technology may help to achieve them. The technical set-up of an institution is decisive for the role technology can play in the dassroom. If easy access to a computer outside of dass cannot be guaranteed, a teacher may not be able to assign any homework that involves the use of the computer. If a dassroom is not equipped with a networked computer, a dass may not be able to make use of the World Wide Web or the teacher may have to think of other ways to bring information from the World Wide Web to the dass. Here are some basic questions that need tobe answered: • Is there a computer lab that can be visited with the dass? ls the computer lab available during dass time? Reported in The New York Times, January 19, 1999. lFLIJllL 28 (1999) It's Pedagogy, not the Technology, we have to worry about ... 131 • What kind of computers are in the lab? Are the computers networked? How much RAM and disc space do they have? • What software (and which version of a particular software) is currently available on these computers? Does additional software need to be installed? Will students have access to this software outside of dass? • Is there technical support available? Where do students go outside of dass when they have questions about the technology? • Do all students have easy access to a computer outside the dassroom (their own computer, a friend's computer, or a public computer lab on campus)? Teachers' and students' computer skills play a significant role as well. Since the focus of the dass is on teaching language skills, tasks that teachers and students can only do by spending much time on leaming computer skills first, should best be avoided. Such tasks lead to frustration and may overwhelm teachers and learners, making them less indined to get involved in learning activities. A third step and perhaps the most crucial one is the sensible integration of the technology into the curriculum. In general, computer tasks are not taken seriously and do not significantly contribute to the learning process if they merely are a duplication of dassroom instruction or an after-dass addition with no significant tie-in to the curriculum. A sensible integration of technology demands not only a fair amount of planning but also an understanding of how technology can be used to augment language instruction. One rule of thumb when deciding about the integration of technology is to check whether the proposed task could be done as well or even better without the technology. For example, if the task is to simply read a text found on the internet and this text does not contain any links that are crucial for a lesson, the text should be printed and read in the traditional way, for it is hard to decipher a text on the computer screen. Furthermore, students cannot easily mark up the text or take notes. Chat rooms, discussion groups, and e-mail are an important tool to foster communicatiori among instructors and learners. These tools, however, may best be used outside of dass time to give students more opportunities to interact. Individual one-to-one discussions or small group discussions are still the most valuable and most authentic way of using a language. 3.2 Integration of Technology in an Intermediate German Curriculum This section outlines the integration of various forms of technology into a second-year German curriculum. The aim was to provide a well-rounded curriculum, which would stress the acquisition and practice of all four skills as well as the acquisition of cultural concepts. More importantly, however, we were trying to design a curriculum that would attract students by being up-to-date and interesting, and by providing engaging tasks which would extend the learning beyond the dassroom. lFLIIL 28 ( 1999) 132 Franziska Lys 3.2.1 Campus Infrastructure Northwestem University's infrastructure is well developed. The whole campus is networked: this indudes the library, computer dassrooms, smart dassrooms, faculty offices, and student dorms. 6 There are currently 972 networked computing workstations in 46 labs or libraries. About ninety percent of the students own a computer. 7 The foreign languages are housed in a building of their own, Kresge Hall. There are one smart dassroom and two well-equipped Computer dassroO]JlS available. The computer dassroonis, which also function as public labs, are part of the Multi Media Learning Center. 8 While the regular dassrooms are equipped with overhead projectors, cassette recorders, video recorders, and television sets, they do not have a computer or a computer hook-up. The demands for the smart dassroom and the dassroom computer lab are quite heavy, and it is not possible to reserve the smart dassroom or the dassroom computer lab for a whole quarter for one particular dass, as these resources are shared by all the foreign languages. We have dass in the regular f,: lassroom and reserve the smart cfassroom fo~ one hour every two weeks. The dassroom computer lab is reserved for us about two to three times a quarter for one hour each. All students are expected to do homework on their own computer or in the public labs. 3.2.2 Student Population and Background There are about 100 students enrolled in second-year German, a three-quarter sequence with tei1 weeks each. We meet four times a week for fifty minutes per session. Roughly ninety percent of the studerits enrolled this year have their own computer. Most of them are hooked up to the campus network. The remaining ten percent have access to public labs. 'there are two distinct groups of students enrolled in intermediate German. One group comes from our first-year program. These students are usually well trained in all four skills and have a basic understanding of the gramrriar. The other group is composed of freshmen with about four years of high-school German. They tend to have quite varied backgrounds. Some are very good in speaking, some have excellent reading skills, others were exposed to a conundrum of cultural information, sometimes only iri English. All of them have gaps in the understanding öf basic grammatical issues. 