1

A Teachers Guide to Using Technology for Language

Teaching
A Text to Accompany the Students Guide to Using Technology for
Language Learning
Mikle D. Ledgerwood
2
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the following people and institutions for making this
book possible. First of all, I would like to thank a great number of people from
the International Association of Language Learning technology (IALL, formerly
the International Association of Language Laboratories), especially John Huy,
Victor Aulestia, Nina Garrett, Trisha Dvorak, Ursula Williams, Peter Liddell,
Sharon Scinicariello, Sue Mackey, Tom Browne, David Herren, Mary Ann
Lyman-Hager, Joel Goldfield, and recently deceased former members, Marie
Sheppard and Robert Henderson. All of these people and many other members
of this wonderful organization have helped me throughout the ten years I have
been a member, making an expert out of a neophyte. I would also like to thank
John Barrett of the University of South Carolina at Sumter and Donald Tucker of
Rhodes College, Memphis for forcing me to use technology in my teaching and to
become an administrator of a language center. I would like to thank many of the
faculty and administration at the State University of New York at Stony Brook
who helped my Language Learning and Research Center become a reality and a
thriving one, especially Kris Vandenberg who has functioned as my Associate
Director of the Center and also assisted with this manuscript. I also would like to
thank personally Dean Paul Armstrong who insisted that I take an early leave to
work on this book.
As always, I would like most to thank my family, my children Rhiannon,
Ian, and William, and my wife, Fayanne Thorngate. Once again, without them
this book would never have been begun, much less finished.
3
Table of Contents
Preface
Forward
Introduction
Chapter One, An Overview of Media, From Audio to Computers
Chapter Two, Tips and Tricks for Teaching with Technology
Chapter Three, Distance Learning and the Future of Teaching with Technology
Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography and Resources
Foreword
This is a teachers guide which was written to accompany A Students
Guide to Using Technology for Language Learning. It is suggested, as a result,
that all who will be using this text read that text first. I will not be repeating
material in this book that I put in the other. You may find that some of that
material is a bit simplistic and lacking in complexity. However, the aim is to give
students an introduction to the issues involved in language learning and
technology in as few pages as possible. Nevertheless, please send suggestions for
improving the second edition to my e-mail at MLedgerwood@ccmail.sunysb.edu.
I will certainly include them if at all possible and include your name in my
4
acknowledgements.
However this book can certainly be read independently of the other guide.
I will not make any further references in this guide to the other. In addition I will
make this guide as teacher-centered as possible, too. As a result it is longer than
the Student Guide .. It also includes a wide variety of practical information and
applications, including tips and tricks.
Introduction
Just repeat after me: technology is a tool, technology is a tool, technology is a
tool.....
When discussing technology, a very distressing thing occurs to a large
number of people--common sense gets thrown out the window. Americans,
while not unique in this respect, have more difficulties with the concept that
technology is only a tool than some other peoples. There is the feeling that,
somehow, if we can merely invent machines bright enough, efficient enough,
or pretty enough that we will be able to solve all of our problems, from the
common cold up to the federal deficit, a new variation on death and taxes.
Perhaps it is left over Puritan idealism which allows U.S. Americans to think that
we can create using technology a city on a hill, a more perfect society than the
one we have. Yet viewing technology as a god is just as fallacious as viewing it
as a tool of the gods. Technology is a tool of human beings and is useful only as
human beings have created it.
5
Just repeat after me: technology is a tool, technology is a tool, technology is a
tool....
When I first began to think about writing this book, a number of
contradictory thoughts occurred to me. Should this work be aimed at rank
beginners of technology for teaching, should it be more aimed at those who need
just a little more help in new areas? Should the work be a CD ROM, a new
recordable DVD Disc, or should it be a printed book? What is the need for this
book? What level of sophistication in language and jargon should it use? Let me
begin with my intended audience since answering this question answers many
others.
Audience
I am currently a professor at the State University of New York at Stony
Brook (Long Island) where I teach a variety of courses and direct the Language
Learning and Research Center. Most of the courses I now teach are graduate
courses, mainly aimed at current and future teachers of languages. I have
discovered over the years that there is no textbook for my students seeking to
learn how to use current technology in their (language) teaching. Instead, there
are some wonderful articles, monographs, and research papers dealing with a
wide variety of questions concerning the intersection of technology and teaching.
There are also treasure troves of experiences learned by real teachers in the
trenches which are shared via word of mouth. In my courses we begin by
exploring current media and technology together and sharing experiences, with
me being the leader in sharing. We write up papers and do projects using
technology and share those as well. Later on we study different aspects of
learning and knowledge acquisition. We then discuss how technology can be
plugged in to different styles of learning and manners of acquisition. We discuss
how current pedagogical practices and theories address the questions and
problems of technology and how they do not. By the end of my courses my
students are ready to tackle problems of how to use technology in their own
praxis. Yet this does not mean that they have become experts in technology and
teaching. I feel that very few teachers can even begin to claim that. Yet they are
ready to use technology and keep trying to adapt it to their classes and students.
They are not afraid to try.
So, my first purpose in writing this book is to create a textbook for my
students and all those who have the same needs my students do. My purpose is
to write a book that all of my students can use, whether they are very familiar
with technology and teaching or are not. I intend to write a book which appeals
to a huge variety of learners, yet never forgetting the least advanced. As a result
I will try to keep in mind some of my teachers as the people to whom I address
this book. Let me give some actual quotations from my students on the first day
of class when I ask them to introduce themselves and give the class some idea
why they are taking this course. They will illustrate my target audience(s)
Professor Ledgerwood, I am terrified to take your course. I have never
had a computer in my life and now my school district is putting one in my
classroom and I dont know what to do with it. Please help me!
6
Hi. I love computers and I use them all the time. I am an e-mailaholic,
I guess. But I dont know what good they are for learning languages. I also
dont know anything about using pure audio or video for learning.
Yes, hello. I am fascinated by what I read about computers being used
for individualized learning. This I can understand, but in a classroom?
I think I already know how to use audiotape and videotape well, but I
guess I can learn some new tricks. I can even see some uses for computers, but
what is this internet thing I keep hearing about? Is it really some kind of
highway?
Hi again. I really enjoyed your first course but now my district has
decided that I am some kind of techno guru. They are talking about putting in a
network and classroom labs. What are they talking about? What should I be able
to tell them?
Beyond my own students who are with me for one to four semesters and
have some time to digest what I am sharing with them, I get calls from all over
the country asking me for advice on how to put in language centers and how to
create technology-assisted spaces. Answering these calls is much harder. I
usually discover that the callers fall into one of three camps: the teacher faced
with the impending doom of a technology invasion, the (usually) well-meaning
administrator who knows they want something but not what nor what it should
do, or the technological wizard who knows the technology extremely well but
has no clue as to what teachers might want to do with it. Let me give some
examples of these three groups:
1) A teacher from a local school district who knows me socially called me
to ask what kind of lab he needed for his Spanish students. I soon realized that
he knew little about teaching with any technology much less what kinds of
questions he should face in creating facilities. I spent a long time with him over
the next year answering questions, while teaching him some of the questions he
needed to ask himself and his colleagues.
2) My own (older) brother who is an elementary school principal called
me on the phone this summer asking me to explain the intricacies of networking
and what he should be asking for for his school. I quickly realized that he
didnt have a clue as to any of the terms normally used by those putting in
networks. I then began to teach him appropriate vocabulary so that he could
hold his own in discussions with his wizards while trying to push him to think
about what the teachers would want these networks for.
3) When I consult at various colleges and universities in the U.S. I usually
find that a computer guru has already made decisions on what kinds of
computers faculty and students should have. Few are the enlighted ones who
actually think of software and usage before hardware. As a result I often wind
up attempting to undo damage already done in this area and many others.
So, this book is also aimed at all of the three groups of people calling me
(and calling many others!) It is also aimed at those to whom I have given
workshops discussing technology and learning and tours of my own facility at
Stony Brook. Many people who have heard me come to me later with questions
about facilities, types of instruction make sense with various technologies, and a
desire to hear what kind of help and support I think they will need to succeed.
This book can give them answers to their questions that they can take to their
7
schools with them, without trying to drag yours truly along.
Finally, this book is intended to accompany the Students Guide to Using
Technology for Language Learning that I am publishing as well. I would advise all
of you to read through that slim volume before reading this one. I think the easy
format and language of the Students Guide should prepare you for the need to
deal with all of the complexities of this volume.
Format
It is so tempting to try to use the technology I discuss in this book in the
format of this work. Just imagine having a CD ROM in your hands instead of
this mass of paper pages bound together. Imagine being able to put the CD ROM
into your computer and then see me pop up and face you giving you parts of this
introduction live. Imagine being able to view examples of good teaching using
various technologies and see how students react. Imagine being able to walk
through a 3D Language Center space feeling where the chairs, desks, equipment,
and screens should be. Imagine being able to see sight lines and even hear
different noise levels depending upon carpeting and wall/ceiling treatments.
However, guess what? The people this book is most aimed at would have no
idea how to access its information in CD ROM format, much less DVD-RAM--
assuming they could crack both of the acronyms to start the process of using the
material. So, let us be retro and stay with the well-tried and true format of
the book. Yet, as Donald Norman, one of the best-known popular writers on
psychology and the computer age has said, a book is a tool, just as a computer is
a tool (Norman). Since tools are the subject of this work, using one tool instead
of another need not be a problem. Nevertheless, it is planned for a second
edition of this book to have a CD ROM/DVD ROM as part of the work. Then all
of the video examples I mention above can be part of the whole. Still, pictures,
diagrams, and other aids will be used in the book whenever possible, if only to
relieve the tedium of monomedia.
Composition
Now that we have established the basic philosophy of the book, its
intended audience and its format, what does it actually contain? As a person
with a bachelors and masters degree in history, I cannot even begin to
imagine not discussing where we have been before discussing where we are or
may go.
The first chapter does what most of my students clamor for the most, it
presents an overview of the different technologies currently used for teaching
with the most important technical features of each. Leaving aside books and
paper for others, I begin with audio technology in all of its forms. After audio I
explain technical features of video of all kinds, including satellite dishes. After
video, I proceed to computers and the internet, explaining why the two are not
the same, as well as paralleling the presentations of earlier technologies. In fact,
it might be said that computers and the internet have the same type of relation as
audio and video.
The second chapter finally begins to talk about teaching with technology
(in much more profound a manner than the student guide did!). I begin, again,
8
with audio and finish with the internet. Here I will get more into differences in
teaching in the classroom, vs. labs, and out-of-class activities. I will use my
students ideas and tips and tricks as well as my own. I will also use ideas and
comments gleaned from my colleagues in the profession of teaching with
technology as well as from formal presentations I have seen. I will try to
attribute these ideas whenever possible. Yet the problem with tracing
innovations in teaching is that tips and tricks are rarely published. They are
spread from one teacher to another by word of mouth. Thus a truly good idea
becomes spread so quickly that giving its origin becomes impossible.
Nevertheless, as can be seen, this chapter is a collaborative effort in a major way.
The third chapter is an attempt to see through the looking glass into the
future. Here is where I discuss the dreaded distance learning as well as the
future of teaching with technology in general. I will make no claim to being
prescient. However, not trying to help others make their way into the misty
future seems irresponsible to me when I and others I read have the ability to
make some stab at it.
The final chapter of the book will give my conclusions about what has
been said and presented throughout the book, attempting to complete the circle
between where you are now and where you will be then.
The book will also contain an index, a bibliography of much more detailed
works for study, as well as some appendices my students find helpful and a few
lesson plans some of my students have developed. Secondary school teachers
often seem to live and die by lesson plans. Not having some seems wrong in a
book like this as well.
Going Forward Backwards
So, we are finally ready to start looking at the past to be able to proceed
toward the future. Let us go forth to the 1890s and the history of teaching with
modern technology.
9
Chapter One: An Overview of Media From Audio to Computers
What is every teachers nightmare when walking into a classroom,
knowing that their lesson relies on using technology? Right, that the damned
equipment wont work and that thirty students will start to smirk and then
openly laugh before getting completely out of control. Many teachers become
helpless when faced with any machine used for teaching in their classrooms.
Most turn pale when faced with computers, and almost all are clueless when
faced with the internet.
It is the purpose of this chapter to discuss some of the technical aspects of
all the media currently used in teaching, starting with that most familiar to
teachers, audio, and moving as far into the future as we can. It is NOT the
purpose of this chapter to show off my own knowledge of all of these
technologies, but rather to help teachers understand some of the basic features of
these technologies. It is vital for teachers to have a basic understanding of how
these technologies work including how different machines plug into each other
so that teachers, themselves, can solve normal problems with equipment. It is
also vital that teachers understand what the differences between subcategories of
the technologies are, and understand some of the advantages and disadvantages
of the different technologies so that they can choose the appropriate technology
to assist with their pedagogical goals.
I will have to use some technical terms, perhaps to some readers disgust.
Yet not giving the proper language to use to describe problems, features, and
aspects of these technologies is doing a disservice. When the technician
(assuming there is one!) or the colleague comes in to solve a problem a particular
teacher cant, it is important for both the complainant and the fixer to have some
words in common. Not only does this save time, it allows the repairer to assume
that the complainant will have looked at all of the obvious problems first. To
make using and learning the technical terms a bit less daunting, I am also
including a definition of them in Appendix A, located on page 250 of this book,
and have created an index which gives these terms their location in the text
proper.
I. Audio in General
10
If there is one technology almost all teachers feel familiar with, it is audio.
Even the oldest teaching teachers remember listening to radio from the time they
were growing up and having telephones available. This familiarity translates
well into the classroom. By the late 1990s most teachers have little hesitation
using audio for teaching, as long as they feel audio makes sense for their
teaching. They have almost no hesitation using some type of audiotape machine
for both playback and recording of material. Yet it is important to realize that all
audio is not the same. There are important standards differences and even
media differences in audio. One example of a media difference which I give
above is the telephone. Telephones are certainly not audiotapes. Although few
teachers would even think of using the telephone for classroom teaching, it is
used for some types of distance learning and it is used, indirectly, in other audio
materials. I also believe that it can be used, in its internet guise, for very
interesting classroom projects, but will come back to that in Chapter Three. In
the past teachers have used long playing records for teaching as well, but now
audio for teaching is essentially limited to two types: audiotape--especially
audiocassette tapes--and digital audio.
Audiotape
Audiotape has a history dating from the late 1950s, yet it only became a
universal medium with the audiocassette in the 1970s. The first audiotape
common machines were bulky and heavy and used what was called the reel-to-
reel system. Although not quite museum pieces, there are very few reel-to-reel
machines not stored in attics or back closets. Their disadvantage was their size
and weight. The early machines were portable only with difficulty. Even later
machines were still heavy, loaded with vacuum tubes, as well as relatively large.
Yet the real advantage these early machines had was the fact that they
used tape and not another medium. Tape, in all of its media manifestations, has
one enormous advantage; that is that it is easy to place new material on it, in
other words, tape is recordable. Early phonographs had been recordable as well,
although the sound quality is rather unexeceptional at best. By the time the
grammaphone became the stereo high fidelity player, recordability had become a
feature no longer deemed necessary on any large scale. The entertainment
industry had helped with this change as well, knowing it would earn much
higher profits if it did all of the recording for sale and not consumers. Yet the
change from LPs to tape, once begun, could not be reversed. The quality of tape
improved dramatically, especially when car manufacturers became involved in
the industry. From reel-to-reel to 8-track and finally to audiocassette in all of its
manifestations, audiotape remained the one medium that was both cheap and
easily recordable. It is no wonder that it became the standard for all sound
recording.
Audiocassettes
Audiocassette tapes now come in many different flavors. The first
difference is the length of time on the tapes. Tapes commonly come in 60 minute,
90 minute, and 120 minute lengths, although other, more specialized lengths, are
11
available. There are even different types of mini-cassettes used in dictating
machines, again with different amounts of time on them.
For language use, most centers making copies of tapes recommend using
90 minute tapes, for the simple reason that textbook publishers are known for
putting times like 33 minutes on one side of a tape and 20 minutes on the other.
Thus a 90 minute tape can hold one of these tapes easily while a 60 minute tape
cannot.
Audiotapes also come in a wide variety of quality levels as well. Yet, the
difference between HQ (high quality) tapes, and steel-banded tape is not always
apparent, especially when making tape recordings of individual voices or
making home-based audio recordings. My advice is not to go with the cheapest
audiotape but not the most expensive either, for most user needs. The cheapest
audiotapes, not surprisingly, often contain cheaper tape. The result is that the
tape often is more brittle. This makes it easier to tear and break and not so good
for long life. The most expensive tapes, on the other hand, offer little extra sonic
quality or longer life for their extra money.
Audiocassette recorders are now small and cheap. Audiotape, itself, is
cheap. Using the machines can be as easy as pushing the record or the play
buttons. However, these machines can be a bit more complicated when the tape
recorders are plugged into speakers. Please see my diagrams and discussions of
video for a presentation on how to connect parts of audio machines. Still, most
machines are quite simple to use. Institutions usually have machines for
available for teachers who need them although some teachers simply bring
audiocassette players into their classrooms from their homes, using materials
they, themselves, have made or recorded. In the next chapter we will discuss
some activities involving audiotape.
The Audiocassette Language Lab
(Please also see my longer discussion of audiolabs in the previous
chapter). Language teachers, represent a special case here, since they often have
to use language labs. Many institutions are still purchasing technology of the
60s, the audio language lab. This is, still, a room with its own carrels, chairs,
and equipment. This room is usually permanently laid out for using the
equipment in it with little flexbility for changing it. The traditional purpose
for this room was to allow teachers are still able to control student access to audio
imput, using a console. The media used is still primarily audiocassette tape in
these labs, although the fanciest of them have videotape and computer imput
available to students as well. The advantage to these systems is teacher control
over what appears on the student screens or is heard in their headphones. The
disadvantages, however, are numerous. These systems are expensive, inflexible,
and deprive students of control over their learning. In addition, it is often
difficult to split a lab so that students in these labs can benefit from multiple
audio, video, or computer imputs. Thus lockstep learning is encouraged by
these facilities, at a high price. A further disadvantage of these machines is that
they often use a special one 1/2 track or two track system which allows students
to record their voice in a special area of the tape, not interfering with the original
material found on the tape. This is good for the security of the original tape;
however, teachers desiring to hear what students have recorded on these tapes
12
will need to use one of these machines to do so. They cannot use a home
machine to hear their students recordings.
