Basic ICT Course for Teachers of English
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Week 1: Introduction

Glad you're here! Welcome to the first week of the course!

During this week you will...

  • Preview the course and become comfortable with course conventions
  • Meet course participants
  • Read and discuss an article on the Internet and on its educational potential
  • In addition you can learn about the history of the Internet. and
  • Explore how the Internet "works" (See below)

The purpose of this week is twofold: First to get to know each other and second to get to know the Nicenet Internet classroom that has been set up for the course.

(1) Visit our alternate site: http://www.nicenet.org and take a look at the Class Members' site. Write a briefly introduce yourself in the Documments section (see left navigation bar). It is also highly recommended that you choose at least one person on the list and write them a personal E-mail. Just make sure you click on the box next to the person's name. If someone writes you please give a response. This way we could start getting to know each other.

 

(2) Read this article: What’s on the Web? Sorting Strands of the World Wide Web for Educators by Tom March . The article was updated in October 2001, therefore some of the links unfortunately don’t work. Anyway, More than 90% of them are fine.

 

Read through the article and visit some of the sites (there are a lot, so unless you have a lot of free time, choose the ones you find interesting). When you are done critique the educational websites: In a posting in the Conference area, list at least 2 websites you visited (including URLs) and your analysis of the instructional design of those sites. Also discuss: What did the sites you like have in common? The sites you didn't like? Also think about these guiding questions:

a. Do you agree with all the ideas presented in the article? What part do you find to be most interesting?

b. What sites did you visit? What did you think about them? Do you think you could adapt them to use in your classes? What kinds of adaptation would you need to do?

Feel free to comment on each others’ answers. You are highly encouraged to put your favourite links in the Link sharing site at Nicenet with a brief description of the site. In the Conferencing site (see left panel at Nicenet) you are invited to write your toughts, reflections on this particular article. And due to the fact that on-line courses work efficient when everyone participates, reading the assignments (NB.: Class Schedule at Nicenet), posting your opinions andcommenting on each others’ answers is a must.

 

(3) It would be nice to have a page with some photos of course participants. I would be more than happy to create this page if I got a photo of you. It will be nice to meet each other visually. Only .JPG and .GIF photos are accepted.

 

(4) The Link sharing site at Nicenet is very useful. Here we can add our favorite sites so everyone can visit them. If you have your own web page or a favorite page, add it here so everyone can visit. I have already added some of my favourites.

 

(5) And finally, you can visit the MEMBERS link. Here are all the people who have joined the course. You can write them directly by clicking on their addresses.

 

(6) The CALENDAR site of this course will let you know where the course is going. Let me (Janos Blasszauer) know if you have any problems with the pace of the course. I'm well aware of the fact that a good course is always flexible. :-)

 

(7) Take your time doing the assignments. I know everyone has different obligations and there might be times when you might get behind. Don’t worry…just take your time. Write me personally if you encounter any technical problems or you need further support from me(Janos Blasszauer) . Have a nice week!

Highly Recommended

Course scavenger hunt

The Internet is a phenomenon. It has certainly changed the way most of us communicate, learn, shop, get information... and we probably haven't even begun to conceptualize all of the organizational and societal implications and future changes as a result of this technological advance.

A bit of history

If you're not already familiar with the history of the Internet take a look at A Brief History of the Internet and/or A Brief History of the Internet by some of its founders. Really interesting and enlightening. What's amazing to me is the 'critical mass' that occurred to make this happen. (Quiz: when was the term "Internet" formally coined?)

Internet terminology

If you're feeling like you need to get up to speed on how the Internet works, check out The Web Teacher tutorial!

Still you think you can't understand really the technology behind the Internet? No problem! You know the "How Things Work" series? Well, they've done one called "How Web Servers and the Internet Work." It's short and to the point.

 

Copyright ©2003 by Janos Blasszauer