ICT4LT Module 1.5

Introduction to the Internet

Contents

Aims

This module aims to serve as an introduction to the Internet for language teachers, beginning with a definition of the Internet, followed by a substantial set of sections on the World Wide Web, Discussion lists, blogs, wikis, social networking, and Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). After reading this module have a look at Module 2.3, Exploiting Word Wide Web resources online and offline.

This Web page is designed to be read from the printed page. Use File / Print in your browser to produce a printed copy. After you have digested the contents of the printed copy, come back to the onscreen version to follow up the hyperlinks.

Authors of this module

In order to keep pace with the rapid developments of Internet technology this module has undergone regular editing and revision by Graham Davies since it was first published, especially Section 12 on Discussion lists, blogs, wikis, social networking and Section 14 on Computer Mediated Communication (CMC).

1. What is the Internet?

Graham Davies, Editor of the ICT4LT website, put this question to a group of postgraduate students back in the late 1990s:

"If you were asked to name one single recent development in ICT that has had the most significant impact on your work, what would it be?"

Most of the students answered, as anticipated, "The Internet". Significantly, none of the students was aware that the Internet and the World Wide Web are not synonymous terms. The Web is only part of the Internet, and none of the students was aware just how recently the World Wide Web came into being, namely 1993. The Internet dates back much further, its forerunner being ARPANET, a US military network which was set up in 1969. ARPANET was extended (as the Internet) in the 1970s to include libraries, educational institutions and, later, businesses. The first email program was launched in 1972. The first publicly accessible Web browser, known as Mosaic, appeared in 1993, followed by Netscape in 1994. See Section 3, headed Using a browser: navigating the Web.

Graham Davies describes the Internet as follows:

The Internet is a computer network connecting millions of computers all over the world. It provides communications to governments, businesses, universities, schools and homes. Any modern computer can be connected to the Internet using existing communications systems. Schools and universities normally access the Internet via their own educational networks, but private individuals usually have to take out a subscription with an Internet Service Provider (ISP). They can then connect their computer to the Internet via a modem and their local telephone system. Davies (1999)

Nowadays there are many different ways of obtaining a connection to the Internet. If you work in an educational institution you are probably already connected and you should talk to your ICT manager if you require advice and information. If you work from home you should be able to obtain access to broadband, which is a fast connection to the Internet via a standard telephone line. See the Glossary for a definition of broadband, and see Section 1.3.2, Module 1.2 for more information on broadband.

Karenne Sylvester has produced this useful blog page on The history and the future of the Internet, which includes an embedded video on the early developments of the Internet and a slide show on the future directions it may take, with suggested ways of exploiting these rersources in teaching business English:
http://kalinago.blogspot.com/2009/02/history-and-future-supplementing-your.html

See also the entry under Internet on this page at the Languages ICT website:
http://www.languages-ict.org.uk/technology/technology.htm
which refers to an information sheet entitled Focus on using the Internet for languages

1.1 Discussion topic

How would you define the Internet? Feedback.

2. What is the World Wide Web?

Contents of this section

Davies (1999) described the World Wide Web as follows:

This is the most powerful and fastest growing Internet service, now known simply as the Web. The Web is accessed by means of a computer program known as a browser. Two popular browsers are Internet Explorer and Netscape, both of which work more or less the same way. Using a browser you can access websites all over the world and download pages of information. Most Web pages include pictures, and many include audio, animated graphics, video and links - known as hyperlinks - to other websites.

The inventor of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has a more visionary view:

The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information. Its universality is essential: the fact that a hypertext link [Editor's Note: My italics - now usually abbreviated to hyperlink] can point to anything, be it personal, local or global, be it draft or highly polished. There was a second part of the dream, too, dependent on the Web being so generally used that it became a realistic mirror (or in fact the primary embodiment) of the ways in which we work and play and socialise. That was that once the state of our interactions was on line, we could then use computers to help us analyse it, make sense of what we are doing, where we individually fit in, and how we can better work together. (Berners-Lee 1998)

The concept of hypertext predates the Web by many years.Vannevar Bush is credited with inventing the concept of hypertext: see his article "As we may think", written as early as 1945, in which he describes an imaginary machine called "Memex" - essentially a hypertext device that takes account of the way the human mind associates ideas and follows a variety of different paths rather than moving on sequentially (Bush 1945). Bush wrote:

[ The human mind] operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature

The term hypertext did not, however, appear until the 1960s, when it was coined by Ted Nelson. Hypertext was implemented in HyperCard, a program developed for the Apple Mac in 1987, which is acknowledged as the first successful (offline) hypertext system before the advent of the World Wide Web. Essentially, the Web is hypertext running across the Internet.

2.1 What is Web 2.0?

Contrary to what many people think, Web 2.0 is not a new version of the World Wide Web - as this is what the appendage of a version number to a product's name normally implies. The term arose as the name of a series of conferences, the first of which was held in 2004: http://www.web2summit.com: see O'Reilly (2005).

