CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
The
role of ICT, in the curriculum is much more than simply a passing trend. It
provides a real opportunity for teachers of all phases and subjects to rethink
fundamental pedagogical issues alongside the approaches to learning that pupils
need to apply in classrooms. In this way it foregrounds the ways in which
teachers can match in school the opportunities for learning provided in the
home and community. The series is firmly rooted in practice and also explores
the theoretical underpinning of the ways in which curriculum content and skills
can be developed by the effective integration of ICT in schooling. It addresses
the educational needs of the early years, the primary phase and secondary
subject areas. The books are appropriate for preservice teacher training and
continuing professional development, as well as for those pursuing higher
degrees in education.
B. Problem
Formulation
1. What is
relationship between Computers,
Literacy And Thinking Together?
2.
How many poin about Computers, Literacy And Thinking Together?
3.
What can technology do for/to English
C. Destination
1.
To complete on
of test linguistic lesson
2.
To know how ITC
used in teaching secondary scool process
CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
A. Computers, Literacy And Thinking Together
In
this chapter we begin by presenting a particular, socio-cultural perspective on
the use of computers in relation to the English curriculum. A socio-cultural
perspective on education is one which gives particular attention to the roles
of language and other ‘cultural tools’ (Vygotsky 1987) for enabling the
development of each new generation. Language is not merely a tool for providing
information or facilitating social interaction, it is a tool for collective
sense making. It does not merely enable us to interact, it enables us to link
minds – to ‘interthink’ (Mercer 2000). In our view, this conception of language
as a tool for thinking together has considerable educational potential,
especially when coupled with the affordances of computer technology. The forms
of language found in email, computer conferencing and ‘texting’ with mobile
phones, reflect both the nature of the technologies and the communicative
purposes to which people apply them. While technological and communicative
developments have led to a reconsideration of what is meant by literacy
(Rassool 1999; Pailliotet and Mosenthal 2000), it is worth noting that the
creation of any digital text still requires a functional competence in written
language. If ICT is used as a basis for interesting, meaningful and
communicative activities, it can effectively stimulate children’s skills in
using both spoken and written language.
As
technology offers new ways of communicating, it is clear that schools must
incorporate these ways into their social, communicative practices. On the other
hand, fears are commonly expressed that the aim of enabling students to master
the basics of oracy and literacy will be sacrificed to the use of the new
technology. As we explain in this chapter, this is not the choice which needs
to be made. Computer-based activities can be undertaken in ways which will
increase opportunities for children to talk and work together, and develop
their skills in both spoken and written language. Moreover, increased
educational use of new technologies should not be seen as lessening the
importance of dialogue between teachers and learners, though it may increase
the range of possible contexts for those dialogues.
a.
The Ground
Rules Of Educational Activity
Let
us first focus on spoken language and how this is used in classroom activities.
Back in the 1980s, Edwards and Mercer (1987) showed how the familiar patterns
of classroom interaction depended on teachers and pupils following a set of
implicit norms or ‘educational ground rules’. Drawing on the same concept of
‘educational ground rules’ in their study of writing in British secondary
schools, Sheeran and Barnes (1991) showed how many of the expectations that
teachers had about what constitutes a satisfactory essay, scientific report or
other kind of written work, were never made explicit to pupils. And even when
some of those requirements were made clear, teachers rarely discussed with
pupils why they were expected to write (or talk) in particular ways. Sheeran
and Barnes (1991: 2) therefore concluded: ‘In spite of their importance, these
tacit expectations or ground rules, are seldom discussed with pupils because
the teachers themselves are largely unaware of them.’ Bringing the ‘ground
rules’ out into the open could have educational benefits, as Sheeran and Barnes
suggested. This has been a basic principle of our own work with teachers in
primary and secondary schools.
b.
Exploratory
talk
Exploratory
talk is that in which partners engage critically but constructively with each
other’s ideas. Relevant information is offered for joint consideration.
Proposals may be challenged and counterchallenged, but if so reasons are given
and alternatives are offered. Agreement is sought as a basis for joint
progress. Knowledge is made publicly accountable and reasoning is visible in
the talk. (Mercer 2000: 98). exploratory talk represents the only mode of
interaction which is appropriate in joint activity, but we are convinced that
it deserves more attention in school, for two related reasons. The first is
that it represents the kind of reasoned discussion that every child should be
enabled toengage in. The second is that, despite it matching teachers’ own
specifications of a ‘good discussion’, it is a rare phenomenon in most
classrooms.
