Internet Tasks and Projects in Ethnic Schools

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Internet Tasks and Projects in Ethnic Schools

• Robert Debski
• The University of Melbourne
• rdebski_at_unimelb.edu.au

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Aims

• To explain how the Internet can be used to
  implement tasb and project-based learning
• To provide a linguistic and pedagogical rationale
  for Internet-based tasks and projects (ethnic
  education, VELS)
• To provide examples of tasks and projects (Polish
  Saturday School in Albion - 2006, 2007)
• Discuss the process and outcomes

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WebQuests

• Tasks activities that are primarily focused on
  meaning and use of language in context. Any
  learning of language form that takes place while
  completing a task is incidental. In contrast, an
  exercise usually focuses on form and requires
  students to function as learners, rather than
  language users (Ellis, 2003).
• WebQuests are tasks that utilize the Web as a
  resource, repository of information and
  communication medium. Tasks can be completed at
  school or at home.

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WebQuest

• Travel itinerary
• Imagine that you are about to travel to Poland
  on a school trip and your teachers have asked you
  to plan the trip. Use the Internet as a resource.
  Visit the official Websites of the cities that
  you would like to visit. Decide how you are going
  to travel around Poland and how much this is
  going to cost you. Working in small groups,
  develop a complete travel itinerary for your
  school trip to Poland. Each group will present
  their itinerary and the best one will be awarded.

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WebQuest
(http//webquest.org/)

• Templates Travel plan, travel account, time
  capsule, historical story, simulated diary,
  commemorative, alternative story, persuasive
  message

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WebQuest - Advice

• Pick something that
• Makes good use of the Web
• Is associated with one or more curriculum
  standards
• Replaces a lesson you are not happy with
• Requires understanding (synthesis, analysis,
  evaluation, etc.), not just remembering

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Projects

• A project is an activity usually occupying a term
  of study. The outcome of a good project is of
  value to some set of people somewhere.
• Agency - the extent to which a project empowers
  learners to impact real-life individuals and/or
  communities (a tool for entering a speech
  community)
• Uniqueness - knowing how to develop a project
  idea with your students is a skill
• Course as invention - the rigorous application of
  curriculum gives way to the art of managing the
  learning process (the course is in the process of
  becoming itself, being invented by the teacher,
  learners and the speech community)

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Collaborative Projects

• Shared student publications (classroom journalism
  and publishing students perform different roles
  reporter, editor, correspondent joint editorial
  board)
• Comparative/contrastive investigations
  (comparative community survey --gt think globally,
  act locally)
• Folklore compendiums (folklore and community
  narratives proverbs, folk tales, children
  rhymes, fables)
• Oral histories (community interviews, key
  figures)
• Cross-cultural anthropologists (pairs of student
  informants help each other explore a particular
  cultural topic)

Based on the From Shore to Shore Project
(http//www.orillas.org/)
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Phases/tasks

• Incubation, investment, justification, creation
  and donation
• Incubation tasks aim to define the project in
  terms of its goals as well as processes
• Develop specific classroom activities such as
  evaluating containing examples of student
  projects, brainstorming project ideas (expressing
  opinions, likes and dislikes, planning future
  activity, making comparisons)
• Investment tasks facilitate student access to
  communities that use the target language
• Find out if your students have any contacts with
  target language individuals, groups and
  communities. Get them to write to these people to
  gauge their interest in collaboration in the
  project (communication with people they do not
  know, expressing politeness, marking social
  roles)
• Debski, R. (2006). Project-based language
  teaching with technology. Sydney NCELTR.

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Rationale

• Socialization
• Relevance
• Biliteracy

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Rationale Socialization

• Language socialization is rooted in the notion
  that the process of acquiring a language is part
  of a much larger process of becoming a person in
  society (Ochs, 2002).