Essentially, the term Web 2.0 is an attempt to redefine what the Web is all about and how it is used. In recent years we have experienced a breathtaking increase in the number Web-based communities that make use of typical Web 2.0 tools such as discussion lists, blogs, wikis and podcasts, as well as dedicated social networking websites and virtual worlds or MUVEs that promote sharing, collaboration and interaction. In other words, Web 2.0 signifies a more democratic approach to the use of the Web, in which traffic is less likely to be one-way, i.e. from the website to the end-user. Thus more and more websites are emerging that are the result of sharing and collaboration between closed groups of users, e.g. students in a university or college, or by the public at large. Wikipedia is a typical example of collaborative publishing by the public at large.

Web 2.0 applications work more like the software installed on the hard disk of your desktop computer, e.g. like the software that you use for word-processing and other routine tasks. When you click on an icon in your word-processor you expect something to happen without a time delay and you also assume that you can save the documents that you create with your word-processor onto your hard disk and send copies to your friends using email software (see Section 14). You can now do this sort of thing via your Web browser (see Section 3), regardless of where you are located. In the early days of the Web this would not have been possible. Firstly, the software tools were not available. Secondly, long delays were a feature of the early Web. When you clicked on a button on a Web page you could go away and make yourself a cup of coffee before anything happened. Time delays still occur on the Web, of course, but the advent of new Web programming tools such as AJAX (see Glossary) and plug-ins such as Flash Player have made it possible to create Web pages that respond more quickly to your requests and incorporate more interactivity and functionality. Google Maps is a typical example of a Web application incorporating AJAX. Scroll around the map and watch it update itself with relatively little time delay: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps.

With the advent of new, so-called Web 2.0 software tools and faster connections to the Internet, you no longer have to rely on software being installed on your desktop computer. Web 2.0 provides you with online tools that enable you to produce documents, communicate via email, set up lists of your favourite websites, and organise and store your digital photographs, thus making it possible for you to work away from home and also share what you create with other people, anywhere in the world. Web 2.0 certainly offers a wealth of exciting new developments, but the question arises regarding how and to what extent these developments can contribute to education, especially the teaching and learning of foreign languages. Here are some links to useful information on Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 tools cover a wide variety of applications, some of which are intended for serious work and some of which are just for fun. A comprehensive list of Web 2.0 sites can be found at All Things Web 2.0: http://www.allthingsweb2.com. The following are examples of Web 2.0 applications.

i. Image storage and sharing:

If you wish to use Web 2.0 tools for image storage and sharing you also need to know how to use a digital camera, how to store the images on your computer's hard disk and how to edit the images: see Section 2.2.3.1, Module 2.2, headed Image editing software.

ii. Social bookmarking: see Section 5 (below).

iii. Discussion lists, blogs, wikis, social networking: see Section 12 (below).

iv. Chat rooms, MUDs, MOOs and MUVEs (virtual worlds): see Section 14.2 (below).

v. Podcasting: see Section 3.5.2, Module 2.3, headed Podcasting.

If you wish to use Web 2.0 tools for creating podcasts you also need to know how to use digital recording devices and software, how to store the recordings on your computer's hard disk and how to edit the recordings. See Section 2.2.3.3, Module 2.2, headed Sound recording and editing software. See also Section 3.5, Module 2.3, headed Audio and video.

vi. Audio tools

If you wish to use Web 2.0 audio tools you also need to know how to use digital audio recording devices and software, how to store audio recordings on your computer's hard disk and how to edit the recordings. See Section 2.2.3.3, Module 2.2, headed Sound recording and editing software. See also Section 3.5, Module 2.3, headed Audio and video.

vii. Video tools:

If you wish to use Web 2.0 video tools you also need to know how to use a camcorder or webcam, how to store video recordings on your computer's hard disk and how to edit the recordings. See Section 2.2.3.4, Module 2.2, headed Video editing software. See also Section 3.5, Module 2.3, headed Audio and video.

viii. Animation tools - comic strips, etc

Mashups

Mashups are typical manifestations of Web 2.0. The term mashup derives from the practice in music of mixing two or more songs in order to produce a new song, particularly in musical genres such as hip-hop. In the context of Web 2.0, a mashup can be described as a Web page, often assembled by an amateur enthusiast, that brings together data from two or more Web services and combines the data into a new application with added functionality. O'Reilly (2005:4) describes this phenomenon as "innovation in assembly". Flickrvision and Earthalbum are examples of mashups in which Flickr and Google Maps have been combined into new hybrid Web pages:

Essentially, then, a mashup is a way of repurposing existing Web services and requires relatively little Web programming expertise. A directory of mashups can be found here: http://www.programmableweb.com

A mashup could be useful in language teaching and learning. A mashup for students studying a foreign language might consist, for example, of audio or video clips from an online broadcasting service, with transcriptions and annotations, grammar explanations and activities and exercises. Mashups could also be used in constructivist ways. For example, students could demonstrate their understanding of concepts by creating their own mashups.

2.2 Discussion topics

To what extent the concept of Web 2.0 is truly innovative is a matter of debate, as it is broadly in line with the concept of the Web as defined by its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, back in 1998 (see above). So it can be argued that Web 2.0 is just an example of the continuous development of well-established technologies - a transition rather than a break with its past.

It has also been argued that Web 2.0 is essentially a meaningless term invented by a group of businessmen as a way of convincing the media and investors that something fundamentally new has been created.

What do you think? Join in the discussion (initiated April 2007) in the ICT4LT blog: Web 2.0 - Is it just hype?