3.2.3 Description and Goals of the Course The overall goal of intermediate German is to further all four skills. Listening comprehension tasks, a thorough review of basic grammatical issues (to accommodate such a diverse group), and tasks to increase cultural knowledge are part of the year-long curriculum. Speaking is emphasized in the first quarter, writing in the second, and reading in the third. 6 Smart Classrooms are specially designed classrooms that allow the instructors to give multimedia presentations to a whole dass. Most of the classroom buildings on campus have at least one smart classroom. Reservations are on a first-come first-served basis. From the Report from the NU Computer Lab Planning Task Force, J anuary 1999. For more inforrnation on the Multi Media Leaming Center, its resources, and a description of the computer projects developed through the MMLC consult their homepage at: http: / / web.mmlc.nwu.edu. lFILllL 28 (1999) lt's Pedagogy, not the Technology, we have to worry about ... 133 Because all of our students have their own computer, we can use a variety oftechnologies. Researching a topic or fact-finding on the World Wide Web is done partly in class and partly outside of class; depending on the computer lab schedule. Reviewing and practicing grammar and listening comprehension is done on the computer and is reserved for homework. The tasks are designed to prepare students for role-playing, discussions and other communicative tasks. As a rule, we reserve much of the classroom time for using in class what has been learned outside of class. Using Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956), the skills of application, comprehension, and acquisition of knowledge are aided by computer tasks outside of class. This division frees up classroom time to practice higher-level skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. For example, in a video sequence delivered on a CD-ROM, students meet an owner of a former East-German car, a Trabant. The owner explains what his car looks like, what is in the car's trunk, how fast it drives, how much gasoline it uses, and what the traffic situation is like in this former East-German town. Through various interactive exercises on the CD-ROM, students acquire the vocabulary necessary to describe a car, they learn how to measure distances in kilometers and how to calculate the fuel consumption of a car. In the class, students are then asked to perform tasks to synthesize and evaluate the information they have acquired. They describe their own car; specify what they would have put in their own trunk and why; calculate distances and fuel consumption for a trip they have taken or would like to take; sell their car or their family car to a class mate or try to by a Trabant form a classmate negotiating the lowest selling price possible by using all the cultural information acquired from the software. 3.2.4 Technology Enhanced Tasks We use technology in various ways. Because we do not have access to a computer at all times, we have to carefully plan when, where, and in what capacities technology can enhance teaching and learning. While there is an adequate support system available at our university, it is true that each instructor spends additional time helping with problems that arise because of the technology. (a) Using the Internet as a Tool to Disseminate Information: We have an extensive departmental Webpage containing information on classes and faculty members. For second -year German, syllabi, daily schedules, and homework assignments are available for students at all times. We regularly post solutions to worksheets and quizzes, or provide URLs to interesting Websites. We also use the internet to display and share student work, a tewarding way for students to show what they can do, which also creates competition and incentives for other students. 9 In higher-level classes, students create their own Websites including links to other interesting sites and pictures. Beginning students routinely get to read what advanced students create. (b) Using the Internet as a Language Resource Tool: On one of our first visits to the classroom computer lab, we teach students how to use the German spell-checker in their 9 The harne page of the German Department at Northwestern University can be found at: http: / / www. german.nwu.edu. IFIL1U! lL 28 ( 1999) 134 Franziska Lys word processing program. We expect them to spell-check all of their written homework. During subsequent lessons in the computer lab, we introduce them to the various language resources on the Web: German and English dictionaries, the German Thesaurus, and the German and English Encyclopedia. 10 These are important tools, especially for those students who will continue with their German studies. Surprisingly, many students do not know of these resources not even for their native language. Students like using the on-line dictionary because searching it for words is much faster than using the traditional dictionary. Rather than giving students vocabulary lists, we have them search for the meaning of unfamiliar words in the on-line dictionary and then we share the information in class. (c) Using the World Wide Web for Cultural Information: We use a fair amount of cultural information from the internet. Because we do not have access to the intemet in the traditional classroom, we regularly print out interesting intemet sites on overheads. 