•Introducing technology in the classroom.

•Authentic content.

•Working with other teachers.

•Using Internet.

•Web pages usage.

Your choice depends on what you want to achieve:

ELT websites give opportunities for more controlled language work (Homework).

•Authentic sites can fit your sts’ interests (keeping motivation).

•Challenges of authentic websites can be met by the type of task you give your sts.

•Easy structure and navigation, and with smaller chunks of text per page.

•Design your tasks to make them achievable, and show your learners online tools.

It is one of the most useful skills that teachers and learners can acquire.

Teachers:

•Finding useful resources quickly and efficiently.

•Speeding up lessong planning.

•Facilitating web use in class (good search skills).

Learners:

•Quickly accomplishing web-based tasks.

•Learning that technology enhances the learning experience.

Google: www.google.com

Works similarly to a telephone directory:

You search a name or title and the directory gives you more information about that entry.

Google has on each page (address, last update and keywords).

To find exactly what you want:

•Properly define your keywords (more is less).

•Use the “phrase” search technique (Google will treat the phrase as a whole)

•Try to visualize the content on an ideal web page and decide exactly what to search for.

Yahoo!: www.yahoo.com

•A way of browsing titles.

•Resembles a library: users have an idea of what they are looking, but not the exact title, so they browse and wander around.

•Divides its content into subject areas and subdivisions of them. Users browse the section which best fits their interests and then search for the exact page.

•The search results can be more accurate than those of Google; they tend to lead searchers to the first page of a site, not into the middle.

Ask: www.ask.com

•Allows users to type simple questions as search queries.

•Selects keywords from the question to construct a search.

•Gives you a results page with the answer at the top and links to relevant sites below that.

•Movies: Internet movie database: www.imdb.com

•Books: Amazon: www.amazon.com

•Football World Cup information: FIFA: www.fifa.com

•Images in various formats: www.images.google.com

•Shopping search: www.froogle.google.com

•Online video material by keyword or category: www.search.yahoo.com

•Videos: www.altavista.com

•Audio files in different formats: www.altavista.com/audio/default

•Audio and video: www.search.singingfish.com/sfw/home.jsp

•TV broadcasts (short video material): www.tv.blinkx.com

They search more than one engine at the same time from one single page.

You can get a sense of balance, a more rounded view of what is out there on the Internet.

•Dogpile: www.dogpile.com

•KartOO: www.kartoo.com

•Mamma: www.mamma.com

Whenever you visit a search engine, click on the help link to see what hints and tips the site owners recommend for improving your search techniques.

How useful and appropriate are they for the classroom?

What are the aims and objectives of my lesson?

Does the website fit in with them?

Does it enhance and complement the rest of the materials and activities?

Accuracy

Currency

Content

Functionality

•Plan your session well: visit the websites before going to the classroom.

•Save the ones you want your learners to work on (Favorites).

•Be familiar with the content: if you can answer unplanned questions, your confidence will grow.

•PARTS OF A WEB-BASED LESSON

•Warmer

•Web

•What next

•Always have a backup plan in place.

•It is not necessary the ‘all-singing, all-dancing’ websites are the best.

•Use the knowledge of other teachers and of the learners to help you with the technical side of the lesson.

•Try saving the web pages to your computer hard disk (“File…”, “Save as…”, give it a name and select “Web page, complete”).

•Have learners work in pairs or threes. Make sure everyone participates (encourages oral communication).

•Try to arrange the computer room so that you can easily maintain control over learner activities.

•Make sure the content is suitable for the learners, if not, install filtering software limiting the access to unsuitable content.

How to Teach with Technology, Dudeney, G. and Hockly, N. (Longman, 2007)

Teaching English with Information Technology, Gordon-Smith, D. and Baber, E. (Modern English Publishing, 2005)

The Internet and the Language Classroom, Dudeney, G. (Cambridge, 2000)

How to Use the Internet in ELT, Teeler, D. and Gray, P. (Longman 2000)

Thank you very much!