Project #3 Self-study multimedia exercises
Level: 3 levels, Upper-Intermediate, First Certificate (FC), Post-FC
Circumstances: Business English students at University
Classroom time required: None; material to be accessed in self-access centre
Brief outline: Teacher to create multiple-choice comprehension questions on business texts taken from Internet, to provide extra reading practice
Equipment required: Computer; HotPotatoes (free download, but 25 user licence is over $1,000)
To find out more about HotPotatoes:
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/
Circumstances: Business English students at University
Classroom time required: None; material to be accessed in self-access centre
Brief outline: Teacher to create multiple-choice comprehension questions on business texts taken from Internet, to provide extra reading practice
Equipment required: Computer; HotPotatoes (free download, but 25 user licence is over $1,000)
To find out more about HotPotatoes:
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/
Labels: Creating multimedia material
posted by Tom at 10:58 AM
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3 Comments:
Comments from the session:
Pros
-Covers 3 different levels
-Students can work at their own pace
Cons
-Used only in the self-access centre
-Cost
-Time involved
Further comments from Tom:
Of the four projects we looked at in the session, I like three -- this is the one that I don't like.
Apart from the cost, my objection to it is the time involved. How many hours of work will have to go into creating the material, and how much learning will come out of it?
Couldn't the students simply read the texts online?
You could argue that if they have to answer questions, and will get results, they might be slightly more motivated to read and do the exercises.
But that's a huge investment of my time in exchange for a minimal return...
What's the return on investment? That's the basic question we should be asking. I want minimal use of my time as a teacher, for a maximum possible amount of language learning.
Additional Pros:
-students being business learners would be a good interactive English experience using technology
Additional Cons:
-assumes high computer literacy of both teachers and the learners
Again, not sure it really requires that much technological skill...
HotPotatoes -- like any computer programme -- needs to be learnt, but it's not really that sophisticated.
One of my doubts about this project is, Is picking multiple-choice answers really what we could describe as "interactive"?
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