3. Using a browser: navigating the Web

Contents of this section

3.1 Using a browser

When you want to view pages on the World Wide Web, you need a computer program to do it, namely a browser. A browser is a software application that carries your messages to computers all over the world and returns messages to your computer. The most common browser is Internet Explorer, which is bundled with Microsoft Windows, but there are many others, e.g. Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers

Essentially, a browser works as follows:

  1. You request your browser to locate a website of your choice by typing in its address - or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to use the correct technical term: see Glossary. The URL of the ICT4LT site is http://www.ict4lt.org
  2. The website is located and the browser displays its contents on your computer screen.
  3. You can then navigate around the site.
  4. You can keep a record of your favourite Web pages by storing their URLs under Favorites (sic) or Bookmarks in your browser. (See Section 5 for more information on bookmarking.)

Some browsers, particularly later versions, have additional features, but the ones listed above are the most important.

Tutorial materials

It is assumed that if you are reading this module are already familiar with using a browser. There are several excellent tutorials on the Web:

See our "can do" list under the heading Browsers to check your progress: ICT_Can_Do_Lists.

Viruses, spam, adware and spyware

Before you surf the Web make sure that you are adequately protected against viruses, spam, adware, and spyware: see Appendix: Viruses.

3.2 Learning task

  1. Which browser are you using now to read this page? Which version? Click Help on your browser's main men bar and then About to find out.

  2. In order to get you started, try the Treasure Hunt, which is located at the WELL Project site: http://www.well.ac.uk/wellproj/workshp1/treasure.htm. It will take you all over Europe, visiting many sites of interest and collecting lots of bits of information. At the end you enter the answers you have collected to win the treasure. We should point out that the WELL Project site has not been updated for some time (since 2001) and some of the links may not work - but you should be able to track down the answers by using a search engine such as Google (see the next section). See also Section 7.3.1 on webquests. Try writing your own treasure hunt or webquest.

4. Search engines: How to find materials on the Web

Contents of this section

The Web is truly an enormous collection of information: texts, images, audio and video recordings, etc, many of which can be exploited in language teaching. The problem is that this information is somewhat chaotically organised. Bush (1996) summed it up:

As someone once said, the Web is like one great big, wonderful library. You enter the front door, and there are all the books... piled in the middle of the floor!

But there are many tools available that will help you to find what you want. When you need to locate a Web page you may already have its Web address (http://... etc), but if you want to search for something completely new you will probably need to use a search engine. Google is currently the most popular search engine on the Web: see Section 4.1.1. And there are many other search engines in a variety of different languages: see Section 4.1.2.

4.1 Starting to search

First and foremost, don't waste time looking for materials that are unlikely to be found on the Web. Living professional authors are usually unwilling to give information away for free. This is why the texts of most modern books cannot be found on the Web, especially those that are still subject to copyright, i.e. where the author has been dead for less than 70 years. Similarly, don't expect to find huge collections of freely downloadable audio and video materials for use with language learners, as copyright on audio and video materials is jealously guarded: see Section 3.5, Module 2.3, headed Audio and video. However, the situation regarding copyright on materials in electronic format has changed considerably in recent years: see our General guidelines on copyright. Sharing materials has become common practice since the advent of Web 2.0, and there are now many sites where you can find materials offered free of charge or buy them at a very low cost. See Section 2.1, headed What is Web 2.0? where you will find references to some of these sites.

When searching, the most important thing is to hit on the keyword or combination of keywords that will bring up the information you are looking for. For example, you may be looking for lyrics of French songs. The keywords are lyrics french songs (note that you do not need to use upper case letters). These three keywords will probably find all the sites that contain these keywords, but not necessarily in that order and french may not be juxtaposed with songs. If you place quotation marks round french and songs - thus "french songs" - then the search engine will try to find sites in which the two words are juxtaposed. If you are looking for something more specific, for example the words of a particular song that was recorded by a particular singer, you can try a search such as "edith piaf" lyrics milord. This should find a site where the complete lyrics of the song Milord, as recorded by Edith Piaf, are listed.

The tutorial materials listed in Section 3.1 contain advice on searching and search activities. The following guides will also help you learn how to be more successful in your searching.

4.1.1 Using Google and Wikipedia

Google

Google is a very efficient search engine, and currently the most popular on the Web. It operates in a wide range of languages and has a built-in translator. Google's UK homepage is at http://www.google.co.uk, but http://www.google.com will also work.

The following is just an introduction to Google. For further information see Nancy Blachman's Google Guide: http://www.googleguide.com

Google is simple to use and very fast. Try entering your search terms and then clicking on I'm feeling lucky button, which homes in on the site that is most likely to fulfil your needs. You can also search for images and news items in the world's press by clicking on the Images or the News tab above the search box and then entering your search terms. If you click on Maps above the search box you can search for a map showing almost any location anywhere in the world. There are many other useful features of Google, for example

  1. Type define: immediately in front of a word (or a phrase in inverted commas) and Google will search for definitions of that word, e.g. define:pedagogy or define:"learning outcome" (NB the use of quotation marks when searching for two or more words that are normally linked together).
  2. Type link: immediately in front of a URL and Google will find Web pages that link to that URL, e.g. link:http:/www.ict4lt.org

You can limit general searches as well as searches for news items to specific languages in Google by clicking on Preferences to the right of the search box and indicating in which language(s) you wish to search. You can also click on Language Tools to the right of the search box: http://www.google.co.uk/language_tools. This will offer you the choice of a search in a specific language and also the possibility of having a short text or a whole Web page translated from one language into another. The translation will not be 100% accurate but it will give you a general idea of what the page is all about.