11 This allows us to introduce Web pages even if there is no computer available in the classroom. All of our internet work is a combination of • classroom work with overheads; • smart classroom work (one computer station), where we show visual material for discussion and comparison (pictures, graphs, short video clips); • computer classroom work (individually or in small groups), which concentrates on fact-finding; and • individual work on the home computer. We do not use the intemet for extensive reading assignments but will print out longer reading texts, if appropriate. (d) The Internet as an Interactive Grammar Textbook and Tutor: We practice grammar on-line. The grammar we are using is an intermediate review grammar developed at Northwestem University in 1998/ 99. lt contains twelve chapters with about fifteen interactive exercises per chapter, sound files, video files, a virtual tutor, reference material such as verb lists and grammar summary tables, and an extensive tracking system. The grammar is currently used with about one hundred students per quarter. 12 When students log on to the grammar, their work is automatically tracked and can be checked by the instructors later. Students have a ring binder and are asked to print relevant pages from the on-line grammar as they see fit. They decide what they need to be prepared for class or for the exams. Each student is thus essentially assembling his or her own workbook. The pages in the ring binder are supplemented by class notes and handouts. There are few grammar exercises practiced in class. However, a teacher support and resource page on the Web presents suggestions on how to practice the grammar points interactively and contextually in class. This insures that 10 An easy way of accessing reference material is through the following Web pages: http: / / www.yahoo. com/ Reference/ for English material and http: / / www.yahoo.de/ Nachschlagewerke/ for German material. 11 The purchase of an inexpensive color printer used by the whole department for printing intemet pages has been very helpful in extending intemet use to classes that do not have the required technology in their classroom. 12 The German Review Grammar INTERMATIK developed at Northwestem University can be found at: http: / / intermatik.mmlc.nwu.edu. IFILlllL28 (1999) It's Pedagogy, not the Technology, we have to worry about ... 135 the grammar is quite closely tied to the work done in class. Following are two examples of classroom integration: Each grammar chapter contains an interview part (sound files). For the chapter on the present perfect, for example, students listen to one part of a dialogue, a father calling his son or daughter at school, trying to find out how his child is doing. The student completes the dialogue by writing answers to the father's question into a field, which is then submitted to the teacher. The father's last request in the dialogue is to please call the mother the next day to let her know that the child is ok. This mother/ son or mother/ daughter dialogue is then prepared and performed in the following period. Each grammar chapter also includes one short video segment to illustrate a particular grammar point in context. For the chapter on adjective endings, students watch a short introduction to the city of Berne, Switzerland, accompanied by a narrative voice describing the city by using various kinds of adjectives. Students then prepare a short narrative about their favorite city (they bring one or two pictures to class) modeled after what they have heard in the video and present it to the class. (e) An Interactive CD-ROM to Practice Listening Comprehension: Video has always been an integral part of our program for culture and listening practice. However, traditional video viewing (a video tape in the language lab) has never been successful: students watch the segment once or twice in its entirety, unsure of what they need to understand and retain for class discussion. To combat this problem and prepare students in a more appropriate way, we have been using an interactive CD-ROM program for the last three years. This interactive CD-ROM program is called Drehort: Neubrandenburg Interaktiv. lt is based on the documentary Drehort: Neubrandenburg, filmed on location in former East Germany in 1991. The computer program is designed to promote active viewing and to engage students in interactive language tasks related to small units of language input. lt contains vocabulary practice, cultural background material, various comprehension exercises with built-in help utilities such as a dictionary stack, an immediate comprehension check with visual and oral feedback, comprehension quizzes and writing tasks. The goal is to encourage students to stay with the video and pass slowly through the material without getting bored or frustrated. The students use the CD-ROM material outside of class to prepare for in-class work, which focuses on role-play and discussions in the target language. Because the program offers the learners feedback on their progress, they know when they have understood what a particular video clip is about and when they are sufficiently prepared for class work. Students purchase their own CD-ROM instead of a regular textbook. 