Effective Use of IT for English Learning and Teaching in Primary Schools Paul McMahon International Teacher

Why are we considering ICT for learning? If our kids are doing well on test scores… And our economy is strong… And parents and kids seem to want us to focus on the bookwork… Why should we change?

Friedman’s Flatteners –The Fall of the Wall and the Waging of the Windows –The Dawn of Connectivity: When Webs were No Longer for Spiders –Work Flow Software: Don’t Mind the Difference and the Distance –Uploading: Redefining the Multi-Colored Post-Its –Etc.

One Laptop Per Child?

Do you market your school as being conservative, traditional and the place for old- fashioned learning??

Natives and Immigrants Digital Native LearnersDigital Immigrant Teachers Prefer receiving information quickly from multiple multimedia sources. Prefer slow and controlled release of information from limited sources. Prefer parallel processing and multitasking.Prefer singular processing and single or limited tasking. Prefer processing pictures, sounds and video before text. Prefer to provide text before pictures, sounds and video. Prefer random access to hyperlinked multimedia information. Prefer to provide information linearly, logically and sequentially. Prefer to interact/network simultaneously with many others. Prefer students to work independently rather than network and interact. Prefer to learn “just-in-time.”Prefer to teach “just-in-case” (it’s on the exam). Prefer instant gratification and instant rewards.Prefer deferred gratification and deferred rewards. Prefer learning that is relevant, instantly useful and fun. Prefer to teach to the curriculum guide and standardized tests. *Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj, The InfoSavvy Group, February 2003

What’s wrong with just turning out a group of kids with the same solid learning that their parent’s generation had?

It requires more than a “bolt on”

Online Interactives There are a large number of these available free online. Examples include: ndex.shtml (Simple sounds games) ndex.shtml (Grammar) game.htm# (words and sentences) game.htm# es/index.shtml (words and sentences) es/index.shtml Are these useful in class/out of class?

Front of Class Interaction There is research being produced, especially from the UK that suggests Interactive Whiteboards engage more learners by getting them to the front of the class doing things that all can see.

The Ability to Edit Not Just Use Making things happen at the front of the room where the learners attention is focused is what most teachers want to be able to do. You can do this to a certain extent with a wireless mouse and keyboard. A tablet PC and wireless projector is also good but costly and not easy to pass to students.

IWBs and Other Front of Room Devices Boards are good but costly and not portable. Many cheap alternatives on the market. Need to make sure that you have software that you can download/share resources with.

Easiteach A presentation/editor for Whole- Class teaching that can be used on both platforms and every presentation device. Very easy to use Developed using teacher input

Download and Modify A great deal of content available for Easiteach both for sale and free. ources_results.aspx?prod=137&type= 2http:// ources_results.aspx?prod=137&type= 2

Collaboration Tools non-synchronous exchange Collaborative Projects ssroom+Wikis ssroom+Wikis Voice exchange

Synchronous Collaboration Tools Conversations Full classroom sharing tools Podcasting dcasts/index.html dcasts/index.html

Hands On Use Easiteach trial to create learning activities (see handout) Go to WikiSpaces to create a WIKI or add comments to my sample WIKI

More Hands On Use the trial Podium software on the computers to do 3 of the 5 P’s Sign up for an account with ePals to join in with other schools doing language exchanges. If able, webconference with Sydney, Australia for a while! Ask Questions and Enjoy!

Thank You! Paul McMahon Learning Solutions Asia Phone: w m PowerPoint: er/teacher979 er/teacher979