Searching for authentic usage in foreign languages

Let us suppose that you wish to find examples of the phrase "il était une fois" ("once upon a time"). Enter the whole phrase in inverted commas in Google's search box and you will find hundreds of examples of how the phrase is used.

You can use a wildcard (* = the asterisk character) if you are not sure of the spelling of a word or wish to look for two words used together but separated by other letters or words, e.g. a search for ich * habe gesurft (NB no quotation marks round the phrase) will find ich habe gesurft and ich habe gestern mittag noch normal gesurft - very handy in German when different parts of the verb are separated. Enter the combination ich * habe * Internet * gesurft (no inverted commas round the phrase) and you should find examples such as dann habe ich im Internet nach Rezepten gesurft.

Searching for neologisms in Wikipedia and Google

Here's another useful trick: Let us suppose that you want to know how to translate and how to use a new word or that is unlikely to appear in printed bilingual dictionaries, e.g. snowboard, zip wire, quad bike, podcast, wiki. Firstly, you look up the term in the English-language version of the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia: http://www.wikipedia.org

When you find the Wikipedia entry in English click on one of the equivalent foreign-language entries in the languages list in the left-hand column of the screen. This works for quad bike, which will find the English-language entry at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_bike
and the equivalent German-language entry at
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad
The German-language entry shows that in German a quad bike is simply Quad and you can read or print the whole article.

If you now go back to Google's homepage you can set your language preference, as indicated above, to German and search for words that might be used in combination with Quad, simply by entering quad gehen gehe fahren fahre in the search box . The most fruitful combination of keywords is likely to be bin * quad gefahren - i.e. the asterisk being a wildcard standing for anything between bin and quad gefahren. This should enable you to find Quad used in contexts such as “Ich bin Quad gefahren”, “Ich bin mit einem Quad gefahren”, “Ich bin auf meinem Quad gefahren” etc.

Searching for images in Google

If you are unsure that you have found the right word in a foreign language try searching for the foreign word using the Images option in Google. Seeing a picture of what you are looking for can often confirm that you are on the right track. For example, I was not sure that arboriste in French was the equivalent of tree surgeon, but the images I found clearly indicated that it was the right term, often combined with grimpeur to indicate that it refers to someone who climbs trees and lops off branches. A contributor to a discussion list recently asked if it was correct to say cheveux auburn in French (NB no "s" on the end of auburn). Indeed it is: using Google images search facility I found lots of pictures of people with auburn hair and descriptions in French of hair products designed for auburn hair.

Using Google as a concordancer

You can also use Google as a simple concordancer (see Module 2.4 for more information about concordancers) to search for collocations that you are unsure about. Is is possible, for example, to say "a metal wood"? Yes, indeed! Google cites numerous examples. See Robb (2003).

Here are some more search engines:

4.1.2 Search engines in foreign languages

Most modern search engines can function in a range of languages and allow you to set your language preferences. Here are a few direct links to search engines in foreign languages:

French

German

Italian

Russian

Spanish

5. Bookmarking websites

A bookmark is a facility within a browser that enables you to keep a record of Web pages that you have visited and may wish to visit again. Bookmarks are stored in a subdirectory of the Windows subdirectory on your computer. In Internet Explorer bookmarks are known as Favorites (sic - spelt the American way), which is also the name of the Windows subdirectory in which they are stored.

If you find a useful website, click on Favorites in Internet Explorer on the main menu bar of your browser. This will enable you to add the website's address to your own personal list so that you can locate the website quickly if you want to visit it again. See Section 3, headed Using a browser: navigating the Web.

More ambitious Web users may wish to set up their own annotated set of Web links, also known as a webliography, portal or jump station. See Task 2 at http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/lspinset.htm, which explains step-by-step how to do this.

You can also use Web 2.0 tools to store and share your bookmarks at so-called social bookmarking websites:

For more information on Web 2.0 see Section 2.1 (above), headed What is Web 2.0?

Lists of useful Web links

There are many excellent collections of links from a variety of sources. As a starting point, see the list of links, headed Useful Web links, in the ICT4LT Resource Centre. See also:

6. Evaluating websites

This section addresses the key issues that need to be considered when evaluating a website. See also:

The Internet is totally unregulated and whilst this means that there are huge amounts of good materials, it also means that materials of poor and dubious quality also appear on websites. Before using materials with students, it is important to determine certain facts about the site. For example:

i. Authorship

Who created the site? What is their background? What credentials do they have? For example, you locate what appears to be a great website, but on closer examination you find it's been created by a 14-year-old schoolboy as a Web design project. We list the names of the original members of the ICT4LT team on our homepage under the heading Who are we? and we list the authors of each module. Remember that anyone can publish anything on the Web and that, unlike books and articles in printed format, Web materials are less likely to be subjected to editorial scrutiny. Accuracy cannot always be guaranteed. You can find out who owns a site by using the WHOIS lookup facility at Register.com: http://www.register.com. See Section 9, regarding Wikipedia as an example.