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• The family often is the only language community
  the learners are socialized into.
• Projects may create opportunities for learners
• To negotiate their sense of self as speakers of
  the target language across different social
  domains mediated by relations of power, degrees
  of commitment, emotional intensity, etc.
• To acquire the language of their peers and
  language aligned with different social roles
  (keypal, reporter, researcher, critic, editor,
  friend, etc.), as learners interact with partners
  and the community

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Rationale Relevance

• As their learning is not embedded in activity
  that is meaningful to them and other people,
  students often
• Fail to make a connection between the community
  language and important life goals, and
• Do not learn to appreciate the value of being
  bilingual
• The availability of relevant electronic media
  can act as a motivator and can help develop the
  knowledge of a minority language by
• Not allowing the community language to be
  overshadowed by glamorous media products in the
  more widely used languages (e.g., English)
• Giving learners access to new environments,
  situations, relationships where they can learn to
  appreciate the value of knowing the community
  language

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Rationale Biliteracy

• Community language learners often do not develop
  biliteracy
• Internet Projects emphasize the importance of
  biliteracy (first a barrier, then a motivator to
  develop biliteracy)

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Rationale VELS

• Year 9/10
• Students use a range of learning tools,
  including multimedia tools, to encounter a range
  of language and cultural forms and practices.
• Both directed and independent learning is
  focused on comparisons between languages and
  societies.
• Teaching activities are diverse and consolidate
  language and cultural understandings, encourage
  risk-taking, and use many materials and genres,
  texts and media.

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Case Study The Polish School in Albion

• Primary school established in 1993 and a
  secondary school in 1996 in Hoppers Crossing
• Relocated to new rooms in the Polish Sports and
  Recreation Centre in Albion in December 2003. The
  Centre provides an ideal infrastructure for the
  School (restaurant, waiting areas, meeting rooms)
• Currently located in 4 new barracks (8
  classrooms)
• Over 160 students studying Polish in 8 language
  groups.
• Qualified teachers, well-equipped in books,
  dictionaries, DVDs, digital projector, computers,
  digital camera

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Students - 2006
Australia Students 8 (9) students age 13-15
(selected class) Level Year 9/10
(VELS) Duration 1 April - 17 June (9
meetings) Contact 1 of the total of 3 contact
hours once a week Poland Students 9 (28)
gymnasium students age 14-15
(editors of a school newsletter, members of
a computer interest group, volunteers) Duration
1 April - 17 June (9 meetings) Contact
flexible, but usually weekly
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Learning community on mc2.vicnet.net.au
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Syllabus

• Introduction
• During this school term, a group of children in
  Australia and their partners in Poland will
  create annotated digital photo albums, in which
  they will present their family, the neighbourhood
  where they live, their school and places they
  visit with friends. In other words, they will
  attempt to present the everyday life of young
  Australians of Polish descent, and children in
  Poland will describe the everyday life of young
  people in Poland. The photo albums will be
  created in the classroom and at home and will be
  shared through the Web (http//mc2.vicnet.net.au/)
  . Once the albums are completed, students in
  Australia and their partners will meet online in
  order to discuss them, ask questions and find out
  more information about each other. Based on the
  content of the photo albums and the information
  gathered during the virtual meeting, the students
  will finally write individual essays discussing
  an aspect of the life of young people in Poland
  and in Australia. The best texts will be
  published on the Internet and in the Polish
  periodical Akcent.

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Syllabus - objectives

• In the course of the project, the children will
  practise how to
• Write about the world around them and their
  everyday life
• Talk about themselves and their environment
  during classroom meetings
• Communicate with peers in Poland, ask and answer
  questions and control an online discussion
• Prepare a short oral presentation
• Write an essay presenting their own point of view
  and making comparisons

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Assessment

• Photo albums (30)
• Each photo album will be composed of an
  introduction (60-100 words) and 9-15 photographs.
  Each photograph should have a short (2-3
  sentences) annotation, for example about what it
  presents, when it was taken, and what is
  interesting about it? The following criteria will
  be used to assess the photo albums
• Amount of text (10)
• Correctness of text (10)
• Creativity (10)
• Oral presentation of photo albums (10)
• Students prepare a 10-minute presentation about
  their photo albums. Marks will be given for the
  appeal of the presentation (5) and correctness
  and diversity of the language used (5).

