12.1 SUPPORT

12.1.1 Technical Support

ORGANISATION	CONTACT	PHONE	FAX
District Technology Consultant		131536
Consultant Technology Directorate		02-95618916
School Technology Support (OASIS)		132348
Optus Helpline Satellite Helpline		1300 303446 1800 045068
OzEmail Internet Support		02-94333300	02-99066445

12.1.2 Software Distributors

ORGANISATION	CONTACT	PHONE	FAX
New Horizons		1800 023069
Edsoft Pty Ltd		1800 338873
IC Technologies		02-95705411

12.1.3 User Groups

Ask your computer retailer for contact numbers of local and metropolitan user groups.

User Group	Contact	Phone	Fax	Email

12.1.4. Support Materials

• "Managing and Using Technology in Schools" - Technology Directorate
• "Creating a Technology Plan in Schools - an Interactive CD" - Technology Directorate
• "Satellite Education Service - School User Manual" - Hill Industries Limited & NSW DSE
• "TILT Manual" - NSW Department of Education and Training
• "TILT Plus" Technology in Learning & Teaching - Principals' Briefing (NB pages 23-32)
• "Connect.edu - Internet in Teaching and Learning" - NSW DSE 1997

   

  There is a wide range of free and commercial magazines and newsletter which provide information and ideas on the use of technology in the classroom. Following list is by no means comprehensive.

  "SCAN" - Curriculum Support Directorate, Private Bag 3, Ryde 2112.

  "Education News" - Apple Computer Australia Pty Ltd, 16 Rodborough Road Frenchs Forest

  * "Australian Personal Computer"
  * "Australian Mac User"
  * Internet au" * Available from newsagents
  * "Mac Format"
  * "PC Format"

  12.1.5 On-line Support

  It is not possible to list all the Internet sites and Email contacts which can help with the use of computers and the World Wide Web in the classroom. The district technology adviser will be able to provide some very useful starting points. Many of your colleagues will also be able to offer support and advice

  

  12.2 Classroom Computer

  Management strategies to include computer technology in the classroom will reflect your current teaching style, current practice and the school environment. (Refer to the TILT Manual Page 93)

  12.2.1 Positioning the Computer

  • Place it in a position away from direct sunlight or where there may be reflection on the screen.
  • Place it away from the blackboard so that it is not affected by chalk dust.
  • If the computer distracts others, create an alcove so the screen is difficult for other students to see. As the computer becomes part of the everyday classroom it will become less of a distraction.

  12.2.2 Using Computers in the Classroom

• Make the children responsible for managing the computer or computer network and their use and trust them. A well trained group of supervisors will be much more vigilant than you can be and will probably teach you computer skills.
• Studies have shown boys tend to dominate computer time, so it may be necessary for some positive discrimination for girls.

   

  Some ideas for management include:

  • Have a class list pinned beside the computer, as students use the computer they place a tick next to their name.
  • Write student names on cards and place in a box to the left of the computer. When a student finishes an activity, he/she selects a card from the box, informs the next student and places the card in a box on the right side of the computer.
  • Avoid rewarding students who complete tasks quickly with a turn on the computer. This can mean computer time is dominated by a small group rather than shared with the whole class.
  • Look for opportunities in all aspects of classroom activities to incorporate the use of computers. The more you look, the easier it will become to identify uses.
  • Remember the time spent on the computer is as valuable a learning situation as the activity being conducted in other areas if it is extending curriculum options.
  • Have the students work in pairs. One student is completing the task, while the other watches and offers assistance. When the activity is complete, the student watching completes the activity for him/herself with a new student watching.
  • Restrict entertainment/game playing activities to non-class time. Develop an ethos of the computer as an educational tool not a toy.

  12.3 Managing Computer Resources

  Allocate time to explore the type of software available on your computer and the other software which is available in the school. Be aware of copyright and site license restrictions. Spend the first ten minutes or last ten minutes of every day exploring a piece of software for your personal or classroom use.