ii. Target audience

Who is the site aimed at? The site may sound like it's aimed at schoolchildren but on closer examination it may prove to be suitable only for adult learners. We provide details under the heading Target audience on our homepage.

iii. Revision date

When were the contents written and how regularly is the site updated? Look for evidence of the most recent update. We give the revision date of each page at this site.

iv. Contact name and address

Is there a contact name or contact address at the site? We use a Feedback Form. If you find a mistake, wish to make a comment, or ask a question you can use the form to contact us. The feedback form helps cut down spam, as it makes our email address less obvious to spambots, i.e. programs designed to collect email addresses from the Internet in order to build mailing lists for sending spam. All email sent to us is filtered rigorously.

v. Ease and speed of access

Is the site easy to access and quick to download? Is the server on which the site is located up to the job of delivering its content at any time? Some servers slow down when lots of people are trying to access the site at peak times, e.g. between 9am and 5pm. Some servers shut down at weekends and during holiday periods.

vi. Ease of navigation

The site may be huge and labyrinthine and you get hopelessly lost trying to navigate it.

vii. Is the site finished?

The contents page looks impressive, but most of the site is "under construction" and a lot of internal links don't work.

viii. Do you need plug-ins?

A plug-in is an extra piece of software that a Web browser needs to run certain elements of a Web page, e.g. animated sequences and audio or video clips. Web pages incorporating multimedia often need plug-ins such as Flash Player, QuickTime, Shockwave Player or RealPlayer. Plug-ins are usually quick and easy to install, normally free of charge and open up a wealth of new material. Sites that require a plug-in usually provide a link to a site from which the essential plug-in can be downloaded. These are the sites from which these plug-ins can be downloaded: If you have problems accessing a website check that your ICT manager has downloaded the relevant plug-in onto the computer that you are currently using.

ix. Is the content what you expected?

You find a site that appears to contain French legal texts, but when you access it it turns out to be full of pornographic pictures. Does this sound far-fetched? No, this actually happened to us when we did one of our regular checks on links that we list at the ICT4LT site. The site in question had changed from one week to the next! See http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/DodgyLinks.htm

x. Copyright

You also need to check where you stand regarding copyright on materials contained at the site. Most sites contain a copyright or "terms of use" message. See Section 7.2, headed Copyright issues. See our own Copyright Notice.

xi. Audio materials

If audio materials are offered, are they of adequate quality? Can you play audio materials easily? Do you need a plug-in to play audio materials? See Section 3.5, Module 2.3, headed Audio and video.

xii. Video materials

If video materials are offered, are they of adequate quality? Can you play video materials easily? Do you need a plug-in to play video materials? See Section 3.5, Module 2.3, headed Audio and video.

xii. Interactive exercises and feedback

If interactive exercises are offered, do they do the job better than paper-based exercises? Consider especially the kind of feedback that they incorporate. Feedback should go beyond the standard "Well done!" and "Sorry, wrong!" types of messages and mimic a good teacher offering helpful advice and encouragement. See:

xii. Recording one's own voice

Most language learners, especially in the early stages of learning a language, need to know what they sound like. If interactive exercises are offered, do they allow the learner to record and play back his/her own voice? This is not an unreasonable request, as teachers and learners have been making use of listen / respond / playback facilities ever since the advent of the tape recorder. Most multimedia CD-ROMs offer the possibility of recording one's own voice and some incorporate Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). Very few websites offer this facility and when they do it doesn't work very well. For further information on ASR see:

7. Using the Web with language learners

Contents of this section

7.1 General advice

There are several ways in which the Web can assist with teaching languages:

There are advantages and disadvantages to using the Web in all the above situations, but most of those who have taken the plunge have not regretted it. Clare Bradin, in her article "The Dark Side of the Web" (Bradin 1997), lists the following advantages to using the Web with students:

See also the paper by Paul Bangs entitled "Will the Web catch enough flies? Where Web-based learning cannot yet reach" (Bangs 2001).

However, as with any lesson, a lesson using Web-based material needs to be carefully planned.

Before using the Web live with students:

There are numerous ways in which materials on the Web can be exploited in language teaching. See Felix (2001), Felix (2003), Gitsaki & Taylor (1999b and 2000), Windeatt et al. (2000).

7.2 Copyright issues

When downloading or copying materials from another website, it is most important that you pay attention to copyright. Above all, don't assume that just because material is publicly available on the Web you can do whatever you like with it.

Copyright infringement is a growing problem, which we refer to in:

Email: There are a number of important copyright issues surrounding email correspondence. If you send an email to a private person or discussion list, for example, you automatically own the copyright in your email message and you retain your moral right to be identified as the author. Regarding other people's email messages, you should always seek permission (it's only polite, anyway) before passing them on to third parties or copying extracts for publication elsewhere.

See our General guidelines on copyright, which is a general introduction to copyright, drawing on a variety of sources.

Above all:

7.3 Further ideas and links

7.3.1 Webquests

A webquest is a task-oriented activity in which the learner draws on material from different websites - but other sources may also be consulted - in order to achieve a specific goal, e.g. researching a topic and (i) answering a series of questions posed by the teacher, (ii) creating a presentation or (iii) writing an essay, etc. The skills that are required in a webquest mainly involve reading and listening, but there may also be communicative speaking exercises.