B. Models Of Reading In The Secondary Classroom:
Literature And Beyond
If the ‘e’ in e-learning can be said to stand for
enhanced, the teaching of literature may be a good place to begin exploring the
impact of ICT on the English classroom. Literature has long been the centre of
the English classroom; an exploration of opportunities for an expansion of the
strategies that underpin the teaching of literature and the traditional skills
of literary analysis which accompany these, through an examination of current classroom
practice using ICT will, it is hoped, contribute positively to the notion of
enhancement. It is our contention that ICT changes both the construction of
text and the act of reading. In this chapter, we want to propose that secondary
classroom reading should be understood in three major ways in relation to ICT.
These are not thought to be exclusive, but to perhaps contribute to the debates
which have existed, and no doubt will continue to exist, about reading in the
secondary English classroom First, we want to consider the ways in which ICT
can be said to enhance the activity of reading what we might consider to be
‘classic texts’ – that is, those texts which make up the staple diet of many
secondary English classrooms. Second, we want to consider the reading of
electronic texts and the ways in which (and the extent to which) the text form,
Third, we want to consider how text and
provisionality, for example the reading of wikipedias, have brought an
additional dimension to the notion of reader-response theory – the demise of
the concept of closure in relation to the construction of text and the ways in
which this concept can enhance the notion of drafting written text
a) Classic texts
What, then, are the features that our teaching
colleagues consider warrant consideration of ICT in teaching literature? Simply
asking where ICT can be said to reflect and extend some of the features we
refer to above, is in itself helpful. Our colleague David Greenwood identifies
the following as his reasons for using ICT to teach literature. Kinaesthetic
learning, for example, is for David an essential feature of ICT use in English:
It enables the use of a much greater range of effects, the use of varying type
fonts, wide use of colour, the addition of sound and imported graphics, and
kinetic effects for example. The potential of such effects has been shown to
have a highly motivating effect on students, especially those who are more like
ly to think in terms of spatial rather than verbal
models. He demonstrates too that, in his classroom, he considers group work is enhanced
through the use of ICT: ICT enables group work. It is often difficult for more
than two pupils to collaborate on a conventional poster; using word processing,
groups of three or more are quite possible. The talk that goes on within the
group about the text and the negotiation of the text mapping outcome, develops
close attention to the text itself and its recreation in visual form. And in
addressing the ways in which ICT can challenge ideas about meaning and text,
David points out that: It moves the reader from the traditional practical
criticism approach where ‘the words on the page’ are paramount, to the more
modern reader-response where the text is something to be constructed in the mind
of the reader or, in the case of group work, to be negotiated among a group of
readers. For further ideas on this see Rosenblatt (1938) and Fish (1980), among
others. The originals can easily be downloaded from the Internet for classroom
use, saving the task of typing them in and enabling more time for discussion
and creation.
b)
Thinking
skills and mind mapping
Both thinking skills and mind mapping are familiar
concepts in the English classroom.
The examples which follow demonstrate how two teachers, Mary Martin and David Greenwood, have used ICT to enhance their
own teaching of English through
engagement with these approaches.
Thinking skills
Mary Martin, deputy head of Comberton Village College
in Cambridgeshire, is well-known for
her work on teaching poetry and thinking skills through ICT. Mary
writes: Thinking skills in English
are, to my mind, about constructing frameworks for thinking about text using agreed literary approaches. They are about identifying textual
features, using analytical and critical language
as you go, dissecting text through annotations and comment but using ICT to support that analysis in ways printed text cannot achieve.
Mind mapping
David Greenwood’s commitment to visual learning,
illustrated by his choice of quotation above, is evident in his classroom
through the use of a specific form of thinking skill: mind mapping. In the text
which follows, David explores his own thinking through examples of mind mapping
work from some of his students. A divergent, creative note-making and
memory-assisting, thinking skill promoting strategy which combines images and
keywords, connected first to ‘basic ordering ideas’ and then to additional
branches, ‘mapping’ has most often been associated with (and been undertaken
with) the ‘hands on’ use of coloured pens and paper, as opposed to computers, until
recent years. However, with the ever increasing availability of easy to use
drawing programs and with the development of ‘mapping’ software (for example,
MindManager) exponents of ‘mapping’, such as Tony Buzan (Buzan and Buzan 2000)
and Oliver Caviglioli (Caviglioli and Harris 2000) have been promoting ICT
approaches. The example below illustrates how ICT can motivate students to
explore and present their reactions to texts through this exploratory,
summarizing and concentration-enhancing approach: it is, in the full original
version, an intelligently colourful investigation of key features of Hardy’s Far
From the Madding Crowd, from a ‘big picture’ perspective. The student
concerned, very much enjoyed linking apposite quotations from the text with the
characters’ names and other literary terms – all with simple but eye-catching
graphics. Understanding that text is crafted and that all writers are readers
of their own work and will produce several versions of that work, makes the
realization that they too are ‘real writers’, and that re-reading and drafting
are not a signal of failure, a revelation to many students. Entering into the writers’
guild via the recognition of provisionality is a gift which ICT can bestow.
