Graham Davies

I recently did a bit of thinking about the National Curriculum requirement in England whereby ICT has to be applied across the curriculum: “As a general requirement, teachers should provide pupils with opportunities to apply and develop their ICT capability in all subjects (except physical education and the non-core foundation subjects at key stage 1). For each subject, these translate into specific, statutory requirements to use ICT in subject teaching.” http://www.ncaction.org.uk/subjects/ict/inother.htm Why? What is so special about ICT? It seems to me that all teachers have been conned into doing the work of the ICT department. Sure, teachers of foreign languages find the use of generic software applications such as word-processors extremely useful in teaching foreign languages – see Module 1.3 at the ICT4LT website for examples – but how much time do you spend showing the kids how to open and close a file and save it correctly? This is surely the job of the ICT department. Let’s change the wording of the above statement at the National Curriculum site: “As a general requirement, teachers should provide pupils with opportunities to apply and develop their MFL capability in all subjects. For each subject, these translate into specific, statutory requirements to use MFL in subject teaching.” Yes, MFL across the curriculum! History teachers can teach about the French Revolution in French, geography teachers can teach about the ecology of South America in Spanish, etc. A daft idea? No, this is what happens in bilingual schools all over the world. And why exclude physical education? (See the original statement above.) Boys should be encouraged to talk about football in French, for example, which will be of great help when they are following their team in France – and Spanish might be useful for the occasional gifted pupil that turns professional and is bought by Real Madrid. (Have you noticed the quality of the English of some of the Czech players in Euro 2004?)

Jim write: Our eLC sales have picked up dramatically in June - as schools try to get rid of their eLC funding before the end of the school year. I have indentified just two schools that found our business (Camsoft) via Curriculum Online - i.e. since March 2003. The word 'nightmare' is an understatement.

I like the Wayback Machine too. Websites have a habit of disappearing or moving, and it's handy to have such an archive site. I maintain around 1000 links at the ICT4LT site and over 300 at my personal website. Around 3%-5% of these links disappear or move each month. It's a phenomenon known as 'linkrot', and it's getting worse. Apparently, around 50% of links currently listed on the Web are dead. I can't remember where I read this figure, but the figure of 28.5% was quoted at the All Things Web site back in 1999: http://www.pantos.org/atw/35654.html

David writes: I know the site well. I'm pleased to see that in the MFL section they list my own Fun with Texts package, which is currently used in just over 3000 secondary schools in the UK.

I have noticed a number of postings from teachers to the Education Forum – and to other discussion lists to which I subscribe – that indicate teachers' lack of awareness about copyright, especially copyright on the Web. One recent posting that I read contained an attachment that appeared to contain copyright material – which is highly inadvisable in a public forum like this, as you are open to everyone’s gaze, including copyright bounty hunters. The copyright bounty hunter is a new emerging profession. Such people use special software to scan the Web to look for breaches of copyright and then they report breaches to the copyright owners in return for a fee. Some copyright bounty hunters just do it out of revenge or spite, like the teacher who reported a colleague who was promoted over his head and like the parent who shopped my local school to the Federation Against Software Theft because the school was sending kids home with floppy disks containing copies of my software. The parent was a bit stupid, however, as the school had bought a licence from me that entitled them to make student copies of my software - which the parent could have checked with me first. Other forum members have suggested setting up resources sites containing texts, pictures, audio files, etc. This is OK as long as you don’t post copyright materials on such sites – and this includes materials that you have gleaned from other websites. There are several guidance documents on copyright at BECTA’s ICT Advice site – just do a search of the site using the keyword “coypright”: http://www.ictadvice.org.uk I maintain a resources site myself, ICT4LT (ICT for Language Teachers). I am careful about what I post at the site, especially materials sent in by teachers, and I have produced a page of guidelines on copyright: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_copyright.htm

I would add Melvyn Bragg's book, The Adventure of English, a spin-off from his TV series of the same name. The TV series featured speakers of Gullah, an Afro-American Vernacular English (AAVE) language - there's a small section on it in the book. Jive is an example of an AAVE language, which is associated strongly with jazz and blues musicians, e.g. Cab Calloway. See: http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/gullah.html http://www.arches.uga.edu/~bryan/AAVE/ http://www.cabcalloway.cc/jive_dictionary.htm

Jennifer, I just looked at your RTF document. You appear to be on very dodgy ground!