For further information on webquests see:

8. Distance learning and the Web: VLEs, MLEs etc

See also these sections at the ICT4LT site: There is an increasing number of websites that offer distance learning materials, including whole courses delivered via the Web and email, using so-called Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). A VLE is a Web-based package designed to help teachers create online courses, together with facilities for teacher-learner communication and peer-to-peer communication. VLEs can be used to deliver learning materials within an institution, within a local education authority. They may even address a wider constituency, and may be used on a worldwide basis. VLEs have certain advantages in terms of ease of delivery and management of learning materials. They may, however, be restrictive in that the underlying pedagogy attempts to address a very wide range of subjects, and thus does not necessarily fit in with established practice in language learning and teaching. For example, we are not aware of any VLE that can present listen / respond / playback activities - which is a major shortcoming of Web-based CALL.

A VLE may also be described as a:

Theoretically, there are differences in the way these systems operate, but this may mean little to the non-technical user. See the definitions for the above terms in the Glossary. Many people use Learning Platform as a catch-all term to describe software and systems designed to manage, deliver and provide access to e-learning materials in a distance-learning context.

A VLE is normally protected by passwords that enable teaching staff and enrolled students to access it. Typically, a VLE will contain:

This Wikipedia article goes into more detail about what you can expect from a VLE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_learning_environment

These VLEs are all used in education in the UK:

Distance learning courses for language students that make use of the Web are now well established, for example in the Open University (OU). Study materials include printed course books and audio materials that cover survival language for the traveller as well as the communication skills needed in a range of settings, at home, work or leisure.The OU makes use of both face-to-face tuition and online tuition

The Open University has also made some of its language-learning materials available via iTunes and is reporting a huge uptake: http://www.apple.com/itunes/

The Open University has been developing and using conferencing tools within its extensive distance-learning programmes for a number of years. An early example of a conferencing tool used by the OU is FirstClass, which began life as a text-only conferencing system and bulletin board. Then the OU developed its own in-house tool, Lyceum, an audio-graphics tool which has a whiteboard facility combined with audio-conferencing: http://lyceum.open.ac.uk - see Hampel & Hauck (2003) and Hampel & Hauck (2004) on the use of audio-graphics tools in the OU.

More recently the Open University has chosen Moodle for the delivery of a wide range of its courses, making it the largest user of Moodle in the world. Moodle is open source software, which means you are free to download it, use it, modify it and even distribute it. Moodle has its own Moodle for Language Teaching community: http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=31 - log in as a guest or register to join the community. Moodle is not difficult to use, and it is gaining in popularity among language teachersand is. We have recently added a Moodle "can do" list, compiled by Seth Dickens, to our general ICT_Can_Do_Lists.

For further information on VLEs, MLEs, etc see:

Distance learning of languages has only become feasible since audio and video quality has improved over the Web, but even now some sites use poor quality audio and video materials. Some are run for profit and will charge for the services; others have been set up by enthusiasts keen to pass on their language and culture. The sites vary tremendously in quality and you would be well advised to spend quite some time reviewing materials from these sites before attempting to use them with students. However, there is some very innovative work going on and you may well find some gems: see Felix (1998a), Felix (2001) and Felix (2003), three works that contain a vast collection of information on virtual language learning, the latter two incorporating a number of case studies and articles on good practice. See also Graham Davies's annotated list of Favourite Websites at http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/websites.htm, an extensive list that is constantly being updated and expanded.

A good deal has already been written on distance learning of languages, e.g. in the form of articles based on conference papers presented at EUROCALL and CALICO conferences and published in ReCALL and in the CALICO Journal. There is also the online Language Learning and Technology (LLT) journal:

Although Web-based language learning has expanded rapidly in recent years there are still limitations to the different kinds of interaction that work successfully on the Web, especially interaction involving prompted speaking activities, which is well established in CD-ROM-based learning. See Section 3.1, Module 2.3, headed Web-based CALL. LeLoup & Ponterio (2003) describe an interesting array of Web-based materials, but almost everything illustrated in their article could be implemented better and with more spontaneous interaction in an offline environment. See also Bangs (2001).

Althought VLEs have a number of advantages, they are not without their critics. Professor Mark Stiles talks about the Death of the VLE (Stiles 2007). The abstract follows:

The VLE has become almost ubiquitous in both higher and further education, with the market becoming increasingly 'mature'. E-learning is a major plank in both national and institutional strategies. But, is the VLE delivering what is needed in a world where flexibility of learning is paramount, and the lifelong learner is becoming a reality? There are indications that rather than resulting in innovation, the use of VLEs has become fixed in an orthodoxy based on traditional educational approaches. The emergence of new services and tools on the web, developments in interoperability, and changing demands pose significant issues for institutions' e-learning strategy and policy. Whether the VLE can remain the core of e-learning activity needs to be considered.

What do you think? Join in the discussion (initiated August 2008) in the ICT4LT blog: Death of the VLE?

Do-it-yourself: For information on tools that are used to create distance learning materials see Module 2.5, Introduction to CALL authoring programs.

Copyright: If you upload third-party materials to a VLE make sure that they are not in breach of copyright. Contrary to popular opinion, copyright legislation still applies to password-protected VLEs. See our General guidelines on copyright, especially Section 4.1.