Digital Audio
One of the innovations of the latter half of the twentieth century is the
change from analog media of one type or another to digital. The real spark in
this change has been the computer, the original digital medium. However, audio
was the first mass market medium to follow the change from analog waves to
digits of off and on.
Digital audio was introduced in the early 80s and quickly caught on. the
audio compact disc or CD (please note I follow the spelling convention of using
disc for laser-read media and disk for magnetically-read media) was a small
thin disc which had information composed of digits read by lasers. The early
machines improved rapidly and the discs, themselves, became marvels of
technology. Music led the surge to CD with serious listeners astounded at the
clarity and range of sound coming from inexpensive players. Some purists
insisted (and still do insist) that digital audio is cold and lacking in analog
warmth. Yet digital audio on CD made dramatic headway, helped by the
entertainment industry. It was pleased to have high-quality audio available on
an inexpensive medium which was not copiable. This meant that copyright was
again protectable in a way it had not been before the growth of the audiocassette.
By the late 80s both audiocassette and audio CD had become the two most
important audio-only media used in spite of a rather feeble attempt by the record
(LP) to stage a comeback.
In the early 90s the Japanese tried to introduce a new player to the digital
audio world, digital audio tape (DAT). DAT was supposed to provide both the
advantages of digital sound along with the recordability of tape and its low cost.
However, this time politics and business raised their heads. The U.S.
government, pushed by the entertainment industry, decided to hold off on
allowing DAT into the U.S. As a result, this promising hybrid technology was
never allowed to have the effect it could have had. By the time of its
introduction, finally, into the U.S. it found few takers and thus never became a
technology with sufficient market to ensure low prices. DAT is more popular in
Europe and Asia than it is in the U.S., but even in other continents this
technology has remained rather marginal.
A final type of digital audio which was introduced in the late 1980s is that
of computer-based digital audio. Computers were given sound capability in the
1980s and eventually were able to read digital audio CDs (using their CD ROM
drive). However, let me discuss computers and digital audio in the context of the
computer section below.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that digital audio is found on more media
than audio CDs, it is here that digital audio has its mass market. So, even in the
late 1990s the two main media for audio use are digital audio CDs and
audiocassette tape. This situation is about to change in the next year or two with
the introduction of the recordable DVD (to be discussed in chapter four), yet for
the present it is important to compare and contrast these two media for teaching
and educational uses.
13
Advantages and Disadvantages of Audio Media
The audiocassette retains a great number of advantages over CDs.
Audiocassette recorders and audiocassettes are found the whole world over at
very affordable prices. The recorders are as little as $20 US with recorded and
blank tapes available for as little as $1 US or even less. Thus not only do teachers
have access to these machines and tapes, but almost every student has access to
one as well. In addition, audiocassette players, together with radios, are the most
common sound-producing media in automobiles. Thus students who drive a lot,
such as University commuters, can listen to tapes in their cars as well as in their
rooms. The sheer ubiquity of audiocassette and its single format throughout the
world have rendered it useful for teachers. This does not mean, however,
that tape is without disadvantages. No type of tape is a perfect medium.
Although tape is wonderful in that it can be changed to be recorded on, it is just
as easy to change in bad ways. Tape is easy to break, to tear, to crinkle, and to
mutilate. Somewhat negating this fact, is that it is not too difficult to repair
minor tape problems and the ways of doing the repairs are fairly intuitive, even
to non-technical people. Still, since tape is read through a mechanical and
magnetic device, it must be exposed, and be outside of its case, while being read.
Thus any mechanical problems with the reader expose the tape to immediate
damage. In addition, tape ages. The older the tape (and the more poorly stored)
the more likely it is to deteriorate while being read. It can go all the way from
losing audio fidelity to breaking. Older tape and cheaper tape also is more prone
to creating tape dust which clogs up tape readers. This is not actually dust,
but fine residue caused by the friction between the tape and its mechanical
readers (the capstans in the tape player).
Thus tape is not a perfect medium, especially for long-term or high-quality
recording. In fact, I dare any of those of you reading this book to say you have
not had problems with audiotape at some point or another. I can remember
spending hours trying to repair one of my favorite music tapes which was
chewed up by my cars player. Nothing like using an old Bic pen rolling the
tape back and forth and pulling the tape out of the case trying to get the crease in
the tape repaired. Of course, even repaired, its quality is forever impaired. A
final problem with tape is that it is also prone to slipping. This is not so bad
when using a tape recorder or player by itself. It is merely annoying to find that
the counter showing places on the tape is off by a few numbers after a very few
fast-forwards and rewinds of the tape. However, when connecting a tape player
to another medium, such as a computer, this annoyance becomes a serious
problem. The computer expects a certain place on the tape to play every time,
using the counter of the player. Thus the computer may have an exercise which
assumes a particular taped sentence being heard. Slippage can cause that
sentence to start late, early, or not start at all.
An additional problem with analog media which affects tape is the lack of
random access. What do I mean by this term?--simply that accessing a particular
place on a tape is not a simple process. Here is the norm for teachers using tapes:
first, you the teacher fast-forward/rewind the tape to the approximate place you
need and then push play and rewind back and forth until you find the exact
location on the tape. After finding the location, you then take the tape out and
refuse to let anyone else use it until you use it for your class. This is the most
14
common scenario for teachers using tape (audio or video) for teaching. Another
possibility is to try using the counter on the tape machine (assuming the machine
has one). You set the counter to 0 after starting the machine and inserting
your tape at its beginning. Then you find the spot on the tape you wish. You
note the counter number and then eject the tape. When you need the tape for
class, you rewind the tape to the beginning, then you set the counter to 0, and
fast-forward to the counter number you have written down. Upon reaching the
magic number as much as five precious and difficult-to-come-by MINUTES later,
you push play and see how far off the spot on the tape is. With a very high-
quality machine and new tapes, this spot should be fairly accurate. However, not
given these conditions, the spot could be as much as thirty seconds to a minute
off. Of course, if you want to use more than one spot on a tape, repeat this
process as many times as you need those places on the tape. Now, given the
difficulties of finding a spot on a tape and the time it takes to find that spot, how
many teachers are going to insist, when possible, on their own copy of a tape and
their own machine for playing it? Do I see everybodys hand up in the room?
For audiotape it might be possible for everyone to have their own machine and
tape. For videotape, as will see, it will not be.
Given the problems of using tapes, with their breakage, their slippage,
their often inadequate counters and their lack of random access why do teachers
continue to use them? The answers we have given above stress their cheapness,
their ubiquity, their convenience and their recordability. However, we can also
say here, that there are very few other choices for affordable media, as we will
see below.
II. Visual Media
Visual Media in General and Still Images
Images and videos have been an important media since the first still visual
media, drawings and paintings, were done in pre-history. Still visual media of
all kinds remains important and is often used well in teaching. The most
common still visual media now used are photographic still frames, whether in
the form of slides or frames on a videodisc or CD ROM, images cut out of a
newspaper or magazine, or pictures in a textbook. Teachers have long known
how to use images to generate narratives from their students, or how to use
images to produce associations that they wish to use for analysis. Still, it is not
the purpose of this chapter to describe how to cut out images from newspapers
or books or describe how to teach with visual media, a task to be undertaken in
the next chapter. Here we are describing the technology itself and the only
current technology devoted only to still frame presentation are the slide projector
and the overhead projector.
Mass market slide projectors date from the 1960s and have become a
simple technology to use. Most use the Kodak carrousel which allows one to
drop in slides in a circle, upside down, and then use the manual control or
remote controller to move forward or backward between slides. This machine
has become as simple to use as possible. Still, remembering exactly how to drop
slides in and how to change the projectors light bulbs can cause some problems
for its users. In addition attempting to locate the exact spot in the room and the
15
exact height necessary for the projector to show its image in the desired fashion
on the wall (screen) can give pause to teachers. My advice for this technology, as
for all others, is that the teacher check out the machine ahead of time, perhaps in
a planning period. Then they can feel comfortable seeing how the slides drop in
and where the sweet spot in the room is for positioning the machine. I also
advise checking the light bulbs in the machine, making sure that if there is an
extra bulb slot for a replacement bulb, that that slot has a good bulb in it. There
is nothing so frustrating as having a whole carrousel of great slides loaded,
starting up the slide projector and burning out a bulb, then finding no extra bulb
to replace the burnt out one. Finally, it is a good idea to leave the fan on the
machine with the bulb turned off if possible for a few minutes before turning the
machine off completely. This gives the light bulb a chance to be cooled off by the
fan.
Yet, even with their advantages, including relative simplicity in their
technology, slide projectors are in the process of becoming an outdated
technology. Slides can now be produced on videodiscs or computer media
which gives the teacher the advantage of random access and very high-quality
images and the possibility of organizing the slides in different ways for different
groups of students.
The other still motion visual presentation device commonly used, the
overhead projector, show no sign of dying out the way the slide projector is
starting to. For many teachers, and especially language teachers, the overhead
projector is more important than a textbook. From the 1960s, again, the overhead
projector has become a fixture in most school classrooms. Its advantages are
obvious: 1) it allows a teacher to write out their notes and instruction aids for
students as they are teaching. Yet unlike the competing technology of
blackboards or whiteboards and chalk or pens, the image an overhead projector
shows is usually clearer and more legible than a blackboards. 2) Overheads
also allow for different colored pens to be used which can emphasize and
contrast different parts of an example or explanation. 3) Commercially
produced verheads now often accompany most textbooks. Thus a teacher can
use an instructional aid that the textbook produced has determined fits in a
particular chapter. 4) Most importantly, perhaps, using prepared overheads
allows a teacher to write out their notes ahead of time and then present them to
the students as they are ready. This beats blackboards all hollow. No one has to
worry about blackboards being erased at the wrong time or not being available
for the teachers to write on ahead of class. In addition, a particularly good
presentation, written on overheads, can be saved and used more than once, or
even over many years. Thus overhead projectors are an advance over traditional
blackboards and remain useful technology, giving teachers more control over
their instruction.
The technology of overhead projectors is very similar to that of slide
projectors, perhaps not too surprisingly. My advice to teachers who rely upon
overhead projectors for daily use is that they become quite familiar with the light
bulbs used in the machines, perhaps even carrying an extra bulb in their briefcase
or satchel bag. These machines rarely die but they do burn bulbs up at what can
be an alarming rate. Once again, just as with slide projectors, it is useful to leave
the fan on after turning off the bulb to cool the bulb before turning off the
machine completely. I also advise using pens that are clearly labeled for
16
overhead use. I have had machines (and the new whiteboards) damaged by
teachers using incorrect pens.
Interestingly enough, overhead projectors have acquired a new life in the
computer age. One of the most common ways of projecting a computer image is
to use what is called an LCD (liquid crystal display) panel on top of an overhead
projector. Thus the computer sends its image out to this thin panel which then is
laid on the projector, using the projectors light to display the panels image on
a screen or wall. What is also interesting is that the most advanced media
presentation rooms are adapting the overhead model with new technology. Thus
it is possible to use overheads and media like overheads in these rooms as well.
Motion Video
Now let us turn to motion video which has introduced a new world of
problems and advantages for teachers. Motion pictures or movies date from the
beginning of the twentieth century and massmarket television dates from the late
1940s. Yet motion video was not used extensively for teaching until the 1960s.
The reason for this was due to both technological limitations and content
limitations. Until the 1960s film was an expensive media and movies had strict
copyright limitations. Teachers might tell their students to watch a certain film
in the movie theater, or even take a class to the theater; however attempting to
show movies in their schools was often a difficult process. Television had little in
the way of educational programming in the United States until the Sputnik
revolution refered to in Chapter One took place. By the 1960s, however, teachers
had educational programming available to them via live television programs in
their classes, educational films, educational filmstrips (still images located on
film), or even home-produced films. Once again the 60s mark a change in the use
of educational technology. Yet these technologies of film, television, and
filmstrip left teachers wishing for much more.
Television
Live television is the easiest to explain. As audiences have known for
ages, it is often frustrating to have to sit and be lectured at. Watching a television
program presents just such a frustration for teachers and their students. Unlike
the classroom situation where a good teacher ensures that a class is on the same
page as the teacher and where the presentation can be interrupted by questions,
comments, or breaks, the television presention continues at its own, pre-
determined, pace. In the 60s there was no possible interaction between the
televised presenters and their audience. Attempts to plan for possible
interactions become even falser than no attempt. There is something quite
disturbing about a televised presenter stopping every so often, pretending to
hear a voice coming out of the air, and then replying to an unheard question or
comment, so that a listener has to determine what question or comment should
have been heard. Making the situation worse was that any differences in levels,
student situation, or contexts had to be ignored by any television presenter for
large student audiences. I remember listening to a Spanish teacher broadcasting
in the 60s who used words and phrases that had no meaning for us and were not
in our textbooks (and this was in the era before proficiency-oriented learning
17
when such strategies are done on purpose). Yet she looked at us as if we were all
on the same page. Disturbing. In the 90s it is possible for television presenters to
have interaction with students, yet few do. Only with the growth of distance
learning and localized two-way video presentation (giving a new and more
etymologically-pure meaning to tele-vision) have the problems of the 60s
been eased.
Yet foreign language teachers and all teachers interested in television have
had to deal with another problem. Since the world was a bigger place in the
early days of television and electronics companies had not all become global
players, three different ways (standards) for showing a moving image on a
cathode-ray display developed. In North America the National Television
Standards Committee developed the way now called NTSC for the Committees
acronym. This standard is used in a few countries in Central and South America
and in East Asia, especially Japan and Taiwan. In Europe a competing standard
now called, PAL, for its acronym was developed and now has the largest share of
the worlds marketplace, along with variants on it called N-PAL and M-PAL.
The final standard was developed in France and was used extensively in the
Soviet Union and allied countries until the breakup of this bloc. These countries
are now leaving SECAM and moving to PAL.
The major difference between these standards is the number of lines of
resolution and the speed of refreshing the picture on the screen. It is generally
agreed that PAL is the best method for showing television. However neither
NTSC users nor SECAM users show interest in moving to PAL. Nevertheless, it
is hoped that the new digital television standards being discussed with end this
problem with the new digital standard being accepted worldwide. However,
until this happens teachers wishing to use PAL or SECAM broadcasts in NTSC
countries will have to use either a multistandard monitor (TV) for seeing live
(satellite) programs broadcast in PAL or SECAM or a multistandard VCR for
seeing tapes of these standards on an NTSC television. Unfortunately VCRs
which can convert PAL and SECAM with acceptable quality are very expensive,
partially because SECAM is not a big player in the world marketplace.
PAL/NTSC VCRs are much cheaper and can provide most of what teachers need
to use PAL tapes.
Satellite Dishes
It is hard to know where to put an introduction to satellite dishes.
However, most people in the USA use these dishes to watch television
programming so I decided to discuss this media here. At one time most colleges
and universities had at least one satellite dish for receiving televised
programming and so did many secondary schools. Before the growth of cable
television and its current common seventy channels, satellite dishes were a
common fixture in much of America, especially in rural areas which couldnt
support the infrastructure costs of cable television. Yet these large anabolic
dishes are on the decline. Public television and cable television have replaced
much of the need for satellite in the USA. In addition those institutions
interested in foreign programming had to resolve the broadcast standards
problem mentioned in the previous section or had to hope that the foreign
program they wished to use was transmitted in NTSC format. Yet what probably
18
spelled the real decline of older satellite dishes and uses was the growth in signal
scrambling and the need to pay for the service and pay for a special decoder
box to see it.
In 1990 it was possible to watch most of the major cable channels free
via low-end (C-Band only) satellite dishes. Foreign language teachers had
free access to programming from France (Quebecs TV5), Mexico
(Telemundo), South America (Canal Sur), Russia, Italy (RAI), and Germany
(Deutsche Welle). Of this programming only Deutsche Welle remains free for
educational users and unscrambled. In addition the two main US providers of
international programming, SCOLA and the International Channel have now
gone to digital and scrambled transmissions. Using these programs requires a
high-end (C and KU-Band) satellite dish and a $1500 decoder as well as a
subscription to the service. These fees for services and machines are beyond the
means of many institutions, especially for humanities groups.
Satellite dishes have made a partial comeback with the introduction into
the USA of the small digital satellite receiver dish, a dish extremely popular in
much of Europe. This is a small dish which is simply hung from the outside of a
house and which picks up programming from one satellite only. Users pay a set
fee per month (much like a cable TV fee) to use the programming. In Europe this
programming is a blessing for language learners and those interested in other
European countries since programming from many countries is available in
others. Yet in the USA the programming available via these dishes and their
program services is much like cable television with few programs that are
international in origin. This fact is even more disappointing since the first digital
satellite dishes introduced into the USA were exclusively set up for international
programs. Yet these services are now in receivership (pun intended). Still,
satellite dishes are still in use and are interesting to teachers as well for their role
in distance learning, see chapter four.
Film and Filmstrips
Film is another media with many problems and a media, like satellite
dishes, in decline. It has some real advantages, the most important being its
recordability. However, it is more brittle and expensive than tape and more
difficult to use. Film projectors, are also not the easiest machines to use. They
are large, cumbersome, heavy, and rely upon easily frangible reels of film. Even
current film projectors have nothing like the counters of tape machines nor allow
for much in the way of finding a particular spot on a film. Trying to use a series
of short sequences of film, the way teachers try with tape is not easy. In fact
using a film projector at all is not as simple as using other media.