Careful! Make sure you abide by copyright. 1. If you transcribe something that is broadcast publicly, e.g. over radio or TV, you cannot disseminate it without getting the broadcast copyright owner's permission. It does not matter whether you offer the material for free or charge for it; copyright always applies. 2. If you make your own recordings, e.g. unscripted conversations with colleagues and/or students, with the intention of disseminating them, make sure that each participant signs a copyright waiver, including a reference to the dissemination of transcripts. I write from years of experience as former director of a language centre. See the guidelines on copyright that I have written at the ICT4LT site: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_copyright.htm Initially the owner of copyright in the words of a recording is the speaker, while the copyright in the recording belongs to the person(s) or organisation(s) which arranged for the recording to be made, e.g. the BBC. Copyright in written transcripts of interviews, made either verbatim or subsequently from recordings, should be regarded as belonging to the owner of the copyright in the words transcribed. Basically, you can make transcripts of other people’s recordings for your own use, but you may not disseminate them without their permission. Dissemination via email or via a public website constitutes dissemination. See: http://www.oralhistory.org.uk/ethics/ There are some concessions for education, which I refer to in my document at the ICT4LT site.

The word you are looking for is "aptronym" or "aptonym" (n.) = "A name that matches its owner's occupation or character, often in a humorous or ironic way." Cf. "aptronymic" or "aptonymic" (adj.). Scrooge probably derives from the 18th century sense of the word "screw", which meant a miserly person. Try doing a Web search on onomastics (the study of names) in Dickens' works. How about these? Sweedlepipe, Honeythunder, Bumble, Pumblechook, Podsnap, Gradgrind, Pickwick. I once met a guy called Richard Head. Very appropriate - he was one! And then there is Susan Allcock, a BBC Radio 5 reporter who once covered the news about the possible costs of the drug Viagra to Britain's National Health service. I once saw a barber's shop in Norway owned by "Finn Madshaven".

REvIEW Project: Research and Evaluation of Interactive Electronic Whiteboards, University of Hull in collaboration with Promethean: http://www.thereviewproject.org. Supported by NESTA FutureLab: http://www.nestafuturelab.org

Tony makes some very important points in his contribution to this discussion – and thanks, Tony, for supporting my view on a couple of issues. The National Curriculum in England is a straitjacket. Note England: teachers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not so restricted. This may explain why some of the most imaginative ICT work in my subject area, Modern Foreign Languages (MFL), is being done in other parts of the UK, e.g. The Partners in Excellence initiative in Scotland: http://www.pie.org.uk – Mark Pentleton does some great things with video in teaching MFL. Some of his ideas could be adapted teaching English as one’s Mother Tongue. Actually, many ideas that are well established in MFL could be adapted to teaching English as one’s Mother Tongue, for example the use of concordancing software, which plays an important role in the constructivist approach to language teaching - see Module 2.4 at the ICT4LT website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-4.htm As a result of our restictive National Curriculum in MFL incredibly isolated in England and only just beginning to fall into step with the rest of Europe in adopting the Common European Framework for Languages. See: http://www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural_Co-operati...Language_Policy There is an international professional association devoted to the promotion of language teaching and learning with new technologies, namely EUROCALL, which was initiated in 1986! EUROCALL’s HQ is now in Ireland. See: http://www.eurocall-languages.org There is even a worldwide association devoted to language teaching and learning with new technologies, namely WorldCALL, which held its inaugural conference in Melbourne in 1998. See: http://www.worldcall.org WorldCALL’s HQ will shortly be established at Griffith University, Australia. For some imaginative uses of ICT in MFL see the case studies in the report that I helped to produce to the European Commission: The Impact of Information and Communications Technologies on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and on the Role of Teachers of Foreign Languages (2003). This is a comprehensive report commissioned by the EC Directorate General of Education and Culture, which can be downloaded in PDF or Word format from the ICC website: http://www.icc-europe.com - click on "Report on ICT in FLL". One point that needs to be made in teaching MFL. Tony talks about the move "towards processing and problem solving". Yes, that's possible in MFL too, especially at the higher levels, but learning a foreign language also requires an enormous amount of committing content to memory, e.g. a basic vocab of 3000 words - although I believe our GCSE exams only require around 1500 words, which is barely adequate for communication. On top of this there are the rules of grammar which have to be internalised - i.e. rather than just learned - so that they can be applied automatically. This is why we stress practice in MFL - rather like practising a musical instrument or taking a corner kick in football. For example, ICT can help kids practise their listening and speaking skills. In the classroom they never get enough practice.