9. Potential problems with using the Web

Whilst the Web can provide valuable opportunities and superb resources, there are some potential problems that teachers should be aware of:

World Wide Wait

Big files on the Web can be S-L-O-W to download. The wait time can be maddening for your students. Internet access speeds vary according to the type of Internet connection that you have, how congested the Internet is in general at a particular time of day, how many other people in your neighbourhood are trying to access a website at the same time as you, computer configuration and applications, and even the weather. Dial-up modems using standard telephone lines are slow, running at around 56Kbps, but faster connections via an ADSL broadband connection (at least 512Kbps) or via a dedicated leased line speed up Internet access. See Section 1.3.2, Module 1.2 for further information on modems and broadband, and see the Glossary for an explanation of the terms ADSL, broadband and leased line. New Web programming techniques have resulted in more spontaneity and better interaction on the Web: see Section 2.1, headed What is Web 2.0?

Dead links

Up to 5% of the links that we list at the ICT4LT site move or disappear each month, but we do a regular automatic link check using the excellent Xenu Link Sleuth program, which is available free of charge at http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html. See also Dead-Links: http://www.dead-links.com. We also do a random manual check. You may be able to retrieve the contents of a dead link by entering its URL into the Web Archive (the Wayback Machine) at http://www.archive.org. This enormous archive keeps records of revisions of websites at various stages in their lives. It is not 100% complete, but we have found it to be remarkably efficient at recovering old documents that we thought had been lost forever. If you intend to link live in a lesson, check that the site is both available and reliable. Also check links if you are re-using older reference sources. See Graham Davies's article on "Dodgy links": http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/DodgyLinks.htm.

Information overload

There is so much information that it may be too time-consuming to find the "good stuff.". Even with search engines, it can be hard to find what you want, and you therefore have to select your search terms carefully (see Section 4). As Arthur C. Clarke put it: "Getting information from the Internet is like getting a glass of water from the Niagara Falls."

Some websites are thin in substance

See Section 6 on Evaluating websites.

The content of the website may not be reliable - Wikipedia as an example

When you visit a website you need to know if the information it contains is reliable. This issue has already been raised above in Section 6 under the sub-heading Authorship. For example, consider Wikipedia, which is a free-content encyclopaedia on the Web that anyone can add to or edit - yes, anyone, which is both its strength and its weakness: http://www.wikipedia.org. While Wikipedia covers an enormous range of subjects in different languages there is no guarantee that what you read is accurate as the content can be added to or amended by any member of the public, and there is no indication of the authorship or the authors' credentials. On the one hand this can be perceived as a wonderful example of collaborative publishing, but on the other hand it can be perceived as a golden opportunity for the propagation of oddball ideas and self-promotion. Graham Davies checked out the article on Computer Assisted Language Learning in early 2005. It was hopelessly out of date, sketchy and inaccurate, so he amended it. Two weeks later it was amended back to what it was, so he amended it again. Many more additions and revisions have since been made by other contributors, and now the article is generally of an acceptable standard - as of the last update to this module: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_assisted_language_learning

In its early days Wikipedia was too open to unscrupulous editing by the public at large, but the editing process has since been tightened up and the content of articles meeting certain quality criteria can now be "fixed". While Wikipedia can be a remarkably useful and accurate resource it cannot be relied upon 100% - but nor can most other encyclopaedias: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia

To a large extent Wikipedia's reliability depends on the subject matter: for example, articles on history and politics are often subject to wildly varying opinions - and even deliberate vandalism. As a consequence many colleges and universities have banned students from citing Wikipedia as a source in their coursework. The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, is on record as saying (in 2005) that this is going too far and that teachers who ban the use of Wikipedia as a source of information are "bad educators". He did, however, go on to say that the website lacked the authority to be used as a citeable source for university students and that students who copied information from Wikipedia "deserved to get an F grade": http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/technology/7130325.stm

Here's a useful tip: If you find an article on Wikipedia in English and then click on one of the language options (headed in other languages) in the left-hand column of the page, you go immediately to an article on the same subject in that language. See Section 12 for more information on wikis.

Audio and video quality can be poor

Whilst immense steps are being taken in this area, audio and video quality for learners can still be poor and the better quality materials available tend to rely on the latest and fastest machines to run properly. Audio quality has greatly improved in recent years, but video quality often leaves a lot to be desired.

Viruses

Make sure that you are adequately protected against invasions by viruses when you surf the Web, as there are new strains of viruses that are able to invade your computer while you are browsing. You should consider installing a firewall, which gives you additional protection against unwanted intruders. Watch out also for spam, adware and spyware. See Appendix: Viruses.

Web clutter

While you are surfing the Web all kinds of information are being dumped on to your hard disk. For example, a cache area on your hard disk keeps a record of sites that you have recently visited, and cookies store little bits of information about yourself after you have visited a site for the first time, and this can be accessed again by the site server when you visit the site again (see Glossary). Caches and cookies take up valuable space on your hard disk drive. A useful piece of software is Window Washer, which enables you to remove caches, cookies and other clutter at regular intervals. See Webroot Software's site: http://www.webroot.com. You can also block cookies - along with those dreadful banner advertisements that slow down your browser - using firewall software, e.g. ZoneAlarm. See Appendix: Viruses.