I will never forget the year I was an assistant in France (around 1980) and
was required to attend a workshop given by the Lyc_es audiovisual
department. The head audiovisual librarian, dressed in the requisite blue lab
coat of the French technician, gave us a lecture on film and film projectors which
took up twenty minutes. Then she carefully showed me how to thread the film
in the machine, how to put the film onto the take-up reel, giving me lectures on
how not to start or stop the machine at the wrong times, how to thread the film
for safest rewinding, and so on and so on. As a result of her careful training and
pained expressions when she thought about my actually touching her carefully-
19
guarded equipment, I never used a film projector in France or back in the United
States upon returning! I have to say I am relieved that the VCR, videotape, and
newer motion video media have nearly made film projectors curiosity items
outside of cinemas.
The final film media, the filmstrip, is still used in education on a regular
basis. Combining a filmstrip with an audiotape gave a near illusion of motion
video in the 60s, when expensive film was the only rival for educational use. Yet
the filmstrip is still media not motion video and its still images located on film
frames are the least flexible of still media. Whereas slides can be shuffled in a
carrousel to change the order of slide presentation and pictures and overheads
are also shuffleable, filmstrips can only be used in the way they are created.
Since filmstrips can only be created by commercial companies (normally), there is
not even the possibility of materials creation present in the other still media or
film. It should be obvious why videotape is replacing the filmstrip/audio tape as
well as film.
Videotape
The creation and standardization of the videotape in the late 1970s
represents a major step forward in the growth of video technology as was
discussed in Chapter One. Yet this step was not without hurdles. The first
videotape players were expensive machines and there was no standardization of
size of tape cartridges or types of tracks. In addition there was confusion about
whether videotape players or videotape recorders would emerge triumphant in
the marketplace. By the early 1980s it was finally clear that videotape recorders
would win over players, especially since the cost difference between recorders
and players became inconsequential. At the same time the battle between the
two major videotape standards, Betamax and VHS was resolved.
The struggle between Beta and VHS is a textbook example of how the free
market works. The Sony Corporation, then (and probably now) the worlds
preminent consumer electronics manufacturer, developed Beta as its videotape
standard and spent millions of dollars promoting it, attempting to establish it as
the videotape standard. Its advantages were a smaller cartridge than VHS and a
higher quality of video produced from its tape recorders. Yet Sony made one
fatal mistake in its fight to have Beta win--it insisted on having Beta be a
closed standard. What this meant was that Sony and only Sony could
produce the machines to play and record Beta tapes. Thus they closed out any
other electronics firm attempting to produce machines for the new videotape
market. Sonys rival, JVC, did not make this mistake. They allowed VHS to
become an open standard from its creation. This meant that the specifications
for the machines were not proprietary to JVC and that any company in the world
could produce VHS video recorders. Soon Betas significant advantages paled
beside marketplace reality as VHS became the de facto standard. Now, Beta has
become a standard only used in high-end studios and has completely dropped
out of the consumer market. VHS is the normal videotape standard. This does
not mean, however, that it is the only one.
Two other videotape standards used by consumers are VHS-C and 8
millimeter. They are not used in home Video Cassette Recorders (VCRs), the
machines attached to home televisions, but are used in camcorders--the portable
20
video CAMera reCORDERS-by consumers. The problem with VHS and
camcorders is that VHS tapes use a rather large cartridge. As a result of this fact
and the somewhat inferior quality of VHS, early VHS camcorders were big,
bulky, and heavy when using a battery. While not nearly as heavy as television
cameras, they were (and are) still heavy enough to make most peoples
shoulders start to ache after an hour of using them. VHS-C (C stands for
compact) was early attempt to alleviate this problem. VHS-C tape cartridges are
about a third as big as the normal VHS cartridge. In fact a VHS-C cartridge is
designed to so that it can fit inside into a normal-sized VHS holder so that it can
be played back in a normal VHS VCR. This then gives VHS-C compatibility with
the VHS players found in almost all homes with VCRs. The small size of the tape
also allows VHS-C camcorders to be a lot smaller in size and in weight. Yet these
advantages of VHS-C are outweighed by its disadvantages. Its tapes contain
only as third the same length as normal VHS tapes. This reduces the amount of
recordable time at high quality recording levels to a short amount. Some early
VHS-C camcorders only allowed for 30 minutes of high-quality recording. This
was not nearly enough for Johnnys birthday party, much less the senior class
play or the evaluation of a teachers hour-long class. As a result, while now
improved, VHS-C tape and camcorders have not become an enormous sales
success.
Sony learned from its earlier Betamax failure when it introduced eight
millimeter tape and 8mm camcorders into the consumer market. It did not insist
on a closed standard for 8mm. As a result, 8mm has become the success that
VHS-C could not with its many advantages over 8mm. 8mm tapes are even
smaller than VHS-C tapes. In fact, it is difficult, at a glance, to differentiate them
from audiocassette tapes, especially in their boxes. As a result 8mm camcorders
can be even smaller than VHS-C ones. Indeed, some of the current 8mm
camcorders really can fit in the palm of a normal sized persons hand. In
addition 8mm is a superior quality tape to VHS. The picture it produces is
sharper with more contrast and responds better to differing light inputs. Like
VHS tape 8mm can be in different lengths and in different levels of quality (from
30 minutes to 120 minutes normally); yet even the entry level of quality is
superior to all but the highest end VHS tape. Unfortunately, however, 8mm has
one major drawback--its frangibility. 8mm tape is very easy to crinkle and
mutilate and its light-weight and even flimsy cartridges are quite susceptible to
damage. Thus it has not replaced VHS as the mainstream consumer video tape
of choice in spite of its advantages. There are non-camcorder 8mm players but
very few and no 8mm tapes for rent from your local Blockbuster video store. Yet
it has become the standard for camcorders with its only future rivals being digital
tape or, perhaps, DVD-RAM (see chapter four).
A final tape standard just emerging for video is digital videotape. Just as
we described earlier with digital audiotape, digital videotape has lots of
advantages over analog videotape. Once again the quality level is higher. Yet
the real advantage of digital videotape is its ability to be used by computers in a
very direct manner. Since the taped material is in digital format, the computer
can read the material directly for editing purposes. At the present time the price
for digital camcorders remains quite high but unless DVD replaces digital
videotape (as well as many other media) the market should grow enough for
these digital tape camcorders to start replacing 8mm camcorders in the future.
21
Laserdisc
As we described earlier, there are lots of disadvantages with using tape for
teaching as well as for other uses. As a result non-tape media have been sought
after for a very long time. The laserdisc or videodisc was the first media to be
produced on a disc and read by lasers. In fact the laserdisc predates VHS
videotape. I can say, myself, that laserdiscs were used by my high school in
science education in the early 1970s. As such they predate audio compact discs
by over ten years.
Laserdiscs have lots of advantages over videotape. First of all, the discs
are not as easily mutilated as tapes. They can be scratched or become dirty, but
cleaning them is usually enough to restore them to perfect status unless they
contain a very deep scratch or gouge. This will cause them to skip in the way
that old long-playing records might skip. Yet current laserdisc players have
three (or more) lasers reading the coded material on the disc. This helps
eliminate all but the most serious problems with discs. Secondly, laserdiscs, not
being tape, are not subject to tape slippage, tape crinkling, and tape deterioration.
Therefore a teacher who needs to find a certain spot on a disc can count on the
fact that the laserdisc player counter will find the exact spot on the disc every
time the disc is played. Thirdly, laserdiscs have random access. Thus, instead of
having to fast-forward and rewind and fast-forward and rewind and play to find
a particular place in the material, a process often taking minutes, a laserdisc
player will find any spot on its disc in seconds. The longest this process takes
with old laserdisc players is eight seconds. Newer players take as few as three
seconds. Reliable and fast random access makes laserdisc players ideal for being
controlled by teachers. The players have very nice remote controls bundled with
them which sophisticated search functions. In addition some manufacturers and
developers have added the ability to be controlled by bar code readers and by
computers to high-end laserdisc players. Fourthly, current laserdisc players also
can access up to four soundtracks and can play some laserdiscs at very wide-
ranging speeds. Finally, the quality of laserdiscs beats the quality of all tapes and
film by a wide amount. Videophiles swear by laserdiscs and film studies faculty
love using them for their quality and their random access. Having read about all
of their advantages, it is easy to see why many teachers love laserdiscs. Very
high-quality materials have been produced for these discs as well, some
involving computer software and computer control over the players. Yet all is
not perfect with this media, either. As one of my teachers put it in class, OK,
when is the other shoe going to drop? If these machines are so great, why
havent they put VCRs out of business?
Unfortunately, the disadvantages of laserdiscs are almost as great as the
advantages. The first disadvantage is that the discs, like old LPs and audio CDs
are not recordable. What you buy in a disc is what you have on a disc,
permanently. Thus there is no way to record a television program, Susys play,
or a class session on a laserdisc. This is not to say that some teachers and
professors have not produced laserdiscs for educational purposes. They have.
But the cheapest method of producing a laserdisc costs a minimum of $300 US
and relies upon specialized companies to do it which can take weeks or even
months to produce a master copy. Thus laserdiscs are not that suitable for the
22
creation of materials on a short-term or non-profit basis. Secondly, laserdiscs do
not hold a great amount of material on them. Some discs hold as little as thirty
minutes of motion video on one side (CAV), others one hour (CLV). Thus discs
have to be turned over and some, longer, programs need more than one disc to
contain them. Thirdly, there are two distinct types of laserdiscs. The first is CLV
or Constant Linear Velocity laserdiscs. These discs hold more material on each
side but they do not allow for the more interesting features of laserdiscs, such as
variable speed playback, still frame pausing and step by step playing. They do
not even allow for searching by frame. Instead one is limited to searching via
chapters IF the disc has any chapters marked on it. However, most commercial
laserdiscs, especially ones for rent, are in CLV format since they can hold a full
movie on one disc. Yet the videophiles and teachers need CAV (Constant
Angular Velocity) discs. These are the discs which have all of the features and
advantages I cite in the previous paragraph. Yet changing discs back and forth
and having three or four discs for one long movie is not an experience which
endears them to many users. Finally, the ultimate nail in the coffin for laserdiscs
is that their video material is not in digital format, but analog. Laserdisc audio
material can be either analog or digital, but the video is analog-only. As the
world becomes more and more digital every day this fact has spelled the
beginning of their end.
CD ROM
The enormous advantages of laserdiscs which I cite above has caused lots
of electronics manufacturers to try to find new media which can negate the
nearly equal disadvantages I cite. The first disadvantage these producers have
worked on is the analog nature of laserdisc video. By the late 1980s it became
clear to most manufacturers that digital would eventually replace analog in all
media. Yet computer manufacturers acted upon this realization first. By 1990
Apple computer had begun to see its early advantage in computer technology
(see below) erode and was having difficulty keeping its prices above its
competition. It had already adapted sound, still images in color, and the mouse
to computers. What remained was motion video. With the help of other firms it
helped adapt the digital audio CD described above to computers. The audio CD
served as the basic disc to be used for this new media since the audio CD was
proven technology (by then) and its material was already in digital format. This
disc then became known as the CD ROM (Compact Disc, Read Only Memory)
and included still visuals and text as well as computer-readable audio. Yet even
the digital audio required what is known as compression which is a way of
storing more data in a smaller amount of disc space for the computer. Motion
video takes an enormous amount of computer disc space, especially for high-
quality motion video. It took the large space available on a CD ROM (600
Megabytes) and Apples new Quicktime compression routine for motion video
to launch the motion video revolution on computers. Non-Apple machines
quickly caught up to Apple and Microsoft introduced its own video compression
programs. However, Quicktime was introduced to Windows as well as the
Macintosh and has become one of Apples major successes.
DVD
23
Yet the motion video software routines and limited space of CD ROMs are
not enough. Manufacturers have experimented with different hardware as well
as software solutions and we will discuss these issues in greater detail below in
the computer section and in chapter four. However, it does appear that new
computers will have either a hardware or software routine built into them which
allows for the display of a standard called MPEG-2 or even an MPEG-3
(Motion Picture Entertainment Group standard number 2 or 3). This allows for
motion video to be displayed on a computer using its full screen at 30 frames per
second, roughly the equivalent of broadcast television. However, using MPEG-2
video requires a lot of space on a disc. 1997s hottest games using motion video
now require as many as 5 CD ROMs for the games. Shuffling back and forth
between one CD ROM disc and another is not a satisfying experience. In
addition, users wishing to see a whole movie on their computer screen (and there
are a number of these people) could not do so on CD ROMs either without this
shuffling of discs. As a result the MPEG group and the entertainment and
computer industry have developed a new disc, the DVD which stands for Digital
Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc or, simply stands for itself, DVD. DVD is still
a new standard embroiled in controversy, however. There were arguments for
several years about it between the different companies involved in it with talks
about the standard for DVD breaking down entirely at times. However, Toshiba
took it upon itself to create the first DVD players (which connect to televisions)
and introduced them in early 1997. By the summer of 1997 it was possible to buy
a DVD drive to attach to a computer. However, there are not as many titles as
most consumers would wish. Making things more difficult for those interested
in international discs, the consortium agreeing on DVD standards decided to
divide the world into five zones with each zone having a different type of
video decompression routine built into their DVDs--shades of the television
standards problem explained above! Yet this problem may yet be solved in a
different way. Nevertheless, until DVD-RAM comes on the scene in late 1998
(recordable DVD) DVD will remain a bit player in electronic media, much like
laserdiscs.
Computers
Books have been written on computers and how to use them with large
amounts of information. In fact some of these will be referenced in the
bibliography at the end of this book. Yet I will attempt to leave in this book only
what I think is the most useful information about computers and put some of
what I might now consider less useful information for most readers into
Appendix A which is my list of computer terms and definitions. Much of the
history of computers for teaching is found in chapter one and I have outlined CD
ROMs above. I wont repeat those discussions here. However, I will get into
some detail about computers and their components here. Why? The answer is
simple. Teachers not only have to deal with computers in labs where their
students are working, nor only in their classrooms (if they are fortunate enough
to have one in their classroom). Now, teachers are developing lesson plans,
handouts, and color overheads on their home computer as well. As a result there
are often no support personnel (friends, spouses, kids) handy when a problem
24
occurs OR when it is time to go out and purchase a new computer for work or
the home. So, let us start by looking at the computer found in our classrooms
(and homes) and analyze what it contains or should contain.
No matter whether we have a computer whose image is projected on a
screen or a computer on a table in a corner, whether we have a new state-of-the-
art Power Macintosh, a Pentium II, or the other extreme of an Apple IIe or the
original IBM PC, we have a machine which reads ones or zeros and uses this
digital data to compute results. Still, producers now reduce text, images, sounds,
and motion video to digital data usable by computers. Computers are becoming
the de facto electronic media. This gradual takeover of all other media has made
them more complicated. At the present moment they contain so many different
pieces and options that it can be a full time job keeping up with their possibilities.
Using them has also become more difficult in some ways, too, since computers
are being stretched to become the ultimate entertainment and information device
while trying to retain their roots. This has forced their operating systems, their
software, and their hardware to the breaking point and rendered them, at times,
unreliable.
As a result, troubleshooting what makes a computer have problems is not
as simple as other media. In the section below on connecting machines and
making them work, I will be able to explain most VCR problems quite easily.
This is not possible with computers. Since there are so many options in
computers and so many parts to it, as well as so much complexity built into
programs and the computers operating system, there are just as many ways a
computer can go wrong. Thus to be able to identify the part of the computer
where the problem is occuring it is necessary to dissect the computer, at least
somewhat, and describe the parts of it. Once again, I will use the simplest
language possible in my descriptions, even at the risk of offending some of my
readers. I apologize for any oversimplification but feel that this risk is one I have
to take to get through to some of my readers.
CPUs, Chips, and Processors
The core of the computer is the Central Processing Unit. This is the very
small electronic machine which does the computing of the digital data.
Nowadays this CPU is in the form of a chip, a very small wafer of electronic
components. The CPU is found on the motherboard of the computer. This is
a long, narrow, metal piece or board which is the center of the computer. The
chip, itself, runs at a certain speed which is listed in megahertz (mhz.).
Essentially the higher the speed the CPU runs, the faster the computer (although
this is an oversimplification as we will see since many factors affect the speed of a
computer) and the quicker programs work. From early days of single-digit
speeds, the fastest common computers now run at over 350 mhz. and 500 mhz
will soon arrive.
The CPU chip is now made by one of about four or five companies in the
world. The largest company making CPU chips is Intel, based in Oregon, USA.
It has made chips since the beginning of personal computers (PCs) and now
makes over 90% of the worlds CPUs. Its first chip for the original IBM PC, one
of the two computers which introduced computers to the consumer mass market,
used the number 48086. Users quickly abbreviated this number to 086. As a
25
result, new chips used the same numbering system. Although there are a few
original IBM PCs still used in schools, most machines use a 386 chip or higher.
After the 486 chip series, Intel decided to use a copyrightable name for its next
generation of chips and decided to call them Pentium using the Greek for five
for its 586-equivalent chips. Instead of using the Greek for six or seven for its
next generation chips, it decided to call its 686 equivalent the Pentium Pro and its
current 786 equivalent, the Pentium II. As with the discussion of megahertz
above, the higher the chip number/name the faster the machine. Learning these
numbers and names is important since software requirements generally list a
certain CPU chip number/name on their packages. Thus if you have a 486
machine in your classroom and the software requires a Pentium II machine, the
software will be unusable in your classroom.
A recent merger between AMD and Cyrix has produced a (small) rival to
Intel worth noting. The chips produced by this company are compatible with
Intel chips and can use the same operating system and software (with a few
exceptions). These Intel and AMD chips use the Microsoft Windows operating
system and a variation of the original IBM operating system, DOS (Disk
Operating System). The fact that the greatest number of these machines use Intel
chips and run Windows for their operating system has led to them being labeled,
Wintel systems. AMD/Cyrix machines are not called Wintel, nor are non-
Intel chipped machines running variations of Windows.