3.2.5 Results Although it is time-consuming, integrating technology in the curriculum has been extremely rewarding, for both teachers and students alike. While the impact of the interactive grammar will be tested this spring, the impact of the CD-ROM program Drehort: Neubrandenburg Interaktiv on learning a foreign language has already been assessed through three major questionnaires handed out over a period of two years. The results have been very encouraging. Seventy-eight percent of the students thought they would have learned less or consider- IFJL111lL 28 ( 1999) 136 Franziska Lys ably less without the technology. Eighty-seven percent thought their language skills were improved as a result of the software. The areas that improved most were cultural understanding, listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. Sixty-five percent of the students indicated that they considered the interactive program tobe much more helpful than conventional foreign language supplemental materials. Interviews with instructors using this technology revealed that students were better prepared for class, that they were more interested in the subject, and that they feit more secure speaking in the language (see also Lys 1998). We have definitely marle changes in the way we teach since we began using technology. Teachers no longer feel the urge to prepare presentations about a certain grammar topic but spend preparation time with designing more engaging and collaborative tasks. Teachers and students share information they collect through work on the Web or through group projects in class discussions. Students comment that they like studying a language because they can experiment with these new learning tools: they offer them a new way of using the language and learning about a world beyond their own. Technology allows teachers to engage with the learner in a very different way, to experiment with them to find out what works. The following section describes just such an experiment developing new tasks for a changing language curriculum that uses information from the World Wide Web. 4. Using the World Wide Web for Language Teaching The World Wide Web is appealing to teachers as well as to students. lt offers a wealth of authentic language resources in. a variety of media, and it is gratifying to explore and navigate the links. At the same time, however, it can also be a rather frustrating experience. Attracted by colorful text, illustrations, animations, and sound, students jump from one page to the next in search of more to explore often with little in-depthconsideration of what was just reviewed. They plunge enthusiastically intoa Website task only to emerge an hour later having accomplished little because they. got lost in a vast amount. of fragmented information. 13 While some have pointed out that the intemet may "cause a realignment of communication towards reading and writing" (Adolph/ LeBlanc 1997), I do not believe that the World Wide Web is the primary tool to teach reading. Most instructors and students use the World Wide Web as a resource for up-to-date cultural information because it offers "immediate access to the way native speakers use their language in real everyday situations" (Kramsch/ Anderson 1999). What is most important is the informational content presented through 13 As an experiment, I had fifteen students from a fourth-year German class work on the intemet for thirty minutes. Their task was to collect eight toten facts about a particular topic of the city of Beme, Switzerland (the city's history, food and restaurants, public transportation, etc.) and report these facts to the class. I had given the students ten URLs to get them started and asked them to begin their search from this initial Web page; After thirty minutes, there were still about forty percent of students who did not have any facts collected because they got lost in the information and could not decide which topic to choose or what facts to write down. lFLuL 28 ( 1999) It's Pedagogy, not the Technology, we have to worry about ... 137 illustrations, pictures, sound, and video. And this variation in media offers ample opportunities to design learning environments that are cooperative, collaborative, and supportive. The key is to plan carefully and know in advance where students need to go and what they need to do to achieve a particular goal. 4.1 Getting Acquainted with the Technology Although it may look very easy initially to open a browser, type in a URL, and call up a Web page, it is important for teachers to be weil versed in the use of the internet. They too can get lost in too much information and spend an extraordinary amount of time trying to prepare a . useful teaching unit. Following are some important suggestions for teachers just starting out: (a) Familiarization with Browsers and Search Engines: The first step for any teacher is to learn to use browsers and search engines. For example, it is important to know how to configure a browser to turn off pictures when downloading speed is slow. lt is equally important to have a good understanding of how search engines work to be able to execute more efficient searches. There are many good explanations on the Web itself about how to complete a successful search. 14 (b) Spending Time Browsing: The wealth of material on the Web makes it very easy to search for hours but without satisfactory results. Initially, time should be spent simply browsing the Web. However, quick searches can sometimes produce an image, a chart, or a graph that may just be enough to introduce a topic or augment an article or literary text. (c) Saving and Categorizing Addresses: . lt is important to write down or save addresses consulted for later use. Often, teachers only make a decision on a particular Webpage after they have seen what eise is available, yet sometimes it is difficult, if not impossible, to track down a previous site. I usually have a list of topics covered per quarter and search according to that list. (d) Copying Texts and Illustrations for Discussion in Class: Copying texts and illustrations from a Webpage may be an important skill to have in order to prepare a reading text for class. A longer text can become appropriate for beginning readers if only certain passages are selected and copied. To retain the authenticity, it should not be edited or changed grammatically. If a text is altered in any way, the source (URL) should always be included so that teachers and students can return to the original text. Alternatively, printing out the complete text and marking what students are responsible for will make the reading text manageable without forgoing its original layout. (e) Learning to Critique Web Pages: lt is very important tobe critical about the material on the Web: the layout, the pictures, the language used. The fact that it is posted on the Web does not mean that it is appropriate or even accurate for that matter. I usually try to assess the appropriateness of content (visual and text-based) and of language level (language difficulty and appropriateness of words used). 