Undesirable websites

Unfortunately, the Web is full of websites containing undesirable material, and it is all too easy for young people to access such material, by accident or by design. You should consider installing software that filters out undesirable material. See Graham Davies's article on "Dodgy links": http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/DodgyLinks.htm

Reading from the screen is slow!

Web guru Jakob Nielsen writes:

Reading from computer screens is about 25% slower than reading from paper. Even users who don't know this human factors research usually say that they feel unpleasant when reading online text. As a result, people don't want to read a lot of text from computer screens: As a result, people don't want to read a lot of text from computer screens: you should write 50% less text and not just 25% less since it's not only a matter of reading speed but also a matter of feeling good. We also know that users don't like to scroll: one more reason to keep pages short. [...] Because it is so painful to read text on computer screens and because the online experience seems to foster some amount of impatience, users tend not to read streams of text fully. Instead, users scan text and pick out keywords, sentences, and paragraphs of interest while skipping over those parts of the text they care less about. Be Succinct! Writing for the Web, Alertbox, 15 March 1997: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html

See Nielsen's other articles on Writing for the Web: http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/

This is the main reason why we suggest to visitors to the ICT4LT site that they print the modules and read them in the comfort of an armchair. To print a module, just use the File/Print facility, which is accessible from the main menu bar of your browser.

Some of the above points were taken from Clare Bradin's FLEAT 97 paper, "The Dark Side of the Web" (Bradin 1997).

See also Section 6, headed Evaluating websites:

10. Glossary of Internet Terms

The most comprehensive publicly available Glossary of Internet Terms that we have come across. As requested, we acknowledge the authorship and copyright of Matisse Enzer, who produced this excellent glossary located at: http://www.matisse.net/files/glossary.html

See also our own Glossary, which is regularly updated and includes links to sections of the ICT4LT website.

11. Fonts other than English on the Web

Contents of this section

Please note that this section deals only with being able to read foreign fonts on the Internet. In order to type foreign fonts in other types of documents, please see Section 5, Module 1.3, headed Typing foreign characters, which contains references to a wider range of fonts.

Browsing in foreign languages is now relatively easy to do. Most modern browsers support foreign fonts.

11.1 Russian

You may need to install the KOI-8 font: get the fonts here: http://www.rada.kiev.ua/osmir/koi-8font.html

11.2 Japanese

You will need to install the MS Gothic font: Full instructions are given here: http://members.tripod.com/~oscarfire

12. Discussion lists, blogs, wikis, social networking

Contents of this section

12.1 Discussion lists

Discussion lists are essentially ways of sharing emails with the members of a group of people with a common interest. Many educational discussion lists in the UK are managed by Mailtalk or JISCMail:

It is also possible to set up a group discussion list in Yahoo or Google:

Discussion lists are also referred to as forums, notice boards and bulletin boards. There may be subtle differences between them in the ways in which they are operated and the ways in which members can post messages to them, but essentially their main aim is to able people with common interests to share information and to communicate with one another.

If you are seeking an answer to a specific question about the use of ICT in language learning and teaching you can contact us via our Feedback Form. Alternatively, you may wish to initiate a new topic in the following discussion lists, or you may find your question has already been answered in the archives of messages sent in by their members:

See the entry under Communicating online on this page at the Languages ICT website:
http://www.languages-ict.org.uk/technology/technology.htm
which refers to an information sheet entitled What are online notice boards in MFL?

12.2 Blogs

In recent years there has been a veritable explosion in the devlopment of weblogs - or blogs for short. These behave in similar ways to discussion lists, except that they often take the form of a journal or a collection of an individual's or group's ideas and thoughts, and they offer an easy facility for uploading new material to the Web. Increasing use is being made of blogs in education. Other educational uses of blogs include:

If you wish to create your own blog have a look at these sites. Most blogs enable you post anything you like: texts, photos, and audio and video files:

Useful blogs for Modern Foreign Languages, created for and by language teachers

Netiquette

If you join a discussion list or blog make sure that you read the list service's guide to acceptable practice - often known as netiquette. See Section 14.1.4 below.

12.3 Wikis

Another way of sharing information on the Web or initiating discussions is to set up a wiki. A wiki is essentially a series of interlinked collaborative Web pages that can be edited and added to by a group of people - an online resource for which content can be created collectively. It's distinguishing feature is that it also allows anyone who views the wiki to add to or edit the existing content as if they were adding to or editing, for example, someone else's Word document. Wiki also refers to the software used to create such a website. Wiki derives from the Hawaiian "wiki-wiki", meaning "quick".

Wikipedia is the best known example of a wiki, a collaboratively written encyclopaedia: http://www.wikipedia.org. There is an article on Computer Assisted Language Learning in Wikipedia, which you can add to or edit yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_language_learning. See these wiki sites:

12.4 Social networking

Social networking is a term applied to a type of website where people can seek other people who have similar interests, find out what's going on in their areas of interest, and share information and resources. This is considered to be one of the features of new ways in which the Web is developing and which are characterised as Web 2.0: see Section 2.1, headed What is Web 2.0? Social networking is a controversial topic. Many teachers believe it is a waste of time but this report by Johanna Sorrentino presents a much more positive view: Online Education: study shows social networking a boon for education: http://www.education.com/magazine/article/online_ed/

These are examples of popular social networking sites: