Using Our Computers
What hardware do you have available to the class?
We have a lab with 24 computers equiped with Windows 95. There are two additional computers that can be used by students. In September 1999 we received a classroom computer with Windows 95. At this time the classroom computer has several programs in English and is now connected to the Internet. It is also being used to play CDroms.What software have you been using?
We have one copy each of several CDroms.We have several DOS programs that are still useful: Rhubarb, Dialogue Machine, Playhouse, My First Box of Words and Sentences.
We use Creative Writer 1 extensively for various composition and presentation tasks including writing letters to our pen pals in Vancouver. Recently we have started to do most of our texts with Word Perfect.
We go on the Internet to do questionnaires on vocabulary and grammar or to read texts and answer questions.
We plan to try some web quests.
We plan to use Word Perfect 8 and Eudora to correspond by email with our pen pals in British Columbia.
We use the Internet to find material for the class.
We publish students' work on this web page.
Why take the time to use computers?
I will give you an example. We recently wrote a pen pal letter directly on the computer using a hand-written composition as the source of some information. Writing the letter could have been given for homework and it would have been finished more quickly. I chose to do it using Creative Writer. The students increased their skills at key-boarding, they used the spell checker, they used the possibilities of the program for presentation (borders, pictograms, fonts, etc.) For many students it was the first time they did a longer text with a computer. Also motivation is high because the finished product is high quality and there is no recopying when errors are corrected.
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