Teaching computer literacy CHRIS CORBEL PAUL GRUBA SERIES EDITOR DENISE E MURRAY TEACHING WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY SERIES TEACHING COMPUTER LITERACY Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv SERIES INTRODUCTION v Published by the National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research INTRODUCTION 1 Macquarie University, Sydney NSW 2109 for the AMEP Research Centre on behalf of the CHAPTER ONE Linking computer training and Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs language learning 5 Corbel, Chris, 1951- . CHAPTER TWO Addressing learner needs 15 Teaching computer literacy. Bibliography. CHAPTER THREE Developing computer skills 24 ISBN 1 86408 755 2. CHAPTER FOUR Integrating computers and the syllabus 36 Computer literacy – Study and teaching. 2. Language and languages – Computer-assisted instruction. I. Gruba, Paul. II. National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research GLOSSARY OF COMPUTER TERMS 47 (Australia). III.Title. (Series:Teaching with new technology series). BIBLIOGRAPHY 51 371.334 © Macquarie University 2004 The AMEP Research Centre is a consortium of the National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research (NCELTR) at Macquarie University in Sydney, and the National Institute for Education at La Trobe University in Melbourne.The Research Centre was established in January 2000 and is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. Copyright This book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Project Manager: Louise Melov Production Supervisor: Kris Clarke Design and DTP: Helen Lavery Cover design: Helen Lavery Printed by: Ligare Pty Ltd Contents iii TEACHING COMPUTER LITERACY TEACHING WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY SERIES Acknowledgments Series introduction This book reports on research conducted collaboratively with specialist Teaching with New Technology is a series that provides teachers with computer teachers at acl Pty Ltd and the authors.We thank the following practical, research-based approaches to using computer technologies in teachers for so generously sharing their insights and contributions: their language classrooms. Adele Collins We have deliberately chosen to use the term ‘computer-based Ali Baharlou technologies’ to highlight the technologies where the computer is an Andy Pike obvious tool. Many other classroom tools and artefacts use digital Fiona Thurn technology, but they do not involve computers as machines in any obvious way. Such tools and artefacts include VCRs,mobile phones, Guy Noble clocks and language labs.These new computer-based technologies were Ian Brown initially taken up by teachers who had a passion for computer technology. Marina Sherbak Now that these technologies have been used in language education for Najia Haimd almost two decades, many other teachers want to explore their use in Rodolfo Cares their own classrooms. Language teachers are interested in using computer- Tim Lever based technologies both to facilitate language learning and to help their Maree Derwent learners acquire the new literacies of the digital age (see, for example, Snyder 2002). In English language education in particular, teachers of immigrants and refugees realise they need to help their learners acquire computer skills since students are likely to take jobs that require familiarity with a range of digital literacies. In many countries where English is being learned as the global language for wider communication, students want to learn English to access the new technologies.While still only 10 per cent of the world’s population is online, digital literacies are increasingly becoming an essential tool for social, educational and occupational worlds. The goal of this series is to provide teachers who are new to computer- based technologies with practical techniques and lessons they can [I]t is not so much the computer but the use in their language classrooms. kinds of tasks and activities that learners However, the philosophy behind do on the computer that can make the the series is that, as language difference … teaching professionals, teachers (Hoven 1999: 149) iv Teaching computer literacy Series introduction v want more than hints and techniques; rather, professional teachers want to TEACHING COMPUTER LITERACY understand the research and theory on which teaching approaches are built.They are also interested in understanding the issues surrounding the Introduction use of computer-based technologies that still need to be explored and in conducting research in their own classrooms.While this series focuses on the adult learner, many of the activities can be used in classrooms of The chapters in this book are organised around the premise that language children and young adults. teachers can help their students gain crucial computer literacy skills. Although the various features of the new technologies often overlap in use Not all teachers want to become full-time computer trainers but each, inside and outside the classroom, teachers (and learners) need to be able to we argue, has a role to play in helping their student gain the skills needed approach teaching and learning with these new technologies in incremental to live and work in the Information Age.To frame our discussions, we stages.Therefore, each book in the series focuses primarily on one aspect first define ‘computer literacy’ and explore reasons why it is important of using computer-based technologies in the language classroom. to the language learner. Each book: What is computer literacy? • summarises the principal findings about the use of computer-based Our rapid uptake of computer usage demands new ways of thinking technologies to support teaching and learning in language programs; about what we teach, how we teach it and, increasingly, how we justify • offers practical suggestions for teaching using these technologies; our pedagogical choices. For the English language teacher, there is a great • provides detailed lesson plans for some suggestions; and urgency to look beyond traditional forms of print media in order to • raises issues that teachers can explore in their own classrooms. consider how we prepare students for careers that require active participation in the new literacies of the digital age. Indeed, the concept Many of the suggestions for teachers to explore involve action research, of literacy, as Alvermann and Hagood (2000: 193) point out, is ‘on the a research methodology for practitioners to investigate their own work verge of reinventing itself’. Although traditionally defined as the ability practices. In educational settings, action research provides teachers with to read and write, an understanding of what it means to be literate a tool for: needs to be extended. • planning what and how they will investigate; Whether through a perspective that it is a fluency with knowledge • teaching based on what they want to investigate; structures and enabling strategies (Potter 2001: 4; Silverblatt 2001: 2–7), • observing their practice; and or an ability to use and produce digital information (Gilster 1997: 1), or • reflecting on their observations. an ongoing negotiation through a multiplicity of discourses (Cope and This process is then reiterated, with teachers changing their practice based Kalantzis 2000: 9; Snyder 2002: 3), on their observations and reflections, and then beginning the cycle again coming to terms with new concepts While technology offers new ways (for example, Kemmis and McTaggart 1988; Burns 1995).An extensive in literacy helps us to understand, to teach the traditional literacies of bibliography is provided for teachers who want to explore any of the decipher and control the influence and reading and writing, learning how concepts and findings discussed in this series.The bibliography, which meaning of digital information in our to use digital technology has become includes both referenced materials and materials for further reading, is lives (Kasper 2000). One foundation itself a vital stepping stone to being organised by chapter at the end of each book. for gaining such control is through the ‘literate’ in the twenty-first century. mastery of essential computer skills. (Goodwin-Jones 2000: 11) vi Teaching computer literacy Introduction 1 As noted by several researchers (US National Research Council 1999: 9; books by Tuman (1992), Snyder (1997), and Reinking, McKenna, Labbo Council of Australian University Librarians 2001: 2), basic computer and Kieffer (1998). In essence, these books consider how digital literacy – the learning of specific hardware and software applications – technologies change the way we work with, and seek to understand, is a prerequisite for engaging with the new ‘digital’,‘silicon’ or other the ever-broadening range of texts available to us. ‘electronic literacies’. If our students are unable to effectively operate a Encompassing a broad agenda with a self-proclaimed ‘manifesto’, personal computer, we argue, they would lack the requisite foundation prominent literacy theorists