Creating interactive language tasks for the web

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Creating interactive language tasks for the web

• Claire McAvinia
• c.mcavinia_at_ucl.ac.uk
• University College London

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In the beginning..

• Internet is not only the WWW
• web began as a hypertext system
• potential to add other kinds of content
• images, sound, video
• interactive content..
• ..more complex scripting!

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What is interactivity?

• May mean different things to different people
• A basic definition
• Interactivity is the action between the computer
  programme and the user. Whether it is clicking on
  a web link or playing a computer game, it is
  interactive. Interactivity differentiates the Web
  from the one-way communication of printed media,
  television and radio. (BBC Webwise)

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Anatomy of the webpage - 1

• Interactive pages might include
• weblinks
• forms or quizzes
• search mechanism linked to database
• simulations
• full applications e.g. games

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Anatomy of the webpage - 2
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Anatomy of a webpage - 3
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How do I learn the code?

• you dont need to!
• a range of software can generate scripts (CGI,
  Javascript)
• these embed interactive functions and/or link to
  external applications
• more important question what are you going to
  use it for?
• what kind of exercise will you make, and will it
  help your students?

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Planning

• the VDML example deciding on task-based,
  communicative, learner-centred, authentic
  exercises
• then we looked for some technology to help
• Netscape Composer, Dreamweaver
• HotPotatoes
• drag and drop tools

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Five Minute Planning

• what would you like to do?

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Tools - HotPotatoes

• Six packages
• JCloze to create gap-filling exercises
• JMix to make sentence-ordering exercises
• JBC to make multiple-choice questions
• JCross to make a crossword with reading text
• JMatch a word matching exercise
• JQuiz a short answer quiz

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Practical Session

• 20-25 minutes
• working through the materials on the webpage we
  have opened
• no need to rush through these
• then discussion of highlights and lowlights