Sample Web Projects Reading week 3

Warschauer, M., Shetzer, H., & Meloni, C. F. (2000). Internet for English teaching: TESOL Alexandria, VA. [Chapter 7]

Siemens, G. (2004). Learning management systems: the wrong place to start learning. Retrieved November, 2006, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/lms.htm


Way back in 1994 I used to teach in Thailand in BKK (OK BKK as everybody knows is the flight code for Bangkok). I was playing around with a desktop publisher where you made a picture and then wrote about it. My supervisor noticed this and wondered about using it with her student who, like many Thais, did not like writing. The student readily made a picture and then to the amazement of her teacher proceeded to write about it. In Thailand, if it is not fun then the students young and old will not do it. So this girl found it was fun to write about her picture.

Software and hardware have improved a lot since then.

Chapter 7 is a little bit dated as the articles seem to be dated in the late 1990s. I think computers have come a long way since then and the Internet is far more commonplace than it was back then. The net result will be that students are far more familiar with computers and almost all students in Hong Kong will have Internet access in their homes.

Briefly, various schools were using computers and the Internet to broaden the students exposure to English. This was done by e mail exchange with students in native English speaking countries. Native English speaking countries could also include the UK, NZ, Australia, Canada, Ireland and some people in South Africa. Home pages were written, virtual classrooms were started, projects were undertaken, all in English. All of this helps students by increasing their exposure to English. It broadens their horizons, this would apply both ways. Sometimes American students' knowledge of world affairs is appalling. Search engines enable netizens to find out about all sorts of things, hopefully this research will be done in English.

The university project used the Internet to follow follow stocks, http://www.hangseng.com is a web site that gives up to the minute stock prices. Basic stock vocab was introduced to aid the students. They then went on to design their own web sites. A Japanese university used the Internet so the students would glean the required information and learn English at the same time. The overseas holiday project sounded interesting, students would use the Internet to gather information about the other country. The online writing course is self explanatory.
Other courses included writing CVs and business letters and gaining much authentic material.
The environmental project from Finland had students trying to solve the world's ills by working as an international team using e mail to find solutions to environmental issues.

The bottom line is the Internet has made international communications much easier and cheaper. Programmes such as SKYPE has made oral communication even easier. I would suggest that mainland students open a SKYPE account here in Hong Kong as it is a bit more secure here. http://www.skype.com/intl/en/ Conference calls are possible with SKYPE. SKYPE also permits the transfer of rather large programmes. Further SKYPE to SKYPE calls are the right price as well !