Drafting is of course much less arduous using ICT. This is one advantage. It is
useful to ask students to track changes so that they are able to see the
successive stages through which their own writing has progressed and to compare
those with the drafts from writers, who were masters at their craft. The act of
re-reading drafts of one’s own work is often a learning activity in itself. Once
the concept of provisionality is established, activities such as prequels and
plot/character/genre change have greater meaning. Knowing that the text will
already have been subject to major change adds a reality factor to the
classroom event.
C. Technology For/To English?
For the most part, our reasons for using computers in
schools tend to be based more on optimism than on experience, on some sense
that so much capacity and potential must be capable of delivering more than we
know about. As far as English teaching is concerned, certainly, there is no
body of hard evidence that tells us with any precision when we should best use
technology, or avoid it. Neither have we managed, in the absence of such
evidence, to construct any kind of systematic theory that relates the capabilities
of technology to the needs of English. Simply asserting that there are lots of
purposes computers can serve in English does not really help.
All of us involved with English are prepared to
articulate core concerns of the subject that are worth fighting to achieve and
preserve, and in respect of these fundamentals it would seem reasonable to
suggest that technology must either put up or shut up. What really matters in
English? In what respects might technology improve how these things are
achieved? It is up to those who care and know about the subject itself to work
out the answers to these questions, rather than those trying to sell computers
or e-learning or the knowledge economy to us. If we can build up a
comprehensive theory of what technology can do for English, then we can make
decisions about whether it is worth bothering with. In order to do that, we need to be very clear in the first place about what
we actually do want English to do.
D. New Media And Cultural Form: Narrative Versus Database
a)
Why
narrative and database
Stories define how we think, how we play, even how we
dream: they represent a basic way of organizing human experience. We understand
our lives through stories. Barbara Hardy has argued famously, that narrative is
‘a primary act of mind transferred to art from life’ (Hardy 1977: 12). The act
of the storyteller, the author, the novelist, says Hardy, arises from what we
do all the time, in remembering, dreaming and planning. Narrative is so deeply
ingrained as a cultural form that we take for granted the ways in which
storytelling engages our interest, curiosity, fear, tensions, expectations and
sense of order:
For we dream in narrative, daydream in narrative,
remember, anticipate, hope, despair, believe, doubt, plan, revise, criticize,
construct, gossip, learn, hate, and love by narrative. In order really to live,
we make up stories about ourselves and others, about the personal as well as
the social; past and future. (Hardy 1977: 13)
What is a database? Like narrative, a database
represents a basic way of organizing human experience. A database can be a
library, a museum, in fact any large collection of cultural data. In the age of
the Internet, a database is a structured collection of data organized to
maximize fast search and retrieval by computer. It represents a potentially
powerful categorization system as it provides a range of options for sorting
and viewing sets of data.
b) Understanding narrative in the context of new media
Reconceiving narrative theory
In the context of new media, narrative manifested
itself initially as electronic adventure games, then interactive fiction,
followed soon after by hyperfiction. All these forms continue to exist, indeed,
they are all flourishing in their present instantiations. Much has been written
about the literary precursors to electronic narrative (Snyder 1996). Suffice it
to say here that since the beginning of modern fiction, authors have attempted
to cajole readers out of passivity. Literary precursors of interactive fiction
and hyperfiction include not only Tristram Shandy and Ulysses,
but also more recent fiction, such as Julio Cortazar’s Hopscotch (1966)
and Borges’ Labyrinths (1970). All work strenuously against the medium
in which their books are produced. In attacking the convention that a novel is
a coherent narrative of events, such texts simultaneously invite and confirm
reader interaction.
Electronic narratives also pose problems for
traditional understandings of beginnings and endings. In traditional print
narratives, beginnings imply endings and endings require some sort of formal
and thematic closure. Literary convention decrees that endings must either
satisfy or in some way respond to expectations raised during the reading of the
narrative. Electronic narratives have taken a cautious approach to the problem
of beginnings by offering readers a block of text labelled with something like
‘start here’, that combines the functions of title page, introduction and
opening paragraph, perhaps reflecting the reluctance of some writers to
disorientate readers at the point of their first contact with the narrative. By
avoiding the corresponding devices for achieving closure, however, such
electronic narratives may challenge readers. It is up to readers to decide how,
when and why the narrative finishes. Of course, we are not naive about
unresolved texts. Print and cinematic narratives provide instances of multiple
closure and also a combination of closure linked to new beginnings. The fact
that twentieth-century writers and film makers frequently offer their audience
little in the way of closure indicates that, as readers and writers, we have
long learnt to live and read more open-endedly than discussions of narrative
form may lead us to believe. However, culturally familiar though we are with
the absence or denial of closure, we may still find the consequences
disturbing.
c)
Narrative and database:
understanding the dynamics of their relationship
do databases and narratives have the same status in computer culture? Although
some media objects follow a database logic in their structure, whereas
others do not, in general, ‘creating a work in new media can be
understood as the construction of an interface to a database’ (Manovich
2001: 226). Manovich gives some examples. In the simplest case, the
interface simply provides access to the underlying database. For instance,
an image database can be represented as a page of miniature images;
clicking on a miniature will retrieve the corresponding record. If a
database is too large to display all its records, a search engine can allow the
user to search for particular records. But the interface can also translate the
underlying database into a very different experience.