Brinn’s cry from the heart highlights a good deal of what has gone wrong with ICT training in this country – and in most other countries too in my experience. The New Opportunities Funding (NOF) scheme that was set up in the UK in 1999 aimed to make every classroom teacher ICT-literate. On the whole it was a failure, a terrible waste public funding. An OFSTED report contained the following damning statement: “NOF training remains unsatisfactory in its overall effect. Training in around six out of every ten secondary schools and half the primaries has so far failed to tackle adequately those issues relating to the quality of ICT use in classrooms. Training materials for specific subjects at secondary level have often failed to excite teachers. In many secondary schools, the programme has simply ground to a halt.” NOF was failure because the most of the agencies appointed to deliver the ICT training just delivered generic training in ICT instead of subject-specific training. Only three training agencies were subject specialists: MFL, Science and History. I worked for the NOF MFL agency (CILT) on a couple of occasions. CILT knew what it was doing, i.e. it knew how to address the ICT needs of teachers of modern foreign languages – and the feedback from its trainees was generally positive. I also worked for another NOF agency that aimed to cover the whole of the curriculum. It wasn’t working too well, and then right at the end of the NOF funding period a number of subject specialists, including myself, were called by the agency in to pick up the loose threads. Once the subject specialists came in, everything began to fall into place and the teachers who received the training were largely satisfied. I would not attempt to teach ICT to a History, Graphic Design or Maths teacher. I don’t know enough about the pedagogy and methodology associated with these subjects to be able to do a proper job. But I do understand the needs of MFL teachers as I taught MFL for 25 years, branching out into ICT early on in my career. If I needed help on software for teaching Graphic Design the last person I would ask would be an ICT specialist. I would ask a Graphic Design teacher first, a professional Graphic Designer second – and then I might consider talking to an ICT specialist. As for just directing teachers to our websites in response to a request for information, yes, it is true that we do that. I refer MFL teachers to the ICT4LT website, which is the largest ICT training resources site for MFL teachers anywhere on the Web. The site materials were written by language teachers for language teachers, with the help of EC funding. The materials are pedagogy-driven not technology-driven. ICT4LT is a popular website, currently attracting over 700 hits per day: http://www.ict4lt.org

Live events are synchronous events, i.e. requiring the participants to be present for the event at the same time. A live event can take place over the Internet using an audio- or a videoconferencing system. ILT is Information and Learning Technology. PBL is Problem Based Learning.

Croatia will be tough opponents for England. Rooney was impressive against Switzerland, but his aggressive play ealier on in the game made me wonder how long it would be before he gave away a penalty.

It's very difficult to indicate in writing that one is not being offensive. There are many words that look offensive on paper but are harmless when said in the right context and with the right intonation. A friend of mine who taught English as a Foreign Language to students studying at a British university was approached by students from Asia concerning the "bad language" used in lectures given by one of the staff in the Civil Engineering department. My friend knew the lecturer well - who was a nice guy, born in Ireland, and not known to use "bad language" in the lecture theatre. So my friend listened in to a couple of his lectures. All became clear once the "bad language" was put in context: "Take gravel - gravel is bloody marvellous stuff..." "Always wear a hard-hat on site, as a bloody great load of bricks could fall on your head at any time..." When I visited Australia I was amused by the varying uses of the word "bastard", from offensive, as in "rotten bastard" or "Pommie bastard", to highest praise, as in "he's a hell of a good bastard" and "a good-bastard acquaintance of mine".

I remember such competitions well. I taught at a secondary school in the late 60s /early 70s. The teacher who taught dressmaking got her pupils to make ties out of leftover bits of material. The ties were then sold to male staff to generate a bit of income for the teacher's department (textiles). Many of the male staff, including myself, sported really outrageous flowery ties that we bought from the textiles department.

There has been a lot of research on gender and language, sexism and language, etc. I worked regularly in Hungary from 1991 to 1996, which was an interesting period as Hungary was opening up to new ideas following the fall of the Berlin Wall. I recall a Californian feminist touring the country and lecturing on gender and language, e.g. pointing out that one should always avoid gender bias in writing, being careful to say 'he/she' and avoid words such as 'actress'. The Hungarians were a bit puzzled, however, as their language does not use gender markers in the same way as other European languages. Hungarian has one word for the third person pronoun, which can mean 'he' or 'she', and gender is only marked when there is likely to be confusion.

