• • • • Teacher's notes, handouts and lesson plan

Technology Objectives for Module 1: Part 1 1. to introduce the students to a mailing program, either hotmail or yahoo. learn how to send mail and open account, reply, forward delete and take addresses learn the basic functions of a browser (back, forward, ) and basic mailing instructions by; a.viewing the homepage b.learning how to use a forum page

• • • • • 2. for the students to do a basic writing assignment in English
          • a.to compose and publish a descriptive introduction of themselves.
            b. to reply to enquiries and comments from other participating students

          3.for the preservice teachers to use the introductions to make a scanning exercise for the EFL students

          for part 2 press here

          Please try out the lesson before your students to catch any mistakes and anticipate problem areas

          A very informal lesson plan

          Unlike other classes which begin with the students and teacher introducing themselves, I would not do this, instead it will be the theme of the first module and all done through the internet. I think this is worth explaing to the students first and tell them that instead of talking about the course, they can see it on the internet and also learn and communicate with their fellow students.

          Have the homepage open and go through it with the students. This is where I forsee a problem - I have no idea about the computer or internet backgound of my students, I don't know if you are better off! So in my case I might have to help with "clicking" etc. and give extra mouse and windows training for those who are as yet not computer literate - but I'll do this in small groups later on in the lesson when everyone else is busy.

          I plan to get my students yahoo or hotmail accounts in the first lesson. Once you have your students accounts please email them to me so I can put everyone on the participants page.

          If you have the equipment to demonstrate what you want your students to do (clicking then pressing back or forward and generally learning their way around the homepage) great. If you aren't so lucky or the equipment is broken or in use by another teacher then print out the netscape page and go over the buttons with the students. This isn't a bad idea for all classes, the students will have it at home to revise for the next lesson. handout 1 (this is using windows 95 and netscape gold)

          They can find their names on the participants list and you can explain about an email address and what it must contain.@ ..what is edu and ac. what are the country codes

Writing Exercise Now comes the time to write! The students click on module 1 and follow the instructions to write their introduction. They have to press on the"'new" button to write their introduction. They are asked for information about themselves. It is vital here that they fill in their email addresses in the correct place. If you can demonstrate great, if not, print out the introduction page to explain the buttons. Here the students will need to use the "back" button to check they have included all the required information.

• • • • • Once the introductions begin to appear, the students can read and press on the email addresses to respond to as many classmates as possible. Explain that if you press on reply the whole world -or at least a few members of it - will see your reply and it is really personal. In addition to this of course, we have a hidden aggenda- we want the students to get mail so we can teach them how to check mail!!. If you are not the first class to start the project then you will be fortunate enough to have the other classes already on the screen. Write to as many as you feel you have time for (this is a module so you will be able to continue over at least 2 lessons).

         Scanning Exercise

        • The teacher trainees are asked to make an exercise for an EFL participant . The exercise should use the information in the introductions to form a reading scanning exercise. This should include 10 questions, for example: Which participants like to go to the movies? How many participants have more than 2 children etc.

          The teacher trainees will then be given a partner and will send the exercise by email to their partner with a carbon copy to me and you. Thank you to Dr. Valerie Jakar for suggesting this activity.

         Checking Mail

        • If you are using Netscape Mail then you might find this information useful :) for a more in depth description see here

          In order to receive mail via Netscape Mail you need to press on Window and choose Netscape Mail but you must also change the options of the computer. If this is your own computer you only do this once, but if many students use athe computer each one has tochange the options so that the computer will find their own mail. There are a number of items that have to be changed. Again I find it useful to print out the page for the students. I have made handouts on this for you, but if it takes too long to download just do it yourself (I can help anyone who needs it)

          The items that have to be changed are

          1.mail and new preferences

          and then choose a.servers. The important information is to get the students to add their POP name which is in fact their username. The other most important piece of information is where you are asked if you want to keep the messages on the server. If this is your own computer then you will not, but if the computer is not yours you must leave the messages on the server otherwise they will not be there if another user uses the computer. (If you click on the image you'll get a larger clearer image as a handout.)

          

          b.Identity

          again without the personal data of the user, email will not reach him. The info will also appear on all email s/he sends.

          

          Here everything has to be filled except for the signature file- we'll come back to this later on in the course.

          c. composition

          filling in our email address in the composition part of mail and servers automatically gives you a copy of everything your student writes. I have a problem with this, because they don't have to use the mail solely for the course!

          2. Network preferences

          This is optional to get the program loaded faster. Here you choose proxies and put in your server info.

          Now that everything is set up the students receive their mail. At this stage you can``let them enjoy reading and after a while stop them to explain basic mail functions reply, delete, next, previous and the address book fuctions. (click on picture for a clearer handout)

          

          This doesn't all have to be done at one time and is probably more effective to add a bit more information each lesson.

          The students should be strongly encouraged to check and relate to their mail between sessions and check the introduction page to see what's new and to write back to new particpants by pressing on their email address.

          At the end of the unit the students should get a summary of what they should have learned in the module. This is basically the objectives at the top of the page.

          • 

          part 2

          It's very hard for any program relying on technology and collaboration between classes to always run smoothly. There may be a difference in time between the 2 groups and connections may be down. For this reason, part 2 exists. It allows the classes to continue practicing the tools of the Internet and reading and writing through email.

          objectives:

          • to teach basic email functions, cc, reply. forward attatchments, quoting and including the original text
          • to teach and form address folders so that the students can just type a word in order to write to the whole group or just their class or discussion group.
          • In order to teach this in a meaningful way, I suggest doing a few stories around the class through email. A number of beginnings of different stories are sent by the teacher to different menbers of the class, they have to add 2 sentences to the story and send it on and so on. The students can make a correction in the text they receive.
          • For teaching trainees, this can be a more serious discussion when everyone relates to what has been written before, for example on how to give feedback through email - loop input!
          • In you have any suggestions to add to what to do when we can't work together or when one group is ahead of the other, please just send an email to Elaine

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    • • • copyright: E.Hoter
          graphics: M.Hoffman