The task for this week:
Find (online or in a magazine) a report on a teaching project with the New Media that you really liked and you think was a success (not the one you had in-class) and explain it to your readers.
I found a website, which I would consider really worth looking at. In the following, I would like to present this teaching project, the role of the students and the teacher and the use of “Old” and “New” Media.
The website already convinced me right from the start as it is structured with two languages. That means that every aspect is described in German AND in French. One could ask: “Why that?”
The institution of the “Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk” wanted to increase the number of pupils, who learn another foreign language. That’s the reason why the responsables invented the project called “Tele-Tandem”.
In this project, one class (school) from Germany works with another class (school) from France. When I read through the website, I realized that we had similar ideas in class when we had to create a poster. At that time, we should think about “the usage of the Internet by groups of pupils” with regard to intercultural and cooperative learning. We thought about an online preparation of an exchange between classes from different countries. That included research on general information about “the others”, but also creating webblogs, communicating via chat or e-mail.
The project “Tele-Tandem” included most of these aspects as well such as: “classical” lessons (teacher provides students with information about the other country), preparing and accomplishing chats and talks via webcam, using e-mail to stay in contact.
A general outline of the “Tele-Tandem” had been set up in advance by the teachers of the two classes. During the whole exchange, they stayed in contact in order to communicate about the next steps. This project should show the contrast between a “meeting situation” (->exchange) and the classical “class learning situation”. Besides, it should bring up a social and intercultural dimension and pupils would get in contact with “authentic communication”, which is one important aspect in second language acquisition.
This “new” situation (“meeting s.”) does not only enlarge the general knowledge of the students, but also improves social competences (e.g. teamwork,communication and interaction) or media competences (Power Point, Computer) . In order to create a successful project/exchange, everybody has to participate and therefore communication is needed.
The project has been divided into three parts:before the exchange, actual exchange, after the exchange
In the first part, the two classes had a conversation via webcam and worked out warrants of apprehension by using a digital camera. Furthermore, they designed a programm for their exchange and accomplished a chat in order to prepare and talk about the “real” meeting. The second part was the exchange between these classes and their teachers.
After the exchange, the two classes created several games in order to reflect their impressions. Moreover, they prepared and held another meeting via webcam. And last but not least, they send vocabulary lists to their exchange class via e-mail.
The role of the students: The project “Tele-Tandem” showed quite clearly the development of the students. In the beginning, the teacher had to explain and help a lot ; for example computer knowledge. After a while the students started to work on their own and it finally led to the autonomy of the students. That had also been one aspect I remembered from one of our online sessions (->”guided to free research/learning”). Besides, there have been three different methods of interaction between pupils:1. interaction of one German and one French pupil, 2. mixed groups of French and German pupils or 3. groups of one language (either German or French).
The role of the teacher: Firstly, both teacher have to organize and guide the whole exchange. They have to communicate with each other and they can dispense some tasks to students after a while.
The usage of “Old” and “New” Media: What I found striking was that these two classes did not only use “New Media” in their project, but on the contrary, they also included “Old stuff”. While reading through the website, I got to know that they also designed posters with their impressions or index cards with vocabulary. The latter have been scanned and sent to the exchange class.
In a nutshell, I think that this project is a success, because both sides can have their profits out of it. Pupils get to know other countries, enlarge their competences and learn how to use technical equipment correctly. I was also really surprised by the fact that they did not only use Internet (and so on), but also Power Point, Scanner etc. Besides, the exchange had been done with classes of primary schools. To my mind, one could also transfer it to 8th or 9th grade, because the knowledge of the second foreign language is not that high. Usually, German secondary schools have an exchange during that period of time. Finally, I think one could also adapt it to English-German classes.( “Tele-Tandem” had been French-German)
If you are interested in this project:
http://www.tele-tandem.org/material/aktivbi/aktivbi02.html