The other major personal computer chip producer in the world is
Motorola with its partner of IBM. They produce the Power PC chip which is
used in Apples Power Macintosh computers. The Apple II series of computers
used one type of Motorola chip and the original Macintosh used a different chip,
a Motorola 68000 chip. Later machines used 020, 030, and 040 chips before
moving to the Power PC chip. The 68000 series was a CISC chip (see Appendix
A) and the Power PC chip is RISC. This new chip marked a major change for
Macintoshes (Macs) and thus some older software will not run on PowerMacs
(very little, thankfully) and some newer software runs only on PowerMacs
(something beginning to become common, especially for internet programs). In
addition the PowerPC chip is found in five different flavors. The original 601
chip is no longer used nor is the 604, although you can still buy older machines
and upgrades which use them. The current slowest chip is the 603e which is
cheaper to make, smaller, and produces less heat. It is found in portable Macs
(Powerbooks) and entry-level machines. The 604e was the fastest PowerPC chip
and used in middle- and high-end Macs until the introduction in late 1997 of the
750/G3/Arthur chip. This chip will soon replace both the 604e and 603e.
Intel, AMD/Cyrix, Motorola, and IBM are constantly working on
reengineering their CPU chips and making them work better with the new
demands placed on computers. From early times a special extra chip was
sometimes attached to the CPU chip, a math co-processsor chip. While this
chip is now a normal part of the CPU chip, Intel has experimented with adding
other extra parts to its CPU chip. The most well-known of these is the MMX
(multimedia extension) chip. Thus there are differences between Pentium and
Pentium MMX systems. Yet the Pentium II series has the MMX instructions built
into it and this appears to be true with Klamath the next generation of Intel
CPU chips. Motorolas current and future chips do not have separate sub chips.
26
Drives
Every computer has a series of drives attached to its motherboard via
busses (electronic connections). These drives are places where data is stored.
The data are then accessed by the CPU for processing. The earliest drive and one
still found in computers is the floppy-disk drive, now often called a diskette or
disk drive. The original floppy disk was indeed, floppy. It was 5 and 1/4 inches
in diameter, soft, and easily frangible and corruptible. This size floppy drive and
this size disk are now longer used on new machines. Apple introduced the
harder and smaller disk, the 3 and 1/2 inch disk in its Macintoshes. Like many
other Mac innovations, this one spread through the whole computer industry
and is now the industry standard for a diskette/disk. The early floppy floppies
held as little as 196 kilobytes (K) of information on them (about 180 pages of text).
Current diskettes hold either 1.44 megabytes (MB or M) or 2.44 MB. Older
computers may have two or three disk drives but current computers have only
one. The diskette has reached the limit of what it can hold in its current
technology and it will likely soon be replaced by another technology.
Along with a (floppy) disk drive, all new computers also have a hard
drive. This is a hard metallic circle contained in a case inside the computer. It
looks a lot like the old floppies but it is hard and can contain a lot more data. Just
as floppies were improved and now hold a lot more data than they did
originally, so have hard drives been improved. Yet where floppies have only
been improved by a factor of twenty, hard drives went through a technological
revolution in the mid 1990s and have improved much more. The first hard
drives had 2 MB of space on them. Current hard drives can contain 10 gigabytes
(G) of space and the end is not in sight for their growth. Hard drives are the
main storage space used currently on computers. Like (floppy) disks, hard drive
disks are writeable. This means that they can be changed by their user to put
new data in and can have old data erased.
A final drive found on all new machines is the CD ROM drive. With
floppy disks maxed at 2 to 3 MB of data space, a new media was needed to
contain the sound, images, and motion video newer computers could access and
understand. As stated above, CD ROMs can hold up to 600MB of information on
them. This jump from 3 to 600 allowed the creation of what is now labeled
multimedia for computers, meaning (usually) programs containing text,
sound, and images. Unlike (floppy) disks and hard drive disks, CD ROMs are
normally NOT writeable. (The exception to this is what is called a CD-R
[recordable] disc which needs a special CD-R drive for making the recording.) A
final note about CD ROM drives is that they have changed the speed at which
they operate since their introduction in the early 1990s. The first CD ROM drives
ran at a certain speed, which was not quite fast enough for multimedia purposes.
Quickly their speed doubled and was labeled 2x (for twice as fast). 4x drives
were the norm for machines by 1996 and 8x is the slowest CD-ROM drive that
can currently be purchased with 24x drives quite common. At the moment, work
on CD ROM drives has been nearly suspended, however, as CD ROM drives will
soon be superceded by DVD ROM (and in late 1998 or 1999) DVD RAM drives.
(See also above and chapter four.)
In addition to these three drives, there are a certain number of optional
drives found on some computers. The oldest is the tape back-up drive.
27
Although hard drive disks are a vast improvement on the original floppy disks in
terms of space, quality and reliablility, they can still be corrupted or fail. Backing
their contents up on tape was the first answer to safeguarding data. Yet as we
saw above tape has plenty of its own disadvantages and reliability problems. A
second answer to the back-up problem was magneto-optical discs which were
writeable (and are much like the current CD-R discs mentioned above). The high
cost of this technology kept it from being used widely, however. Businesses and
institutions containing computers connected together in networks (see internet
below) solved the back-up problem by having large server computers accept
data from client computers for storage and back-up purposes. Yet the home user
was left without a cheap and reliable way to back up his/her data or a way to
move large programs and files from one computer to another. Companies
worked on a way to replace the floppy drive with a new drive that would accept
a new medium with more storage space on it. The Iomega corporation finally
succeeded in the mass market with its Zip drive. Its Zip disks hold 100 MB of
data (instead of 1 to 3 MB) and its cheap price has made it quite common as an
add-on drive (external) to computers, or even as a built-in drive (internal).
Iomega also makes a Jaz drive with now holds 1 G of data. Syquest and
others have produced competitors for the Zip and Jaz drives but have not
succeeded in gaining market share. Other companies now produce their own
version of Iomegas drives, having licensed the technology, and it appears that
some type of Zip or Jaz drive will eventually replace the floppy diskette, perhaps
even able to use the old floppies in them (3M has produced on such drive
already).
Memory
This is probably the most confusing word used with computers. Let me
make the problem simpler by talking about storage memory and electronic
memory. Storage memory can also be called storage space. Thus the
disks/discs used in the drives discussed in the previous section are said to have
some many K, MB, or G of memory on them. In other words these media
remember on their disks/discs so much data or have a memory of that much
data. One non-disk based storage memory area is the ROM chip (ROM for Read
Only Memory, just like CD ROM). This chip has stored on it essential data about
the computer such as how many drives it has, what the date and time is, what
type of chips it uses and the clockspeed of those chips. The information stored
on the ROM chip is often called the BIOS. Nowadays the ROM information may
be stored on the CPU chip in a special area. However, Macintoshes, for example,
still have a separate and very secret ROM chip. This is one of the reasons Macs
and Wintel machines are not compatible, meaning they cant run the same
programs or operating system easily.
Electronic memory is similar but the information or data used in electronic
memory is not stored somewhere permanent and doesnt become digital bits on
a disk, disc or chip. Electronic memory remains electronic. RAM (Random
Access Memory) is completely electronic in nature. When the machine is turned
off, all information that was in RAM is turned off as well (well, almost always).
Yet being electronic in nature and not stored on a physical device makes RAM
faster memory. As a result the operating system and many programs make
28
use of RAM to store vital instructions and information, especially instructions
which need very quick access of memory.
Having more RAM allows machines to process some instructions faster. Indeed
current programs and current operating systems now require a certain amount of
RAM just to function. RAM is stored in special memory chips that are usually
located on the motherboard near the CPU. The price of these chips has been
lowered enough so that computers now contain twice as much RAM on them as
they did a year ago. 32 MB is now the standard for minimum RAM on a
computer and 64 MB is becoming common. Most computers can contain an
enormous amount of RAM, even up to a gigabyte or more. Yet few programs or
systems can make much use of this memory. Finally, a special note is necessary
to point out that RAM chips have changed over the years and gotten better. It is
crucial to know the exact kind of RAM chip a computer uses in adding RAM to a
computer.
Keyboards, Mice, and Joysticks
Now that we have discussed the guts of the box that sits on your desk
or table, it is necessary to discuss what attaches to that box. These three items are
often called input devices. What they do is allow the user to affect a program
or create a program by the users own input. The keyboard comes from the
typewriter but has extra keys which are necessary for some computer programs,
such as the function keys, or the special Apple and Wintel-compatible keys
needed for their computers respective operating systems. Still almost all
computers now have very similar keyboards.
Apple introduced the mouse (the pointing device with a clickable button)
in its Macintosh along with its icon-based graphic-user interface (GUI). It was
necessary to have an easy way to move an arrow around the computer screen
and be able to click on the icons either one time or twice. The mouse (named so
because of its general shape, including its mousetail-like cord hanging from it)
was the answer. Microsoft adopted the mouse for its Windows operating system
as well (as did DOS), but tried to go Apple one better by insisting on two buttons
(or three) on its mice.
Finally, joysticks are devices used in games. One of the most popular
early PC games was Microsofts Flight Simulator. Having an airplane-like
joystick made that game a great deal easier as well as more realistic. Game
creators then started to make use of that piece of hardware for other games, with
the result that all serious game players have joysticks of one kind or another.
Unlike mice and keyboards, however, no educational programs I know of require
joysticks.
Monitors or Displays
Apple introduced color monitors in the mid 1980s and high-quality color
monitors are now essential for all computers and their programs. For most
applications a 14 monitor and a screen resolution of 640 x 480 is necessary to
run them. Some, however, require higher resolutions of 600 x 800 or even 768 x
1024, which are the three common resolutions. Most programs also require the
ability to display 256 colors but others require the ability to display thousands of
29
colors (Windows calls this high or 16 bit color) or millions of colors
(Windows calls this true or 24 bit color). Still images often do not vary in
perceived quality much between these color settings, but motion videos
perceived quality varies enormously between 256 colors and millions of colors.
All computer currently being sold will show high color or thousands of colors on
a 14 monitor. Using larger monitors, however, requires computers to either
have more video RAM (VRAM) or even a special graphics display card
(special board) in them. A special note: Macs and Wintel machines can use the
same monitors, although a special adapter cable may be needed for Macs.
Computers may use monitors to display their images and text; however
more and more often computers use other devices as well. In classrooms and
lecture halls it is becoming the norm for computers to use either an LCD panel or
some type of videoprojector for their display. This allows a whole room of
people to see what the computer is doing. Unfortunately dedicated computer
videoprojectors start at 3000$ US and can cost up to the hundreds of thousands of
dollars. Even LCD panels placed on overhead projectors can easily cost $2000 US
or more. As a result some institutions use television monitors for showing
computer images. However, the type of monitor, type of connection, and type of
digital/analog image converter ( for example, Apples AV machines have a
built-in board) whether built-in or an external box can all affect the television
picture.
Printers
Most classroom computers do not have their own printer; yet this is
probably a mistake. Unless the computer is connected via a network to a nearby
printer, teachers and students lose the opportunity of keeping work in a hard
copy format. Laser printers are still the printer of choice for permanent black
and white text files; however ink jet printers have gotten enormously better in
quality, price, and permanence of print out over the last year, while color laser
printers remain quite expensive. Color inkjet printers can now print
photographic quality images (on special paper, slowly) and I recommend having
one of these cheap printers available, especially for elementary school students
and for special projects. Please also note that many printers now work both with
Macs and Wintel machines, although investigate this matter thoroughly if this
fact is important to you.
Modems and Connecting to Other Computers
A modem is another device with every home computer needs to have. It
is either an internal board or an external box which allows a computer to convert
digital signals to analog data, allowing the computer to use a telephone line to
contact another computer and use that other computer from his or her own home
computer. This connection allows a computer to access the files and data stored
on any other computer and is the heart of the internet. Since modems work with
Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS) it has been a challenge improving the speed
they can transfer data. In 1990 a speed of 2400 bytes per second data transfer via
modem was considered quite good. The current high end for modems is 56000
bytes per second (56K). With certain compression routines at work even higher
30
speeds can be achieved. Some of these routines involve the compression of data
in the computer, others such as PPP (Point to Point Protocol) connections deal
more with the line itself. Since modems transfer data on telephone lines in
analog format, they are now usually both modems for connecting computers
together and fax machines for receiving data from a fax machine (or another
fax/modem). Computers can print the faxed data as an image file or use a
special program to change the image file into a computer-readable file. The most
common of these programs is called an OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
program for converting fax text to computer text. Faxed data is now limited to a
speed of 14000 bytes per second.
Some schools and other institutions rely upon modems for their
computers to connect to other computers in the outside world. While this is a
cheap method for connecting, it is not ideal. When using the internet loading
web pages and especially using multimedia from distant computers can be
painfully slow. Small businesses and those with home offices relying on the
internet are starting to invest in ISDN lines. These are special lines which can
carry data--including normal telephone traffic--but can throughput the data at a
much higher speed. Instead of 56K being the highest achievable speed, 125 to
150K is the norm with compression bringing in much higher speeds. Yet where a
56K modem costs as little as 50$ US an ISDN modem is more like 300$ US. This
does not include the often expensive installation of the line or the monthly fee
and per minute charge most telephone companies insist on. At Stony Brook, for
example, last year only the Provost, the head of Information Technology, and one
science professor had ISDN modems. This situation has changed somewhat this
year, but is indicative of the cost to most home computer users.
A much faster method of connection which is used internally in almost all
postsecondary institutions is to use what is called a direct network
connection. The most common type of connection (and cable) is an ethernet
connection and the most common ethernet connection is via a line called a
10BaseT line, although this situation is changing as everything else in the
computer world is. With a 10BaseT line a computer CAN receive as much as 10
megabytes of information a second. In the internet section we will explain why
this speed of data transfer rarely occurs. With ethernet (or other types of cables)
then computers using a direct network connection do not use a modem and
instead use this special, digital, line. If you look at the back of your computer the
only way to differentiate ethernet line and jacks from POTS is that ethernet cable
and plugs are slightly bigger than telephone cords and telephone jacks. Once
again, teachers should push for this type of connection in their classrooms or at
least from the facility where the school uses the internet. Not having this type of
speed for data transfer will frustrate everyone using the internet often. (See
sections below on Networking and the Internet, too.)
Scanners and Other Attached Devices
_Power computer users often have many other types of equipment
attached to their machines. Many have extra hard drives, more than one printer
and even more than one modem or CD ROM drive and multiple joysticks.
Others have concentrated on the multimedia potential of their computer and
have upgraded their sound card and speakers for better audio quality, some have
31
added special video cards and memory for higher quality video display. High-
end users now have attached special digital cameras for creating computer-
readable images. Some are using small inexpensive digital motion video cameras
(like the Connectix Quickcam for videoconferencing) or the new digital
camcorders for generating digital movies easily editable by computers. Yet the
most useful attached device not yet ubiquitous is the scanner.
A scanner more or less takes a picture of anything put on its drum,
much like a copier. However a scanner then converts the picture into digital data
which a computer can use. Programs such as the OCR programs mentioned in
the modem section then allow the computer to convert pictured text into
computer-readable text which can be edited in a computers word processing
program and have become quite good with clean text. Other graphics programs,
such as Adobes Photoshop, allow a computer user to use an image file taken
from a scanner and then retouch or change the image file as needed. Perhaps the
niftiest scanner is the Visoneer Paperport which looks like an old typewriter
cartridge or a big rolling pin. Papers can be slid inside the roller and then
scanned easily to the computer. Compaq computer has even included a
Paperport as part of its keyboard for some of its computers.
Scanners are quite useful for all types of class projects and for making
internet World Wide Web pages much more exciting. They are useful for
scholars and teachers who need to have old books (textbooks out of copyright,
workbooks, or old typed worksheets and exercises) usable by the computer for
new documents (handouts, worksheets, etc.). Scanners are so useful that I hope
more computer makers follow Compaqs lead and make them a normal part of
any computer system.
When purchasing one to add to a system, be careful that you purchase a 24
bit color scanner with a print resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). Mac
users can rely on the fact that they have a special connection port called a SCSI
(small computer systems interface) port to connect their scanners to and dont
have to give up a serial port (modem and/or printer port). Wintel machines,
however, normally do not have a SCSI port. Thus a scanner is often connected to
a parallel (printer) port or comes with a SCSI card which the user has to install
inside their computer. Also be sure your software matches your computer and
operating system so that the scanner is seen properly by the computer.
Software Problems, Utilities, and Support Personnel
Before we leave computers, proper, to go to the internet and a discussion
of how machines are connected, it is important to spend a little time dealing with
items besides hardware. Although hardware can cause problems for computers,
most computer problems are not machine, chip, or electronic failures, but rather
come from software problems. I do not want to spend pages discussing what
software can do to computers and pages would, indeed, be necessary. Therefore
I advise every computer owner (including school computer owners as well as
home computer owners) to purchase a utilities program (such as Norton
Utilities) for their machine. These programs allow users to save data from
corrupted floppy disks, hard drives, and allow for routines which keep
computers healthy. If a teacher is faced with a computer problem, then running
the utilities program would generally tell where the problem was.
32
Software problems can often be resolved simply or by reinstalling the
software application (which is why the original diskettes or CD ROMs used to
install the program in the first place should always be kept handy). For
computers in schools connected together in a local (area) network (LAN), there is
usually someone assigned to keep the computers healthy and they may have the
original software programs. In fact they may even install the software on a local
computer from their own computer via the network. Still, it is important for
teachers to understand who is in charge of the computer in their classroom or the
lab they use. If there is no support person for the computers they use (or heavily
overburdened support people, as is usually the case in schools and universities),
then the teachers, themselves, should assume some responsibility for looking
after the health of the computers they use.
Operating Systems (Yup, Mac vs. Windows)
In the bad old days of 1980 there were as many different ways for
computers to come to terms with their data as there were types of computers.
Eventually the growth of computers and the introduction of big companies
changed this chaos. By 1985 only ten or so operating systems remained. Now, in
the late 1990s, there are still only about five operating systems (OS) to choose
from with all but two being limited to small markets and one being submerged
into another.
The oldest OS still extant is DOS, IBMs Disk-based Operating System
contribution to Personal Computers. DOS is still what it has always been, an OS
where users have to type in commands to make things happen. DOS uses text
and cryptic commands and has lots of rules governing how it does what it does.
One of my favorite articles from the comic columnist, Dave Berry, which I enjoy
reading to my students details the difficulty and absurdity of dealing with DOS.