  • Display software and CD Roms, where they can be readily accessed by the children . Again make the children responsible for supervision.
  • Become familiar with software before attempting to use it in a classroom situation.
  • Approach the school librarian and computer coordinator of larger schools for information regarding the school's resources.
  • Send an e-mail message to the TILT forum on the Department's web site as a means of sharing ideas or locating suitable resources.
  • Locate software manuals. Read the introduction to see if the software is appropriate for your needs.
  • Software may come with a resource book with teaching ideas and black line masters. Investigate the availability of these.
  • Begin a collection of ideas, worksheets and strategies to use with different software packages.
  • Software suppliers mail their catalogues to schools. eg Edsoft, Dataflow, New Horizons.
  • Commercially available magazines often have education sections with software reviews and teacher developed ideas for using software.
  • Budget for the purchase of software. Purchase wisely; software may look and sound good in the advertisments but have limited application in the classroom.

   

  12.4 Satellite Equipment

  There is a number of different satellite systems currently used in state schools. Make up instruction sheets for use of your equipment and insert a copy here in addition to displaying them next to the equipment for quick reference.

  If you are unable to operate the satellite dish, contact the Hills Service Helpline 1800 045 068. When calling the Satellite Helpline, take the telephone to the equipment as the technician will want to talk you through some procedures. Have any satellite equipment manuals with you so that you can provide information about model numbers and brands. You may also call the OPTUS Helpline (if you have a 02 prefix) on 1300 303 446

  12.5 Information Technology and the Curriculum

  The TILT Manual provides a series of case studies built around particular resources. It is an invaluable source of ideas and inspiration.

   

  12.5.1 Planning a Unit of Work

  • Select a resource you feel confident enough to use in your classroom.
  • Refer to the TILT Manual for ideas.
  • Using your usual programming format, develop a unit around the resource.

   

  12.5.2 Things to Remember

  • Unit title
  • Curriculum areas (s)
  • General aim and objectives
  • Student learning outcomes for the unit.
  • Overview showing content areas and main teaching activities in the unit.
  • Resources and references needed to undertake the unit.
  • Description of the software.
  • Sequenced student learning activities.
  • Student learning outcomes for the activities.
  • Assessment of students' outcomes.
  • Suggested classroom management strategies eg group, individual or whole class activities.
  • Ideas for managing computer resources.
  • Copies of student worksheet(s).
  • Procedures for evaluating the unit.

  12.6 The Internet

  The TILT Manual and the TILT Manual Plus have comprehensive descriptions of the Internet associated resources and the use of these in the classroom. The following should be considered when planning lessons using Internet resources.

  The Internet provides exceptional educational opportunities particularly in isolated rural schools with limited resources. The unregulated nature of the Internet however requires that schools take care to maintain a safe a secure learning environment for all numbers of the school community. Cyberpatrol must be installed on all Internet machines.

  The principal should develop a policy for the use of the Internet informed by information in the memoranda: 97/011 "Student Access to the Internet" and the associated support materials, "Student Access: developing a school Internet policy" 97/234 "School Publishing on the Internet"

  REFERENCE:

  "Supporting Learning Through Technology: A Parent Package", NSW Dept of School Education.
  "Computer-based Technologies in the Primary KLAs" - NSW DET 1997
  "Computer-based Technologies in the Secondary KLAs" - NSW DET 1998

   

  12.6.1 Making Search Engines Work for You

  There are dozens of search engines available to search the Net. Choice of search engine has an impact on the type of search that can be undertaken, how a search string can be constructed, on the number of relevant sites retrieved, on limiting the number of irrelevant sites, on the ability to make a selection of a qualtiy site from the list of choices made available by the search engine, and obviously on overall productivity and efficiency of students' work, as well as system costs to the school.

  Developing students' critical literacies with search engines is an important part of their overall Net literacy. Helping students to choose the correct or most appropriate search engine is an essential component of selecting information.

  Each search engine is targertiing a particular audience, and a particular type of searcher.

  Alta Vista markets itself as having the largest WWW database of all the Internet search engines. Its interest is quantity before quality.

  Excite is based on the ability to find keywords and concepts related to it.

  Infoseek Guide highlights its ability to search the WWW, Newsgroups, FAQs, email addresses, current news and company listings.

  Lycos provides a search of the Web, FTP and Gopher sites.

  Some of these sources of information require higher cognitive skills and understandings and, if not necessary for the task, place an unnecessary load on the learner in trying to get a manageable hit list.

  Metasearch Engines send queries to a number of search engines and compile the returns into one hit list:

  Dogpile is a metasearch engine which requires an understanding of the power, capacity and focus of each individual engine it accesses to make it work effectively.

  MetaCrawler on the other hand is a metasearcher which queries only six search engines.

