Teaching and Learning Technology Resource| uwa | csd | tltr | altmodes |
DESCRIPTION OF INNOVATION:" Registers of Language" is made of sixty explanatory screens on the notion of the 5 registers of language used in French (from very formal to very informal, such as slang and "verlan") organized in 12 themes (work, love, greetings, children, money, men/women, abuses...), with hypertext links to: glossaries and pop-ups (synonyms, translations, paraphrases) still photographs and film extracts (complete with transcripts) songs (complete with transcripts) exercises (multiple choice questionnaires, gap filling,"hangman", questions of comprehension...) websites (on song writers, on films, on slang) quiz REASONS FOR DEVELOPMENT/INTRODUCTION OF THE INNOVATION:Multimedia material is now available for our 1st and 2nd year French students but not for advanced and specialist levels (3rd year and Honours students). A need for multimedia material was felt for such levels. I chose to apply multimedia technology to a complex - and at times embarrassing! - topic which is already taught by conventional means, but not very effectively due to its scope and contextual nature, the notion of Registers of Language. TEACHING/LEARNING AIMS:
DESIGN PRINCIPLES:Adaptation to multi-level classes and permanent acquisition of knowledge were the key objectives behind the innovation. In groups where language skills vary greatly across students, computer programmes allow students to work at their own level, listen to the sources, go over the explanations and the exercises as many times as their level of understanding and their performances require, which is impossible in a traditional classroom situation. The gathering and digitalizing of source material allow for self-paced navigation, fun and active learning as "doing things" (if only pressing keys) to access knowledge is said to make that knowledge more permanent. USE:"Registers of language" is designed to be used for two tutorial sessions with minimal teacher supervision, followed by tests. Navigating through the whole of the programme (which is still not complete) would however take much longer and students will be encouraged to do so in their own time. Although the programme is designed to be integrated in our advanced and specialist courses, it certainly can be used in other situations,and as an extra resource. Dependent on access to StoryTime "Registers of Language" would certainly be usable by other teaching institutions. STUDENT SUPPORT:The multimedia lab is booked for the two sessions but students can access the terminals at any other time. ASSESSMENT:Assessment will be done through quiz, directly on computer terminals. . EVALUATION:A questionnaire was distributed to 16 third-year students to appraise their use of, interest in, and appreciation of the programme's quality. All students stressed how easy "Registers of Language" was to use, even the least familiar with computers. They were so engrossed that they stayed on after the trial run to keep exploring. Finally there were a lot of giggles during the whole session as they all loved the film clips and songs in particular, and praised the relevance of the material to the exercises. EFFECTIVENESS:When the questionnaires have been processed I will be able to assess the effectiveness of "Registers of language". HINDRANCES TO DEVELOPING INNOVATION:Not applicable at all as the Faculty of Arts Multimedia Centre staff as well as my departmental convenor were very much in favour of such a programme being developed. The only "hindrance" is a cognitive nature. Developing a multimedia project relies on breaking old mental habits and lateral thinking, if only in order to organize in a non-linear fashion material. The choice of appropriate material is essential as it has to be original and entertaining, even more so than in a classroom. Nothing less than excellent will appeal to the students who are now used to finished multimedia products such as the polished, attractive, fun (and expensive...) CD-ROMs and websites... ENABLERS TO DEVELOPING INNOVATION:After being invited to a few workshops to learn what an authoring shell was and how to make use of it, I had several individual meetings with John Kinder and Mike Fardon of the Multemedia centre. The "shell" was actually being developed as we talked in order to create a programme that would truly answer the needs of Language teaching. What helped was also to get acquainted with a lot of other multimedia material, CD-ROMS and Websites in order to get ideas and bring my own project to the standard required. COST/BENEFITS:Developping a multimedia programme is very, very time-consuming as it involves learning to use the authoring shell, becoming aware of existing designs and inventing your own (with a lot of false starts), collecting material, doing transcripts, devising imaginative, and effective feedbacks and links. I have not counted my time! And quality is definitely correlated with time spent. In the initial, technical stage the Faculty of Arts Multimedia Centre staff assisted a lot, but in the end the choice of topics, organization and material were all mine. After working on the programme for about one semester about 5 to 10 hours a week (at a guess), I was appointed a research assistant (.12 appointment) for the second semester 1997 which has allowed me to bring the programme to a quasi-workable, viable stage. The investment was worth it as I have learned a lot about innovative presentation of essential language questions. I would certainly be prepared to make the same investment in time in the future (although better funding and teaching relief would be nice). LESSONS LEARNT:
MARKETING:I believe "Registers of language" could be a valuable tool for other institutions teaching French and could be easily marketed. The biggest hurdle is copyright of resource material which is not an issue at this stage of limited dissemination. It will become slightly problematic when we try and put "Registers of language" on the WWW. |
ContributorsThe following staff have been active in developing teaching and learning technology for use with students at this university. They are not necessarily all 'experts' in the use of technology but are prepared to provide incidental advice to others, drawing on their practical experiences in developing teaching and learning materials
|
||
|
|||