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Assessment

• Correspondence with partners in Poland (10)
• The students task is to maintain communication
  with the partners in Poland using the discussion
  forum. They will obtain marks for the number (5)
  and quality (5) of their contributions.
• Participation in the chat conference (10)
• Students will obtain marks for the number of
  words they wrote during the conference.

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Assessment

• Essay (30)
• The essay will contain at least 400 words. The
  following aspects of the essay will be assessed
  organization (5), number of words (5),
  correctness (10) and creativity (10).
• Contribution to class discussions, attendance
  (10)
• Each student will get marks for their
  participation in classroom discussions and
  attendance.
• Students will obtain additional marks if they
  present evidence of
• Email/blog communication with a cousin/keypal in
  Poland
• Writing comments on the blogs written by partners
  in Poland

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Digital photoalbums
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Awards

• Two students from the Polish school in Sunshine
  who obtain the most points will win valuable
  prizes (about 100 each). Prizes will also be
  awarded to the authors of best photo albums and
  essays in Australia and Poland. The prizes will
  be given at the end of the year during the
  Certificate Awarding Ceremony. The best student
  essays will be published in the Polish periodical
  Akcent Polski.

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Outcomes

• Positive response from both children and parents
• 5 children in Australia posted their photoalbums
  (3-17 photos) 7 children in Poland (4-28 photos)
• 73 messages left on the Forum on topics such as
  computer games, introductions, my family, soccer,
  school in Australia, what young people do after
  school.

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Topics and techniques (2007)

• Nature
• Earth - our home
• Youth language
• In search of roots
• Cultural heritage
• Contrasts
• Youth literature

• Video film
• Internet page
• PowerPoint presentation
• Electronic brochure
• Photoalbum

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Students - 2007

• Australia
• Students 7 (9) students age 13-15 (selected
  class)
• Level Year 9/10 (VELS)
• Duration second term 2007 (10 meetings)
• Contact 1 of the total of 3 contact hours once
  a week
• Poland
• Students several gymnasium students age 14-15
  
• (editors of a school newsletter,
  members of
• a computer interest group, volunteers)
• Contact flexible, but usually weekly

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Vignettes

• Students in Poland as a source of information
• Opportunity for cultural learning
• Learning Polish youth language

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Vignettes
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Outcome Socialization

• Discussions start on topic and then switch to
  personal
• Use of Polish slang
• Polish students point to their own Web sites,
  blogs, private radio station
• Project on youth language
• Asking questions, controlling conversations
• Cultural learning (helpful, focused on study,
  serious)

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Outcome Relevance

• Learning Polish related to topics of interest
  youth music, greenhouse effect, youth language,
  places of interest to youth
• Using Internet in Polish (e.g., to find
  information on the greenhouse effect)

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Outcome Biliteracy

• Places of interest in Australia (Sara and
  Konrad)
• Project 600 words
• 6 discussion forum entries (370 words)

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Outcome Peers support

• Language support
• Encouragement
• Language exercises

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Challenges

• Little work accomplished by the students after
  school hours
• Parents hesitant about giving their children too
  much Internet access
• Logistical problems with computers and the short
  overlap between the school terms in Australia and
  Poland

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Recommendations

• Address the issue of internet safety and assist
  parents and children in reaching an agreement
  about educational use of the Internet
• Introduce digital literacy using the community
  language in the early years of schooling
• Develop and share examples of best practice in
  integrating technology into ethnic schools
  curricula, with a particular emphasis on Internet
  projects and Web-based tasks
• Establish a learning-management system (LMS)
  server dedicated to storing and distributing
  electronic content such as audio and video
  recordings, lessons, tasks, etc.
• Assist the ethnic school with the development of
  infrastructure, obtaining access to technology,
  the Internet
• Make sure that computers in the childs
  environment are multilingual (e.g., ethnic
  keyboard, dictionaries, fonts, etc.)