   

  Boolean Operators

  Most search engines and Web guides let you define more than just the keywords for your search; there is a special language you can use to narrow your search. This search language uses a combination of symbols and what are known as Boolean Operators to specify exactly what you want to look for. The following are the most useful Boolean Operators:

  Use	Search Engines Interpret this as
  Australian Cheese	Find references to Australian OR Cheese
  Cheese + Australia	Find sites about Cheese that also refer to Australian
  Cheese - Australian	Find sites about Cheese that don't mention Australian
  "Australian Cheese"	Find sites about only Australian Cheeses
  Australian AND Cheese	Find sites about both Cheese and anything Australian
  Australian OR Cheese	Find sites referring to anything Australian or Cheese
  Cheese AND NOT Australian	Find sites about Cheese that do not mention Australian

  The last three options, AND, OR and AND NOT, are called Boolean Operators and are used to form more complex search requests using Boolean Logic.

  For example, if you wished to find information on Italian movies that made reference to the directors Pasolini and Fellini, but not to Fellini's movie "La Dolce Vita", you enter:

  (movies + Italian) AND (Fellini - "La Dolce Vita") AND Pasolini

  Note how the brackets contain terms that belong together. If we don't use the brackets, the search engine would have interpreted it to mean:

  Find web sites about movies that mention Italian and Fellini but do not mention La Dolce Vita or Pasolini.

  If a search request is ambiguous, search engines have an order for determining in which sequence operators are examined. The symbols + and - are not part of standard Boolean Logic but have the same meanings as stronger versions of AND and AND NOT respectively. Enclosing a phrase in inverted comma "like this" is also not standard Boolean format but has the same effect as ( ).

  Each search engine uses a different set of rules in responding to your string to search terms and searches different databases to send your information back to your screen. Understaning these aspects, and matching the importance of these aspects to the task at hand, its complexity, its deadlines can save valuable time.

  It is important not to overwhelm students with complexity all at once. The development of this understanding must be planned, staged and built on simple examples using a limited number of search engines.

  12.6.2 Student Learning Activities

  The following activities might be adapted to suit a particular curriculum context and grade. The focus of these activities is fosr students to develop their critical and evaluative skills in relation to making effective choices about search engines and centre around one or more of the skills of defining, locating, selecting, organising, presenting and assessing information.,

  1. Read the online hadbooks, search tips, help screens and background notes of several search ingines to establish the broad content areas in which they specialise. Identify the similarities and differences.

  2. Develop a comparative chart for displaying in the classroom that presents a matrix of different types of information accessed by a particulat search engine eg full text web pages, newsgroups, listservs, directories, bibliographic citations, indexes, gopher sites, newpapers, magazines.

  3. Search for a particular topic, like 'volcanoes'using four or five different search engine. Graph to compare and discuss the number of hits. Compare the first ten hits from each and discuss why these may be different.

  4. Have different groups search the same topic on different search engines. Groups read the abstracts for their top ten hits and discuss how useful the abstract is in determing the usefulness of the site. Why do some sites have better abstracts than others? Why do some abstracts appear to stop mid sentence?

  5. Select an abstract and make a judgement about the text type used and then confirm by opening and scanning the document.

  6. Check out the online thesaurus of two search engines. Evaluate if Net English is the same as classtoom English. Talk about what this means for designing the search - keywords, broad terms, narrow terms, related terms.

  7. Test the search outpput of a search engine to illustrate what happens when two terms are combined by Boolean Operators. Draw some simple Venn diagrams to illustrate the combinations. A dramatic comparison can be achieved by using for example: American AND Indians; Indians NOT American; Indians OR American; Indians ADJ American.

  8. Select a topic, brainstorm a list of synonyms and search for that topic using the synonyms. Compare the output.

  9. Search a topic using two different metasearch engines. Compare the output, how the ideas are organised and the extent to which the rankings agree.

  10. Use Dogpile to undertake a search. Compare the quality of the abstracts put out by each of the search engines accessed.

  11. Select one site for a topic. Gather abstracts for that one site from five or six different search engines. Evaluate the meaningfulness of the abstracts in terms of making a judgement about the site.

  12. Compare which search engines organise and present their search lists more effectively and efficiently.

  13. Try some time activities like comparing the speed and ease of access of undertaking a search using WWW, OASIS catalogue, CD ROM index, database etc and discuss the factors that impact on the search process.

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