His favorite DOS reply to his fevered attempts to make something happen is
Bad command or error. While DOS is a very powerful operating system,
capable of great flexibility and while it gives its users complete power over the
computer, mastering it reminds one of why they gave up hoping to get into med
school while taking Biochemistry 111. A few users really learn DOS and enjoy its
beauty; however, most users learn just enough to get along with their computer
and hope to hide from DOS at exam time. Yet DOS is now almost completely
gone from the limelight as we will see below.
UNIX is an operating system which is also command line-based like DOS.
UNIX is also the inheritor of the chaos of the 1980s, although its origins date to
the beginning of computing. There are many different flavors of UNIX with
most users currently favoring a version called LINUX after its Finnish father.
Teachers, for the most part, do not have to worry about UNIX. However, it is
still the OS of choice for most servers (computers which exist to house files used
by other computers), especially web servers and the OS of choice for many power
users since they value its flexibility and the control it gives them over the
computer. As such it appears that UNIX will survive as an OS, at least in its
niche market.
In the early 1980s Steve Jobs and others at Apple computer took several
looks at DOS and decided that it was bad. Using ideas gleaned from their days
in the Xerox think tank in the Bay Area of California, they developed what
33
became the Macintosh OS. They used the metaphor of an office desktop and put
folders on the desk which could be opened and closed. Folders could be nested
inside of folders and file nested inside of folders. They invented special icons for
different important parts of the computer. Hard drives and other drives had one
kind of picture. Application files had another (and eventually became
customized to reflect their company logos, etc.). Data files had a third look. With
icons and folders on a desktop, then introducing the mouse (as described
above) to click on the pictures to open and close them was the last step in the
creation of the worlds first graphic user interface (GUI) for personal computers.
Suddenly, instead of having to memorize (or look up) arcane text commands,
users simply used a mouses button to open and close files and had a menu bar
always available for editing functions. Soon text editing using cut and paste
mouse techniques became extremely simple. Apple kept on innovating until the
mid-1990s with its goal being always to give the users what they needed as
simply as possible. Thus Apple made it simple to add printers, modems, and
even scanners. It invented plug and play and the simplicity of its system has
not been surpassed.
Yet Apple has made one consistent mistake thoughout its life as a
company. It kept the Mac as a closed system. It repeated the mistake Sony
made with Betamax discussed above in the videotape section. Apple made the
only Macs and charged high prices for them. They refused to allow computer
devotees the ability to change them and tweak them. Apple also used chips
and standards unlike other personal computers, something which contributed to
their higher cost, and allowed detractors to claim that Macs were slower than
other computers, even if easier to use. These factors slowly led businesses to
draw away from Macs as a choosable computer. While educators were given
special deals from Apple and Apple representatives spent time listening to their
needs, business representatives often found Apple uninterested in them at all.
All of these factors have led to the failure of Apple and the Mac to take over the
computer marketplace as it might have done.
While Apple kept the Mac as a closed system and allowed no one to take
the slightest sliver of its hardware and OS market, IBM took the opposite tack
with its PC. It made DOS and the hardware to run DOS an open standard. It
allowed other companies to make clones of its PC and to work on improving
the standard. It also allowed Intel and other chip manufacturers the freedom to
improve the CPU and other hardware used in these machines. Yet IBM also
consistently showed the shortsightedness it became legendary for during the
1980s, too. It did not follow Apples lead in creating a GUI-based OS until too
late. Its OS/2 whose concepts were based on the Mac OS eventually became a
powerful and stable OS in the 1990s, a real rival to the Mac OS. Yet IBM showed
it had not learned how to deal with small businesses and home computer
owners. It never devoted the resources to OS/2 it should have both for
development and for support. As a result, installing OS/2 was a nightmare as
hard drives, CD ROM drives, soundcards, and even monitors were not
recognized by the system. Users had to resort to mean OLD DOS trying to find
out what arcane letters, numbers, and slashes were necessary to help the system
find the computers components. IBM tried to improve marketshare by having
OS/2 installed on its own machines and others. However the only country
where OS/2 ever gained a significant foothold was Germany. (Keep your
34
comments to yourself!)
The salvation of DOS and DOS computers came from an unlikely source:
the famous/infamous Bill Gates. Gates had been in the personal computer
business from early days like Jobs and had even toyed with the notion of helping
Apple apply the Mac OS to IBM (and clone) machines. In fact his letter to Apple
suggesting this tactic is quite amazing in hindsight. Unfortunately for Apple and
fortunately for Gates, Apple rejected this possibility. Gates and his fledging
Microsoft company took on the task of making a GUI to build on top of DOS-
running IBM PCs and clones alone. Although their early efforts were laughable,
Gates showed the cunning and ability he is well-known for from the beginning.
He always managed to buy the best people (and companies) to make his desires
reality. By the early 1990s, Windows version 3 became a credible operating
system, even if crashes and the necessity to know DOS hindered it.
At the time that Windows 3.1 came out, it was clear that Gates was going
to win his wars. Apple lost a long-standing court case in which it had sued
Microsoft for copyright infringement of its own OS. As a result, Microsoft was
free to develop what became Windows 95 and create a GUI even more like the
Mac OS. In addition Apple refused to allow any Mac clones or open up its
system until Windows 95 was a reality. IBM was in the process of failing with its
own OS/2 as discussed above, with its most obvious failure being its inability to
make OS/2 run on the PowerPC chip IBM shared with Apple. By 1995, the coast
was clear for Microsoft and Intel to take over the personal computer marketplace
with Windows 95 and the new Pentium machines. As a result the OS/2 has
largely disappeared (except for servers and some of IBMs own machines) and
Macs have declined to around 5% of the total worldwide personal computer
market.
Yet education remains an important market for Macs with some figures
saying that Macs still own between a 40% and 60% marketshare and with Apple
making major efforts to hold that share. Although the future of the Mac and the
Mac OS remains unclear, for the next few years at least, it is impossible to
imagine not having Macs as an option at least, for educational institutions.
Medical schools, language, music, and art departments remain strongholds in
education. In addition, the Mac OS (especially the new system 8 and the coming
Rhapsody) remains the industrys best OS for clarity and ease of use. Industry
figures also insist that Macs are a great deal cheaper to support than Wintel
machines. As a result my own computer facility has both Macs and Wintel
machines. I believe that not having both types of machines can shortchange
many facilities since some of the most interesting applications are still limited to
only the Mac OS or Windows.
I do understand the desire some institutions have to support either
Windows machines or Macs in quasi-exclusivity. It can be cheaper to support
only one type of machine and one type of OS, especially with limited support
staff. Yet I feel that this is wrong. Not having Macs means not having the fastest
PCs, not having machines with strong positions in publishing, multimedia
development, and graphic design, as well as the strongest educational
applications in those areas I cite above. Not having Wintel machines means not
having the platform most of the world uses, especially businesses and games
players. There. This is my answer to the religious wars between Mac and
Windows devotees.
35
Alright. For more specific details on the nuances of Windows 95/98,
UNIX, Mac OS 7 or 8, or Rhapsody, readers of this book will have to look
elsewhere. There are many books, videos, and computer programs which teach
all aspects of these operating systems. I recommend spending time with some of
them, especially those that include a section entitled, Troubleshooting Common
Problems in [fill in your OS here]. For a few of these tips you can look below in
this same chapter.
PDAs, Portable Computers, and Notebook Computers
Since the first Personal Computer, computer manufacturers have been
dreaming about making portable computers. Various manufacturers have tried
but only in the early 90s did they become popular. Portable computers, however,
are still less practical than desktop computers for most users. Either the portable
computer will have less power, fewer features, smaller screens, and smaller
keyboards than desktop computers, or it will usually be much more expensive
than the equivalent desktop computer.
Current portable and notebook computers are still less powerful than
desktop computers and a great deal more expensive for those portable computers
which approach the power of the best desktop computers, often as much as $US
2000 more. Yet some users have to have the portability of these computers. My
advice to teachers is NOT to buy portable computers unless you have a
compelling reason to do so. In addition to the price and power differential,
portable computers are much more prone to problems.
In the last two years, a new answer to the problem of portability has
emerged, the PDA or Personal Data Assistant. Some of these are quite
upscale and cost nearly as much as a desktop computer, such as the Apple
Newton or the Hewlett-Packard model. The current champion is the 3Com Palm
Pilot which costs either 250$US or 350$US depending on memory and
configuration. These machines allow users to use pens to write information and
then download the info to desktop machines. For many businesses which
requires workers to input data away from a desk as well for traveling
businessmen, these machines actually do make sense.
Servers and Networking Computers
Yes, I have bitten off more than I can chew by bringing up this topic. I
hesitate to expand on what I wrote above in the Modems section. However, as I
mentioned in the introduction to this book, this is a topic teachers need to know
something about, especially before going on to discuss the internet. Essentially
all a computer network is is computers connected together so that they can send
data (information) back and forth between/among the computers. Why would
anyone want to do this? The answers relate to the fact that no computer should
be an island. Even though computers can be stand-alone devices or
connected only to a printer, camera, scanner, or some other physically connected
device, the current revolution in computing--ie the internet--occurs when
computers can communicate to other computers.
The way computers are connected involves cables of different types to
transmit the electronic digital signals though devices called routers,
36
bridges and lines. The most common type of cable is called an 10BaseT
Ethernet cable as I mention above in the Modems section. There are other
standards besides ethernet for connecting computers. Token ring, and various
other standards were once common. However, with the growth of the internet,
ethernet has burgeoned, since it is (usually) a flexible and less expensive way of
connecting computers to each other and to servers. In addition, ethernet, itself, is
improving as a standard with 100Base and Gigabyte ethernet becoming the new
standards for connecting computers.
What is a server, then? A server is simply a computer dedicated to
serving other computers, a servant computer, if you like. Some servers are
massive mainframes which store an amazing amount of information. Most
universities, for example, still use mainframe computers for e-mail, records, and
budgets. Other servers are old desktop machines which are no longer good
enough to run current applications. In my particular Center, I have an older Mac
housing the security software for all of the labs newer Macs. The task the
server has to perform is what determines the machine necessary to do it. A
machine which houses a web page (web server) can be very limited. However, if
the machine houses many web pages and the number of users trying to access
that page is large, then the web server needs to be much better and faster.
A print server used to be a common machine in most institutions (or using
part of a mainframe computer for print serving). This machine received all of the
documents to be printed from those machines attached to it and stored them
until the printer could take the documents and print them out. Now workgroup
printers have enough memory, in the printer itself, to perform this duty for a
computer lab. As a result, most Centers or labs do not need a print server at all.
A file server (fileserver) was once a very common machine as well. This
was a machine which hosted files to could have the files taken from it from other
machines. However, it is being replaced, often, by a web server or a web server
is connected to it. Thus users now usually use the web to connect to an FTP site
(file transfer protocol) and take files off the FTP site via their web connection.
This might mean the company has a computer(s) for housing web pages and
other computer(s) for hosting commonly taken files. A small company, however,
might have just one machine working on both tasks.
When people complain about a network (or the internet), they are either
complaining about its complexity and resultant chaos, its potential for problems
or, most commonly, its slow speed. Yet, it is important to remember that the
cables between computers can fill up. Simplifying, computer cables and
computer connections can be viewed as waterpipes in a house. If there is only
one water source emptying into them at a time, the water moves well and freely.
However, if everyone in the house is using all of the sinks, baths, showers, toilets,
washing machines, etc. at one time, the water in the pipe has a very difficult time
arriving to these water outputs and draining out of them. The same is true for
computer cables. Digital data packets can move very quickly down them if there
is little other competing traffic. However, the more traffic, the slower the speed
of the traffic and the longer it takes for pages and images to load on computer
screens. Some packets like numbers and text are small and easy to transfer
quickly. In addition it does not matter, usually, that they arrive smoothly. The
same is not true for packets containing audio and video information, especially
motion video. Jerkiness or cutout can be the rule for transfering video files via a
37
network. Nevertheless, faster servers and bigger cables can speed up a local
area network (LAN), that is a cluster of computers in close geographic proximity,
very well. As we will see the same improvement is not as easily obtainable with
the internet.
Network Operation Systems
It is important to realize that computers on networks or those accessing
the internet and other computers can simply use their own, normal, operating
system. Thus when you dial into an internet service provider you use a special
routine in Mac OS 8 or Microsoft Networking. Yet you keep your own normal
operating system. However, computers located in labs usually have some other
kind of operating system laid over normal Mac or Windows. This Network
Operating System (NOS) allows one computer to control the computers attached
to it. Thus, this computer can be used to control other machines for security
reasons, refusing to allow certain user mistakes to occur. It can be used as a
server, as explained above, too.
There are now two main NOS used in education. The first is Novell,
which is still predominate in most institutions and the second is Microsoft
Windows NT. Novell as a NOS runs on top of other, normal desktop, operating
systems. Thus a user running Mac or Windows program on a Novell-networked
computer may have no idea that their computer can be controlled by another
computer. In some ways, this is the strength of Novell. It exists in the
background and is kept away from users.
Windows NT can work this way, as it usually does with Macs. However
NT can also be a desktop operating system just as Windows 95 is. The reasons
for having NT as a normal OS and NOS, both, are that security and sharing of
resources becomes much easier. This type of setup is also easier to administrate
and control from the dedicated computer in charge. For most administrators NT
is simply easier to use than Novell as well. However, NT does not run on Macs
as a desktop OS. In addition the current version of NT does not have many of
the features of Windows 95, such as plug and play for peripherals. Microsofts
plan call for the next version of NT to look much more like Win95 than the
current version and its intention is, eventually, to merge NT with the desktop
Windows OS to create a single OS which can be used for Networking or stand
alone machines.
Microsofts competitors are well aware of these plans. Novell has
improved its product enormously over the past year and has tried very hard to
lower its complexity which keeping all of its options. IBM has responded to
Microsofts plans by trying to keep OS/2 as a viable NOS alternative. Apple is
planning to have its Rhapsody program function the same way. However,
beating Microsoft is never easy.
Internet
I feel that I am going from the frying pan of trying to explain aspects of
computers and networks in just a few pages to the fire of trying to explain the
internet in even fewer pages. However, essentially all the internet is is the fact
that computers can communicate with each other via cables. So, one computer
38
can talk to another and use information from the other computer. Thats
really it. Thats really all there is to it. The internet is the worldwide connection
of computers to other computers. OK? Now for a few more details and forgive
me as I gloss over other important and interesting details. Still, once again, there
are many, many works which give a fuller story than I can here.
In the old days (the 1980s) it was common to have what really were just
monitors connected to a big (mainframe) computer. These terminals talked to
the big mainframes via typed commands and were responded to via textual
answers. The OS of terminals and mainframes looked a lot like (guess what?)
DOS. When terminals and mainframes became quite common, the National
Science Foundation of the US Government decided it would be good to be able to
link mainframe computers all across the country together so that researchers
could pass data from one institution to another. It also decided that researchers
should be able to communicate that way as well, via electronic messages. By the
late 1980s its internet had started to replace earlier attempts at electronic
messaging and datasharing such as Arpanet and Bitnet. Soon, this new standard
for electronic communication became a worldwide standard. The internet went
global and electronic messaging (E-mail) started on its rise to become a standard
tool.
Yet, even in 1992, the internet was something very like it had been ten
years before. It was completely text-driven, for example. Users had to use
programs called something FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to transfer data and
files from one computer to another. DOS-like commands had to be learned and
typed exactly or nasty errors would occur. An application called Gopher
(developed at the University of Minnesota whose teams are called the Golden
Gophers) helped. Still, even though it was menu-driven and allowed users to use
their arrow keys instead of typing in arcane commands, and it encouraged
institutions to start making all kinds of materials available via computers (and
terminals), it was only a small step forward in interface. It took the genius of
Swiss scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, and his invention of a simple programming
language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to change this.
In 1993 I was working on a software database archive of language learning
software materials (and still am) for the International Association of Language
Labs--now the International Association of Language Learning technology
(IALL). All of us assumed that we would put out this archive somehow, maybe
on floppy disks, to make it available to members. Soon we thought about
making it accessible via Gopher and housing the information on a large
computer. I will never forget an e-mail note I received from my collaborator on
the project in February of 1993. He said, Mike, I just saw the most incredible
thing called the World Wide Web. It will change everything about the way we
use shared computer information. Berners-Lees language of HTML and his
resultant World Wide Web did turn out to be revolutionary. Finally, shared
computer information (or information taken from afar to be used locally) could
go beyond text.
Using HTML the same revolution the Mac OS had provided for PCs
occurred for the internet. Color, pictures, graphics, and lively text appeared on
screens. Users could use their mice and not have to type in commands to have
things happen. Soon audio and even motion video files started to appear on
internet-connected computers as well. In short, everything a computer could do
39
by itself became possible as well via another computer connected remotely. It is
hard to understand and even to imagine the speed with which the internet has
developed and changed the face of computing. In 1992, text-based Gopher was
the standard for using information from distant computers. In 1998 users can see
live television and hear live radio from all over the world on their own computer
screen. Users can do a virtual tour of many museums and other cultural
institutions. They can explore the world in a new way. In addition they can now
obtain items from all over the world and can meet one of the millions of people
who now have put up information about themselves or their interests on the
internet. With this revolution occuring in such a short time, it is sometimes hard
to comprehend its meaning or understand its long-term significance. The
continuing growth of the internet and growth in its sophistication makes this
comprehension even harder. Teachers are still often reeling from this revolution
in computer-based information and just trying to understand basic details about
it. Let me provide some of those basic details here, so that we can have a basic
understanding of some of the components of the internet before I discuss how to
teach with it in the next chapter.
The World Wide Web, Home Page(s), and Hypertextuality
When most people talk about the internet today, they are talking about the
World Wide Web (WWW). The Web is simply computers connected together
with their shared computer language being HTML. Thus the Web is actually just
one form/type/part/language of the internet. FTP and Gopher still exist on the
internet. E-mail is still part of the internet. Yet the Web and the internet are
synonymous in most lay peoples minds.