Andy Walker writes (in the section headed Government Initiatives / E-learning Credits): Not in my subject area - Modern Foreign Languages (MFL). There are, however, a few good teacher-produced sites around, some of which I list on my "Favourite Websites" page: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/websites.htm Most teacher-produced sites for MFL consist of unexciting materials in downloadable PowerPoint or Word format - i.e. the sort of materials that someone with a bit of knowledge of ICT and the relevant applications can knock up in an afternoon - see my training materials at: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/lspinset.htm The above materials describe the process of producing a simple PowerPoint or Word presentation for MFL. Some of the teacher-produced materials that I have seen on the Web are in blatant breach of copyright, including large chunks of text lifted directly from coursebooks and photographs that I recognise from a variety of sources. Developing good quality, interactive MFL materials requires a level of expertise that the average MFL teacher does not have. For example, you need to be able to write 100% accurate texts in the foreign language or have access (particularly at the higher levels) to copyright-free authentic texts. In addition, you have to be capable of producing high-quality sound recordings using native speakers’ voices. I worked on German Steps for the BBC, and I know just how much effort went into producing this introductory course of 25 lessons. The sound recording quality is excellent, and the course materials are enhanced with sequenced still photographs shot on location in Berlin – language teachers often require authentic pictures of life in the target language country or, even better, video clips. The BBC ducked out of producing video clips for German Steps, mainly because they do not work well in a Web environment, where most of the users are accessing the materials via a 56K modem - the BBC's target audience is mainly home users. I think the German Steps course looks good. If you want a taster course in German, try it! It's at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/lj Web materials for MFL have one important drawback. It is difficult to produce interactive materials in a Web environment that include listen / respond / playback activities. These are vital for language learners so that they can hear what they sound like. Since the 1960s, when the Audio Active Comparative (AAC) tape recorder was invented, language teachers have been using these types of exercises, e.g. for pronunciation practice, role-plays etc. Even the BBC could not produce such exercises in a Web environment, with the result that in German Steps the learner is invited to talk to the screen without making a recording and playing it back. Exercises of the listen / respond / playback variety are commonplace in CD-ROM-based and DVD-ROM-based materials, e.g. those produced by Eurotalk, Auralog and many other commercial companies. The Web is therefore not the panacea for learners of foreign languages. For examples of what can be done in a Web environment see LeLoup J. & Ponterio R. (2003) "Interactive and multimedia techniques in online language lessons: a sampler", Language Learning and Technology 7, 3: http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num3/net/default.html. It's an interesting collection of Web-based materials, but almost everything illustrated here could be implemented better and with more spontaneous interaction in an offline environment, e.g. on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. Furthermore, you need to ensure that you have installed up-to-date plug-ins, that you have broadband access and can access the sites at a quiet time of day as they may become congested at peak times.

Andy writes: Not in my subject area - Modern Foreign Languages (MFL). There are, however, a few good teacher-produced sites around, some of which I list on my "Favourite Websites" page: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/websites.htm Most teacher-produced sites for MFL, however, consist of unexciting materials in downloadable PowerPoint or Word format - i.e. the sort of materials that someone with a bit of knowledge of ICT and the relevant applications can knock up in an afternoon - see my training materials at: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/lspinset.htm The above materials describe the process of producing a simple PowerPoint or Word prsentation for MFL. Some of the teacher-produced materials that I have seen on the Web are in blatant breach of copyright, including large chunks of text lifted directly from coursebooks and photographs that I recognise from a variety of sources. Developing good quality, interactive MFL materials requires a level of expertise that the average MFL teacher does not have. For example, you need to be able to write 100% accurate texts in the foreign language or have access (particularly at the higher levels) to copyright-free authentic texts. In addition, you have to be capable of producing high-quality sound recordings using native speakers’ voices. I worked on German Steps for the BBC, and I know just how much effort went into producing this introductory course of 25 lessons. The sound recording quality is excellent, and the course materials are enhanced with sequenced still photographs shot on location in Berlin – language teachers often require authentic pictures of life in the target language country or, even better, video clips. The BBC ducked out of producing video clips for German Steps, mainly because they do not work well in a Web environment, where most of the users are accessing the materials via a 56K modem - the BBC's target audience is mainly home users. I think the German Steps course looks good. If you want a taster course in German, try it! It's at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/lj Web materials for MFL have one important drawback. It is difficult to produce interactive materials in a Web environment that include listen / respond / playback activities. These are vital for language learners so that they can hear what they sound like. Since the 1960s, when the Audio Active Comparative (AAC) tape recorder was invented, language teachers have been using these types of exercises, e.g. for pronunciation practice, role-plays etc. Even the BBC could not produce such exercises in a Web environment, with the result that in German Steps the learner is invited to talk to the screen without making a recording and playing it back. Exercises of the listen / respond / playback variety are commonplace in CD-ROM-based and DVD-ROM-based materials, e.g. those produced by Eurotalk, Auralog and many other commercial companies. The Web is therefore not the panacea for learners of foreign languages. I am posting this in the MFL section too.