Thus, in new media, the database supports a variety of cultural forms
that range from direct translation (that is, a database remains a database)
to a form whose logic is the opposite of the logic of the material form
itself – narrative. More precisely, a database can support narrative,
but there is nothing in the logic of the form itself that would foster
the generation of narrative. In the computer age, the database
becomes the centre of the creative process. According to Manovich (2001:
227): ‘The new media object consists
of one or more interfaces to a database of multimedia
material.
Does the preeminence of the database form represent a
break with the past so monumental that the new media will completely replace
narrative with database? As Manovich (2001: 229) argues: ‘New media does not
radically break with the past; rather, it distributes weight differently
between the categories that hold culture together, foregrounding what was in
the background, and vice versa.’ Radical breaks do not generally involve
complete change, but a restructuration.
CHAPTER III
CLOSING
A. CONCLUSION
Ø in relation to the English curriculum,
computer-based activities can be used not only to help develop speaking and
listening but also to encourage children to jointly make sense of texts and
learn to use new registers and genres. A pair or group of children who are
‘asked’ by a computer to discuss a text, or provide a solution to a problem,
can take as long as they like to share their thoughts and decide on their
response. Because the computer is a machine, it will wait for the children’s
response until they are ready to provide it. The computer can also be used to
organize the process of joint activity more effectively than a conventional
worksheet because software can require the children to provide a response
before being allowed to continue, remind them of relevant information and
provide feedback on their responses. Learners can be offered optional
interactive routes through a narrative or information text. Used in combination
with the support and guidance of a teacher, ICT can ‘scaffold’ children’s
investigation of a text or problem while allowing them control over the pace of
their activity. The powerful combination of computer technology and teacher
guidance, can thus provide unique opportunities for the development of
children’s spoken and written language capabilities.
Ø By considering the notion of e-learning as
enhancement. In considering how ICT can extend existing classroom strategies in
English, we have gone some way in exploring how ICT can indeed develop and augment
teaching and learning in English. But we hope that we have also been able to
demonstrate that the existence of ICT makes new demands on reading through
e-text and how, in turn and through provisionality, those new demands lead to a
more profound understanding of how text works.
Ø In this chapter we have tried to think through the ways in which
we might
talk about technology in English. there are
some aspects of these technologies that are, I believe, at odds with the best
aims of English. As well as being an amazing worldwide network of communication
and democratic self-expression, the Internet
is also a bottomless source of misinformation, and of ugly shoddy material:
access to the Internet can as easily reduce the quality of learning in a
classroom as expand it. We have to engage with that, because the Internet is a
major and insistent part of our lives. As a global medium of communication, I
think that it belongs fairly and squarely within the scope of English, but it
is not at all evident that we yet understand enough about how to deal with that
fact. Meanwhile, the monster grows and grows, and eats up more and more time:
time that might better be spent reading a book.
Ø Just because technology is uniquely able to
achieve some important aspects of English, it certainly
does not mean that it is good for all aspects. It is unforgivable to waste the power of technology when it can
do real good, but we need suffer no qualms about leaving it in its box the rest
of the time. adults provide their students, through modelling and specific
instruction, ways of taking from books, which seem natural in school and in numerous
other social and institutional settings. These mainstream ways persist in
formal education systems designed to prepare students for participation in
settings involving book literacy. But book literacy, with its deep attachment
to narrative as a hallowed cultural form, is now just one of the many
literacies that students require to participate effectively in post-school
settings. In particular, as this chapter has argued, students need
opportunities in their classrooms to learn how to take meaning not just from
the most familiar cultural forms but also from other, increasingly significant
ones, such as the computerized database. If the modern age provided people with
robust narratives and modest amounts of information, today in the computer age
we have too much information and too few narratives that can make sense of it
all. Whether we like it or not, information access has become a central
activity of the computer age. Information access is no longer just integral to
the world of work, it is also a key category of culture. As such, it demands
that we deal with it theoretically, pedagogically and aesthetically.
B.
SUGGESTION
So
this paper that have arranged by our group. We hope this paper can be usefull
and can received well by other. But as an ordinary human who did not escape the
short comings, we also expect criticism and suggestions which help to repair
the mistake of our paper and the last thank you so much.
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