The Web is an amazing international effort. It is chaotic in nature and even
in language. HTML is now up to version 2, officially, and new programming
language which could become part of a new internationally-standardized HTML
3 (or even 4) is being discussed and used unofficially with great glee. Now that
the Web has become adopted by major companies there are even more attempts
at co_pting HTML by these companies, with Microsoft being the greatest
offender. Yet the Web and its millions of users have resisted these efforts. It
remains international and open in its standard. Nevertheless, there are now only
two main programs, called web browsers left. These programs interpret
HTML for the local computer screen. The most common browser belongs to
Netscape Communications. Netscapes overnight success story is a classic
Horatio Alger one and fascinating. Yet it now faces formidable competition from
Microsoft and Microsofts Internet Explorer. Still, at the current time most Web
material can be read by either Netscape or Explorer equally well, although
sometimes the latest version of either program is necessary.
The normal metaphor used for the most common aspect of the Web is that
of a page. A page is really just a screen (or several screens) of material. Most
writers of Web material choose to make a page of material fit on one screen.
Thus a home page is the institutions/individuals/companys starting screen
for the material they have decided to make available on their computer. From
this screen(s) users can then move to other screens or other pages they create, or
link to other pages others have created. The process of moving from page to
page, using links, creating their own paths, is what critics mean by moving in a
40
hypertextual way. Creators of sites can suggest paths, but the freedom to make
their own path is at the heart of a users hypertext.
E-Mail
E-mail or electronic messaging is the oldest commonly-used component of
the internet. It is the last vestige of the purely textual days of the internets
beginning. Yet even e-mail is changing as a result of the Webs changes in the
internet. With modern e-mailers such as Eudora, Pegasus, or the e-mail
programs included with Netscape and Internet Explorer, it is also possible to
include word processing files, images, even sounds and motion videos as
attachments to e-mail messages. With e-mail being the oldest internet
application it is also the best known and most often used application by teachers
for teaching, too.
Internet Relay Chat and Internet Newsgroups
Even before the Web, there were IRC groups. IRC is still defined as a text-
based application. What the internet made possible was that two or more users
in different sites could actually send typed text to a single remote computer
which would then send everyones conglomerated text out to everyone
participating in the group, all of this happening nearly instaneously. It was
created to make it possible for researchers to type in questions and wait for a
colleague to give answers. Once this possibility became generalized to all
internet users, it was quickly used for a wide variety of purposes, most notably
for games and sexual discussions. If all users are participating at the same time
in such an IRC session, this is called synchronous IRC which means all users are
sharing the same time slot--whatever their local time in the world might be.
However, the difficulty of time zones has made the creation of asynchronous chat
groups also necessary. These are groups in which all user input is stored on the
IRC computer for a certain time period so that when a user logs on and enters the
group s/he can read what others have written over the last, specified, amount of
time before adding their own comments or files.
The most common type of asynchronous group is the internet newsgroup.
There are now hundreds of thousands of newsgroups on the internet whose
discussed subjects range from Mongolian politics to the latest Elvis sighting to
Cambodian revolutionaries to all types of sexual interests. In fact, it is nearly
impossible to think of a single subject not represented by at least one (and maybe
many) newsgroups. Newsgroups are much less popular than they used to be
since Web pages have taken over some of their scope, but they still are a vital
part of the internet.
Speed of the Internet and Audio and Video via the Internet
Since one computer can be connecting to computers located anywhere in
the world, the speed the two computers communicate can vary enormously. The
speed can be quite fast between two very geographically-distant computers and
quite slow between two geographically-near ones. The speed at which the
communication takes place relies on many different factors.
41
For users dialing in from home on a slow modem it often makes sense to
tell a web browser not to load images and to keep text as the sole medium
appearing on the computer screen (shades of the 80s!). However, even users who
have a fast, direct network connection to the rest of the worlds computers find
the speed at which pages load varies enormously. In fact U.S. East Coast
dwellers often try to access the net the first thing in the morning for crucial use
(or what can be slow use) when most Europeans have gone to bed and before
everyone on the West Coast wakes up. The speed of the internet is constantly
improving and slow spots are constantly being eliminated; however, with more
and more people using the internet for longer and longer, there is at best a stand-
off in total internet speed.
In the first days of audio on the internet, users had to download (move
from a distant to a local machine) large files from the remote computer to their
local computer and then launch a special application on their local machine to
use the downloaded data and hear the sounds. This was a very cumbersome
way of using audio files. It could take a half-hour for a slow modem to bring a
one minute audio file to a home computer. Networked computers brought the
files faster, but waiting two minutes for a one minute file was still not very
exciting to most users. As a result very few audio files were available on the
internet then. Soon, however, a process which became known as streaming
developed. Instead of having to bring a file in its entirety to the local computer
before opening it up, it became possible to send streams of information and have
the application start using the information when very little had arrived. Then the
user could be listening to the first information while the computer was waiting
for more and more to arrive and be used. Real Audio was the first audio player
to make use of streaming commonly and now holds most of the market and it
soon developed Real Video using the same streaming techniques for motion
video. With Microsoft buying into this company, it is assumed that it will
maintain its lead in this market with its player for video and audio.
Even now with the internet still in its infancy and videostreaming
programs only two years old, it is possible to watch a television broadcast, albeit
at low quality with occasional breaks in the picture and in sound. Radio
broadcasts are much higher quality. Still, both of these programs are godsends
for teachers, especially teachers of less commonly-taught languages.
Videoconferencing , Distance Learning, and the Future of Computers, Media,
and the Internet
See Chapter Four
Principles of Making Machines Work
Too many teachers need to wear a button (perhaps one of the Doctor Who
buttons) which says, DONT PANIC when they face problems with the
machines they are using for their teaching. Too often common sense flies out the
window when faced with a machine which is not working properly. I will know
give the basic principles of how machines work, followed by a step-by-step
process of what to look for when there is a problem.
The most important principle to remember with machines is not to panic
42
and keep your common sense working. Do not throw up your hands and say
that you are bad at this. This attitude has never been acceptable and is less
and less as each year passes by.
Principle two is to check out the machines you will be using before class
starts. This means, during the summer, during the hour before school starts, or
during planning hours. During the summer (or other vacations) you need to sit
and play with the machines. Thats right, turn the machine on, insert tapes, and
push play. Fast-forward, rewind, use the counter. Look at how the machine is
connected to speakers, a television monitor. See how multiple video players all
connect to the TV and what the TV has to be on for it all to work. Turn the
computer on. See how it is videoprojected. Play with the mouse and play with
applications you want to use. Install programs. Play with the operating system.
Read books about the operating system you use, etc. etc. Before class, make sure
the machine is working properly and is plugged in correctly. Cue up your tapes.
Have your computer programs installed. Leave the computer on with your
program already started, if you can. Put your internet pages into cache, or
download them (see below). In summary, you need to be as comfortable with
these machines you will be using as you possibly can. Thus when you have five
minutes to sort out a problem (see principle five), you will know whether you
can solve the problem or not in that time.
Principle three is that machines must have power to work properly. This
should be obvious but I can tell many stories where even experts forgot to make
sure that the machines were plugged into the wall and that the power buttons
were turned on. One of my favorite (apocryphal?) stories of the past year was
(supposedly?) sent out by a Word Perfect telephone support person on the
internet. A customer called in to complain that their Word Perfect program not
working. After a long series of questions and answers, becoming more and more
specific with the support person becoming more and more exasperated, the
customer finally reveals that the power had just gone out in the city when their
computer crashed. While the support person sputters trying to think of
something to say, the customer asks anxiously if their computer is permanently
broken. The support person then replies, Yes, your computer is permanently
broken. Pack it back in the boxes very carefully, take it back to the store where
you bought, and tell them that you need your money back because you are too
stupid to own a computer!!!! Most support staff and I have more patience than
that, but remind you how obvious this principle should be.
Principle four is that when machines are hooked together, the machine
which is the heart of the media will send its signals OUT to machines which need
to use the signals, thus needing to bring them IN. What does this mean? The
simplest example is the audiocassette recorder with extra speakers attached.
The tape recorder sends its signals out to the speakers. Thus the cables which
connect the tape player to the speakers use the OUT (output) holes on the tape
player and the IN (input) holes on the speaker. Thus a VCR hooked up to a TV
will have cables which use the output from the VCR and the input on the TV. A
camcorder connected to a TV will use the output on the camcorder and the input
on the TV. Two VCRs hooked together to duplicate a tape will have the cables
plugged in so that the output is used on the VCR with the original tape and the
input plugged on the VCR with the duplicate tape. A computer will output
signals to a monitor or a videoprojection device. Is this clear? Maybe not. I
43
always make my own students actually plug in machines, unplug them, and
connect them together. For my exams I always have a practical parts where
students must do hands-on assignments. In one part I put students in front of
machines with no cables attached, hand the students the proper cables, and say,
here, connect the machines properly. I would insist that all readers of this
book take this test themselves now. For ANY questions about cables and
connections, please see the note which ends this chapter on page ?.
Principle five is that you have FIVE minutes and five minutes only to try
to solve your problems with your machines, if a problem occurs during a class
session. You can call for a support person to come and solve the problem
(assuming you have such a person available), and let him/her work on the
problem in the background. However, after five minutes you must go on with
your back-up lesson plan which does not involve that machine.
Troubleshooting Problems with Machines
Here is a list of items to check off: (Photocopy numbers of copies of this
list from the book for your own use if necessary. However, please give me credit
for this list.)
1) Is/Are the machine(s) plugged into the power outlet in the wall?
2) Is/Are the power button(s) turned on? (the machine usually lights up
somewhere so you can check this)
3) Are all of the machines cables plugged in correctly to each other? Are speakers
connected, VCRs connected to TVs, computers to videoprojectors, mice and
keyboards plugged into CPUs? etc. (see note 1)
4) Are you using the right cables? (see note 1)
5) Is the tape in the machine properly?
6) Is the tape rewound and cued up properly? (I have had instructors tell me the
machine was broken when they were at the end of the tape and the machine did
not rewind). Eyeball the tape to see it is not at the beginning or the end.
7) Is/Are the video device(s) on the right input?
a) Is the TV monitor set to either channel three or channel four if it needs to be?
b) Is the TV monitor set to AV input instead of antenna input if it needs to be?
c) Is the VCR/laserdisc player input set to antenna input, AV input, or even AV1
or AV2 if it needs to be?
8) Is there a floppy diskette in a Wintel machine when starting up (you need to
eject the disk for startup)?
9) Is the system down when trying to use the internet? --There is nothing
you can do about this problem but go on to other lesson items, if you havent
44
loaded the pages into cache or onto a hard drive or zip disk (or equivalent).
Note 1: Cables and Connecting Machines.
Let me give in this footnote some very specific advice concerning cables
and connections. I will say nothing about audio machines here since they will be
covered under video machines.
Computers
I want to mention computers secondly since they cause fewer problems
than video machines. MOST computers now have cute little pictures or icons on
the back which tell you where the cables go. (see figure one for a Macintosh and
figure two for a Wintel machine). In addition most computer cables differ in size
so that it would be tough to plug a monitor or a mouse into the wrong place.
Wintel machines also use a specific cable for printers which can only go one
place.
The problem comes in with computers when you have several devices
trying to use the same type of cable to fit into the same type of port (hole). This
happens with Macs with serial ports and SCSI ports. Although one of the serial
ports has a cute little printer icon and the other a telephone icon (the chooser will
label one printer, and the other modem), both of these ports are actually just the
same! You can plug a modem into the printer port and vica versa. In addition,
digital cameras of all kinds and a few other external machines will want to use
these ports. An add-on device called a port juggler can be added to help power
users who need lots of serial ports. SCSI on the Mac is one of the few non-user
friendly parts of the Mac. It is possible to plug up to six extra devices into the
one SCSI port of a Mac in a daisy-chain type of fashion. However, this has to
be done just so and can cause headaches.
On Wintel machines the problem of two many devices for one port is
much more common than on Macs. Problems come with both the serial ports
(the ones used normally for mouses, and modems) as well as for parellel ports
(the ones used for printers). Since Wintel machines normally do not have SCSI
ports, power users find they can run out of ports quickly. Some manufacturers
have added extra serial and printer ports to their machines. In addition it is
possible to add these ports, manually, after purchase to most machines, add a
SCSI port, or use a port juggler as I described above.
Video
However, most computer set-ups tend to be stable. Few users, especially
teachers in classrooms, have to change the cables on their computers. This is
NOT true, however, for VCRs and televisions. While computers tend to stay in
one spot, VCRs are often put on a rolling cart and transported from one room to
another. In addition TVs are often disconnected from their VCRs when moved.
It is not uncommon for a teacher to find a VCR in their classroom with no cables
connected. Teachers wanting to use laserdisc players or camcorders or other
video devices have this problem of what cable, where, compounded.
Point one: there are three types of cables commonly used for connecting
45
video machines to TVs. The first is an unassuming black cable with a simple
spike pointing out each end. It connects to a small silver cylinder which juts out
from the back of a TV or video machine. The cable simply pushes on. It doesnt
need to be turned or threaded. This is called a coaxial ,composite or an
antenna cable. It is composite since that single cable and single spike contains
BOTH video and audio signals. This is the cable cable TV firms use to bring the
television signal in from the street. It is called an antenna cable since this cable
normally connects to the cylinder labeled antenna sticking out of the TV.
Once again, please remember that the main heart of the action has the output
filled and the receiver has the input filled. Thus a VCR using a coax cable will
have its output cylinder plugged in and the TV will have its input (antenna)
filled. [At home it is common to have the cable TV cable fill the TV cylinder.
However, for recording a tape from the TV it is necessary to put the cable TV
coax cable into the VCR and then use another coax (or AV cables) to connect the
VCR to the TV. Here the heart of the action (the originating signal) comes
from the cable TV broadcaster and goes through the VCR on its way to the TV]
The second type of cable used is called an AV or RCA cable. These
usually have tips done in lovely colors, red, or white, or yellow, instead of basic
black. Machines need either TWO or THREE of these cables to be connected
instead of just one, like the coax cable described above. Why would anyone in
their right mind use three cables when they can use one? The answer is that the
signal clarity (picture and sound quality) improves when these, multiple, cables
are used. They have become the most common cables used for connected VCRs
to TVs, as a result. Fortunately, all TVs, VCRs, and other video devices which
use RCA cables (98% of them) have now decided to color code the holes in their
machines. Thus there will be red holes, white holes and yellow holes in the backs
of many video devices. The widely-adopted convention is for red and white
holes to represent audio inputs or outputs--meaning the left and right speakers
(red for right, white for left)--and the yellow to represent video input (output).
So, it is often possible to use the yellow-tipped cables in yellow holes to connect
two machines, the white-tipped cable for the white holes and the red for the red.
Easy, eh? Well, what happens when there is no yellow hole? What happens
when you have a camcorder with just two holes and video is colored white
not yellow? OK. Let me share a secret with you. It does NOT matter what
color of cable you use in any RCA hole as long as you match up audio with audio
and video with video. ALL RCA cables are just alike, despite their pretty tips!
So, use a red-tipped cable to connect your camcorder to your TV if you want.
However, be sure that the red cable connects the video out of the camcorder to
the video in of the TV. As always, you send out signals from where they
originate into where they are used.
The final type of cable is video-only. This black cable with several little
pins (much like a computer cable) in it is called an S-Video cable. As you can
imagine, the extra pins help provide more information to pass through it. As a
result the picture quality it transfers is higher than either RCA cables or coax
cables. As a result, this type of cable is prefered for high-end video. It is also to
be prefered by those teachers using large screen televisions to show video
materials, since it allows for a clearer picture and better detail on the TV monitor.
46
Chapter Two, Tips and Tricks for Teaching with Technology
Now that we have explored the history of teaching with technology (at
least for languages) and seen the basic technical parameters of all of the
technologies used currently in teaching, let us explore some of the basic dos
and donts when teaching with these technologies. I will follow the outline
of Chapter Two and start with audio for teaching and finish with the internet. In
each section, I will give some more general ideas about how to teach using the
particular technology profiled and then move to specific examples gleaned from
my own knowledge. However before proceeding to that level, let me start with
some general principles and notions.
First and foremost, when considering using any technology for teaching,
think about WHERE you or your students will use it. There are three main
locations for using technology in teaching. The first is the classroom proper
where the instructor generally is in control of the technology and presents the
materials, the second is the media center (of whatever type it might be), where
the instructor might be presenting material and might have students interacting
with materials individually under his/her guidance, and the last is out-of-class
activities, whether in a center or at home using media where students are
interacting with materials without any guidance, other than handouts or a
memory from instructions given during their class session. I mention this issue
first since many teachers do not think carefully about it. This issue becomes
especially important with computer and internet materials, especially
commerically-produced computer materials. What teachers find is that many
materials are produced which are not intended for classroom presentation but
are created for individualized instruction. Using these materials in a classroom is
47
not impossible, but requires their creative repurposing to make them make sense
in that setting. In my discussions of various media and how to use them for
teaching, I will give ideas on how to use these materials in all three settings: in
the classroom, in the media center with teacher, and out-of-class without a
teacher.
The second principle for teaching with technology is never overuse
technology for teaching. One of the worst mistakes teachers can make is to
undervalue themselves as teachers. After all, you didnt spend those years in
college and on the job to know that you have no value, did you? As a teacher
you are a professional, often with years of experience. It is crucial to keep doing
what you are already doing that works and not to reinvent the wheel
unnecessarily, just to use technology. On the other hand, as we will see in this
chapter, technology and media are wonderful as aids to student learning.
Ignoring it is equally wrong. Thus, as the French philosopher Montaigne said in
the sixteenth century, it is important to find the juste milieu or the correct
middle-road.
The third principle is to make sure that you are using technology as
naturally as possible, not artificially. Carrying out this principle is (also) harder
than it first appears. It is disturbing to a class which has been occupied in a well-
designed collaborative learning activity to be suddenly interrupted by their
teacher saying, Oh now lets watch this five minutes of videotape. It is
equally disturbing to be interrupted in interacting with a well-designed web site
to hear the teacher say, Oh, now we need to talk to each other using material
from Chapter Four. Media and technology needs to be built into lesson plans
so that their use flows naturally both into and out of all other parts of the
classroom session.
