Interaktive
Computermaterialien
Publisher: Goethe Institut
Age
group: 16-18 yrs
Year
published: 1998
Curriculum:
German
Min
spec to run:
· IBM-compatible computer
· Min. 8 MB, recomm. 16 MB RAM
· 486 processor or better
· Windows 3.x, Win 95/98 or NT
· CD-ROM drive
· Soundcard & speakers
· Headphones
Summary
Interaktive Computermaterialien is a very good introductory tool
for the use of computers in German class. It covers a number of
areas on the Leaving Certificate syllabus such as the Environment,
spending pocket money and conflict/dealing with parents (home late
from a party). It tests reading, listening and written communication.
It would suit a good Ordinary level or a Higher level class in their
Leaving Certificate year, as long as the topics and/or vocabulary
have been used extensively in advance. It can be used with a full
group, a class working in pairs, or as an individual. At £15
for the CD which covers a full school licence as well, it is a very
good investment and well worth a look.
Content
I found the content quite accurate, reliable and up-to-date. It
was produced only as a trail CD and as such is excellent. There
is also a lot of 'extras' on the CD such as information about Greenpeace
and links to the Internet.
The language is very appropriate for the target age group. It helps,
of course, to have covered a lot of the topics in class beforehand,
but there is a dictionary and/or help guide for students, both with
explanations in German and also (as a last resort!) in English.
Numerous exercises have two levels, one with no help, and one with
help in the form of a dictionary to explain words, when clicked
upon. This is especially useful with a mixed ability class. In the
listening exercises, there is also the option of splitting the tape
into sections. At any time the user can go back a step, or back
to the beginning.
The content is well structured. It allows for a wide variety of
learning modes. There is listening, reading and visual stimuli.
The types of questions also vary from task to task, but teacher
guidance is needed, especially with a weaker group.
Teaching with this Title
A number of areas of the curriculum are covered:
· Conflict/Arriving Home Late
· The Environment
· Pocket money/Spending money
It contains exam-related exercises and training of important skills:
· Listening Comprehension
· Reading Comprehension
· Grammar Explanations
· Grammar Exercises
· Vocabulary Explanation (incl. Pronunciation)
· Vocabulary Trainer
Further Information
on Topics Covered
In relation to special needs students, the text is scrollable and
in a lot of instances here is an option to listen to the text by
clicking an icon. There are also 'forward' and 'back' buttons, which
allows the student to return to the previous exercise. It is, however,
very mouse-based, and I couldn't find any keyboard options or shortcuts.
In relation to exercises, there is instant feedback to students
as to whether they are correct or incorrect. In many of the Listening
exercises the section is played again if a student answers incorrectly,
and they have the option of re-answering. This allows the student
to work at their own pace and so facilitates learning.
I used this title with a group of 5th year Ordinary level students
(year before Leaving Certificate). I originally brought them in
'cold' to see how they would cope with using computers. The reason
for this was that some areas were only a step up from the Junior
Certificate (such as the first Listening comprehension). However,
this was a bad move as they were a little unprepared and so found
the exercises difficult and often just guessed the answers until
they got the correct one!
The next time I went through some of the necessary vocabulary with
them. The students completed some Reading comprehensions to accomplish
this. I then went through many of the instructions the students
might encounter on the CD.
I decided to use the CD for Listening skills to begin with. The
students could work at their own pace. Each student had their own
computer with headphones and worked their way through the exercises
with minimum instruction from myself. Then for the reading elements
I sometimes let them work in pairs, which gave the students a chance
to work together. At one stage I used the CD on just one computer
connected to a large-screen T.V. and we completed different sections
as a class.
The potential strengths of this title for classroom use is that
the students enjoyed working on the computers and also that they
could go at their own pace (with guidelines!). I surveyed them and
they liked this format for the listening sections more than using
an ordinary tape-recorder set-up that is normally used in class.
Another strength would be that it encourages students to learn by
doing. The package is easy to follow with lots of help along the
way, such as German/English and German/German dictionary and help.
On the weaknesses side, I found that the teacher would need to monitor
progress and ensure that students are not simply clicking each possible
answer until they get the right one.
Also, whilst it is desirable to have many different styles of exercises,
the changes can sometimes be off-putting, and require teacher explanations
for the weaker students.
On
the technical side, there were a few difficulties when it came to
a 'fill in the blanks' exercise, in the first section. The spelling
has to be completely correct, including capital letters and umlauts,
otherwise an error message is displayed. No corrections were shown
until the very end of the whole exercise. In fact there was a programming
error in the first blank and a window popped up which showed this.
Installation
The program launches automatically and runs quickly - certainly
fast enough for classroom use. It runs directly from the CD. It
responds quite quickly to input from a student. The price of the
CD covers a full school licence as well, which means you can copy
the full program onto the computer hard drive (if you have 150MB
of free space!). This requires some technical 'know-how' and it
was something I myself tried on a number of machines. It worked
perfectly. As we don't have a full server-network in the school,
I don't know how it works on a network.
Navigation
The program was designed using Hyper Studio™. As stated before,
there is an on-screen Help ('Hilfe'), as well as numerous explanations
throughout the exercises. This often takes the form of a vocal or
visual aid.
The
CD itself self-starts and with one click on the next-type arrow,
you are onto the main menu with themes to choose from. Unfortunately
there is no option for individual users and so there is no bookmarking
facility. The student has to start from the beginning each time,
although they can easily and quickly skip through the exercises
with a click of the next-type arrow.
Many
of the exercises can also be printed out and used as separate worksheets
in an ordinary classroom situation.
Documentation
The CD is supplied with a full set of instructions for installation
and use in relation to viewing and printing exercises. These are
very clear. The rest of the instructions in relation to the use
of the exercises are on the CD itself. As this was originally a
trial CD the documentation is minimal, but sufficient for use by
even a beginner.
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