14 The following address contains useful information: http: / / www.ultranet.com/ -egrlib/ tutor.htm. IFL11lllL 28 ( 1999) 138 Franziska Lys (f) Developing Sound Lesson Plans and Learning Activities: Developing pedagogically sound lesson plans or course syllabi with Web-based resources in mind is equally crucial. Because these activities can be very time-consuming, teachers need to start on a small scale. One Webpage activity per week or every two weeks may already be sufficient. Teachers should allow themselves to experiment and take chances. Not every task will always work out but experimenting will lead to a greater understanding of how the Web can be used as a tool to facilitate language leaming. (g) Learning to Make Simple Web Page: Creating simple Web pages myself affords me the opportunity to post student work received via e-mail and share it with the whole dass. lt is also very gratifying for the students to be able to show their work to anybody with access to the Webpage. (h) Learning how to Share New Information, URLs, and Teaching Jdeas with Your Colleagues: Many teachers have great ideas, which could be useful for others to either adopt in dass or augment to fit their needs. Listservs or discussion groups are an efficient way of sharing teaching ideas and materials. 15 4.2 Where do Web Based Tasks Fit in? Web-based tasks can be used anywhere in the curriculum or lesson plan where they make sense. They do not have tobe the main activity but could be used to activate knowledge, review vocabulary, or extend a topic discussed in a literary reading passage. As "pre-activities" they can motivate students to get interested in a topic, they can activate prior cultural knowledge, review vocabulary students already know, or present new cultural or historical facts important to the understanding of a reading passage. As "main activities" they can help gather new facts or information, present strategies to achieve comprehension of reading a passage, a sound bite or a video clip. As "post-activities" they can assist with the reviewing of key issues and cultural concepts, and help extend already acquired knowledge to new areas. The curriculum does not have tobe entirely based on technology. Resources from the Web can be used initially to augment what is done in the dassroom, especially in schools where the infrastructure is not fully developed yet. 4.3 New Tasks for a Changing Curriculum: A Unit on "Health Food" The following section describes a teaching unit with tasks that use the World Wide Web in a variety of ways and situations. The unit was initially put together for an intermediate German class with an emphasis on providing a more constructive and cooperative learning environment. 16 The topic of the unit was "Health Food". lt was enhanced with grammar 15 The AATG (American Association of Teachers of Gennan) listserv, for example, is very active and teachers regularly share their Web teaching ideas. For more infonnation, consult the ATTG homepage at: http: / / www.aatg.org/ . 16 Many thanks to Denise Meuser, Northwestem University, who pul the unit together. lFlLllllL 28 ( 1999) lt's Pedagogy, not the Technology, we have to worry about ... 139 exercises in the on-line grammar using the same vocabulary and cultural ideas, and an interactive CD-ROM unit with a video sequence on a small German grocery store owned by an elderly couple. The whole unit was planned out for two weeks. Some dasses were held in the computer lab with access to computers for all students. Other dasses were held in the smart dassroom (one computer station for the whole dass) or in the regular dassroom (no computer available; we used printed copies of the Web sites on colored overheads). The ensuing discussions touched on the following themes: • Which foods are healthy or unhealthy to eat and why? Do students generally have healthy diets? • What does it mean tobe a vegetarian? Are you a vegetarian? Why? Why not? • Do people eat and live healthily in Europe? More healthily than in the US? • Where do people shop for food? Are there stores in Germany that cater to a more healthy life style? • What kinds of restaurants are there in Europe? What do they serve? In which ways are they different from restaurants in the US? A detailed list of all Web sites related to this unit, teaching suggestions, dassroom and homework tasks can be found in the appendix (see page 143). (a) Introduction ofTopic: In an initial dass discussion we talked about the kinds of foods that students eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We categorized the foods into grains and breads, fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and sweets. Students marked the items as healthy or unhealthy, and tried to explain why they were marked a certain way. Then we read a text that was taken from the internet. lt was a short letter to parents about the importance of serving healthy food to their children. Students scanned the text in small groups and wrote down two main facts they learned from the text. The facts were collected on overhead for discussion. Students were then asked to cirde unfamiliar words in the text. As