The fourth principle is make sure that the technologically- or media-
based materials are pertinent to both you and the students. Nothing is worse
than having selected materials which either your students find inappropriate
(read boring, stupid, or out-of-their-league) or which you, yourself, find the same
way. Occasionally you will be required to use materials which you find lacking.
However, if you cannot discover some means of repurposing the materials and
making them relevant to both your purposes or your students purposes, it
would be wise to do anything but use them.
The fifth principle is to be creative, especially when repurposing
materials. Most teachers do not have the time or resources to create personally
technologically-based materials for every one of their classes. As a result, they
are faced with using materials produced by others who have no knowledge of
the teachers own pedagogical goals, situation, or specific need. As a result
teachers need to repurpose materials and repurpose them creatively. They
need to be able to take audio, video, computer, or internet materials and
refashion them to make sense for their own students. Repurposing is an art as
well as a skill which usually gets better with experience (much like teaching
itself.....). Here experimentation is crucial but using only limited amounts of
these materials in limited time slots is also equally crucial.
Teaching with Audio
As we discussed in the previous chapter, there are many types of audio
48
which can be used for teaching. Let us start by discussing teaching with
audiotape, especially audio cassette tape. Since tape is the most ubiquitous type
of audio material and the cheapest, we can also use tape to illustrate most types
of teaching with most types of audio material.
First of all, why use audio only when there are so many other media now
available, most of which are much more glamorous than audio? There are
many possible answers to this question. Some turn around the argument that
audio is still the cheapest and most common media. Teachers have audio
machines or can purchase them cheaply. Students also often have the same
machines. In addition everyone is familiar with these machines if they are
familiar with any media at all. In addition teachers have the longest experience
using audio of any media. As always, it is a mistake to throw the baby out with
the bathwater, that is to ignore what works to concentrate only on the new and
unfamiliar.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using audio for teaching
beyond the practicality and familiarity cited above? First of all, audio has the
advantage of not overburdening users with too many sensory inputs. Since
sound is the only sensory input then listeners have no other distractions from the
media. They are (potentially) thus able to concentrate on the audio to the
exclusion of other input. Secondly, there are still some activities common today
which are done with audio only, such as using the telephone. Finally, audio
activities can form the heart of a lesson and be used to introduce other media-
based activities later.
Although audio can be found in several media, as we stated in the
previous chapter, only two media are still used often in teaching: the
audiocassette tape and the audio compact disc. Audiocassette tape is much more
commonly-used than CDs for many good reasons. Since many teachers need to
make their own recordings (or have their students record themselves) audiotape
is still the major medium for filling that need. Yet, when playback is more
important than recording CDs give teachers much better control over selecting
specific parts of a work or specific songs. Accessing these parts with CD players
is much faster and reliable than cassette players. Thus I recommend that teachers
use a combination tape player and CD player in their classroom. These
machines now are inexpensive and have good sound production from their
speakers.
Finally, it is necessary to differentiate between the types of activities that
are successful in a classroom situation and those better done outside. With audio
and audiotape, this distinction is not as important as it is with other media.
However, teachers should assign activities to be done out of class that save time
in class and are not helpful in the classroom. Some of the collaborative learning
activities I describe being done in a classroom below could also be done well
outside of class. Since almost all students have access to an audiocassette
recorder, assigning material to be recorded outside of class is usually easy. Long-
term collaborative projects involving audio recording are certainly best assigned
as out-of-class activities. Portfolio activities are also best assigned outside. For
almost any other activity, however, there is no clear distinction between what is
best done inside or outside of class.
Examples of Audio Activities
49
In the following section I will give examples of what I feel are successful
audio-based activities. These activities here listed are not meant to be
comprehensive in any way. I am simply giving a sampling of possibilities. Here I
am using ideas gleaned from my own teaching, my colleagues and my
students teaching. As always you will note the predominance of language
teaching activities reflecting my own experience.
Music teachers have long used audio-only for their classes, especially in
music appreciation where different examples of music are played to teach
students basic notions of rhythm, tonality, and mode as well as teaching the
periods of music history and other items associated with musicology.
Music teachers also use audio to teach certain, often difficult, music by
giving performers a standard to play up to. Here a recording can make a
thousand words redundant with a brilliant example.
History teachers have long used radio broadcasts and film strips with
audiocassettes to play authentic important documents from the past. Hearing
Hitler and Martin Luther King orate gives students goosebumps that cannot be
had from reading their words only.
Literature teachers use audio in the same way having literary works read
to their students, especially plays and poetry.
Music is used by Physical Education teachers for aerobic classes, giving
students a pace and rhythm to follow as well as for alleviating tedium.
Speech and Communications teachers often use audio recordings of
famous orators as well as of their own students, attempting to improve their
students facility at oral communication.
Other teachers use music as a way of attempting to eliminate stress while
students are attempting to concentrate. Some teachers like having a soft, restful
music playing in the background for tests, for example.
Many teachers still use audio in conjunction with film strips.
A few teachers will also use recordings they have made of themselves
teaching (this is more common on the university level and becoming more
common with videotape, too) of other people teaching to play for their students
or for playing back lectures given by experts in a particular field.
Language Teachers Use of Audio
Language teachers, however, have the most reasons and the most
experience using audio in their teaching. Since few language teachers, especially
on the secondary level, are native speakers of the language they are teaching,
they need to have native speech available. In addition since improving oral
production is also a major goal, work with audio-only is a major help in the
process.
In this section I want to give examples here of their uses which might be of
benefit to teachers of other subjects. I believe that some of these uses will spark
ideas, especially in creative teachers. Here I will also list some ways my students
have told me they would use these techniques in other subjects.
Using what I label drill and kill exercises found on audiotapes in
traditional language labs is what language teachers are best known for in terms
of audio usage. In fact these exercises have convinced a whole generation of
50
Americans that language learning is not interesting. Yet, the exercises which
accompany language textbooks have improved. There are still plenty of boring
subsitution drills taken straight from a written workbook, however some authors
have tried to use situations and role-playing in their audio exercises. Others have
tried to put in authentic native documents with genuine cultural information and
problems. As a result students are encouraged to create oral texts of their own
which owe little to a drill.
Many teachers have taken the idea of role-playing into their classes but
some are using audiotape to help them. Language teachers have used small
group learning and collaborative learning for a long time. With as many as
30 students in a classroom where 12 would be ideal, it is necessary to divide
students into groups so that the teacher can give focused attention to individuals
during the class session. One teacher I know has two audiotape players in her
classroom to help keep small groups not working with her doing productive
work. She works with one group and gives two other groups a project to be
taped. They are given a topic, parts of a possible scenario, leading questions, and
a list of useful vocabulary words for the topic. The students then discuss the
topic and words and give themselves parts in the scenario. At a certain point,
they then tape their completely oral skit. With the teacher having given
guidelines on amount of time, and rules for participating, each student has a part
in the recording. The recordings are then played for the whole class at some
point and discussed by the class. The teacher can choose to note mistakes in
language and prounciation and/or can focus on intelligibility and cultural
understanding, depending on their pedagogical approach and goal at that stage
of the course.
Like speech teachers, language teachers have to record their students.
Now, instead of listening to drills, however, teachers often choose to listen to
their students engaged in skits, as mentioned above, or have their students
record literary recitations, songs, or monologs. These recordings can become an
important part of a students portfolio, demonstrating increased skill and
proficiency in oral production.
Like music teachers, language teachers love to use music in their classes,
especially vocal music. However their focus is on the words of the songs, not the
music. Many use songs as one means of improving pronunciation. Students are
encouraged to sing along with the artists and to sound as much alike the singers
as possible. When teachers write out the text of the song, they often have
students say the words out loud as well, hoping students will pick up native
patterns of intonation, pitch, and stress more easily from a song than in simple
speech. If necessary, these teachers will also spend time with the vocabulary of
the song. Some teachers have developed creative ways of getting students to
learn this vocabulary. Some give students the song texts with blanks for
previously-learned important words or for new words. They have the students
listen by themselves to complete the cloze exercise. For new words these
teachers sometimes give a matching exercise with the new word spelled in one
column and defined in a second column. Only after listening to and
understanding the song can the student complete the matching exercise.
As a second series of exercises going beyond pronunciation and lexicon
learning, many teachers will use songs and song texts to concentrate on
grammatical and structural aspects of the language. Hearing, singing, and
51
learning a ballad which contrasts the two main past tenses in Romance languages
is often more useful to students than one more page of workbook exercises filling
in blanks using the tenses.
A third series of exercises uses the content of the songs for cultural
discussions. Many songs deal with the most important issues of human existence
and can shed light on a particular cultures attitude towards these questions.
Teachers develop worksheets, assign compositions, lead class discussions, and
assign small group projects based upon the material given in these songs. This
third series of exercises is also useful for a variety of classes, from literature to
health, where teachers want to engage their students in topics of interest to the
students and in major questions of existence. Using the songs they listen to,
know and like, can be a powerful motivating tool in these efforts.
Another creative way I have heard a teacher use audio, but not music, in
her class was as an atmosphere creator. Just as some restaurants use romantic
music to attempt to create a certain atmosphere, she decided to use sounds to
create a foreign atmosphere. When she was in a foreign county, she took a
tape recorder with her and spent time taping the sounds of the streets, the
sounds of caf_s, the sounds of the house, and the sounds of the subways. Then
when her class got ready to do skits or discuss topics which could be
accompanied by the sounds she had recorded, she started her tape in the
background and then worked on the activities she had planned. Her students
felt themselves in a different situation and could block out the classroom walls.
This is a fascinating way to create a kind of virtual reality with audiotape!
Language teachers also are using the telephone creatively. As any
learner of foreign languages will admit, using the telephone in a foreign language
is extremely difficult. There are no visual cues to aid the listener. In addition
telephone language differs in some respects from normal speech. Some teachers
require their students to call them at home and use a scenario they have creating
under guidance. Some of the teachers also record their students on the telephone
for the purpose of error correction. The most creative teachers then (with
permission of the students) can use the tapes as listening activities. They can
give the tapes to students not part of the conversation and scenario and assign
questions and compositions (oral or written) using the material recorded from
the telephone conversation.
In one of my own classes (fourth semester French), I decided to use a
commercially-available audiotape mystery story. This was not an easy tape for
the students since it used native speakers speaking at a normal pace. I assigned
one chapter a week for listening. Students had access to the tape and a dictionary
accompanying it. I gave ten questions which had to be answered using material
from the tape. I graded the homework on a pass/fail basis and corrected
grammar errors. The following week, we discussed the story and the questions
for a very short period. That week students were allowed access to the complete
transcript of the chapter already completed. Thus the students were not allowed
to become completely lost and were given help and guidance. In addition, I
spent little valuable class time on the tape and make this a true homework
assignment.
These are just a few of the activities my students, colleagues, and I have
used over the years with audio. More experienced teachers will be familiar with
most of these. However, newer teachers who may be adept at using computers
52
for their teaching may have never thought of some of these activities using audio
and audiotape. In fact I always suggest that teachers collaborate in giving
experiences using technology. Older teachers can often explain how to use older
technology effectively while newer ones can do the same for newer technology.
Teaching with Video
While many teachers feel that teaching with audio is old hat (I hope I have
changed minds with my examples above!) and some may feel that teaching with
computers is too difficult, almost every teacher is well aware of the need to teach
with video. Teachers are aware that their students live in a visual age with color
television and VCRs having become almost universal. Yet no other media has
been used so poorly for teaching.
I have suffered through classes where the teacher started a movie, film, or
videotape and left the room. What is the point of this for most subject areas,
especially for introductory language classes? I can understand where film
studies classes would need to see and review complete movies. I can understand
where a few other classes might feel that an artistic work or an educational film
can present a particular topic better than a teacher, yet even here where are the
introductory presentations, the handouts, the discussions, and the verification
activities which give proof to this assertion? Can the teacher have students
watch the films on their own time? Must class time be used for showing
these videos in their entirety? It is my humble belief and something I tell
teachers: that ALL video machines, especially VCRs, have a very important
feature--the pause or stop button. Why not interrupt a videotape and let the
students interact with its material via the teachers guidance?
There are now three main types of video media used by teachers and
students. The most common video machine is the videocassette recorder (VCR).
The second most common is (still) the laserdisc player, and the third is the
camcorder. We explained the technical advantages and disadvantages of each
video media in the previous chapter. However, for teaching there is no question
but that the laserdisc player is a vast improvement on the VCR. One of my
students, who is also a teacher, said that she thought she had died and gone to
heaven when she used a laserdisc player for the first time. Being able to
reliably start exactly where she wanted within eight seconds or less was a
godsend. Being able to search quickly, pause exactly, and thus, be in total control
of the video material made teaching using video the pleasure it rarely is with the
VCR. Since the laserdisc she was using accompanied her textbook, the textbook
publishers had added to the package a notebook with barcodes. As we explained
in the last chapter, using a barcode wand to read these codes (which are frame
numbers) calls up a specific frame on a laserdisc. So, she could stop her
presentation or discussion with her class at any moment and call up a visual
example of what was being discussed in less than eight seconds time using the
barcodes and guide the publisher had created. This is indeed an impressive help
to any teacher.
Camcorders are becoming much more popular with teachers as well.
Many teachers are beginning to use camcorders the way they use audiocassette
recorders. Thus instead of having only oral projects and oral presentations,
students can create projects that incorporate video with their audio. Instead of
53
only oral portfolio items, students can have a videotape of their work. This is
especially important for projects such as performances where the visual is
important for understanding the work done.
One could say, then, that the least useful video machine for teachers is the
VCR. Since a camcorder can play back tapes as well as record them, a VHS
camcorder could suffice for a VCR. Yet, the reality is that most video materials
are in VHS format and not laserdisc. The reality is that the video material
creators expect a teacher to have a VHS VCR with monitor in their classroom and
have set up their materials to be used by this configuration. Yet since the VCR is
insufficient for teaching, it is to be hoped that the rapidly collapsing of all media
into a digital whole (see chapter four) will spell the end of the VCR for teaching.
A final question to consider before giving specific examples of using video
in teaching is what types of projects should be done outside of class or inside the
classroom. As with audio, long-term collaborative projects and portfolio
recordings should be done outside of class. However, the price of a camcorder is
much greater than that of an audiocassette recorder. This makes assigning such
projects to be done out-of-class much more difficult, especially for secondary
school teachers who do not have a camcorder to loan out to students. Indeed, the
relative paucity of camcorders as compared to audiocassette recorders or even
VCRs has made assigning video projects much more problematic for teachers,
especially in the U.S. where families differ radically in wealth. As a result most
teachers wind up using the camcorder in classroom projects, in small group
projects, or whole class projects, even when they might wish to be able to
farm out the video project.
Another difficulty of having projects done outside of class is the problem
of video copying and copyright. Where almost all colleges and universities have
high-speed audiotape duplicators (all language centers have them, for example)
as well as some secondary institutions, relatively few institutions have high-
speed video copiers. These machines are still very expensive. Thus it is difficult
for institutions to provide students with their own copies of educational
videotapes the same way they can have educational audiotapes. In addition,
publishers have refused to give videotape copying privileges the way they give
audiotape copying privileges. Thus a textbook publisher might typically allow
unlimited copying of their textbook audiotapes and NO copying of their textbook
videotape. With multiple sections and teachers teaching the same course, it is
common for them to have to share one videotape for as many as thirty sections of
a class. Institutions with more resources will buy more copies of the videotape,
yet having only one copy per teacher of a videotape and five copies on reserve
for a video lab to use can be quite expensive and few institutions will pay for this
many copies. As a result textbook videotapes are underused at most institutions
by teachers and students.
Once again, it is hoped that the coming changes in video recorders and
computers will make these difficulties start to disappear. At some point, digital
disc-based video recorders and players may become as common and as cheap as
audiocassette recorders. Then teachers will have freedom to assign more and
more video projects and have more of them done outside of class. Until that
change in media, however, most video work will be done inside the classroom.
Video-based Activities
54
Despite many, many bad examples of teachers using video for teaching
there are also some excellent ones.
Many types of teachers, especially physical education and dance, use
videotape for visual examples of the types of praxis they are illuminating. If a
picture can be worth a thousand words, a motion picture can surely be worth ten
thousand. For teachers who have to teach physical movements, motion video
finally gives them a tool besides their own bodies.
There are a great number of documentary films used by history, science,
and social science teachers. Some of these illustrate very nicely important visual
events, such as the first nuclear bomb explosion. Others, however, go beyond
showing visually what a teacher cannot and try to replace the teachers
comments and insights, too. These often fail since they have no knowledge of the
teachers goals and intentions, the students place in the course and
curriculum, or the exact reason the teachers and students are using the visual
material together. With these films, using the stop button is crucial so that
appropriate interaction between teacher and students can take place.
Some literary works, such as plays, are meant to be performed live and
seen. Using video can help provide some of the reception intended by these
works. However, I would caution against showing a whole play in its entirety to
a class at one sitting. Unlike live plays done in a theater with audiences
interacting with the players, tapes of live plays suffer from the problems other
videotexts do--there is no live interaction with their spectators. The tapes
invariably fall flat as a result. Plays converted into films do better since there is
no expectation for live interaction. Nevertheless, it is usually better to show part
of a play, perhaps the most difficult to imagine without visual input, and not the
whole production.
Some courses and textbooks have come bundled with laserdiscs.
Laserdiscs have proven to be an excellent media for teachers for the reasons I cite
above and in the previous chapter. Combining a laserdisc with a computer gives
the teacher tremendous control over materials. Projecting both computer and
laserdisc images (an expensive proposition), then allows teachers to show
students what to do outside of class individually. Yet their high cost and the
paucity of laserdisc players has limited their penetration into the educational
market.
Camcorders have proven quite useful for small group projects. I know of
teachers who routinely film student presentations. I myself, did so this past
semester with a Portuguese class I was teaching. Since Portuguese is a less
commonly-taught language in the United States, it can be difficult finding good
materials for students. The class I was teaching had several native speakers in it.