Andy writes: My ties are pretty good at soaking up soup at the dinner table.

John writes: Would that I could afford that luxury! When the COL initiative was launched I wanted nothing to do with it, as I could see that it was corrupt and would place unacceptable demands on my time. However, my two business partners (my wife and daughter) depend on income from our educational software development and retailing business, and I was forced to register with COL so that schools could buy our “approved” products. Ignoring COL almost forced our business into bankruptcy as schools simply stopped buying from us. Many of the products that we retail are still not registered, however. We specialise in MFL software, a good deal of which (not surprisingly) comes from abroad, and most foreign companies would not even understand what COL is all about, let alone registering their products with the arcane “tagging tool” that has been provided for that purpose. So much for freedom of choice for MFL teachers! Teachers in England please note: COL only applies to state schools in England. Your Celtic colleagues and colleagues in independent schools are treated differently...

I slop around at home in jeans and a teeshirt most days - I work mainly from home. I used to hate wearing a tie on hot summer days when I was at school, both as a student and as a teacher. I can't see any point in wearing a tie when the weather is hot. Now I quite enjoy dressing up in a suit and wearing a tie on formal occasions. I suppose it has some novelty value now, and it's my personal choice. I get a bit cross, however, about stupid dress codes. I was barred from entering a pub on one occasion because I was wearing trainers. On another occasion a jobsworth at a local pay-and-play golf centre took exception to my turning up in a polo neck shirt instead of what he called a "collared shirt". I pointed out that a polo neck shirt does actually have a collar and that if this was the golf centre's policy then they were acting above their station, as even Wentworth Golf Club allows gentlemen to wear a polo neck shirt in the formal dining room - although a jacket is required. The jobsworth - reluctantly - allowed me to play.

John writes: There is growing evidence that the “sound-bites” culture is associated with an unwillingness to read continuous text – and increased illiteracy among young people. People read around 25% more slowly from the computer screen than from the printed page. They also tend to skim-read. There is also some evidence that people do not retain text read from the screen as well as text read from the printed page. There has been a good deal of research to confirm this. See especially Jakob Nielsen’s website: http://www.useit.com One of the texts I posted recently looks “long” on the screen, but I did a word count and it amounted to just under 400 words. My reading speed from the printed page is around 500-600 words per minute, which is above the average. Most university-educated people read at around 250–350 words per minute. Reading a text of 400 words is therefore no great imposition.

I can understand Brinn’s frustration with this discussion. In common with most other teachers he needs to know first and foremost how much money he has to spend on software and online services. But teachers at grass roots level also need to understand what is going on behind the scenes, and if they don’t like it they should complain about it. My major criticism of Curriculum Online is the way in which the government is controlling the eLC funding process by setting up a complex labour-intensive scheme whereby suppliers and retailers have to register their products, thereby supposedly ensuring quality control. This is blatantly dishonest. There is little quality control, and the agencies chosen to ensure the quality control of the products listed at the Curriculum Online website are (a) not disinterested parties and ( charge exorbitant fees for their services, thereby cutting out small independent software developers and suppliers. Furthermore, the maintenance of the Curriculum Online website is costing a bomb – money which could be better spent on things that teachers really need. Why doesn’t the government just hand over the money to the schools and let them decide for themselves what they want to spend it on?

Brinn asks: I didn’t say that. I said “all of my time”. I have spent most of my life (from 1968 to 1993) as a full-time teacher in secondary and in higher education. From 1985 I spent at least half my time training other teachers, from all sectors of education to use ICT. I am now semi-retired and spend most of my life writing materials for language teachers and training language teachers in ICT. When I relax I like to get away from teachers - no offence meant. See the ICT4LT training materials site that I maintain: http://www.ict4lt.org See my CV: http://wwwcamsoftpartners.co.uk/cvgd.htm Yes, you are right in pointing out that misunderstandings often arise in email correspondence because of the lack of paralinguistic factors. Smileys and other “emoticons” are supposed to help, but they don’t always work. See: http://www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/emoticons/ “Netiquette” is one of the points that I refer to in my ICT4LT training materials in Module 1.5, Section 14.1.4: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm Basically, I don’t know how to say “bollocks” in an email without causing offence.