homework, students were asked to check the words in the electronic on-line dictionary and to prepare their own short list of important words. (b) A Health Food Recipe: This dass hour was spent in the computer lab. On the Web site Was Kinder mögen, students were presented with a list of recipes for healthy food for children. We read one of the recipes (Arme Ritter) together and discussed it in dass. Then students were allowed to browse through the other recipes on the Website on their own writing down two or three facts that seemed different from what they would have eaten or would have liked as children. These notes were then used afterwards for in-dass discussion. For the rest of the dass period, students gathered in small groups. They were given the task to discuss and put together one American recipe of a child's dish. The recipe was composed on the computer and given to the teacher who corrected and posted it on the dass Website for other students to read. This type of exercise worked well because the instructor had time during dass to give individualized help to each group. Sharing their recipes on the internet allowed students to see what others in the dass had accomplished. And it was interesting to note that even though many students thought of the same food (peanut butter and jelly sandwich, macaroni and cheese), all recipes looked different from each other. IFL11lllL 28 ( 1999) 140 Franziska Lys (c) Purchasing Health Food: Next we logged on to a Website with a list of health food stores in Germany. We divided the class into small groups and had each group prepare an oral report on one of the health food stores advertised. Information included name and location of the store, a list of products the store was selling, and store hours. Then students had to prepare a set ofquestions about information they were interested in but could not find on the Webpage. (For example: What kinds of customers do you get? Are they young or old? What is your best-selling item? ) For their homework, each group had to call a store and report back to the class. 17 We had the students negotiate in German about who would make the phone call and we gave them some ideas about what to say as an introduction on the phone. This was a task that many students felt skeptical about but they were really proud once they had accomplished it. Most stores they called were eager to give some information over the phone. (d) To Live a Healthy Life: The text Leben Vegetarier länger? was chosen not only because of the topical vocabulary but also for the arguments put forthin the text. We clipped the text into a word processing program and reduced it to a one-page reading without altering the authenticity of the text but (merely omitting difficult or uninteresting sections). The text claimed that vegetarians may not take in enough vitamin B 12. We had one student take theVitamin B12 test on-line in class to determine whether she had enough vitamin B12. This led to a lively discussion on the importance of vitamins: Do students get enough with their food or should they take a supplement? There are other tests for various kinds of vitamins available on the same Webpage (Vitamin BI, B2, B6; Vitamin A, E, K, D) and even a test about a person's risk for coronary heart disease. For their homework, we had students take as many tests as they wanted to on-line and report back to the class the following day. These health tests provided very interesting material for class interaction and got students to read and discuss fairly sophisticated material on their own. (e) Health Food Restaurants: Menuetto is a vegetarian restaurant in Berne, Switzerland, with a well-designed, colorful Webpage including relevant cultural information. We chose this Web-site because it was not a reading text but had tables and various illustrations to guide and assist in comprehension. For example, the restaurant lists two addresses, although there is a single location. This was at first confusing to students. Were there two restaurants? A map next to the address showed that the restaurant was actually located at the corner of an intersection and that the side entrance was wheelchair-accessible. Other important cultural information on the Web page that we used for comparisons and contrasts included the following: • Dogs are allowed inside the restaurant. • There is a large non-smoking section. • The restaurant can be reached by public transportation. • The bathroom facilities are wheelchair accessible. 17 Phone calls to Germany are quite inexpensive today. This is a good exercise: the students need a lot of courage to actually make the call, but are usually quite surprised at how weil they can already communicate. (They also need to figure out what the time difference between the two countries is and how to call Germany .) lFL11llL 28 (1999) It's Pedagogy, not the Technology, we have to worry about ... 141 • The hours of the restaurant are listed (hot meals are served only at specific times). • Different payment methods are accepted including some credit cards not known in the US. The restaurant also listed an e-mail address. As there was a set of questions still left unanswered, we collected these questions on overhead and one of the students was chosen to contact the restaurant owner via e-mail who responded promptly. For homework and as an extension of the material discussed, we gave the students the address of the Web site Culinarium: Suchen Sie Ihr Wunschrestaurant. This site let students research their own restaurant based on various criteria (Betriebstyp, Lokalitäten, Angebot, Extras, geöffnet am [. .. ], wir akzeptieren). Choices of restaurants included: Pizzeria/ italienisch, fastfood, vegetarisch,fernöstlich, Fischspezialitäten, etc. Many of these restaurants had Web sites with menu