As a result when I had them do oral reports on cultural topics, I found their
presentations to be of sufficient quality so that a tape would be useful to other
students as a resource. One group even took their own camcorder out to a
nearby Portuguese-American community and did a bit of oral history. With
proper editing that tape could be very useful to many Portuguese teachers. That
same kind of project is very interesting to many social science teachers, too.
Science teachers can also assign similar projects in the area of ecology, for
example.
Teachers often like to use materials they have taped off the air in class
55
and/or have put on reserve in a video lab. The materials might be a
documentary film, a cultural program, a specific educational program, or even
the news or an entertainment program they are repurposing. Nevertheless
teachers much be careful when using taped materials like these and obey current
copyright law. What this means, is that any program (wherever it was taped in
the world) when used in the United States would would have to fall under the
constraints of U.S. copyright law. Under the off-air taping guidelines this would
mean the program could be used or retained:
- 10 school days after taping for one primary viewing and one supplementary
viewing by a class
- 45 calendar days for the instructor to decide if he/she really likes the program
and wants to try to license it.
Language Teachers Using Video
Once again language teachers have shown me some of the most
innovative uses of video that I know. Many of them have adapted their
knowledge of audio and audio techniques to video, using many of the same
activities they developed for audio with video. At the same time, however, it is
necessary to point out that the difficulties of expense and duplication have
prevented a global transfer of these activities from audio to video. Still, here are
some ideas and examples I found interesting.
Perhaps the most interesting use I have seen was in a presentation by two
community college teachers from California. They had amassed a large
collection of both instructional and entertainment videos, concentrating on
videos which they believed could be used well in elementary language teaching.
Thus their favorite scenes were very visual or very narrative in focus. Since
language teachers have many goals, all of which revolve around communication,
these teachers used many familiar tricks when adapting the video materials.
Like a great number of language teachers using video materials, they
would often begin by using a particular video sequence whose materials
reflected grammatical, lexical, or cultural material being stressed in the course.
The first playing of the video would be with no sound. After students had
viewed the selected sequence with no sound, the teachers would begin with
what, where, who, and how questions. They would attempt to elicit a
narrative and description from the video material alone, while using the target
language. After these questions had been exhausted they would then allow the
audio track to be heard and let the students interact with each other and the
teachers while attempting to verify their narrative and descriptive conclusions
based on the video material alone. With the difficulties of native soundtracks,
the teachers would be prepared--after a third hearing--to step in with
explanations of difficult words or concepts. Yet they would always insist on
students making deductive leaps while being supplied with barely sufficient
information for those leaps. Only after this process would they give the students
any remaining help--if needed--in understanding the segment.
Up to here this process is familar to many language teachers. Yet the
innovation of these teachers was to perform this process several times during the
beginning of the semester and then have their students do the teaching during
56
the latter half of the semester. Every students, whether individually or in pairs,
had to teach a video segment, using skills learned from their teachers. Thus, in
addition to working on mainly passive comprehension skills in this video work,
the students had to be able to perform in an active task, a task stressing
interrogatives. Most language teachers do not spend a great deal of time on
making students use questions. But this is a task extremely useful for all
language learners. Thus these teachers managed to have their students practice a
normally unpracticed skill in a novel way with video materials, a way the
students (usually) wound up enjoying.
At the University of Minnesota, the ESL faculty decided to use one
laserdisc, a mystery story, with their students. The particular story came with
three different endings recorded on the disc. The faculty then played the story,
leaving out the ending. They had the students discuss possible endings. Then
they showed the students all three endings. The students then chose their
favorite ending. The class divided into three groups of students who favored a
particular ending and the stage was set for debate. After the oral exercises the
faculty then had students write their own ending to the story, an ending which
could differ from the three shown, and/or incorporate features of two or three of
the endings. As a additional activity, I might also suggest taking some of the best
student-written endings and then assigning them to be converted into a script
for filming by students in the class. These scripts can then be taped and the
resultant tapes can then be used by the teacher for other groups of students, both
in the same class the tapes came from and for other classes in the future.
One great example of how to use camcorders was provided by the French
department at Washington University, St. Louis. Since textbooks until very
recently had no video materials accompanying them, the head of the teaching
assistants at Wash Univ. decided to give each teaching assistant teaching first-
year French the assignment of making a videotape which somehow illuminated a
chapter from the textbook. The completed tapes were then approved by the TA
supervisor and housed in the Language Center in multiple copies. Being
homemade and using students and teachers from the campus they were popular.
Two examples of these tapes I saw were really fun and creative.
The first starred a TA dressed up as an old-fashioned interviewer ( la
Walter Winchell) in top coat and hat. She had the chapter which introduced
avoir expressions [in French one says, I have hunger, I have heat, I
have cold, I have thirst, etc.]. She decided to roam the campus and
interview her students in avoir situations. Thus the cafeteria was used for
hunger and thirst, the gym for heat, the pond on campus for cold. She enjoyed
doing the taping. Her students had fun being on tape and showing that they
had, indeed, learned some practical French.
The second example I saw was the tape which accompanied the chapter
where clothing vocabulary is introduced. This is generally a fun chapter to teach
and allows for a lot of interactivity between teachers and students. However, the
TA assigned to make a tape about this was especially creative. In her tape a class
of students sits in a classroom waiting for the teacher to come in. The teacher has
left for a couple of minutes. When he returns the students are stunned to see him
enter wearing only his boxer shorts. Laughter ensues while the teacher, totally
deadpan, makes his way to his desk where a pile of clothes is waiting for him.
Still not smiling, he looks at the class and says, Eh maintenant, je mhabille
57
(and now, I will get dressed). Then he takes each garment, gives its French name
(and gender) and proceeds to put it on. I was told that this tape was very
popular at Wash U.
A simpler example of my own concerns my conversation classes. In
them usually assign a video small group project, as a term-paper equivalent.
While some students are fairly uncreative, I have had some very good examples
of creative projects. News programs, game shows, and documentary films are all
popular genres for the students to adapt to these projects. For these projects, I
require each student in the group to have at least one starring scene where
they speak a great deal. I also insist that the tapes be between fifteen and thirty
minutes long, depending on the number of students in the tape groups. My
favorite tape of all, was done by a group of students who took the gothic murder
mystery as inspiration. Their final scene of the killer hanging onto a lightpost
weeping is still unforgettable.
A final example I would like to highlight was done by some of my ESL
graduate students. They decided to film a few U.S. American cultural events to
give some video background to their non-U.S. ESL students. One example was a
Halloween party in a college dorm room. They showed the room in detail first.
Then they described (in simple English) what Halloween was about, showing
decorations for the party and explaining their significance. After setting the
scene, they showed the party itself, the refreshments, the dancing, and the
costumes. As they told me, this tape was very successful with their students and
gave them all kinds of cues, lexical and visual, to understanding yet one more
component of America.
Teaching with Computers
There is nothing more frustrating, usually, than trying to teach a class with
a computer, whether using a computer-based application or the internet.
Computers (and the internet) are two technologies ideally set up for
individualized learning, especially that done out-of-class, whether in a lab or at
home. Yet there is no technological reason why this is so. The technology of the
computer is superior, in many ways, to that of the VCR. Yet VCRs and
videotapes are common accompaniments to classroom teaching and teaching
activities and can be used quite effectively as we discussed in the previous
section. Why are computers not used as successfully, normally? There are many
different reasons.
Computers are still much more expensive and more user unfriendly than
VCRs. Although computers are much more powerful tools than VCRs, this
power is matched by complexity. Harnassing the power of a computer as a tool
means spending a great deal more time with it than with a VCR, learning its ins
and outs. In the last chapter a great amount of space was devoted to computers
and their components, hoping that would help this process of learning how to
understand the complexity of computers. Yet what this also means for teachers
is that they are often more unfamiliar with computers than they are with VCRs
since they may not have a computer (or a good computer) in their homes, nor
may they have had a computer in their classroom until the last few years.
Finally, they were likely never given training on how to teach with computers in
their education courses. Thus teachers have to learn about computers and how
58
to teach with them by themselves, through the occasional workshop offered to
them, or through books like these. So, how does one teach with computers? The
answer (and I am not trying to be funny) is very carefully, especially in
classroom, even a classroom with excellent computer video projection along
well-planned sight lines.
The reason most teachers have difficulty using computer-based materials
in their classroom teaching, is that most computer materials were never designed
for classroom teaching. The truth is this simple. Most classroom teachers mainly
use some type of Socratic method for their teaching. They serve as leaders and
mentors to their group of students, interacting with their students. They admit to
being capable of being led as well as of leading. Thus two sections of the same
course might have two radically different class sessions on the same day. One
class might become fascinated by one part of the lesson and the other might be
bored by it. Teachers have to respond to student interest as well as motivate it.
Where interest exists this interest has to be taken, shaped, and fitted into the
teachers overall lesson plan and course plan as subtly as possible. Thus
teachers have to be very adaptable beings, used to working with groups and
channeling their energies appropriately. Computers, however, are terrible at
adapting this way.
The vast majority of computer materials available to teachers (and
especially educational materials) have been designed for the computer to lead
its user down carefully designed paths. Even those programs which flaunt their
hypertextuality usually have very few options available to their users. Since
computer materials come as a prepared package computers cannot respond the
same way a teacher can. Finally computer materials are almost all designed to be
used by a single individual, not a group. Most software designers assume one
person and one computer for using their materials. Thus even tutorial materials
are often poorly designed for more than one learner at a time.
This discussion begs the question: why shouldnt teachers design their
own computer materials? The answer to this question is not simple, however.
Some computer materials can be created by teachers. A word processing
document, a scanned picture, a list of internet sites, are all materials which
require little time and effort for (usually) overworked teachers to produce.
However, sophisticated materials, such as true multimedia materials, are beyond
the means of most teachers to create. These materials are often produced by a
team of several individuals with lots of resources. So, few teachers will be able to
produce much in the way of computer materials for their classrooms and
students.
So, what is a poor teacher to do in a classroom? The answers may
already be obvious. First of all, teachers need to get to know their computers as
well as possible. Since computers have many more possibilities, power, and
complexities than other commonly used media, it is crucial for teachers to be
very familiar with their capabilities as machines as well as the computer
materials themselves. As stated before, chapter two is written to help with this
problem. Secondly, teachers have to be prepared to repurpose, to adapt, and to
use cleverly, the computer materials they are given--just like any other materials.
After all, who teaches a textbook or a reference book word for word, treating it as
some kind of holy text? No teacher I know. The same should be true of
computer materials. Teachers will need to work with the materials outside of
59
class and then work to integrate them with the goals and methods they have
already found successful. If this sounds like common sense, so be it.
Common sense and computers should go together a lot more often than they do.
Secondly, computer materials used in a classroom should follow the same
guidelines given above for video materials. Computer materials should not be
used with no interaction from teacher and students. Even if the computer
materials are meant to be a stand-alone tutorial application, teachers need to
give the students the teachers own input and evaluation of the materials on the
computer screen, letting the students know exactly what utility the teacher has
discovered in the assigned materials. This is especially important when
assigning those same materials to be used outside of class. After all, how can
students understand what the purpose of materials are unless they are told
explicitly? Students are not usually the teachers mind readers. Presenting the
materials in class to be used outside of class is even more crucial when teachers
are only assigning part of a particular computer application--as will most often
be the case.
Thirdly, I always advise teachers not only to present the materials they
wish their students to use outside of class and to show the students as specifically
as possible what they want the students to do, but also that the teachers to even
teach the students how to use the computer to access the materials. Even though
we are getting closer to computer ubiquity, that moment has still not yet arrived.
I am still surprised by how many students have never used a computer, even
approaching the year 2000. If the teachers institution has appropriate computer
support for training, the teacher can avoid a great deal of time teaching basic
computer skills to students. However, with personnel cutbacks at most academic
institutions, this is unlikely to be the case.
So, after deciding what activities have to be taught outside of the
classroom, and after presenting them to students with appropriate introductions
and understanding of their use, then what? Like any other homework
assignment, it is important for students to know what they will be judged on and
how the assignment will fit into their learning. However, it is also crucial for the
teacher to decide how they themselves will do the evaluating. If the teacher has
not explored the program carefully and integrated it into their class their
students will usually get little out of the program. Too often, teachers have the
tendency to tell students, here, just do this computer program. Even worse,
they sometimes say, spend one hour with this program.
This type of assignment is especially common for those to be done in
Centers. The teachers then rely upon students to spend an hour with the
program. The only verification they have (unless they actually use the
programs material in class or on a test) is a time-sheet, whether done by the
student on their honor or by the Centers staff. In my own Center, I refuse to do
timesheets for teachers. In my past position the institution used to have such
timesheets. As a result, I saw students occupying space in the Center, doing
anything but their assignment and leaving. As a committed teacher I find this
type of assignment completely inadequate and pedagogically bereft.
Examples of Teaching with Computers
There are many good examples of teaching with computers, in spite of all
60
the caveats and problems I list above. Since computers have become
multimedia machines. Some of these examples involve the use of other
technologies besides computers.
Word Processing is one of the best understood tools for teaching, mainly
because most teachers are well familiar with it, themselves. Writing teachers, all
teachers assigning term papers, and most teachers, in general, suggest students
use these programs. Yet they now also often have built-in dictionaries and
thesaureses in them as well as spelling checkers. Some programs now have
grammar checkers as well, helping teachers convince students that passive voice
is not necessary very often. Yet composition teachers also use word processing
as a way of teaching different types of writing, including creative writing. They
allow students to write several drafts of a composition and allow for small group
work involving revisions as well as teacher correction.
Many subjects now have textbooks which come bundled with computer
programs. Especially useful are programs containing tutorial exercises (where
the computer grades the works, instead of a teacher) and programs where visual
aids can accompany textual ones. In chemistry, for example, programs can show
how molecules are combined showing how valence works. Students can then try
combinations themselves, with the computer allowing only possible
combinations and giving textual reasons for the acceptance or denial of the
combinations.
In physics, Newtonian laws, which have been demonstrated on
videotapes for a long time are now shown in digital video segments on
computers. However, the text can have questions which accompany it and can
call up the video segments as needed to support the textual assertions and/or the
students answers to questions. Instead of having students deny the possibility
of force equaling mass times acceleration, the computer can show visually and
symbolically exactly how the equations work.
In mathematics, algebra and geometry can be related via formulas as
well, showing how certain formulas, given in algebriac notation, actually
produce different geometric shapes, depending on how the values in the
formulae differ/
In art the computer can actually teach art history in new ways. Instead of
a teacher spending several minutes describing different types of composition
techniques based on geometry, the computer can show in seconds the same type
of shapes which define a painting by superimposing the shapes on the canvas
itself. This is one of the most brilliant aspects of the French CD ROMs which
show works from the Louvre Museum. Other fascinating sections of the CD
allow students to stroll through the museum to see where the paintings are
located and to select individual paintings of interest. Once a painting is selected,
there may be a composition video sequence, such as described above. However
one section all paintings have is a visual aid to show how large they are
compared to an average size human. This, in itself, helps students understand
the difference between certain types of schools of art. A final nice touch is the
ability to use a magnifying glass to zoom in on a work, seeing much more
detail of the works layout.
In music, composition programs and practice programs exist for teaching
students how to compose music as well as how to learn musical instruments. By
visual aids combined with audio output, students can immediately hear the
61
results of composing or of practice. By being forced to hear how well exercises
were performed, students get quick reinforcement for their efforts. With
compositions being heard immediately, students can quickly ascertain whether
their melodies were successfully backed by appropriate harmonies, and even by
appropriate instrumentation.
In music appreciation there are a number of good programs which help
users understand classical pieces much better. These programs contain keyed
buttons (links) to a variety of resources. In addition to simply listening to the
work(s) of music on the program, users can see the written music, can see it
annotated with instrumentation, dynamics, and other written visual cues. The
users can follow the form (such as sonata form) with notes given on chords, keys,
and themes. They can take time out from the music to follow links giving
cultural, historical, and biographical information about the music. They can
even learn specific details about the types of musical effects (fugues,
ornamentation, modes, forms, etc.) which are important in the work.
Sidebars illustrated aurally and visually as well as demonstrated in the
context of the work can save a great deal of explanation and allow users to finally
get these notions.
In photography, programs like Adobe Photoshop allow students to
change their photographs, giving them editing power available to other artists
for a very long time. Other plug-ins for Photoshop give students ever more
control over their images. As a result it is possible to have photography become
a created art in a completely different way than before.
Language Teachers using Computers
Language teachers have been using computers in elegant ways for a very
long time. In fact, some of the best programs I know use computers for language
learning.
The best program I have ever seen for language learning is A la
rencontre de Philippe which was done in the late 1980s by MIT as part of the
Athena Project (an Annenberg/CPB grant). In the late 80s the technology was
not yet available for integrated, digitized, computer video. As a result, laserdisc
video was used, with the video being controlled from a Macintosh computer.
The creators decided to use two screens for the program. The Mac screen was
used for text, still images, and the glossary. The laserdiscs TV monitor was
used for the motion video. Thus the user would look from the motion video to
the computer screen only when they needed to.
Philippes glory is the fact that it is a program in the form of a story
which engages user interest. From the very beginning of the story, the user feels
as though s/he is drawn into Philippes world. One walks down the streets of
Paris (the camera bounces a bit to simulate walking), enters a caf_ where a
young guy and woman are sitting, only to see the woman become angry, throw
her napkin in the guys coffee, and storm out. The user then listens to what was
happening and discovers that the woman is preparing to leave the guys sitting
down (Philippe) unless he gets a better job and a new apartment for them.
Philippe then says that he has to go to work and cannot do what has to be done.
He then turns to the user and asks if they can give him a hand. Thus most
users are sucked up into Philippes life.
62
The program gives the user a lot of help in understanding its motion
video. There is a rewind feature, a sentence by sentence play feature, two
soundtracks for Philippe (the original, difficult, one and a simplified one)
transcripts, a glossary with cultural notes, a self-testing feature which
incorporates motion video footage as needed, and help in English as well as
French.
Other features of
Teaching with the Internet
Examples of Teaching using the Internet
Language Teachers and the Internet
Chapter Three, Distance Learning and the Future of Teaching with Technology
63
Conclusion
64
Appendices
65
Bibliography and Resources: