The target group we had consisted of typical mid-career language teachers, ie, well-versed in didactics, and thinking they knew about using Word. Most had Internet access, either home- or office-based, but used it very little.
I proposed to revise
the capabilities of Word through building small web-based learning scenarios
that they would prepare for their students to use in self-learning mode. Then
these tools they would have designed —which of course they could bring home to
their respective institutions— we would make available on the QuickPlace
platform.
This is how I set about the workshop:
Training Phase One
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The
principle was for our colleagues to build a microportal, i.e.,
a Word file on which they would
list a number of sites for their students to explore, as well as a whole
didactic environment to check out and consolidate whatever acquisitions
learners had made during their web trip.
But that required that they first searched for and validated the websites they could send their students to. So they needed some Web Literacy, which I suggested they explore through the site I built to that effect for the European Center for Modern Languages. This they could do directly from home, off the course itself, a convenient arrangement with such a tight schedule. |
Training Phase Three
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Next, my colleagues were to set up their exploration Word file on the QuickPlace platform (see n°1, folder teacher input to the left). I explained how they could moderate the platform forum, giving access to their students to this area. And of course, see n°2, students were supposed to download the Word working form, document it and upload it again to the platform for their teacher to correct it. |
| We
only had time to upload my colleagues' microportals. There was one in Spanish, one in
German,
another in German
and one in English.
(I was told later that this approach to web contents was very close to
what is done with Webquests,
an area explored by our Dutch colleague Marianne Driessen.) We ran out of time, obviously, and could not explore all the capabilities of the platform. |
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