selectionshsted. The students chose their most favorite restaurant (not necessarily a vegetarian restaurant) and prepared a short report for class presentation based on what they found on the Web site. Time permitting, we would have taken this task further arid have students write up a summary of a restaurant in their neighborhood by following the outline of the originaIMenuetto page. This information would then have been posted on the class Websites. We had even planned to equip students with a digital still camera to take pictures of the restaurant of their choice. Preparing this unit took clearly more time than reading a page in a textbook. Careful planning was important, as we did not always have an appropriate computer station available for teaching. Printing out Web pages on colored overheads was a workable solution; which allowed us to extend the use of the internet. What was particularly gratifying to students was the close contact the tasks provided to some people of the target culture (who cared enough to respond); the authenticity of the material; and the realization that they could understand and communicate despite their limited knowledge of German. They were engaged, involved, and learned about themselves in their encounter with the target culture. 5. Conclusion In this paper I have focused on the problem of integrating technology into teaching with the goal of moving from the traditional paradigm of "instruction" to one of exploration, discovery and learning. I have argued that technological resources need tobe carefully integrated and placed in a pedagogically meaningful context to enhance the learning process, and tobe of use for class work. Simply reading a Webpage does not move us away from an instructional approach where the teacher is the center of attention. In a "learning" paradigm, the emphasis is on interaction, conversation, and language use. Onlywhen teachers are "architects of interaction, _[do] students become information gatherer and negotiators as well as builders and co-workers" and begin to share "some of the teaching function that instructors ordinarily assume for themselves and that students typically concede to them" (Moeller 1997). To some, integrating technology into a curriculum may resemble carefully constructed experiments designed to explore the link between teaching and learning. Suchexperiments, however, will allow us to reevaluate our teaching. As a result, we may question every aspect IFILlllL 28 (] 999) 142 Franziska Lys of the classroom environment from the ways of instructional delivery and types and frequency of classroom interaction to the possibilities of expanding communication beyond the classroom. This self-inquiry has helped me develop as a person, a teacher, and a learner, leading me to formulate and reformulate my own theories and methods about technology and its interaction with the learning process. lt has also committed me to my work in new ways and thus has become an impetus for growth. References ADOLPH, Winnifred / LEBLANC, Leona (1997): "A Revolution from Above: The Race for Technology in Foreign Languages". In: MYUSKENS, Judith A. (ed.): New Ways of Learning andTeaching: Focus on the Technology and Foreign Language Education. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers, 19-35. BARR, Robert/ TAGG, John ( 1995): "From Teaching to Learning- A new Paradigm for Undergraduate Education". In: Change November/ December, 13-25. BLOOM, Benjamin Samuel (1956): Taxonomy of Educational Objectives - The Classification of Educational Goals: Cognitive and Affective. New York: David Mc.Kay Company, Inc. BUSH, Michael, D. / TERRY, Robert (eds.) (1996): Technology Enhanced Language Learning. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company. CUBILLOS, Jorge H. ( 1998): "Technology: A Step forward in the teaching of foreign languages? " In: The Coming of Age of the Profession. Boston, MA.: Heinle & Heinle Publishers, 37-52. FIDELMAN, Carolyn G. ( 1998): "Growth of internet use by language professionals". In: CALICO 15.4, 39-57. FUERSTENBERG, Gilberte (1997): "Teaching with Technology: What is at stake? " In: ADFL Bulletin 28.3, 21-25. GLENNAN, Thomas K. / MELMED, Arthur (1996): "Fostering the Use of Educational Technology: Elementsofa National Strategy". MR-682-OSTP. Santa Monica, CA.: RAND Corporation [also available at: http: / / www.rand.org/ publications/ MR/ MR682/ contents.html]. KRAMSCH, Claire/ ANDERSEN, Roger W. (1999): "Teaching Text and Context through Multimedia". In: Language Learning and Technology 2.2, 31-42 [also available at: http: / / polyglot.cal.msu.edu/ llt]. LYS, Franziska (1998): "From Videotape to Videodisc to CD-ROM". In: FISCHER, Robert (ed.): Technology for Language Learning: Faculty Authored Libra Courseware. Southwest Texas State University: 80/ 20 Software, 1-15. MOELLER, Aleidine J. (1997): "Moving from Instruction to Learning with Technology". In: CALICO 14.2-4, 5-14. OLSEN, Solveig (1980): "Foreign Language Departments and Computer-Assisted Instruction: A Suvey". In: Modem Language Journal 64.3, 341-349. PATRIKIS, Pete C. ( 1995): "Where is Computer Technology Taking Us? " In: ADFL Bulletin 26, 36-39. RAVITCH, Diane (1998): "The Great Technology Mania". In: Forbes Magazine, March 23. SCHUTTE, Jerald G. ( 1997): "Virtual Teaching in Higher Education: The New Intellectual Superhighway or Just Another Traffic Jam? " In: Renaissance Digital. http: / / www.csun.edu/ sociology/ virexp.htm SCOIT, Virginia M. (1996): Rethinking Foreign Language Writing. Boston, MA.: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. WILLIAMS, Marry K. / LIVELY, Madelaine G. / HARPER, Jane (1994 ): "Higher Order Thinking Skills: Tools for Bridging the Gap". In: Foreign Language Annuals 27.3, 401-426. l! 'JLirnL 28 ( 1999) It's Pedagogy, not the Technology, we have to worry about ... 143 APPENDIX A Unit on Health Food Introduction of topic Establish what kind of foods students eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner (categorize grains and breads, fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, sweets, etc.). Collect facts on overhead. Mark the items as healthy or unhealthy, and explain why. Reading Text Naturkost für Kinder http: / / www.naturkost.de/ basics/ kinder/ main.htm#vorwort Thi.s is a short letter to parents about the importance of serving healthy food to their children. Make the text available to students (print-out). Have students scan the text in small groups and write down two main facts they learned from the text. Collect facts on overhead. Then circle unfamiliar words in the text. Have them guess meaning in class. For homework, have students check remaining words in the electronic dictionary and have them each prepare their short list ofimportant words. Web Page Naturkost http: / / www.naturkost.de/ basics/ ki nder/ main.htm#vorwort Show this web page on the computer (or make overheads if no computer is available). What other information can you get from this site (recipes, location ofhealth food stores in Germany, etc.)? Browse through some sample sites with your students asking them what kind of information they would expect from each site. Web Page Naturkost einkaufen http: / / www.naturkost.de/ start/ einkauf.htm This page contains a ! ist of health food stores in Germany. If students could talk to a sales person in a health food store, what would they want to ask? (What kinds of products do you seil? What are your store hours? Do you only have vegetarian customers? ) Have students work out five or six questions in small groups. Then have each group call one store. Let the students negotiate in German who will make the phone call. Also, give them some ideas what to say as an introduction on the phone. Have each group report back to the class. Web Page Rezept http: / / www.naturkost.de/ start/ rezept.htm Click on Was Kinder mögen. You will be presented with a ! ist of recipes for healthy food for children. Read one of the recipes (for example Arme Ritter) and discuss it with the students. What kind of food did they like as children? Do they have a favorite recipe? Divide students into small groups and ask them to write down one typical American recipe on overhead and share it with the class. Alternatively, for homework, have each student write his/ her own recipe and send it to you via e-mail. You collect the recipes and post them on the class Webpage for other students to read. Reading Text: Leben Vegetarier länger? http: / / www.natur.de/ hefte/ 199602/ vegetarier.html This is an interesting reading text not only because of the topical vocabulary but also for the arguments that are developed in the text. Clip the text into a word processing program and reduce it to a one-page reading without altering the authenticity of the text by merely omitting difficult or uninteresting sections. There is an interesting statement in the text that vegetarians may not take enough vitamin B 12. Discuss the use of vitamins with your students: who takes them, which ones, how often, and why. IFLlllL 28 ( 1999) 144 Test Vitamin Bl2 http: / / www.lifeline.de/ arzt/ stestsNitaminB 12/ test.html Franziska Lys Ask students to take the on-line "Vitamin B 12 test" to determine whether each of them has enough vitamin B 12 and report back to the class. Continue the discussion about the importance of vitamins. Do students get enough vitamins? There are other tests for various kinds ofvitamins available on the same web page (Vitamin B 1, B2, B6; Vitamin A, E, K, D) and even a test about a person's risk for coronary heart disease. This test can be found at: http: / / www.lifeline.de/ arzt/ stests/ Selbsttest/ N/ index.html. These health tests provide a Jot of interesting material for class interactions. Webpage Menuetto http: / / www.gastro-schweiz.ch/ BE/ Menuetto-Bern.htm Menuetto is a vegetarian restaurant in Berne, Switzerland, with a well-designed, colorful Web page including relevant cultural information; We chose this Web-site because it had tables and various illustrations to guide and assist in comprehension. For example, the restaurant lists two addresses, although there is a single Iocation. A map next to the address shows that the restaurant is actually Iocated at the corner of an intersection and that the side entrance is wheelchair-accessible. Other important cultural information on the Webpage that could lead to comparisons and contrasts are: • Dogs are allowed inside the restaurant. • There is a ! arge non-smoking section. • The restaurant can be reached by public transportation. • The bathroom facilities are wheelchair accessible. • The hours of the restaurant are listed (hot meals are served only at specific times). • Different payment methods are accepted including some credit cards not known in the US. The restaurant also lists an e-mail address. Write an e-mail with the class to the restaurant with specific questions. (For example: Do many people bring their dogs to dinner? Do you have a favorite dog story to teil? ) Webpage Culinarium: Suchen Sie Ihr Wunschrestaurant http: / / www.gastro-schweiz.ch/ kriterien.htm This site Jets students research their own restaurant based on various criteria (Betriebstyp, Lokalitäten, Angebot, Extras, geöffnet am[. .. ], wir akzeptieren). You can assign it as homework or work on it in the computer lab as a class project. Have the students report back to the class and describe their new restaurant. Choices of restaurants include: Pizzeria / italienisch, fastfood, vegetarisch, fernöstlich, Fischspezialitäten, etc. Many ofthese restaurants have Websites with menu selections listed. IFLl! llL 28 ( 1999)
